Sacred Script Exhibit: Qur’anic Manuscripts from the 8th to 16th centuries in the Minassian Collection
Case #1 | Early calligraphic styles of the Abbasid period (c. 800–1000 CE)
Under the Baghdad based Abbasid dynasty that flourished from the mid-eighth century to end of the tenth century CE, the Muslim world witnessed the blossoming of Arabic calligraphy. This evolution was most completely recorded in the dissemination of the teachings of the Qur’an through the creation of manuscripts, copies of which were commissioned for the court, the wealthy elite, and for the growing number of religious institutions developing across the Islamic empire, which stretched from the Atlantic to the Indus Valley. The earliest scripts consisted of variations of what has historically been labeled Kufic; however, more recent scholarly appraisals have objected to this as an insufficient descriptive term for these widely varying styles. Nevertheless, the work of these early scribes can be grouped according to a common aesthetic comprising of angular, broad, and bold strokes. This distinctive mark-making was a product of the standard calligraphic tool for Arabic scripts, the square-cut reed pen. The script itself was somewhat abstracted or abbreviated, usually lacking diacritics and other markers indicating short vowels and the exact phoneme for a particular letter form. These were often added to the text centuries later in order to facilitate recitation at a time when this script was no longer familiar to the users of these manuscripts.
Qur’an, Surat al-Nisa’ [4] …136-141… ink on parchment, 8-10th c.
Qur’an, Surat al-Ahqaf [46] …15-17… ink on parchment, 8-10th c.
Qur’an, Surat al-Kahf [18] …91-110 ink on parchment, 8-10th c.
Minassian Collection, A98-3 Box 1: Folders 8, 18 and 34