A finely illuminated Qur'an, probably copied by the tutor of Sultan 'Abd-al-Majid I (reg. 1839–1861), Muhammad Taher al-Shukri, a pupil of Abdul-Rahman al-Wasfi, and illuminated by Mahmud Helmi Ottoman Turkey, probably Constantinople, dated AH 1252/AD 1836-37


Arabic manuscript on paper, 298 leaves, 15 lines to the page written in clear naskhi script in black ink, diacritics and vowel points in red and black ink, gold discs decorated with alternating blue and red dots between verses, inner margins ruled in red and gold, catchwords, occasional illuminated devices in wide outer margins, sura headings written in thuluth script in white, one fine illuminated frontispiece in colours and gold, contemporary red morocco, covers richly decorated with a diaper pattern in gold, with flap, rebacked and repaired, doublures of European printed floral pattern on gold ground, Ottoman Turkish inscription dated AH 1264/AD 1847-48 on last page, fore-edges decorated with red and gold interlinking concentric circles 254 x 187 mm.
|Muhammad Taher was probably (though he is never in the records referred to as 'al-Shukri') the calligraphy tutor of Sultan 'Abd-al-Majid during his days as a prince and perhaps later. The scribe was taught by Mahmud Jalal-al-Din and perfected the script jali thuluth which the Sultan favoured. His panels written in this script are more common than his pieces written in naskhi and thuluth. He wrote the inscriptions in jali on the Defterdar mosque (built in AH 1242/AD 1826–27), near the Harem wharf in the district of Uskudar. He died in AH 1262/AD 1845-46. See M. U. Derman, Eternal Letters, Istanbul 2009, pp. 142–145, and S. Rado, Turk Hattatlari, Istanbul, n.d., p. 205.