تحلية وتجليد المصاحف .. كتاب مصوّر الخط العربي .. ناجي زين الدين

**Ali Abbass** · 11-26-2023, 12:05 PM

Decorating and binding the Qur’an... an illustrated book of Arabic calligraphy... Naji Zein Al-Din

Desalination and binding of the Qur’an

The dislike of decorating the Qur’an with gold was well known at the beginning of Islam, to the point that it was mentioned in the Book of the Qur’an by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, who died in the year 316 AH (p. 152), a hadith narrated on the authority of Al-Mughirah that he said: He disliked the Qur’an being written in gold, to the point where it was said: “If you decorate your mosques and decorate your Qur’an, then you must cover it.” It was said in another hadith: “The best way to decorate the Qur’an is to recite it in truth.” However, the care and binding of scholarly collections, records, and records permitted that, and the reason for that was the enormity of the state and the consequences of civilization, as Ibn Khaldun mentioned in the introduction, p. 421.

Muslims learned the bookbinding industry from the Egyptian Copts, and they transferred it to all parts of the Islamic state.
They made the covers of the first Qur’an from wood covered with leather decorated with decorations with interlocking lines, then pressed paper painted with a layer of lacquer was used. The methods of binding were very similar in Islamic countries, and the oldest book covers known in Islamic times were made in Egypt and date between the second century. And the fifth AH (8-11 AD).
There are different types of similar methods, including “pressing the skin, stamping without it, or cutting and pasting on the colored ground.”

Sometimes a method was used, consisting of two layers of skin glued one above the other. It is established that binding was widespread in Egypt and East Turkestan at the beginning of the Abbasid era. It was discovered among the “Manichaean” manuscripts that were found during excavations in the ruins of the city of Khojo, the capital of the Uyghur tribes in Chinese Turkestan!!? It is likely that the binding of books in those Turkestan regions was influenced by the binding of Coptic books at the hands of the Nestorian missionaries whose groups spread in the East. The Middle East and the Near East since the founding of their church, and this industry may have entered from there to Iran, just as the art of bookbinding moved from the Near East to Italy via Venice.

The work of the volume in the arts of the book is considered complementary to the work of the calligrapher and painter, as the volume is committed to the responsibility of preserving the pages of the manuscript or the Qur’an from damage and taking care of its external appearance so that this is compatible with the book and its contents.

The decoration and gilding were not limited to the outer cover of the book's cover and its tongue, but it extended to the inside of the cover and its first pages. When she was also decorated, he created creative decorations. Leather is the ideal material for binding. The method of circumference was also used in decorating book covers.

The binding of Egyptian Arabic books in the Mamluk era, between the seventh and ninth centuries, was characterized by covering the entire cover of the Qur’an with interlocking geometric decorations, accentuated by pressed gold dots, and decorations of rosettes and braided lines. In the middle of some of these Mamluk covers were large star circles, with writings on their borders in Kufic script. Verses of the Holy Qur’an are decorated with colorful floral decoration, to which are sometimes added various flower shapes with symmetrical branches, as we see in the cover of this book of ours.

It is known to historians of Islamic art that the art of gilding Qur’ans, books, and their skins first arose in Morocco due to its proximity to Egypt, and among the oldest known works of it in the Islamic world is what was sent by the government of Tunisia, from what he had acquired ten years ago in an abandoned warehouse, from the basements of the Mosque of Kairouan. .

Specialists believe that the art of Islamic binding was unknown before the discovery of the binding method used in Kairouan in Tunisia. These skins clearly reveal the existing links between the artistic methods that appear in the skins that belong to two Muslim volumes in the first era of Islamic history. It also gives us a picture of the religious development and improvement that could be introduced to the art of binding during the Islamic era, and from there it reached Europe.
The following has been mentioned in some sources on the art of binding:

A chapter on knowing the slab, the sharpener, the blade, the sword, the casserole, the scissors, the treasure trove, the needle, the press, the rulers, and the brass.
As for the slab, it should be of good black and white marble and have a straight face, with a single ruler passed over it to clear the skin and redness.

