Mustafa Shah

Werner Diem

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Qur'an Manuscripts: Calligraphy, Illumination and Design.

Shah, Mustafa

SOAS Research Online

Book ReviewsQur’an Manuscripts: Calligraphy, Illumination and Design. By Colin F. Baker.London: British Library, 2007. Pp. 122. £20.00.This fine volume offers an important survey of a selection of Qur’anic manuscriptswhich date from the early, classical and late medieval periods of the Islamic traditionand are drawn from the unique collection of the British Library. It is aimed at readerswith an interest in the development of the Qur’anic manuscript tradition and Islamicart in general. Featuring a vivid array of illustrated examples of manuscripts which areintroduced through an informed commentary, the book will clearly serve readers withan interest in the aesthetics of calligraphy, illumination and design in Islamic art. Thebook’s author, Colin Baker, works as Head of the British Library’s Near and MiddleEastern Collections, and is considered to be an authority on Arabic and Islamicmanuscripts: his previous works include Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts inthe Cambridge Genizah Collection (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001),which was co-authored with Geoffery Khan. He has also compiled the Subject-Guideto the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Library (London: British Library, 2001) andcontributed to the British Library’s innovatory CD-Rom, Turning the Pages: SultanBaybars’ Qur’an (London: British Library, 2002). His expertise and insights areappositely brought to bear in this excellent work.The main text is divided into four chapters, and the first of these covers Qur’anmanuscripts associated with the early stages of Islam’s emergence. Baker makes thepoint that the earliest Qur’an manuscripts were probably produced somewhere aroundthe mid to late first/seventh century and that although ancient copies from theseperiods have not survived intact and exist only in fragmentary form, they significantly‘provide the only available evidence for the early development of the writtenrecording of the Qur’an text’.1 Among the first plates included in this chapter is a pagefrom an ancient copy of the Qur’an which is said to date from the second/eighthcentury and contains over two-thirds of the complete text. It is the largest knownfragment of consecutive Qur’anic text transcribed in the famous māʾil script (slantingto the right), a distinctively inclined style of writing conventionally associated with theḤijāzī cities of Mecca and Medina.2 Notwithstanding the fact that the physical shapeof the earliest codices was vertical in format, they were without vowel markings (naqṭ)and used a minimum of diacritics (iʿjām).3 The incipient nature of the script ledscholars to refer to it as a scriptio defectiva. Many of these early codices weretranscribed on parchment (the skins of sheep, goats and calves) due to its flexible anddurable qualities. Baker remarks that the early Qur’ans or codices (maṣāḥif) weretherefore originally ‘a collection of sheets of parchment placed between two boards.Each double sheet was folded into two leaves, which were assembled into gatherings,then sewn together and bound as quires into a book or codex’. Attention is then turnedtowards Qur’ans of the third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries, with Baker making thepoint that they were written in Kufic (ʿAbbāsid) script and were now being producedwithin a horizontal format which suited the short and elongated parallel strokes of thisscript. Baker notes that the strikingly angular Kufic script takes its name from thetown of Kufa, where it was believed to have been developed, although questions havebeen raised by scholars such as Nabia Abbott and François Déroche regarding theimport of this Kufic label, due to the fact that it tends to disguise the varied range ofstyles which the script actually encompassed. Baker follows the traditional accounts ofthe development of the Arabic script in which symbolic importance is attached to theenterprise of the Basran figure Abū’l-Aswad al-Duʾalī (d. 69/688), who is identified inthe classical biographical literature as the pioneering architect of Arabic grammar, andwho is reported to have devised a model of vowel notation for Qur’anic codices inwhich strategically placed coloured dots were employed to denote vocalic values (pp.19–20).4 A copy of a manuscript written on parchment in the Kufic script whichdisplays this system of vowel markings is featured (pp. 20 ff). Baker suggests that‘these early Kufic Qur’ans already exhibit the beginnings of those elements ofillumination and decoration that were eminently brought to perfection in later Qur’ans,giving the written word a heightened power and resonance’ (p. 20). The point hestresses is that due to Islam’s proscribing representational