HALL
OF MANUSCRIPTS
Manuscripts
are one of the most important
archaeological documents that reach us
from the past. At the dawn of Islam,
the Arabs used to write on al-Likhaf (
fragments of flat stone or of plaster
), shoulder-blades parchment or the
papyri which they imported from Egypt.
The Arabs, did not delay in
manufacturing paper which they
gradually perfected until the
technique was taken from Syria to
Europe daring the Crusades.
The
Arabs have proved themselves masters
of calligraphy. They used at first the
cursive hand-writing. It was simple
script combining flexibility and
stiffness. Then, the writing began to
give way to geometrical rules and was
then transformed into the Khufi (
Kufic), which owes its name to the
town of al Kufah.
The
different kinds of handwritings were
associated with the thickness of the
pen. Therefore, the pen of the Tumar
(piece of parchment ) was invented,
its thickness was 24 hair of a horse.
This was
followed by a style rather cursive and
the pen of thuluth began to mean the
new form of writing. Its thickness was
8 hair. Ibn-Muqlah, the Visor of al-Muqtadir
and al-Qahir, in the 4th century A.H.
= 10th A.D., practiced this style.
This type of writing was suitable for
copying and quick writing. The Kufic,
however, remained in use in the
official matters: coins, title of
books, texts of houses, cenotaphs and
tombs... etc. Elaborate designs of
flowers, scrolls were added to the
Kufic and it began to be known as
the flowery Kufic, the leafy
Kufic and the Kufic with branches.
the
Thuluth writing flourished in the 6
A.H. = 12 A.D. and replaced the Kufic
on the buildings, but the Kufic
remained in use for the very important
epigraphs and they made it more
involved in the 7 A.H. = 13 A.D. The
Thuluth was perfect and predominant in
the Mamluk period. It reached a
high degree of perfection in the
Ottoman Period. Particular rules and
principles were laid down for this
writing .
Of
the other types of writings that
appeared in the Ottoman Period are:
the "Dewani" and its
variants, the Persian writing and the
Ruq’ah ( a kind of cursive writing).
In
addition to the shape of writing, it
is useful to point out that the
calligraphists also used punctuations
and other marks which were used to
indicate a slight pause of break
between the verses of the Koran. These
marks were in color and in gold. The
calligraphists also took much pain in
drawing lines on the pages before
writing and they made elegant golden
frame for each page.
The illumination of the first two
pages, the titles of the books or the
Koranic chapters were usually
exquisite.
The
calligraphists also used to compete
among themselves in perfecting and
improving the writing to the extent
that the Arabic manuscripts turned out
to be of great value not only or the
subject matter, but also for the
preciousness of paper. the beauty of
handwriting and the perfection of
binding. A number of crafts and
craftsmen relating to the publishing
of manuscripts came to existence.
These craftsmen are : the book-binder,
the calligrapher, the illuminater and
the painter.
After
the advent of Islam, the Arabs not
only studied the rules and laws of
religion, but also they got themselves
acquainted with the culture of the
other nations and adapted them to
their own peculiar needs and ways of
thinking. They learnt most of the
foreign languages to know the original
works. Since the time of al-Ma’mun,
the Moslem Arabs have been able to
occupy a high status. They created an
original culture by
which they maintained the heritage of
the ancients, and in turn, transmitted
this culture to the other nations. In
actual fact, the credit for the
European Renaissance goes back to the
Arabs. History knows no other nation
that contributed so much to
human knowledge in quantity,
quality, preciseness and depth as the
Moslem-Arabs, despite the fact that
most of the Arabic manuscripts have
been lost.
The
National Museum of Damascus houses an
appreciable quantity of manuscripts
that go back to all periods
from the first year of al-Hijrah
down to the Ottoman Period. These
manuscripts deal with various topics
:The Holly Koran, invocations,
theology, philosophy, literature,
linguistics, medicine, anatomy,
pharmacy, botany, geography and
astronomy.
|
