Islamic Codicology Making the Islamic manuscript (continued: lay-out, scripts, binding) by Prof. Jan Just Witkam (University of Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands) www.janjustwitkam.nl www.islamicmanuscripts.info The Levantine Foundation Museology & Conservation Training Programme Cairo, April 29, 2010
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Islamic Codicology
Making the Islamic manuscript(continued: lay-out, scripts, binding)
by Prof. Jan Just Witkam(University of Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands)
www.janjustwitkam.nlwww.islamicmanuscripts.info
The Levantine Foundation Museology & Conservation Training Programme
Tacit assumption: Reading scripts is something for which one must have a talent, or else one will never be able to do it well. Talent is important of course, not only in paleography but in all walks of
life.
However: paleography is a craft that can be learned by everyone who can read and write.
By treating both paleography and its didactics we look at the same time both at the craft and at the strategies to acquire it. It provides us with a double perspective.
This tacit assumption and my reaction to it can be seen in several of the recent definitions of paleography …
Some recent definitions of paleography 1:
‘…
palaeography, which is an art of seeing and comprehending, …’
(Bischoff 1979/1990, p. 3)
‘the study of the history of scripts, their adjuncts (such as abbreviation and punctuation) and their decipherment’
(Brown
1994, p. 92)
‘one of the most important tasks …
is dating and localizing undated manuscripts of unknown origin.’
(Derolez 2003, p. 1)
ʻPalaeography is the science of deciphering and determining the date of ancient documents or systems of writing. Arabic palaeography is the study of the development of Arabic script through time and place.ʼ
(Sijpesteijn 2008, p. 613)
Some recent definitions of paleography 2:
The definitions by Bischoff, Brown, and Derolez come from works on Latin paleography. Only Bischoff’s definition is a pre-
scientific definition, where feeling and imagination play an important role.
Students of Arabic and Islamic palaeography will profit from the methodological remarks of ‘Western’
paleographers.
Even if ‘Western’
paleographers often look at works on non- Western palaeography as underdeveloped oddities.
The definition by the Arabic scholar Sijpesteijn is a ‘Western’ definition applied to Arabic.
The components and proportions of the Arabic script, here shown for a type font, but they can equally be used for a better under-standing of the Arabic script. Don’t forget: Type designers are calligraphers. Useful terminology for describing the constituent elements of script. Source: Edo Smitshuijzen, Arabic Font Specimen Book. Amsterdam 2009, p. 19.
Most decipherment is given by the text itself 2:
The formulaic character of some texts, not only of documents but of numerous non-literary texts, helps to solve previously unsolved reading problems.
This is particularly the case with theological literature, where a limited vocabulary is repetitively used. The reading certificates at the end of texts or quires are another case in point.
Source: MS Leiden, Or. 580, f. 11b.
An example of repetitive text: the titles and proper names in a reading certificate at the end a quire are another case in point.
Source: MS Leiden, Or. 580, f. 11b, detail of previously displayed page
م وفى اخره ما مثاله سمع جميع ھذا الجز على الشيخ ابى محمد عبد الكري بن بن حمزه بن الخضر بن العباس السلمى رضى هللا عنه قال ٮا عبد الحميد
سنه ثمان وخمسين واربعمايه صاحبه الشيخ ابو | احمد بن محمد الكتانى فى عبدهللا الحسين بن الخضر بن الحسين بن عبدان وابنه ابو الحسين عبد
...| الرحمن بقراه الشيخ ابى القسم على بن
Some didactic questions:
1. -
How will a student learn to read and to use written sources in the Arabic script?
=> By exact copying without first wishing to fully understand at
the same time. Reading and interpreting must be separated, just as it was first separated when one learned reading for the first time.
2. -
How can he be trained to do so?
=> By ample exercise, with absolutely and fully reliable examples. Rigorous self-discipline and intensive corrections are necessary.
3. -
How can he be spared the most common pitfalls? Skipping lines, omitting words, not thinking of a printed image when looking.
4. -
What are the instruments for teaching Arabic palaeography?
=> Palaeographical
atlases with partial decipherings, to start with. Copying edited text from the manuscript that was used for the edition.Advice: begin with ‘easy’
text.
Perspectives and approaches:
Paleography, and its sister sciences codicology and epigraphy for that matter, can be studied within two different frame sets, either as a science for its own sake or as an auxiliary science. There is the encyclopedical approach on the one hand, and there is the practical approach on the other.
