Fully printed in gold throughout. Circa 800 printed pages. Fine Japan paper. Printed by Sayyid Uthman on his lithographic press - from the first printed page. No English printed statement of imprint nor of edition. Photo-lithographed text and marginal decoration, printed in Arabic within ruled borders. Original endpapers. Very minor shelfwear, rubbing, and the text block indicates that the paper stock was inconsistent with two variations of tone. At least one page has been printed considerably askew. 19 x 26 mm. Original limp burgundy and elaborately stamped gilt leather; oval framed titling within oval frame and decoative borders with corner-pieces; upper cover staming slightly off-centre; lower cover oval has no titling within. This appears to have almost identical text to Bryce's miniature Qu'rans of 1896, which, in turn, were photolithographic reductions of 19th-century Ottoman editions of famous calligrapher Hafiz Osman's Qur'ans. They were based on the 1871 edition, complete with authentication certificate and the signatures and seal impressions of the ten Islamic scholars at back and an 1884 edition from Istanbul that provided the Imperial press colophon reproduced here in full. The Sultan and scholar-backed certificate was a legal assertion of the accuracy of the text. Sayyid Uthman bin Yahya established a printing company in Batavia known as Pertjetakan Batu (Lithographic Printing Press), which was the first in Indonesia and a major center for religious literature. This specific edition is notable for being entirely lithographed in gold ink, a luxurious and technically challenging feat for the period's printing technology. Miniature Qur'ans had been printed in Delhi in 1892 and in Istanbul about 1884. Sayyid 'Uthman, a prominent Arab scholar and the Honorary Advisor on Arab Affairs to the Netherlands East Indies government, was a pioneer in Islamic lithography in Southeast Asia and his press was located in Batavia.
Miniature Qur'ans were carried as objects of fascination that carried talismanic properties, as well as serving as functional Qur'ans for reading. They were believed to be imbued with blessing, and were not only popular among the Muslim population of the Islamic world, but also among minority populations, such as the Jews. They were known to have been distributed for sale to India, SouthAfrica, Iran, as well as Mecca. At least 3,000 copies of the Bryce Koran were also bought and distributed by Jewish benefactor, Alfred Ezra, who wrote to Bryce "On receiving one. the man will stand up, put the book over his head and touch each eye with it, and then kiss the book with reverence. They nearly all wear them round their necks, and say that this protects them from all harm". Examples of this specific gold-printed edition have never hitherto been seen nor recorded. This well-preserved copy is exceptionally special. Provenance: private sale in Seattle, W.A., circa 2023.