Then the sharpener should have a straight, straight face, and it should not be soft, so that the iron will dig it, nor hard, so that the iron will be flat. Among the craftsmen is someone who takes the sharpener, re-adjusts it, and adjusts it to what he wants, then raises it to the head and bakes it in the oven for the night to drink the oil. It is better, and the blade should be good iron, not soft. It is not solid, and its amount of heaviness and lightness is equal to the amount of the hand of the craftsman and kilner as he works on the adhesive.

The blade is fine and fine, and the blade is moderately well cut to cut leather and other things. Needles are of two types: some are suitable for pruning and some are suitable for threading. As for those for pruning, they should be perfect, with a small body, and those for threading should be less than that in length and precision. The sword must be less than that in length, and it should be good, broad in body, well watered, and The craftsman is the one who cannot be seen with the sword, and his target is the palm. I have heard that some of the people of this craft never work with a sword and do not work with it well. This is because they have a long iron blade with which they cut as they use it, and they are accustomed to it.

As for the press: there are two types, one type of which is the press with a rope, which is what the people of Iraq, the people of Egypt, and some people of Khurasan call it the one with a rope, and the other press is the press for houses, which the stone presses and carpenters call it the flesh press for Solomon’s flesh, and they call it the lazumah. The Kalkhites and the people of Iraq use it. As for the press with a rope, its length must be equal to the part. What honors it is half the press, and the press should be longer than the book, and the book should be in the middle of the press, and this is easier for the craftsman and safer for him when wiping, and the press should be well pressed and straight in length, if you want to apply it to a paper that does not have the rope that is suitable for it, and the finest hair is If the live material is spun and is completely black and pure black and does not have an unpleasant odor and does not have any residue left by the tanners who work with it for drafting, then a good rope of the hair we mentioned must be made for this press, and it should be finer than hemp and as long as it is wrapped on the press on all sides. Four energies, and if it exceeds this amount, it is less tiring for the maker, because the more energy he increases, the less force he exerts on his hand, so understand. An example of this is the rope. If it is on each side, we need to have a squeegee in it in batches. When it becomes four strands, we twist less than that, which is four strands. The swivel is as long as a finger, and it will be thin, soft, and smooth. This squeezing should be twisted on both sides towards the eye in the place where the squeegee is located, and that is better for wiping. If the two sides of the winepress are twisted, the sword will fall on the edge of the winepress and not take anything from its body.

The ruler is the finest of ebony and boxwood, but as for the stencil, inking, and kohl, there is nothing wrong with it if it is made of these two woods.
As for the working ruler, it should be made of willow wood, because the two edges of the willow, I mean the two sides of the ruler, catch fire when the fire takes hold of it, and that is because the ebony fire burns it and affects it. The edge of the ebony ruler, if a similar thread passes over it, rubs against each other, it affects the ebony ruler.

The drawing ruler must be long and good, neither too thick nor too thin because it passes under the fingers. As for the kohl ruler, it should be similar to this in terms of delicacy and lightness, and you will see kohl in the section on engraving.

As for the wind ruler, which is the one with which leather and dyeing are made to remove the wind from the leather and make it crooked and crooked and keep it straight, it must be very thick, an inch long, made of good oak wood, and square with a thin edge so that when it passes over the leather, it straightens it.

Then the quorum is from oak, because when ivory and boxwood are touched by fire and the press, their edges spread and break.
Then the caliper (caliper), if it is good, must have a light body and delicate legs so that its lines are thin, the screw must be correct, and its closure must be the same thing. If it is wooden, it must be like that. With the caliper, the suns are extracted, which are the engraved circles that are located in the middle (skin) of the cover, and you will see its characteristic and characteristic. Work in place.

Then the iron that is used for engraving, which is the laghadah and the issues, this is called the dast, then the flour sifal, and the different ones are different, and some of them are one thing after another, then the engraving points, and that is that some of them you will see in its place, God willing. This is the totality of the machine, and what the person seeking this craft needs is speed of understanding, quality of pressing, sweetness of the hand, abandonment of haste, stability and second thoughts, good sitting, careful grooming, and good manners.

