LITHOGRAPHED QUR'AN WITH INTERLINEAR TRANSLATION INTO URDU A - Lot 86

Lot n° 86
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LITHOGRAPHED QUR'AN WITH INTERLINEAR TRANSLATION INTO URDU A - Lot 86
LITHOGRAPHED QUR'AN WITH INTERLINEAR TRANSLATION INTO URDU AND HANDWRITTEN ANNOTATIONS NORTHERN INDIA, MEERUT, 24 SHAWWAL 1306 / APRIL 24, 1889 Book in-12 (16.5 × 10.5 cm), 408 lithographed folios on paper. Arabic text in 11 lines per page within a beige border, with an interlinear Urdu translation in Nasta‘liq script. Numerous handwritten marginal annotations in Urdu, relating to the lughat al-Qur’an, as well as in English in ink. Text division markers: manāzil, ajzā’, and rukūʿ. The first folio features a tripartite frontispiece bearing the title *Qur’ān majīd mutarjam, Mahshi bi-lughat al-Qur’an* and a reference to the Hashmi Press of Meerut. The following double-page spread, adorned with a floral border and an illuminated ‘unwan, contains the first surahs. A prayer in Arabic (du‘a) concludes the volume, followed by a colophon mentioning the publisher, Mawlī Muhammad Isma‘il, and the date of publication. The binding features gold-stamped fawn-colored leather flaps, with a frame and central fleur-de-lis motif, repeated on the spine between the raised bands. This binding is reminiscent of that of a lithographed Quran from Bombay acquired by Arthur Rimbaud—likely in Aden—and presented to the Arab World Institute in 2020; having been compared at that time to productions from Zanzibar, it could here support the theory of an Indian origin. Handwritten bookplates: “B. M. Mazumdur, Calcutta, August 10, 1895,” likely the author of the English annotations, and “F. E. Lieden, missionary, India.” The printing of the Qur’an in India began very early, as early as 1828–1829, within the intellectual and publishing context of colonial Bengal. The first printed editions often combined the Arabic text with a Urdu translation by Shah Rafiuddin, sometimes accompanied by extensive explanatory commentaries, with the aim of promoting scholarly and devotional dissemination. More than just a translated Quran, these lithographed copies served as genuine study tools, as evidenced by the notes added by the successive owners of this copy. Bibliography — Marc Gaborieau, “Translations, Printings, and Uses of the Quran in the Indian Subcontinent (1786–1975),” *Revue de l’histoire des religions*, 218/1, 2001, pp. 97–111. — Ulrike Stark, *Calligraphic Masterpiece, Mass-Produced Scripture: Early Qur’an Printing in Colonial India*, 2022.
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