art, the imaginative focus onthe decoration and ornamentation of the physical word acquired greater symbolicsignificance. The suggestion is that the decoration of pages had a functional purpose:chapter headings, ends of ayas, verse counts, sections and individual ayas where thebeliever reciting the text was expected to prostrate were all highlighted. Accordingly,illumination was creatively applied through the structural divisions of the sacred text.Baker has included two further samples of Kufic manuscripts which date from thethird/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries and these confirm the wonderfully exquisitevariations in style and format achieved under this generic label; they also featureornamental letters in gold and medallions which were used to mark off batches of ayas(pp. 22–3).In the fourth/tenth century eastern Kufic Qur’ans were once again being produced invertical format. Baker explains that this was due in part to the distinctive stylisticfeatures of the eastern Kufic script, a style characterised by ‘long upright strokes andshort stokes inclining to the right’. A fine example of the so-called Qarmathian style ofEastern Kufic, dated to the fifth/eleventh or sixth/twelfth centuries, displaying an ayafrom Sūrat al-Nūr (Q. 24:29), is featured and it beautifully combines the earliersystem of naqṭ said to have been devised by Abū’l-Aswad with the system of vowelsigns introduced by the Basran grammarian and lexicographer al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad(d. 175/791).5 Among the further colour plates included in this section is oneBook Reviews 127depicting an ornamental chapter heading written in gold thuluth script and usedto introduce Sūrat Hūd. This is reproduced alongside an elegant plate depictingQ. 37:20–143 from a Qur’an which is dated to 427/1036 and is densely transcribedin the early naskhī script; this text also includes, in the margin, a stunning array ofpalmettes which were meticulously placed to indicate batches of five ayas.Baker explains that by the fourth/tenth century paper was gradually replacingparchment as the preferred medium of transcription, especially in the Islamic East asopposed to North Africa and Spain (p. 23), and that the introduction of the nashkīcursive script, which was proportionate in style, was increasingly being used on papermaterials. Reference is made to the fact that the nashkī cursive script was mostly usedin documents of a commercial and administrative nature; its being cursive rendered itboth practicable and clear but, as Baker points out, it was developed further by theefforts of both Ibn Muqla (d. 328/940) and especially Ibn al-Bawwāb (d. 413/1022),becoming the ‘most popular styles for transcribing Arabic manuscripts due to itslegibility’ (p. 26). Ibn Muqla is reported to have been the first to systematise andgeometrically define the muḥaqqaq script.6 Baker sees this change and indeed contrastas being significant for a number of reasons: firstly, there were implications inrespect of the distribution of space occupied by the script and its features ofillumination; and secondly, Kufic had become a seemingly archaic script employedonly for ornamental purposes, especially by the middle of the fifth/eleventh century.As far as the Islamic West was concerned, Baker confirms that Qur’ans from NorthAfrica and Spain differed markedly from those of the Islamic East: the West wasstill producing Qur’ans on parchment until up to the period of the eighth/fourteenthcentury (p. 28). A seventh/thirteenth century illustrative plate from Granadaproduced on parchment is featured to illustrate this contrast: its chapter heading iswritten in Western Kufic script while the text is in the Maghribī style, displaying adistinctively more rounded and curved script which sweepingly extended below thelines, a script Baker suggests has its origins in a western Kufic model. It is alsostated that the script or format of a Qur’an did not determine the number of volumesit was produced in; some were completed in multi-volume sets while others in asingle tome.Baker does comment that from the late fourth/tenth century onwards developments inthe use of scripts were matched by notable strides made in the use of illumination,decoration and ornamentation. This was particularly evidenced by the addition of asingle or double frontispiece (carpet pages), which operated as a type of portal to thesacred Qur’anic texts and provided its illuminator with the opportunity of displayingartistic flair and skills (pp. 30–1). Full page illuminations were often placed at the endof volumes, creating what Baker terms to be a functional and decorative balance.Their design features included arabesques (interwoven flowing patterns of floralmotifs), palmettes and even inscriptions from the Qur’an. Regarding Qur’an128 Journal of Qur’anic Studiesmanuscripts, Baker draws attention to the enhanced embellishment of the incipit pagesand symbolic parts of the text, including the smaller chapters towards the end. Superbexamples of illumination featuring these aesthetic developments are provided,including an ornate frontispiece of a fourth/tenth century Qur’an, which is said to havebeen of possible Egyptian origin, comprising arabesque decoration (pp. 32–3);an Iraqi or Persian illuminated frontispiece of an fifth/eleventh century Qur’anwith geometrical patterns (pp. 34–5); decorative end pages from a tenth/sixteenthMoroccan Qur’an (pp. 36–7); and finally, the carpet pages designed by the famousMuḥammad ibn Mudabbir and taken from the first volume of the Mamlūk SultanBaybars’ seven-volume Qur’an, aptly named after Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Jāshnagīrwho commissioned it (pp. 38–9).7In Chapter Two of this book Baker looks at some of the expressions of ‘GrandDesigns’, which combine both illumination and page layout together with theelaborate integration of calligraphy, ornament and arrangement. According to Baker,developments in grand design flourished under the patronage of Mamlūk and Īlkhānidrulers. During the rule of the Timurid, Ottoman, Ṣafavid and Mughal dynastiesillumination and calligraphy passed through further stages of refinement and maturity.To illustrate these developments Baker has selected some of the finest Qur’an pagestogether with examples from non-Qur’anic texts. These include a text page from aneighth/fourteenth century Mamlūk Qur’an produced in the definitive muḥaqqaq script(p. 40); endowment documents (p. 42); decorative colophons, including two fromSultan Baybars’ Qur’an, dated to 705/1305–6 (pp. 45–6); the carpet pages for volumethree of Sultan Baybars’ Qur’an together with its incipit pages and further ones writtenin the thuluth script designed by Abū Bakr Ṣandal (pp. 48–55). Baker makes the pointthat the splendour of the Baybars Qur’an was enhanced due to its ‘being writtenentirely in gold and in thuluth script’. He adds that the cursive hand was outlined inblack ink and that the vowels were marked in red. Mention is made of the fact that thechoice of the thuluth script was strange due to its principally being used forornamental purposes, particularly in chapter headings but not the body of a text. Bakerdoes attach particular significance to layout of the calligraphy in the Baybars Qur’an:it comprised some 1,094 folios spread over seven volumes and each of its pagescarried an even number of lines, a feature which created a new precedent; the textlayout was also continuous: chapter headings were indicated by a change of colour,with red ink overlaying the gold (p. 47 and p. 56). Baker suggests that the‘individuality in the copying and illumination of Qur’ans’ is reflected in other Qur’ansfrom this period. The thirty-volume Qur’an commissioned by the Īlkhānid rulerUljaytū (reg. 704–16/1304–16) is one such example. There are distinctive contrastsbetween it and the Baybars Qur’an but this, Baker argues, would seem to reflectindigenous influences. It was written in the gold muḥaqqaq script and its vowelmarkings were in black ink. The point is made that this style of script, unlike theBook Reviews 129thuluth of the Baybars Qur’an, allows a subtle bridging of fluidity with rigidity (p. 65).To illustrate the uniqueness of the Uljaytū Qur’an, colour images of its colophon,commissioning certificate and carpet pages, together with pages from the main textare included (pp. 58–64).Colour plates from a further distinctive Mamlūk Qur’an, which was donated to amosque in Cairo by Faraj ibn Barqūq (reg. 801–15/1399–1412), are also featured(pp. 66–9). Baker contends that the inspiration of the architecture of the mosque alsoplayed a part in the way the aesthetic dimensions of the calligraphy and design ofthese Qur’ans were worked out, although he adds that over successive periods newdelicacies and refinements, as exemplified by the inclusion of shamsa medallions,prayer pages and carpet pages, new layouts for the texts, and even the function ofscripts, replaced the Īlkhānid style of illumination in Persia and Iraq and that thisspread to Turkey (examples of these are provided between pp. 70–81). Baker stressesthat the Qur’ans produced in these periods were just as impressive; the range of colourplates he provides, including various examples from Ottoman, Afghan, Indian, Persianand Moroccan manuscripts, certainly confirms this point.In the chapter entitled ‘Qur’an Manuscripts and the Spread of Islam’ Baker brieflyconsiders how approaches to the transcription and illumination of Qur’an werebroached in regions such as Southeast Asia, China and Central Asia. The examples ofpages from Chinese Qur’ans, which date from the eleventh/seventeenth century,reveal the remarkable levels of illumination and style achieved in these texts. Thescript employed in these sample documents is described as a variation of