The first thing you start with in this craft is to place the part with your edge on a slab, placing it on its left side. Then you first grab a bookcase and place it in your left hand and open it with the finger of your right hand. Then you place it on the slab open, then you pass over it with the quorum, which is in the middle of it, in a place where the bundles of thread are located. Then you close it and cut it on a piece of paper. The pads are two sheets of paper. One is in the leather and the other remains on the notebooks to protect the book from harm and dirt. Then he does that with all the notebooks until you reach the end of them. When you finish that, you twist the bundle thread. It is in three strands depending on the size of the thread, its thickness and its fineness, and the finest thread is thin. Good wicking because. If it is thick, it spoils the part because it rotates in each booklet and becomes large bundles. If you make a mistake and tighten the book, the ruler falls on the end of the thread, and the book remains free and no tension falls on it. For example, if you take the thread and wrap it around your finger at the end, then the same is true for the thickness of the book inside. And the bundles are types, such as: It is what craftsmen use because of its lightness and speed, and it is the one through which the needle penetrates in two places, and others work with two and three needles, and I saw the Romans making something from it, but I do not agree with it.

**Ali Abbass** · 11-26-2023, 12:07 PM

The recipe for packing the part and trimming it with a string, then push the bound place with the quorum that was mentioned above, then put it between your knees, then take the press and slit one piece of paper to another, so put it on your left knee, then take the other piece of paper and place it on your right knee, with the book in the middle between your knees, then take the end of the rope, put it in your left hand, and turn it around. On the press until it is empty, then fold it, then leave it between your knees while it is in the press, and leave it on the slab, meaning the bottom of the book, then close the edges of the paper with the book until all of it is under it, and its edges and middle are equal, then put it on your knee, then take the two sticks that are called swivels, and pull them lightly, not too much, so as not to turn the bottom of the book. And you spoil it, then you dissolve the ashras, which is to take a small pot and pour a little water into it and sprinkle some of the ashras in it, then rub it and move it with your middle finger of your right hand and it will be smooth and not harsh if it is good, and if it is bad then it should be tight because it dries quickly, then you take a fine piece of paper, fold it and cut it. From the middle, and each half of it should be two fingers wider than the bottom of the part. Then you take the edges on the book and nothing falls on it. You wet it. Then you apply a sheet of paper with its left side to one side, then smear it over it, then put the other one on an opposite side. As for my statement that it is different, let its leftover fall on the other side, then he puts a piece of paper and you hold it with your left hand and polish it (and). If you put the quorum on the wet paper, spoil it and pluck it, and this is one of the secrets of this work. If you do that, leave it in the air, and if you want in the sun, and if it is a wheel, then leave it near a soft fire and do not hang it. Until it dries evenly, otherwise the heart will be on you, so beware of that.

You must have taken the amount of the book before leaving it in the press, so place the amount on the tile and smear it with a smear as I described to you, then apply another sheet of paper to it and leave it on top of it and wipe the sheet with a rag, then after that with a quorum and apply another sheet according to the amount that is appropriate. As for the Iraqis, they paste the book with a piece of paper without these covers, and it is called baghawi. Other people saw this because they preserve the book, and its strength is like a garment in a garment. And when the part dries and the baghawis dry, take the part out of the press and leave it on the slab, and turn the two leaves over it, then go to the baghawi and polish it well. Well, then place the ruler on its edge, then draw a line and bisect it with scissors and stick it on the part, which is to remove the paper that you glued underneath and place the scrap with the book, so its end comes with what you cut at the bottom of the part, then you glue it. If you glue it with both sides, you take a long piece of paper with a small width, about two fingers wide, and stick it to it from the side. The other is to prevent it from opening, so if it reaches this point, then I flog it over it. • End •

Among the most beautiful pieces that were displayed at the Baltimore Fine Arts Exhibition, which is the first of its kind in the United States of America, are the leathers in which the Islamic artistic skill that the men of this industry attained in Islam was demonstrated - as they were the ones who mastered, innovated, and invented the art of gilding and gilding.

