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Afghanistan: Folios from an illuminated Qur'an dated 1519, perhaps from Herat.

Afghanistan: Folios from an illuminated Qur'an dated 1519, perhaps from Herat.

The Koran’s oldest illuminations were made by the famed illuminator Yari Mudhahhib, who was active under the late Timurids and early Safavids. The text was written in Naskh by the calligrapher Qasim Ali al-Hirawi in 1519. A Persian translation of the Koran’s Arabic text was added in red Nastaliq. The manuscript was once in the Qutb Shahis’ library in Golconda, but fell into the hands of the Great Mughals when Aurangzeb conquered Golconda in 1687.

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