| Description |
Colophon : "katabahu al-ʻabd al-faqīr ilá raḥmat Rabbihi al-Ghanī al-Qadīr Aḥmad al-Qarahʹhiṣārī ghafara Allāh lahu wa-li-wālidayhi ... sanat tisʻīn wa-tisʻamiʼah [1582]". Minute calligraphic naskhī; 15 lines/p; text area : 48 x 95 mm; reading marks in red; verse markers : gold discs with orange and light blue dots; Sūrah headings in gold; section markers : elaborate gold and polychrome rosettes, each and every one different und unique; gold and red borders throughout; splendidly illuminated first opening with geometric and floral designs in dark blue, black and gold, with polychrome touches; colophon set in a round panel, enclosed by blossoming branches on gold background; unusual double medallion in gold on fol. 1a; gilt decoration on all cut edges; text followed by a Duʻā al-khitām on five pages; last folio framed, but blank; notes in Ottoman Turkish on fol. 1a and on the inside of back cover; polished laid paper; binding : elegant, if slightly crude gilt-tooled leather with deeply recessed medallion and cornerpieces; spine lost, modern repair. The date of production given in the colophon (990 AH) corresponds to the year 1582, some 26 years after the calligrapher's death. The colophon is written in a slightly larger and looser hand than the main text, and may have been added posthumously; on the other hand, some letters in the colophon have been retraced, and there are traces of rubbing on the border adjacent to Karahisari's name. Indeed, there appear to be faint traces of a letter 'jīm' underneath the final three letters of the nisbah. It appears that the name of another copyist was blotted out and replaced with that of the famous calligrapher. |
