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The Chester Beatty Qur'an, Ms 1558, is one of
the most elaborately illuminated copies of the Holy Book produced in the
first half of the tenth/sixteenth century. It was copied and illuminated
by a well known Shirazi calligrapher and painter, almost certainly in the
Iranian city of Shiraz. Unfortunately we do not know for whom the manuscript
was made, since no patron's name is given. We do however, know quite a
lot about the man who produced the Qur'an. We also have many contemporary
examples of manuscripts from Shiraz with which to compare it, as Shiraz
was one of the most active centres of manuscript productionin Iran during
the first half of the tenth/sixteenth century. We also have many contemporary
examples of manuscripts from Shiraz with which to compare it, as Shiraz
was one of the most active centres of manuscript production in Iran during
the first half of the tenth/sixteenth century. The manuscript was purchased
by Alfred Chester Beatty in 1916 at Christies, the London auction house.
It is said to have belonged to a former Russian ambassador to Constantinople,
and before that to have been in the Library of the Ottoman sultans in the
Topkapi Palace.If the latter information is correct, then it had probably
been sent to Constantinople as a gift sometime after its completion, by
one of the Safavid rulers of Iran. Alternatively, it could have been brought
to Constantinople as booty, sometime between 1514 and 1566, when the Ottomans
occupied Tabriz, the Safavid capital, several times transporting cartloads
of manuscripts back to Topkapi.A third possibility is that the manuscript
came from the Ardabil Shrine in 1827 when following the Russian capture
of the city, many manuscripts were seized by General Paskiewitch for'safe-keeping
and sent to St. Petersburg. Some manuscripts are believed to have gone
to the Russian embassy in Constantinople, one of which may have been the
Chester Beatty Qur'an. After Chester Beatty's purchase of the Qur'an in
1916, it became part of his collection, first in London, then in Dublin,
where he moved in 1950. In that time the manuscript was only once exhibited
outside the Library though several pages from the manuscript had been published.
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