chapter 8 The Chain of Mamluk Calligraphers 1 The Syrian School Partly basing his account on Ibn Fadl Allah al-ʿUmari, who wrote a century earlier, al-Qalqashandi attributes the origins of Mamluk calligraphy to the ʿAbbasid tradition of Baghdad. He lists the chain of master calligraphers from there to his own day in fifteenth-century Cairo as follows: Ibn Muqla; Muham- mad b. al-Simisimani; Muhammad b. al-Asad; Ibn al-Bawwab; Ibn ʿAbd al- Malik; Shaykha Zaynab called Shuhda;Yaqut al-Mustaʿsimi; al-Waliyy al-ʿAjami; al-ʿAfif; his son, Ibn al-ʿAfif; Ibn Ruqayba; and his contemporary al-Ziftawi.1 Ibn Taghribirdi and Sakhawi repeat this list, excluding Yaqut and Ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, thus Ibn Muqla; Ibn al-Bawwab; Ibn al-Simsimani; Ibn Asad; Shuhda; al-Waliyy, al-ʿAfif; Ibn al-ʿAfif; Ibn Ruqayba; and al-Ziftawi.2 The chain of master calligraphers acknowledged in Iranian and Ottoman historiography as being the foundation of their own calligraphic tradition is dif- ferent:3 Arghun Ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Kamili; Nasr Allah al-Tabib (al-Mutatabbib); Mubarak Shah Ibn Qutb al-Tabrizi; Yusuf al-Mashhadi al-Khurasani; Sayyid or Mir Haydar; and Ahmad Ibn al-Suhrawardi.4 According to the biographical literature, Syrian calligraphers adopted the style of Yaqut al-Mustaʿsimi (d. 1298). Yaqut and his students worked for Ilkhanid patrons in the decades following the fall of the Abbasid caliphate; as indicated by their nisbas, they were associated with Iraq and Iran. Yaqut had been the master of the rayhan style, which spread in Iran but was not as pop- ular among Mamluk calligraphers.5 Although many Syrian calligraphers were active in Cairo, the Cairene calligraphers continued to follow their own distinct style, elaborating on the legacy of Ibn al-Bawwab.6 The biographies indicate that prior to the Mongol invasion of 1258 and until the first quarter of the fourteenth century, calligraphers traveled frequently 1 Qalqashandi, Subh, III, 13–14. 2 Ibn Taghribirdi, Manhal, IX, 290; Sakhawi, Dawʾ, IV, 161. 3 James, Qur’ans, 77–78. 4 Safadi, Aʿyan, I, 414–415; Ibn Hajar, Durar, I, 356. His teacher was Zali al-Din ʿAbd Allah in Baghdad. 5 James, Qur’ans, 20. 6 See the list of scribes in the appendix of James, “Qur’ans and Calligraphers,” 354–356. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004387058_010 the chain of mamluk calligraphers 127 between Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. Syrians often moved to work and teach in Egypt. Among the Mamluk calligraphers who were reported to have studied with Yaqut was the Damascene Sharaf al-Din b. Yusuf al-Zarʿi Sayyid Muhammad b. Sharif, known as Ibn al-Wahid (d. 1311)7, mentioned earlier, an outstanding cal- ligrapher, poet, multilingual littérateur, and bureaucrat. He traveled to Baalbak and Baghdad to study with Yaqut. He taught Baha’ al-Din Mahmud b. Khatib Baʿalbak, mentioned later. He went to Cairo, where he worked for Sultan al- Muzaffar Baybars (al-Jashnakir) and as a secretary at the mosque of al-Hakim in Cairo, which had been restored in 1303 and endowed as madrasa by Baybars when he was still emir. Baybars recruited Ibn al-Wahid for the chancery, but he failed there. He made his career with calligraphy, for which he was highly remu- nerated. He mastered all styles and was unsurpassed in naskh, muhaqqaq, and rayhan. A famous Quran manuscript he penned for Baybars al-Jashnakir to be endowed to the mosque of al-Hakim is acknowledged as one of the greatest masterpieces of the Mamluk art of the book.8 It was immediately famous for its illumination, executed by the celebrated illuminator Sandal. Safadi writes that he saw the manuscript on more than one occasion in the chancery on the Citadel, which suggests that it may have been displayed there, perhaps as a model for calligraphers. Ibn al-Wahid authored a treatise on calligraphy titled Sharḥ Waḥīd ʿalā rāʾiyat Ibn al-Bawwāb.9 Another calligrapher from Syria was Jamal al-Din Ibrahim b. Sulayman Abu Ishaq b. al-Najjar al-Katib of Sicilian and later Damascene origin (d. 1253) (not to be confused with Shams al-Din b. al-Najjar, d. 1326) a scholar, poet and callig- raphy teacher who earned the praise of the master calligrapher Shihab al-Din Ghazi after a bureaucratic career in Alexandria. After a career in Alexandria, he returned to his home town Damascus where he died. Among his students were al-Yaghmuri and Rashid al-Mundhiri, for whom I was unable to find any information.10The Mongol invasion contributed to pushing scholars and artists from Iraq to other areas, and the rise of the Mamluk sultanate attracted many of them to work in Syria and later Egypt. 7 Ibn Hajar, Durar, IV, 73–75; Ibn Habib, Tadhkira, II, 43f.; Safadi, Wafi, III, 150–153; Safadi, Aʿyan, IV, 466–472; Ibn Taghribirdi, Hawadith, X, 82f.; Ibn Taghribirdi, Nujum, IX, 220; Ibn Taghribirdi, Manhal, X, 82–83; James, Qur’ans, 37. 8 James, Qur’ans, chap. 3. 9 Edited by Hilal Naji (Tunis, 1967), see more in Gacek, “Arabic Scripts,” n. 3. 10 Safadi, Wafi, V, 356–358; Maqrizi, Muqaffa, I, 165; Ibn Taghribirdi, Manhal, I, 65–67..