A beautiful 15th century Timurid Quran copied on Ming Dynasty gold-painted coloured paper, sold at auction in London on June 25. Courtesy Christie's
A beautiful 15th century Timurid Quran copied on Ming Dynasty gold-painted coloured paper, sold at auction in London on June 25. Courtesy Christie's
A beautiful 15th century Timurid Quran copied on Ming Dynasty gold-painted coloured paper, sold at auction in London on June 25. Courtesy Christie's
A beautiful 15th century Timurid Quran copied on Ming Dynasty gold-painted coloured paper, sold at auction in London on June 25. Courtesy Christie's

A rare look inside an 'exceptional' 15th century Quran


  • English
  • Arabic

A rare Quran written on Chinese paper has sold at auction for £7,016,250 (Dh31,923,287).

Dating from the 15th century, this Timurid or Aqquyunlu Quran from Iran was copied onto pages of Ming-era paper, that is gold flecked and in rich shades of deep blue, turquoise, pink purple, green, orange and cream.

A close-up look at the 15th century Timurid Quran.
A close-up look at the 15th century Timurid Quran.

As part of the Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets sale, at the auctioneers Christie's London, it is described as being an "exceptional" example, with calligraphy contained within elegant blue and gold lines, and pages decorated with gold roundel verse markers, and surah headings in gold.

The 15th century Timurid Quran was sold at auction in London on June 25, 2020.
The 15th century Timurid Quran was sold at auction in London on June 25, 2020.

Astonishingly beautiful, the book is covered with a stamped and gilt Safavid binding, while the pages inside have Thuluth calligraphy in gold ruled panels, with medallions in the margin illuminated in white, blue and gold.

Prior to the sale it was expected to fetch between £600,000 and £900,000, however the bidding on the night was fast paced, and the final price realised on Friday, June 25 was £7,016,250.

Details of the buyer have not been released.

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The specs
  • Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
  • Power: 640hp
  • Torque: 760nm
  • On sale: 2026
  • Price: Not announced yet
The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl

Power: 153hp at 6,000rpm

Torque: 200Nm at 4,000rpm

Transmission: 6-speed auto

Price: Dh99,000

On sale: now

MATCH INFO

Manchester City 2 (Mahrez 04', Ake 84')

Leicester City 5 (Vardy 37' pen, 54', 58' pen, Maddison 77', Tielemans 88' pen)

Man of the match: Jamie Vardy (Leicester City)

The years Ramadan fell in May

1987

1954

1921

1888

Fight card

Bantamweight

Siyovush Gulmamadov (TJK) v Rey Nacionales (PHI)

Lightweight

Alexandru Chitoran (ROM) v Hussein Fakhir Abed (SYR)

Catch 74kg

Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) v Omar Hussein (JOR)

Strawweight (Female)

Weronika Zygmunt (POL) v Seo Ye-dam (KOR)

Featherweight

Kaan Ofli (TUR) v Walid Laidi (ALG)

Lightweight

Leandro Martins (BRA) v Abdulla Al Bousheiri (KUW)

Welterweight

Ahmad Labban (LEB) v Sofiane Benchohra (ALG)

Bantamweight

Jaures Dea (CAM) v Nawras Abzakh (JOR)

Lightweight

Mohammed Yahya (UAE) v Glen Ranillo (PHI)

Lightweight

Alan Omer (GER) v Aidan Aguilera (AUS)

Welterweight

Mounir Lazzez (TUN) Sasha Palatnikov (HKG)

Featherweight title bout

Romando Dy (PHI) v Lee Do-gyeom (KOR)

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE

2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.

2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus

2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.

2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.

2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.