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

Cairo, April 29, 2010

Summary: Division of codicological subjects:

-

writing surface: papyrus, parchment, paper, other-

quires: organization of the codex

-

instruments-

techniques: ruling, lay-out

-

craftsmen-

scripts: paleography, styles, calligraphy

-

ornamentation: illumination, illustration-

bookbinding

-

dating a manuscript-

collections of manuscripts

-

terminology in use

(Summary

of subjects, following

F. Déroche

2006)

Paleography – the study of (old) scripts:

Greek ‘paleos’

= old / graphein

= ‘to write’

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