Description:

 AN ILLUMINATED SECTION FROM A MONUMENTAL BIHARI QUR'AN, SULTANATE INDIA, 15TH CENTURY
Bihar or Eastern India, 15th century

Description:
Arabic manuscript on heavy paper, written in bold Bihari script in black ink with red vocalization and diacritics, and illuminated with gold rosettes and floral marginal devices. This section contains multiple folios from the Qur'an, exhibiting the rich and recognizable Indian Sultanate aesthetic. Surah headings are executed in white thuluth on gold and red illuminated panels. Margins contain illuminated medallions and geometrical devices, typical of Sultanate-period Indian Qur’ans.

The script is framed within red rulings, and the overall format is monumental, intended either for mosque display or communal recitation.

Dimensions: 49 x 31.5 cm

The Bihari script is an angular and stylized form of Arabic script that flourished in the Indian subcontinent during the late Delhi and Bengal Sultanates. Its wide spacing, diacritic emphasis, and decorated rubrication made it particularly suited for large Qur'anic manuscripts.

Comparable examples:

  • A complete Bihari Qur’an manuscript, Sultanate India, early 15th century, sold at Sotheby’s, London, Arts of the Islamic World, 25 April 2012, Lot 30, for £217,250.

  • An illuminated folio from a Bihari Qur’an, circa 1450, sold at Bonhams, London, Islamic and Indian Art, 13 June 2016, Lot 15, for £22,500.

  • A partial Qur’an section in Bihari script, Sultanate India, 15th century, sold at Christie’s, London, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 24 October 2019, Lot 76, for £30,000.

Note:
Monumental Qur’ans in Bihari script are emblematic of Indian Islamic manuscript production during the Sultanate era. Their rarity, scale, and decorative intricacy make them especially prized among collectors and institutions. This example, with its large dimensions and distinctive script, would have been a prestigious object likely commissioned by a royal patron or mosque.

 

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May 6, 2025 1:00 PM BST
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