Whoever study palaeography (and codicology and epigraphy) for themselves will usually end up as bibliographers, authors of manuscript catalogues, historians of the handwritten book, librarians, etc.
Whoever study palaeography (and codicology and epigraphy) as auxiliary sciences will usually end up as library or museum curators, philologists, editors of texts, historians, antiquarian booksellers, etc. This is the choice that most students make.
One can, of course, also pursue both goals at the same time, and
leave choices open.
The main differences between the modern printed Arabic and the manuscript sources can be seen in:
Copyist of manuscripts have an enormous repertoire in letter shapes.
Copyists use a great number of ligatures. A ligature is the linking of two or more letters into one graph, in which the original letter
forms
have been altered (Derolez, p. xxi).
About ihmāl
(إھمال)
The twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet in fact consist of only some fourteen different groups of base forms.
The letters in each composite group are usually distinguished from those in the same group by dots or no dots. Those dots are written on top or underneath the ductus
(rasm
in Arabic). Writing such dots is
called iʿǧām, ʻto provide with a diacritical pointʼ. Not writing such dots is called ihmāl, ʻto neglectʼ, ʻto omitʼ, ʻnot-providing with dotsʼ.
The following fourteen groups of base forms are distinguished in the Arabic alphabet: 1. alif; 2. bāʾ, tāʾ, thāʾ, nūn, yāʾ; 3. ǧīm, ḥāʾ, khāʾ; 4. dāl, dhāl; 5. rāʾ, zāy; 6. sīn, shīn; 7. ṣād, ḍād; 8. ṭāʾ, ẓāʾ; 9. ʿayn, ghayn; 10. fāʾ, qāf; 11. kāf, lām; 12. mīm; 13. wāw; 14. hāʾ.
Each copyist has his own choices for providing the muhmalāt
with ihmāl signs. The alif, mīm, wāw
and hāʾ
are not really groupes
and do
not need ihmāl signs. A copyist will not always use all possibilities.
Example of ihmāl
signs: dot under dal, v-sign on sin, v-sign on ra’, v-sign on `ayn, dot under emphatic ta’, all to indicate that these are muhmala, without diacritical dots. Source: MS Leiden, Or. 2600, f. 33b, detail.
āā
Further axamples
of ihmāl
signs:
v-sign on top of ra’, v-sign on top of sin, little ‘ayn
underneath
the ‘ayn, little ha’
underneath the ha’, all in order the indicate that these letters are neglected.But note that the emphatic ta’
does not have a sign of ihmāl.
It is important that the student, while describing a scribe’s hand, makes an inventory of the copyist’s repertoire of ihmāl
signs, because these are meaningful additions.
Source: MS Leiden, Or. 437, p. 2, detail.
āā
Paleography in practice
-
The student should not read and interpret at the same time. He should first concentrate on the script that he sees, and only later he may satisfy his curiosity by trying to find out what the text means.
-
The student is unable to exactly copy a text. This has been taken away from the school curriculum. It means that he will make many
copying errors while writing.
-
It necessitates that he gives much of his time and effort to correcting his own work. He should collate several times, till he is sure that his copy is (almost) free of error.
-He should make exercises from paleographical atlases and similar teaching aids.
A short survey of Arabic scripts
“Kufic’
scripts: 1st-4th centuries, with development of many styles.Also development of reading signs: punctuation, vowels, reading marks.
Revolution of round scripts before the year 1000 AD. Reforms of Ibn Muqla and Ibn al-Bawwab. Round scripts were already there in non-official texts (on papyrus).
Further development of scripts, in particular naskh
and thuluth.
Development of regional styles (Maghribi, Farisi/Nasta‘liq).
Arabic scripts used for other languages than Arabic (Malay)
One of the oldest Qur’an manuscripts, end 1st century AH = beginning 8th century AD. Higazi-style writing.
No dots, no vowels, almost no reading signs. Written on parchment.
Part of the manuscript in Paris, part in St. Petersburg, a few leaves in private collections. Origin: al-Fustat.
Source: MS Paris, BnF, Arabe 328a, f. 40a
An old Qur’an MS
‘Dots’
are there, but in the form of little lines. No vowels, no reading signs.
