Hi Mohammad,

Thank you for contacting Mearto with your appraisal inquiry.

The earliest Qur'ans (7th–10th centuries) were written on parchment, made from carefully prepared sheep, goat, or calf skins. The process involved soaking the hides in lime, removing hair and flesh, stretching the skin tightly on a frame, scraping it repeatedly until it reached an even thickness and polishing the surface with pumice to create a smooth writing surface.

Beginning around the 10th century, paper, introduced from China via Central Asia, largely replaced parchment. Islamic papermakers refined the process, producing durable, burnished sheets well suited to calligraphy and illumination.

Ink was made from lampblack mixed with gum arabic, while headings and decorative elements often employed gold leaf and colored pigments such as lapis lazuli and vermilion.

Once the text was complete, seets were folded into gatherings (quires). Holes were pierced along the fold and the gatherings were sewn together with linen or silk thread.

Unlike many medieval European books, Qur'an bindings generally did not use thick cords or raised bands. Instead, they employed a flexible sewing structure that allowed the book to open relatively flat for reading.

Islamic binders developed one of history's most sophisticated binding traditions. Typical bindings featured pasteboards made from laminated paper, leather coverings, often goatskin, a distinctive envelope flap (called a muraqqaʿ flap), which folded over the fore-edge to protect the pages, blind-tooled geometric decoration and gold tooling on luxury manuscripts.

The Qur'an was copied by highly trained calligraphers, often after years of apprenticeship.

Common scripts included Kufic script (7th–10th centuries), with bold, angular letterforms; Naskh script (from the 10th century onward, including yours), which is prized for its clarity and readability; and Muhaqqaq script, for especially luxurious manuscripts.

Today, early Qur'an manuscripts are among the most prized works of Islamic art. Volumes from the Abbasid Caliphate, Mamluk Sultanate, Safavid Empire, and Ottoman Empire are especially valued for their calligraphy, illumination, and binding artistry. Well-preserved examples with their original bindings are comparatively rare because many manuscripts were rebound over the centuries as they wore from devotional use.

Early Islamic paper usually shows visible laid and chain lines, irregular fibers and heavier burnishing; what I can see from these photos is more consistent with a high-quality industrial paper such as the kind that was introduced in the second half of the 19th Century, when Ottoman and Persian artists consciously revived classical 16th-century manuscript decoration. Note that it's hard to see these in photos and a manuscript expert that is able to look at the paper closely might see something I'm not able to see in these photos.

Note that an early Qur'an might have some replaced pages made from later paper; that may well be the case here.

The illumination is also in an Ottoman/Persian revival style, with a cobalt blue ground, gold arabesques, naturalistic flowers in pink, red and green and gilded cartouche. This style became especially popular in luxury Qur'ans produced during the 19th century, which were beautifully executed but lack the extraordinary complexity and microscopic detail seen in royal manuscripts of the 1500s.

The red inscriptions in the margins are juz' markers, the standard divisions of the Qur'an for recitation. The style of these is also characteristic of later Qur'ans.

Because of these indicators, I'm inclined to think this is a late 19th Century Qur'an, which is beautiful and a cherished family heirloom, but not one of significant historical importance.

The colophon would tell me where and when this was made but I can't enlarge the photos sufficiently to read it - are you able to send a high resolution image to [email protected] and ask our support staff to send it to me directly?

Would you also be able to tell me how large this is?

Qur'ans of any size and style typically sell best in auctions focused on Islamic and Indian works of art, such as those in London, which have specialists skilled in reading various Arabic dialects and scripts, and an intimate knowledge of the high-level collectors. As a late 18th or 19th Century copy, this would likely sell within £1,5000-2,000.

Based on the photos and information provided, and subject to examination, this is:

A finely illuminated Qur'an
Copied by scribe Ibrāhīm Khalīl ibn Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ
in the Naskh style, late 18th or 19th Century
with red morocco boards
(DIMENSIONS)
CONDITION: with wear commensurate to age and use.
PROVENANCE: Inherited
£ 1,500-2,000*
*represents a fair-market value for auction purposes; retail or asking price may vary.

Please let us know if you have additional items to appraise, or questions/concerns, and thank you again for using Mearto.
~ Delia