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Ceci n'est pas un Coran copié par Ahmed al-Nayrizi: object lesson in a "sophisticated" manuscript, to use the polite trade euphemism for something gussied-up, finicked, tweaked, or altered - not wholly forged but intended to deceive.
It is a rather lovely manuscript despite its dodgy colophon and is now (fully digitised) at the @librarycongress: https://www.loc.gov/resource/plmp.m132?r=-0.262,-0.1,1.478,1.72,0
It was, before that, no.10 in @Quaritch Catalogue 1428, which you may still find here: https://www.quaritch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/quaritch077.pdf
[This was the second print catalogue I got to produce at Quaritch. It sold out, which left me with very unrealistic expectations of the book trade but also taught me very short catalogues are fun, IF you manage to sell the contents. I still live in hope.]
Here is the colophon, now catalogued just as read at the LoC:
"Nayrīzī, Aḥmad, scribe. / 1120 [1708 or 1709]"
Note the stain which corresponds almost exactly to the single line of the colophon.
![Here is the colophon, now catalogued just as read at the LoC: "Nayrīzī, Aḥmad, scribe. / 1120 [1708 or 1709]"Note the stain which corresponds almost exactly to the single line of the colophon.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EcmJ5AWXkAUt5CB.jpg "Here is the colophon, now catalogued just as read at the LoC: \"Nayrīzī, Aḥmad, scribe. / 1120 [1708 or 1709]\"Note the stain which corresponds almost exactly to the single line of the colophon.")
![Here is the colophon, now catalogued just as read at the LoC: "Nayrīzī, Aḥmad, scribe. / 1120 [1708 or 1709]"Note the stain which corresponds almost exactly to the single line of the colophon.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EcmJ5oyWAAM1595.jpg "Here is the colophon, now catalogued just as read at the LoC: \"Nayrīzī, Aḥmad, scribe. / 1120 [1708 or 1709]\"Note the stain which corresponds almost exactly to the single line of the colophon.")
"Nayrīzī, Aḥmad, scribe. / 1120 [1708 or 1709]"
Note the stain which corresponds almost exactly to the single line of the colophon.
Here is the Quaritch catalogue note dealing with the colophon: "The manuscript offers a simple conundrum: the colophon is a later addition, but the text and binding are consistent with the date of the added colophon..."
The colophon was erased and rewritten - I suggested perhaps in the 20th century. You could argue that the stain and abraded paper were coincidence and the colophon authentic.
At the time, I missed a key piece of conclusive evidence, largely because I got very distracted by the iffy colophon and the lovely lacquer binding. See for example this Nayrizi MS @metmuseum:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/454608
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/454608
A predecessor at Quaritch had bought the LoC Qur'an at a Paris auction in, I think, 2011, catalogued and sold as a Nayrizi manuscript.
The same MS was in fact sold at @ChristiesInc in 2005, both print and online catalogue unillustrated: https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/quran-safavid-iran-dated-ah-11201708-9-ad-4579931-details.aspx
Bar the collation (2 folios difference) the description corresponds neatly to the LoC Qur'an.
This page at Columbia records the Christie's online catalogue entry from 2005 and includes one illustration (L), with the LoC image of the same folio (R). Voilà! http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00xcallig/mughallate/zziran/quran1708.html
What a difference lighting makes to the illumination.
Colophon date the same at Christie's in 2005 as it is now at the LoC: but no Nayrizi signature in 2005!
Colophon date the same at Christie's in 2005 as it is now at the LoC: but no Nayrizi signature in 2005!
Moreover, the MS has this Qajar inscription recording its gift by Shah Sultan Khanum, known as Khanum Bozorg, dated Ramadan 1282 AH (January 1866 CE). (Bonus curses invoked in the final line.)
Illustrated now at the LoC.
Illustrated now at the LoC.
[Shah Sultan Khanum is almost certainly the sister of Mirza Husayn ‘Ali Baha’ Allah, who founded Bahaism: http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/people/2855.html]
![[Shah Sultan Khanum is almost certainly the sister of Mirza Husayn ‘Ali Baha’ Allah, who founded Bahaism: http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/people/2855.html]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EcmKB4oXYAIF-an.jpg "[Shah Sultan Khanum is almost certainly the sister of Mirza Husayn ‘Ali Baha’ Allah, who founded Bahaism: http://www.qajarwomen.org/en/people/2855.html]")
[For some further context: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bahaism-i]
Christie's, you will note, made a better fist of this inscription than me. (I even managed to misdate it by a year, ignoring the month.) More time on the inscription / less on the binding: I might have found the 2005 Xtie's catalogue.
Better late than never, I guess. Reading inscriptions : (almost) always worth the time! (You might catch a 21st-century sophisticateur out.)