In that exhibition, about five hundred different pieces of materials used in bookbinding were displayed, including leather, ivory, gold, and other expensive materials, so that the viewer could see and trace the development of the art of binding in Islam from the fourth century AH to the present day.
These exhibits were brought from various Islamic countries. From Tunisia, Marrakesh, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and India. As for the volumes that were brought from some private and public collections from America and Europe, including the Boston Fine Arts Collection, the Pierpont Morgan Library Collection, and the Museum Collection
“The Metropolitan”, the “Congress Library” collection, the “Martin” collection, the State Library in Munich, Germany, the National Library in Paris, the Valencia de Don Juan Museum in Madrid, the “Sayyid Muhammad Ibn Daoud” collection, in Tetouan, the Qur’an from Granada in the Oppenheim Collection, and the Escorial Library, which contains the Qur’an known as the Moulay Qur’an. Zidane, and from both the Egyptian House of Books and the Algiers Mosque Library.

As for Iran, it was mentioned that there is no evidence that bookbinding was known in the Sassanian era - however, the Iranian bookbindings that were made in the ninth century AH in the city of Herat are considered among the most innovative things that were made. From a technical standpoint, the accuracy of the craftsmanship and the beauty of the drawings were evident in the Timurid era, in which leather was known to be decorated with pressed, cut-out decorations. This method continued until the Safavid era, which used drawings representing birds and deer in wild scenes in decorations. Its craftsmanship differed from its counterparts in the Timurid era, as instead of being pressed by hand or hammered, it was pressed with large molds of copper or steel, and highly prominent protrusions appeared in the form of decorative elements of various shapes.

The processes of pressing and gilding often took place simultaneously. However, sometimes the skin was gone before it was pressed in the hot mold. The inner pages of the cover of the Qur’an or manuscript book are decorated with perforated gold foil. It is a method that replaced the compressed skin that we mentioned above.

These perforated golden foils were installed on a ground of bright colors. From red, blue, turquoise, green, black, violet, and purple • The method of decorating book covers by decorating them and painting them with a layer of “lacquer” became widespread during the era of Shah Tahmasp. These leather covers are found in the museums of Paris, Berlin, Dusseldorf, London, and mine. •

As for the ancient Qur’ans, bound in precious binding and preserved in the Tob Basement Museum in Istanbul, they indicate that the date of the beginning of leather decoration dates back to the Abbasid era. The bookbinders used thin boards of wood covered with leather, and then they were creative in decorating it with those decorations that were colored and gold. Then this developed into replacing wood with pressure-pressed paper (cardboard, or cardboard) with press-machining. They also used perforation, embossing, painting, and covering with embroidered cloth for covering. Pinned. Thus, we find some skins that combine several industrial methods of decoration. Some of their decorations are printed with a heated machine, some have their lower parts filled with fatty dyes, some have the gilding applied to them by pressing hot machines onto gilded pages, and some consist of small strips glued to a backing.

The care given to decorating the inside of the cover of the Qur’an and the art of decorating was no less than their care for gilding the outer part of the Qur’an or the book. The craftsmanship of gilding and calligraphy were not combined in one person, so the calligrapher would write (or copy) the manuscript, leaving in it the spaces that he requested to be decorated, colored, or gilded. The one who possessed both crafts was one of the few talented people mentioned in history. As the Qur’an of Ibn al-Bawwab and those who came after him attest to this.

We have looked at the various decorations of the Qur’an and the book museums of Istanbul, Cairo, and Tehran, but we were not fortunate enough to see the valuables in the treasures of North Africa, the manufacture of which had a great impact on the history of the Islamic countries. We can say that the spread of these artistic monuments was from the Baghdad School during the era of its amazing prosperity as the capital. Abbasid Caliphate . We believe that we should avoid trying to make comparisons and comparisons that might lead us to draw incorrect judgments, so we suffice with presenting these beautiful models without commenting on them, and researching their descriptions and the redundancy in their colors, as they give us the idea of improving man-made work as examples of what this art has achieved, without resorting to an explanation of the method. Which must be followed in Arabic decoration, or imitated or imitated as much as possible, because of the subtleties of this great art in its craftsmanship.

