MOROCCO, PROBABLY FEZ, END OF THE 19th CENTURY - Lot 5

MOROCCO, PROBABLY FEZ, END OF THE 19th CENTURY Beautiful Koran Ink, pigments and gold on paper, bound in red leather with stamped, polychrome and gilded decoration. Height 13 cm high Length : 13 cm Width : 5 cm The opening bifolio of this manuscript is elegantly illuminated in polychrome and gold. On the first folio, a large radiating star in green, red, blue and gold is inscribed in a square. On the next folio, the first Sura Al-Fatiha is inscribed in gold on a green background in a mandorla framed by friezes of arabesque cartouches and calligraphy. On the following folios and throughout the book, the Qur'an is written in fine black Maghribi script with touches of polychrome, spread over fourteen lines per page within orange and blue framing fillets. The Koran is divided into four parts, each beginning with illuminated cartouches. The titles of the Suras are simply inscribed in fine gold cursive calligraphy within the body of the text (without appearing in isolated cartouches), an unusual choice on the part of the calligrapher but no less refined. At the end of the manuscript, the colophon, written in red ink in cursive calligraphy, does not indicate a date or the name of the copyist. It is followed by a later, partially legible inscription: "This Qur'an was bound by Muhammad [...] ibn Muhammad al-Amin ibn Sayyid Omar Allah, ibn Talib al-Abar, and is a gift from certain relatives in Fez. May God bless him and preserve him from all harm, in the year 1320 [...]" (Hegira 1320 corresponds to 1902 in the Gregorian calendar). The red leather binding is embossed and gilded, with touches of polychrome, featuring large radiating geometric stars and friezes of floral motifs. The quality of this manuscript's craftsmanship, format and stylistic characteristics are typical of a fine example of production in the Fez region at the turn of the 20th century.