themuḥaqqaq style, although Baker speaks of its being influenced by Chinesecalligraphy. Further colour plates featuring Qur’ans from the Javanese, Malay andsub-Saharan regions are featured (Malay Qur’ans adopted the naskhī script, whilesub-Saharan Qur’ans were characteristically influenced by the Maghribī script; bothwere produced on paper imported from Italy). Miniatures, scrolls, bindings andfurniture form the focus of the last chapter in this book. In terms of the miniatureQur’ans, it is noted that they are ‘no less distinctive for their decoration than theirformat’. They came in various shapes and were written in a minute style of nashkī,which Baker explains was referred to by the Arabic word for dust, ghubar: the stylebeing so fine that it was likened to powder. A number of colour plates of Turkish andPersian miniatures dated from the tenth/sixteenth, eleventh/seventeenth and thirteenth/nineteenth centuries are also shown (pp. 100–3). In respect of bookbinding it issuggested this craft was developed following the conquest of Egypt and that theearliest Islamic examples can be dated to the third/ninth century, revealing Copticinfluences: the sewing of the text block in Qur’anic manuscripts reproduced a Coptictechnique (p. 106). Baker has included images of the binding of a seventh/thirteenthcentury Qur’an from Marrakesh featuring blind and gold tooling. This is displayedalongside two images of the binding of an eleventh/seventeenth century Qur’an that130 Journal of Qur’anic Studieshas inscriptions embossed on sunken gold panels (p. 105). The final images in thisbook are of Qur’an furniture: namely, the wooden chests or cabinets in which theselarge tomes were stored and the very stands and frames upon which the volumes wereplaced, allowing the texts to be recited by readers. The stands were invariably made ofcarved wood and lavishly embellished with a panoply of floral and geometricaldesigns and decorated with mother of pearl. The front jacket of this book has astunning copy of the incipit page from part nine of Sultan Faraj ibn Barqūq’s thirty-volume Qur’an, while an ornamental marker which features in the same Qur’an isreproduced for the back jacket.The book is highly recommended: it introduces the Qur’an manuscripts with aconcern for both historical context and aesthetic relevance; moreover, in doing so itcovers a representative sample of materials. Its modest price is pleasantly surprisinggiven not only the fine quality of its production, but also the vivid array of over 80colour plates included in the text, especially as a number of these are shown in thisbook for the very first time. It is evident that with this volume one gets a sense of theimpressive levels of intricacy, sophistication and distinctiveness with which thephysical presentation of the sacred word, as influenced by the ‘non-figurativeprinciples of Islamic art’, was inimitably defined.MUSTAFA SHAHDOI: 10.3366/E1465359109000631NOTES1 Cf. Sheila Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006),pp. 105–6.2 See Diem Werner, ‘Some Glimpses at the Rise and Early Development of the ArabicOrthography’, Orientalia 45 (1976), pp. 251–61; and the discussion in the introductory partof François Déroche, The Abbasid Tradition: Qurʾans of the 8th to 10th Centuries (London:Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, 1992),especially p. 12.3 Iʿjām being the technical term for the addition of dots or fine strokes to distinguish individualgraphemes and characters.4 This development is recorded in later biographical literature, as the Basran grammarianMubarrad (d. 285/898), who is purported to have composed a history of eminent Basranlinguists, is cited as stating that Abū’l-Aswad was the first figure to supply vowel markings to acodex: see Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Zubaydī, Ṭabaqāt al-naḥwiyyīn, ed. MuḥammadAbū’l-Faḍl Ibrāhīm (Cairo: Dār al-Maʿārif, 1973), p. 6; cf. Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd,al-Dānī, al-Muḥkam fī naqṭ al-maṣāḥif, ed. ʿIzzat Ḥasan, 2nd edn (Damascus: Dār al-Fikr,1986). Baker also refers to the view that credit for encouraging the introduction oforthographical improvements is attributed to al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf (d. 95/714). The textincorrectly states Ḥallāj instead of Ḥajjāj (p. 20).5 Al-Khalīl used a small wāw to denote ḍamma, a yāʾ for kasra, and an alif for fatḥa, allof which were derived from their graphic forms. The pioneers of the emerging traditions ofBook Reviews 131

Book review of: Colin F. Baker. Qur’an Manuscripts: Calligraphy, Illumination and Design (London: British Library, 2007).

http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/19261/1/preprintdraftbaker.pdf

Book review of: Colin F. Baker. Qur’an Manuscripts: Calligraphy, Illumination and Design (London: British Library, 2007).

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