A journey to search my soul

This is a blog of my personal collections. The purpose of this blog is to educate myself and public in regards to antiquities especially related to religion and calligraphy. I welcome everyone to input their feedback in this blog which they think would be helpful. I do not watermark the photos in this blog so everyone is free to use them as long as they are not used for illegal and unethical reasons. I appreciate if you could notify me if you plan to use any of the photos here. Enjoy browsing!!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Ancient Manuscript Review 50 : Antique Daghestan Quran ( 1165 AH)







This is my another large Daghestan Quran. The first 2 pages are water painted with various colors. This Quran is copied by Ibnu Ismail in 1165 AH. Actually this is a mistaken purchase. I asked a dealer from Lebanon to find for me a Kashmiri Quran which then I didnt have any. So he showed me this Quran and he insisted that it was Kashmiri. I paid quite a good sum for this Quran. However after the purchase, Dr Annable Gallop told me that this Quran is not Kashmiri but Daghestani.
I was a bit dissapointed with this purchase. I purchased a good quality Daghestani Quran before and it costed me 3 times cheaper than this Quran. Yet this Quran is not in a good shape. Very inconsistent handwritings suggesting few scribes or might be a compliation of Quran from other manuscripts. The calligraphy is poor suggesting it was written by a non professional scribe.

The first 2 pages were gilded in gold. However it was obviously a later addition. See below pictures under the lighting panel. I could see similar inscriptions below the gold background. I couldnt understand why someone might have wanted to erase this surah Fateha,glide in gold and rewrite it. If it was done to upgrade the quality and the price, it didnt do well. Definitely these frontispieces lost their beauty with this modifications.




Manuscript Specs

Item : A Handwritten Daghestan Quran
Content : A complete Quran
Dim : 13.5" x 9" x 2.5"
Date : 1165 AH ( 1751 CE))
Copyist : Ibnu Ismail
Origin : Daghestan
Calligraphy : Naskh
Design : Text written in Naskh script on laid paper with vowel & diacritical signs in black and red. 15 lines per page.Margin or most pages were decorated with beautiful floral motive water painted. Leather cover was not original.
Purchased Price :USD

Ancient Manuscript Review 49 : Antique Morocco Dalail Khairat Manuscript









This is an old handwritten manuscript from Morocco titled Dalail Khairat. This manuscript was written in Maghribi script.It was copied probably in 18-19th century.

Manuscript Specs

Item : A Handwritten Dalail Khairat Manuscript
Content : A Prayer Book
Dim : 5" x 4.5" x 1.5"
Date : 18-19th century
Copyist : Unknown
Origin : Morocco
Calligraphy : Maghribi
Design : Text written in Maghribi script on Arabic paper with vowel & diacritical signs in black. 9 lines per page.
Purchased Price :USD

Ancient Manuscript Review 48 : Antique Morocco Quran ( Saadi Dynasty 16-17th century)








This is an old handwritten Quran originally from Morocco of Saadi Dynasty era.It is a complete Quran. It was written in a simple Maghribi calligraphy. This Quran has a colophone on the last leaf however I couldn't read it due to the complexity of this script. The cover was repaired and both interior have beautiful Moroccon motive.

Manuscript Specs

Item : Antique Morocco Quran
Content : A complete Quran
Dim : 8" x 7.5" x 1.0"
Date : 16-17th century
Copyist : indecipherable
Origin : Morocco
Calligraphy : Maghribi
Design : 24 lines written in Maghribi script without border
Purchased Price :US