Fine Illuminated Qur’an Copied by Al-Sayyid Muhammad Tawfiq

Fine Illuminated Qur’an Copied by Al-Sayyid Muhammad Tawfiq.

Calligrapher: Al-Sayyid Muhammad Tawfiq.

Dated: 1289 A.H. / 1872 A.D.

Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.5 cm.
 

Written on sized paper in extremely fine and sharp naskh script. The frontispiece richly decorated on gold background, with symmetrically designed flower arrangements framing the opening verses of the Qur’an, Surat al-Fatiha and the beginning of Surat al-Baqara. All pages decorated with gold rulings. In its original leather binding.  

It is stated in the colophon that the calligrapher Muhammad Tawfiq’s father Muhammad Rashid was also a calligrapher. Muhammad Tawfiq mentions in the colophon that he had studied calligraphy under the supervision of his father. An exquisite Qur’an copied by Muhammad Rashid is published in Nabil F. Safwat, A Collector’s Eye: Islamic Calligraphy in Qur’ans and other Manuscripts, Azimuth Editions, London, 2010, pp. 156-161. 

Ibnulemin Mahmud Kemal Inal, in his Son Hattatlar (p. 429), a collection of Ottoman calligraphers’ biographies, records Muhammad Tawfiq as an important calligrapher. According to Inal, Muhammad Tawfiq was the preacher (khatīb) of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Istanbul. He was among the students of the imam of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque Hafiz Husayn Efendi. His date of death is unrecorded.  

A comparable Qur’an in naskh script with similar frontispiece illumination on gold background in the Istanbul University Manuscript Library (inv. no. A. 1655), copied by Eyub Arif, is published in Ugur Derman, Doksan Dokuz Istanbul Mushafi, Türk Petrol Vakfi, Istanbul, 2010, pp. 366-367. 

The present Qur’an is an exquisite example which displays the same sharpness and refined flow from the first verse to the last, showing the level of perfection achieved by calligrapher Muhammad Tawfiq.  

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance