The Rise of Islamic Calligraphy
“George writes with enviable clarity and precision. I have never read anything better on calligraphy.”—Robert Hillenbrand\ The birth of Qur’anic calligraphy was a major event in the early history of Islam. In a few decades, it raised the Arabs and their language from the remote fringes of the civilized world to its very heart.\ Alain George brings together manuscript, mosaic, architecture, and text to reveal the evolution of Arabic calligraphy from its pre-Islamic conception through the...
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Beautifully illustrated, this is an essential reference work for students and connoisseurs of calligraphy alike.
Acknowledgements 7List of Abbreviations 9Author's Note 10Introduction 13Chapter One Looking for the Origins 21The Arabic script before Islam 21The earliest Islamic documents 27The earliest manuscripts of the Qur'an 31The scribal world of Late Antiquity 34Codex versus scroll 38Format, ruling, quires and decoration 40Pens, strokes and dots 49Christian scribes of the Qur'an 52Chapter Two The Birth of Kufic 55A novel codification 56The inscriptions at the Dome of the Rock 60The milestones of áAbd al-Malik 68The epigraphic coinage 71Umayyad manuscripts of the Qur'an 74Economy and ideology in early Kufic 89Chapter Three On Calligraphy and Proportion 95The architecture of the page 95Proportion in Plato's Timaeus 103Artisans and intellectual circles in early Islamic times 105Calligraphy as music: the tenth century 108Chapter Four Towards the Codification of Cursive 115The New Style 115The growth of cursive 126The role of Ibn Muqla 134Calligraphy and the breakdown of the empire 138Economy, orthography and legibility 143Appendix: Guidelines to Deroche's script classification 147Notes 163Bibliography 198Sources 218General Index 223Index of Cited Manuscripts 233
