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ANTIQUE INDIAN QUR’AN LEAVES — SET OF 3 FRAMED FOLIOS
18th-century Arabic manuscript with later miniature paintings
Three original handwritten leaves from an Indian Qur’an, most likely Deccan / late Mughal provincial work, circa 18th century. The calligraphy is black naskh with red highlighting on Allah and key words. All readable text is from Surah An-Nisa (Chapter 4).
You get 3 leaves, front and back — 6 sides total — already framed under glass in three gold-tone frames.
What the text says
These are working Qur’an pages, not later printed copies. Identified passages include:
4:47 — “O you who were given the Book, believe in what We have sent down…”
4:151–153 — “Those are the disbelievers in truth… the People of the Book ask you to bring down a book from heaven…”
4:157 — the Jesus verse: “We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the messenger of God. They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them.”
What the paintings show
Three sides were later painted in a popular Indian miniature style: garden / terrace gatherings with music, food, and wine. These pictures were added after the manuscript was written, probably in the 19th or early 20th century, to make loose leaves more decorative. They do not illustrate the verses above them.
Picnic scene — two women at cooking pots, a man reclining with a flask, bird, trays, terrace edge. Header quotes 4:157.
Couple on a rug — woman with a long-necked lute, man seated close, wine cups, flying bird, covered dishes.
Terrace concert — two women and a bearded man on a low bed with instruments and cups, bird overhead.