Written on parchment. Provenance: al-
Fustat
(?).
Source: MS Leiden, Or. 14.545c, recto
Colophon, dated Dhu
al-Qa‘da
252 (= 866 A). Gharib
al-Hadith
by Abu ‘Ubayd
al-Qasim
b. Salam. On paper. Edgy script, dots, vowels, reading
signs, all developed. Source: MS Leiden, Or. 298, f. 241b
An
autobiographical account on
papyrus,
Egypt, 9th century.
The round
script makes a ‘modern’
impression,
and can
be
considered
as a direct precursor of the round
scripts that
about
a century
later were going
to be
used
for
book
texts.
Source: Original in the Nasser
D. Khalili
collection, London, PPS 411. Quoted
from
J. Bloom, Paper
(2001), p. 28.
Qurʾān, copied
by
Ibn
al- Bawwāb
in Baghdād, dated
391 (1000-1001 AD).
Text
after
the end of the Qurʾānic
text, followed
by
the colophon, and a much later inscription
in Persian.
Source: MS Dublin, Chester
Beatty
Library, 1431, f. 257a. Reproduced
after
the facsimile edition
by
D.S. Rice.
Mushkil
al-Qur’an
by Abu Muhammad ‘Abdallah
b. Muslim Ibn
Qutayba
(d. 276/889).
Leaning script, not yet entirely a round script, such as the Qur’an of Ibn al-Bawwab.
Colophon with date Dhu
al-Qa`da 404 (1014).
Source: MS Leiden Or. 704, f. 182b
Kitāb al-Ḥashāʾish, the Arabic translation
of the
Greek
Materia
Medica
by Dioscurides
(d. c. 90 AD), in
the version
of al-Nātilī (380/999).
Copied
in Samarqand 475/1082.
Remark the use
of a sharply pointed
pen, without thick
and
thin
in the writing
of the Arabic text. Lay-out with
spaces
left
open for illustrations. Scientific
texts
often
miss the diacritics.
Source: MS Leiden, Or. 289, f. 138b.
Kitāb al-Alfāẓ
by
ʿAbd
al- Raḥmān b. ʿĪsā
al-
Hamadānī
(d. 320/932), dated
Ǧumādā
II 522
(1128).
Fully
vocalized
writing (Naskh), provided
with
diacritical
dots, and with
a system of ihmal
marks.
Source: MS Leiden Or. 1070, f. 1C (b), beginning
of the text.
Al-Bayān al-Shāfī
al-Muntazaʿ
min al- Burhān al-Kāfī, a work
on
Zaydī
law
by
al-Qāḍī
Muḥammad
b. Aḥmad
b. ʿAlī
b. Muẓaffar
(8/14th cent.),
Yamani
manuscript, dated
Saturday morning
22 Ramaḍān
869 [1465].
Defective
application
of diacritics, yet very
well
understandable.
Source: MS Leiden, Or. 23.267, f. 68b. Part of the chapter
on
marriage
of slaves.
Al-Risāla
al-Qushayriyya
by Abū
al-Qāsim
ʿAbd
al-Karīm
b. Hawāzin
al-Qushayrī,(d. 465/1072), Maghribī
script, written
in or
before
645 AH (1247 AD).
In the margins
is evidence
of collation
.(مقابلة)
Source: MS Leiden, Or. 141, f. 9a.
Kashf
al-Asrār
ʿan
ʿIlm Ḥurūf
al-Ghubār
by
ʿAlī
b.
Muḥammad
b. ʿAlī
al- Qurashī, known
as al-
Qalaṣādī
al-Basṭī
(d. 891/1486), dated
1265-
1266 (1849-1850),
Extraordinary polychrome Maghribi
calligraphy.
Source: Collection, J.J. Witkam, Leiden, No. 35, beginning, f. 210b
Sharḥ
al-Farāʾiḍ
al-Sirāǧiyya, commentary
by
ʿAlī
b. Muḥammad
al-Ǧurǧānī
al-Sayyid
al-Sharīf
(d. 816/1413), on
Al-Farāʾiḍ
al-
Sirāǧiyya, by
Sirāǧ
al-Dīn Muḥammad
b. Muḥammad
b. ʿAbd
al-Rashīd al-Saǧāwandī
(lived
c. 600/1203).
Central Asian nasta‘liq
script, dated 1275 (1858).
