Durham E-Theses The development of the qur'anic calligraphy and illumination under the Mamlukes, 1300-1376 and in Ir James, David Lewis How to cite: James, David Lewis (1982) The development of the qur'anic calligraphy and illumination under the Mamlukes, 1300-1376 and in Ir, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1984/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 iý THE DEVELOPMENT OF QUR'ANIC CALLIGRAPHY AND ILLUMINATION UNDER THE MAMLUKES 1300- 1376 AND IN IRAQ AND IRAN IN THE SAME PERIOD A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ARTS !N THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DAVID JAMES MA (DUNELM) SUPERVISOR ; DR R. W. J. AUSTIN The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. PAGE NUMBERING AS ORIGINAL Transliteration b t th L h kh d dh r z s r` sh . .f la' y z gh f q k m h w y Short vowel are transcribed as follows: fatha -a d mrr -u kasra -i. The two dipthon; s appear as aw and ay. The definite ie °Abdal- article in compound names is always given as al ' between bin. Hamid and the word ib: i when it occurs two nwaos as PREFAC In 1976 1 paid several visits to the Qur'an Exhibition in the British Library organised by Dr Martin Lingo and Mr Yasin Safadi. Prior to that year my interests in Islamic manuscripts had cent- ered on illustrated ones, but in 1976 I began to develop a much greater interest in Qur'anic illumination and calligraphy. As the result of a number of conversations with Martin Lings I decided to make the development of illumination and calligraphy in Mamluke Qur'ans the subject of this doctoral thesis. One of the main reasons from the importance fourteenth for this , apart obvious of century Mamluko Qur'ans was the large number of Mamluke Qur'ans to which I had access at the Chester Beatty Library. Idy concern has been almost entirely with technical development S hacbän 1363 76.1 up to and including the period of Sultan , - have not dealt with subject of binding since so few Mamluke Qur'ans have their original covers. Between 1977 and 1992 the pursuit of this research has taken me to in the Middle East Europe the many countries , as well as and United states. Colleagues too to hive , numerous mention , without exception given me all possible help. To them all I express my deepest thanks. This research wes,, made Vinanci Illy possible by a number of grants from the following institutions in Ireland and the United Kinirlom: The Chester 3eatty Library, Dublin; The National University of Ireland ( University College, Dublin); The University of Durham. I would like to thank Dr Ralph Austin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of Durham for his help with this thesis in num- Dr Patrick Henchy the Chester Beatty Library for erous areas , of enabling me to be released from my normal duties on several occ- asions and the examiners of the completed work for agreeing to read it. for her Above all I would like to think my wife , Verna, all assistance and help over the past several years. No one knows more than she how much time and effort has gone into collecting and assemnling this information. 0 David James. -4- Abstract The purpose of this study is to trace the development of Qur'anic illumination and calligraphy under the Mamlukes from the earliest known Qur'an of 1304 down to and including the reign of Sultan Al- Ach±äf ' Shacban 1363-1376.. the finest the , when manuscripts of period were made. As this phenomenon needs to be set in context 1363 but vis-a-vis not only what was happening in Egypt prior to , also developments in Iraq and Iran whose manuscripts are believed. influence in dot- to have had a major , those areas are also examined ail. The initial introduction surveys the development of the Qur'an as a work of art doom to the beginning of the 1"Iamluke period', to Iranian Iraqi in historical place 11amluke 9 and manuscripts proper perspective. Existing literature is surveyed and a statemnt of problems facing the student presented. Chapter One deals with Cairo up to 1330. Most of the manuscripts examined are the work of a team of craftsmen of whom we first become in the aware as the producers of the Qur'an of Baybars al-Jäshankir in be the key British Library I which many ways may regarded as manuscript of the period. The careers of the calligrapher Ibn al- Wahid and the illuminators are studied on the basis of: i) their known works; ii) works attributable to them : iii) historical sources. The Second and Third Chapters examine what was happening in Iracf and Iran from 1300 to 1316 and study in detail the four great 0.00 Qur'anic masterpieces of the century : three made for 0ljaytu Mosul in Baghdad : and Hamadan ' and one probixbly co=issioned _ý 1y his predecessor, Gb zän. The careers of the calligraphers and illuminators involved in these Qur'ans is surveyed here and in all subsequent chapters on the basis of i, ii and iii in the previous chapter. At the and of Chapter Two relations between Cairo and Iraq during the early years of the century are studied and evidence produced to show that painters fam- iliar with developments in Baghdad were in Egypt several decades before the appearance of the Hamadan Qur'an ' to which such importance is usually attatched. Chapter Three treats Iran and deals with the problem of the it Hamadan Qurtan I relating to contemporary manuscripts made for Oljaytu how it to Cairo I explaining came , amd examining what effect it had there. In the same chapter another closely fragment is studied : the only surviving from connected duz!. a Qur'an made for Rashid al-Din I probably at the Rabc-i Rashidi. Chapter Four traces developments in Egypt and Syria from 1320 to 1356 and concentrates am two different categories of manuscript. First those copied and we believe illuminated by Ahriacl al-I-Iutatabbib in Cairo around 1330. The location is given in several colophons. These manuscripts demonstrate the decline of the Sandal tradition in Cairo, (he being the master illuminator of the Baybars Qurºan). This can be contracted with the situation in Damscus where, we believe, an important Qurºan was copied and illuminated at the end of the fourth decade. In previous chapters we have tried to assemble information on Syrian calligraphers and artists prior though is to to 1340 º this difficult due the absence of manus- cripts of unquestionable Syrian provenance. In the same chapter Yaq two problem Qur, ans by calligraphers of-the school of t are -C_ dealt One in Cairo in 1344 while with. was apparently copied , the other was certainly there in 1356. We believe that it can be shown that the first is genuine and adds a new fact to the biography the Mubaralc=Shäh sparse of calligrapher , al-Suyufý.. In Chapter Five Iran and Iraq during roughly the sane period are studied. Four major series of manuscripts are examined to show what was happening in those areas. Perhaps tha most imp- oxtant is that made by Yahya al-Süfi in Shiraz in 1344-5 which full documentation. We contains , and virtually complete, also deal with another 'problem' group : manuscripts with Turkic inter-linear translations. These we attempt to show all date fourteenth though from the cxntury 0 whether of Anatolian Central Asian is Azerbayjani 0 or perhap3 origin., unclear. Chapters Six and Seven examine the Qur'ans of Sultan Sha°bän his Ichwand Barakah his These " mother and several of arairs. can de divided into three group;,. I consists of minor works. II comprises several closely related manuscripts rightly re - arded as a 'classic' Maml.uke type. The calligraphy and especially the illumination of this group is studied in detail to show that its origins ( the illumination at least ) lie-, in earlier Main-. luke work. Group III is entirely different. It consists of those manuscripts illuminated by Ibrahim al-Amidi. This outstanding painter is the illuminator of Cairo National Library M. 10 : a fact we know from his own colophon. However, so unique and distinct is his style that it is possible to attribute a number of Qur'ans to his hand. An attempt to define exactly the nature of his style is made and traced through several manuscripts. We believe that it can be shown that the painter was trained in t -1- Western Iran he for time beforr3 in Iraq and , where worked R coif; to Cairo in the thirteen-sixties.