Juz'8 of the Qur'an, signed by the master-calligrapher Yaqut

Juz' 8 of the Qur'an, signed by the master-calligrapher Yaqut al-Musta`simi.
Substantially re-mounted and decorated in the sixteenth-century Ottoman empire, this section of the Qur'an (juz' 8) is signed by the renowned master-calligrapher Yaqut al-Musta`simi in 1282-83, in Baghdad. Yaqut was highly regarded for many centuries after his death in 1298, and this established an important professional lineage for his students, and their students, with a strong sense of pedigree. Yaqut's work was therefore highly collectible and valuable, and many imitations of his work are known today. This Qur'an volume was evidently treasured as an original Yaqut work by its sixteenth-century owner, who had the folios newly decorated and placed in a splendid Ottoman-era binding. Three other volumes from this thirty-volume Qur'an set are today in the Topkapi Palace (juz' 2 EH227, and juz' 12 EH226) and the Khalili collection in London (juz'15 QUR29).
Codex, 52 folios, ink, colours and gold on paper, Arabic text in muhaqqaq script signed (in the colophon, on folio 52r) by Yaqut al-Musta`simi (d.1298), with illuminated double frontispiece, sura-headings, verse-markers, backdrops and borders, leather binding with central medallion design in gold punched decoration, and (inside) colourful filigree doublure with central medallion of interlocking lobed quatrefoils, calligraphy Iraq, dated 681H, 1282-1283, mounted with later illumination and binding, Ottoman Turkey, 1500-1600.