Source: Collection, J.J. Witkam, Leiden, No. 60, f. [4]b, beginning
of the text.
Kitāb Dāniyāl al-Nabī
lil- Shuhūr
al-Ithnaʿashar
wa-
Dukhūl
al-Sana. A work
on astronomical
phenomena
(in
connection
with
the twelve months
in the solar
year, which
are referred
to by
the Byzantine names), ascribed
to the Prophet
Daniel. Originally
a Christian- Arabic
text, but
this
version
is
islamicized
(see
the basmala)
Ruq‘a script, dated
1271 AH (1854-1855).
Source: MS Leiden, Or. 12.050, p. 4.
Taṣliya
prayer. Mention
of ʿAbd
al- Qādir
al-Ǧīlānī. A manuscript from
The Gambia.
West-African
script, end-19th century, sometimes
written
as
heard, not
as seen.
Source: Collection
J.J. Witkam, Leiden, ff. 1a.
The bookbinder at work. A survey of the tools of the bookbinder.
Captions are in Persian, illustration from a Kashmiri manuscript illustrating arts and crafts (written c. 1850-1860).
Source: Original MS: India Office Library, London, Or. 1699, here quoted from G. Bosch (a.o.), Islamic bindings. Chicago 1981, p. 22.
The bookbinder at work. North India, 17th or 18th century.
Source: Original in India Office Library, Add. 1111. Quoted from G. Bosch (a.o.), Islamic bindings. Chicago 1981, opposite p. 41.
The paper burnisher
at work. Source: Original MS: Freer Gallery of Art, N. 54.116. Washington DC, here quoted from G. Bosch (a.o.), Islamic bindings. Chicago 1981, p. 36.
The Islamic bookbinding and its constituent parts.Source: J.A. Szirmai, The archaeology of medieval bookbinding
(Aldershot 1999), plate 5.1
The Islamic bookbinding and its constituent parts, with terminology in English.
Source: G. Bosch (a.o.), Islamic bindings. Chicago 1981, p. 38.
The study of the geometrical designs in Islamic book bindings is usually classified as part of art history. In order to have good reproductions of book bindings rubbings are used, in preference to photographs.
Here a rubbing (made by Max Weisweiler) of the binding around a MS of Gawidan-i
Khirad
(al-
Hikma
al-Khalida) by Ibn Miskawayhi
(d. 421/1030), dated
729/1329, is shown. One should always take into account that the binding shown is later than the manuscript to which it serves as a cover.Source: MS Leiden, Or. 640 (MS dated 729/1329).
One of the best-known authorities on Islamic book bindings is Max Weisweiler
(d. 1968). In
his detailed study Der islamische
Bucheinband
des Mittelalters
nach Handschriften
aus
deutschen, holländischen
und
türkischen
Bibliotheken (Wiesbaden 1962), he
showed a great number of rubbings.
However, in his private collection of study materials he has many more rubbings and notes on Islamic bindings. A page from his study notes is shown here. Source: Weisweiler
Archive. Leiden University Library, Or. 22.307.
Bibliography:
Bernhard Bischoff, Latin Palaeography. Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Translated by Dáibhí
Ó
Cróinín
& David Ganz. Cambridge (University Press) 1990
Michelle P. Brown, Understanding illuminated manuscripts. A guide to technical terms. Los Angeles (Getty Publications) 1994
Albert Derolez, The palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books. From the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century. Cambridge (University Press) 2008
Ibn
al-Salah
al-Shahrazuri, al-Muqaddima
fi
`Ulum
al-Hadith. Ed. Usama
al-Balkhi. Beirut 1426/2005
Petra Sijpesteijn, ‘Palaeography’, in Kees
Versteegh
(ed.), Encyclopedia of Arabic language and Linguistics, vol. 3 (Leiden, E.J. Brill, 2008), pp. 513-524
Edo Smitshuijzen, Arabic Font Specimen Book. Amsterdam (de Buitenkant) 2009
J.A. Szirmai, The archaeology of medieval bookbinding. Aldershot (Ashgate) 1999
Beate
Wiesmu ̈ller, Das Max Weisweiler-Archiv
der
Universita ̈tsbibliothek
Leiden. Leiden 2007
J.J. Witkam, Course in Arabic and Persian paleography. On the internet, URL: www.islamicmanuscripts.info/courses/index.html