Hawzah News Agency- This is according to a report by Al Jazeera about the artistic aspects of Islamic manuscript.

Following are excerpts from the report:

Large libraries, museums, universities, and research centers are filled with thousands of manuscripts that are considered invaluable heritage and treasures of humanity.

Manuscripts have attracted the attention of scholars, who seek to understand their origins and evolution, especially within Islamic civilization, due to their significance as references for researchers and as a bridge between the past and present, serving as a rich source of knowledge in various fields such as linguistics, mathematics, and the arts.

Many art forms have been associated with manuscripts, which played a crucial role in highlighting their aesthetic value, including Arabic calligraphy, gilding, and other arts that reached their peak in Islamic and Arabic manuscripts.

In his book titled “The Historical Development of the Manuscript Industry: An Overview of Paper Production and Manuscript Decoration in Islamic Civilization,” published by the Sharjah Heritage Institute, Saleh Mohammed Zaki Al-Hibbi reviews the stages through which the manuscript production industry has evolved and examines the efforts made by humanity in the realm of science and knowledge.

This book demonstrates how humans have strived to invent tools that facilitate the dissemination of knowledge until learning materials and book production became accessible to all.

It also explores the role of Islamic civilization in the transmission and development of the paper industry, illustrating how Baghdad, the center of the caliphate in the early Islamic centuries, became a significant hub for this industry, creating a qualitative transformation in the history of science and knowledge, and greatly contributing to the accessibility, affordability, and widespread availability of books and their study.

He emphasizes that Muslims did not merely stop at producing paper but they elevated it to a level of beauty and innovation that significantly increased the value of books.

Manuscripts in Islamic civilization were not just a means to understand science, but transformed into masterpieces of aesthetics filled with the secrets of craftsmanship and creativity, he says.

In this book, al-Hibbi explores the book production industry in Islamic history from cognitive, literary, and spiritual perspectives, resulting in a timeless cultural heritage whose effects are still evident in the treasure trove of manuscripts.

The author divides his work into two chapters and five sections, covering topics such as the history of the paper production industry, its geographical spread, its role in major capitals like Baghdad during the Abbasid era and the Islamic countries of West Asia, as well as addressing the aesthetic aspects of Maghrebi script and documenting the impact of Islamic manuscripts on Europe.

This book provides an overview of the developments in the paper industry from its discovery and subsequent introduction to the Islamic world, along with a review of the qualitative enhancements created by manuscript producers and Muslim scholars. In Islamic countries, paper was recognized as a distinctive marker in terms of type, size, color, and application, indicating the status of the author, the nature of the text, and the value of the subject matter.

The author explains that the invention of paper dates back to the Chinese, but Samarkand represents the starting point of Islamic civilization.

The industry was later transferred to Baghdad during the caliphate of Harun al-Rashid, where it reached its zenith before spreading throughout the Islamic world, he says.

At the end of the book, the author includes a documented appendix that compiles the most important artistic terms related to the aesthetics of manuscripts. This section guides the reader through the artistic terminology within the Arabic-Islamic book production industry.

The author emphasizes that books in Islamic civilization are not only a vessel of knowledge and science but also a unified work of art in which words harmonize with images and align with beauty.

Source: Iqna