These models that we publish contain many scientific topics in the arts of decorative painting, which invite every student to delve deeper into their practice than their professors and sheikhs from the Ottoman, Moroccan, and Persian decorators and the schools of modern fine arts. It is a matter of regret that we have not seen anyone among the people of the Arab nation in the present time take the initiative to research this valuable topic, while the research material is available, and the historical documents, director of museums, and Islamic libraries are full of what delights souls from this sublime Islamic heritage.

We were struck by these fine decorations in their original Qur’an for a long time, and we looked at them for many days, taken by their magic and the grandeur of their craftsmanship, which befits the majesty of the Holy Qur’an, which no other book in the world compares to among Muslims.

And yet, these decorations and lines captured our admiration as we thought of their magical drawings that fill our imagination with antiques of the distant past. They were an artistic creativity created by the fingers and pens of Muslim artists that occupied the thoughts of countless people for many centuries until this day and will remain immortal and enchanting for those who look at it until the Day of Judgment.

I am pleased, and may God have made it easy for me to finish, to extend my thanks to Professor Dr. Jamil Saeed, Dean of the College of Arts at the University of Baghdad and a member of the Iraqi Scientific Academy. He graciously - despite his limited time - looked at the drafts of this book, the principles of which I spent a quarter of a century collecting and writing, and pointed out indications that were gratefully accepted. He also graciously reviewed it and corrected some of its sentences and phrases, which made it conform to some extent with modern scientific requirements, to the satisfaction of researchers in the field. This luxurious and valuable heritage, and perhaps this has made him tired.

I sincerely hope that the virtuous people will forgive any errors they find in it and point them out so that I may be aware of the matter. As for quotations, the authors are not held accountable, and this is a well-known case in the past, as Ibn Khaldun mentioned in the introduction, p. 426: “...then when the attention of the people of science focused on controlling scientific collections and correcting them with the narration attributed to their authors and authors, because that is the most important matter, since in this way the sayings are attributed to their author...” Etc . This Ibn al-Nadim relied on many investigations by Ibn al-Kufi Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad, who died in the year 348 AH, and found that he had quoted long chapters in 29 places in his book, perhaps approaching the amount of approximately a tenth of an index. This is also the case in the excerpt from the book Tuhfat al-Muqadil - by Ibn al-Abar al-Andalusi. And what was extracted from the book Uyun al-Akhbar - by Ibn Qutaybah al-Dinawari, which is not included among the Islamic books.

This is confirmation that the creator does not come up with everything new, but rather connects and composes things. A similar meaning was mentioned by Aristotle when he asked one of his students: What does existence consist of? He said: From everything that exists, and he said: From what existence is composed of, and he said from its origin 00 “And here I am placing in your hands what I found in the most fundamental beings, what is useful to the scholar and the learner in the art of calligraphy, after a far-reaching investigation. In my opinion, it did not come out the way I wanted. This is in recognition of the assessments that were made in its context, as mentioned in the opening of this book.

If what I hope for is answered, then I will have reached the next goal. We have almost deviated from our goal, so we have decided to refrain from saying more than this. Perhaps someone who will come after us, whom God has supported with clear knowledge, will complete, correct, and delve into deeper issues than we have delved into and written in this book of ours. God alone is perfect.

And God has a right in every blessing He has bestowed. The zakat on wealth is charity, the zakat on honor is humility, the zakat on prestige is its humility, and the zakat on knowledge is spreading it for the sake of the Most High.

Its completion occurred in the city of peace, Baghdad, in the blessed month of Ramadan in the year three hundred and eighty-eight after the thousandth of the Prophet’s Hijrah (1388) (1968) AD. Praise be to God Almighty for His blessings, and praying upon the Prophet of Mercy and the intercessor of the nation, Muhammad, the Master of Messengers, and his family and all his good companions, and peace be upon him.

تحلية وتجليد المصاحف .. كتاب مصوّر الخط العربي .. ناجي زين الدين

تحلية وتجليد المصاحف .. كتاب مصوّر الخط العربي .. ناجي زين الدين

تعليق

تعليق