Miniature Qur’an: Rare Book of the Week

A tiny Qur’an displayed in a dolls’ house for many years will go under the hammer at at Hansons Auctioneers on September 27 with an estimate of £2,000-£3,000.

An octagonal book with 16 lines of text per page - some encased in a gold border - over 300 pages dates from the late 18th to early 19th century ans has been in the same Norfolk family for more than a century.

“My great uncles and grandfather travelled the world a great deal in the late 19th and early 20th century," said the anonymous vendor. "They were connoisseurs of fine and rare items and often bought presents home for my grandmother and her sister. The miniature Qur’an was given to me for my dolls’ house when I was very young."

Just an inch and a half tall, the book would have been used as by Ottoman soldiers. Portable versions of the Islamic holy book were known as a sancak and carried by military standard-bearers known as 'sancakdars' as a good luck talismans to keep them safe in battle. They were also worn as good luck charms by travellers to keep them safe.

“The size of the text was a key factor in the books’ perceived power," said Hansons auctioneer Mark Nelson-Griffiths. "The small text was called 'ghubar', literally meaning dust, and the smaller it was, the more powerful it was thought to be.”