Arabic miniature
In 1236-1237, he is known to have transcribed and illustrated the book, Maqamat (also known as the Assemblies or the Sessions), a series of anecdotes of social satire written by Al-Hariri of Basra.
In 2015 the manuscript, which is held by the University of Birmingham,[15] was radiocarbon dated to between 568 and 645 CE (in the Islamic calendar, between 56 BH and 25 AH).
[16][17] It is part of the Mingana Collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts, held by the university's Cadbury Research Library.
The text is laid out in the format that was to become standard for complete Quran manuscripts, with chapter divisions indicated by a decorated line in the form of basic geometric shapes painted with red lead, an ancient pigment used from 300 BCE onwards, such motifs vary in color and shapes in this manuscript, in one folio, three wavy threads of orange-red colour separated by dots run parallel over the entire span of the page, In the outer margin, the three lines are interlaced to draw a highly stylized palm leaf, in another folio, the separator is covered with blackheads.
With its largest part of the fragmentary manuscript being held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, as BnF Arabe 328(ab), with 70 folia.
1605/1) and the other in the Khalili Collections in London (KFQ 60), attributed to the 7th century, six oval dots ranked in three pairs also punctuate the verses.
A notable example is the TIEM ŞE 321 Mus'haf (This manuscript belongs to the Şam Evrakı ‘Papers of Syria’ collection, at the Turkish and Islamic arts Museum).
[33] Another manuscript housed in the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum is the "Qur'an of 'Uthman", due to its colophon that attributes the scribal work of the mus'haf to 'Uthman bin' Affan, the third Rashidun caliph, however, the style of script and decorations seems to go against this claim.
The manuscript includes full illustrations that take up entire pages, and also sūrah dividers and ornamental borders.
[4] The first illustrated Arabic manuscript still preserved from the 11th century is Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi's Book of Fixed Stars, dated from around 1009 (Bodleian Library, Marsh144).
[45] Several Islamic monarchs enjoyed a long reign, such as the Abbasid caliph An-Nasir or the regent then king of Mosul Badr al-Din Lu'lu' (1218-1259), contributing to the prosperity of the region and the emergence of a rich cultural background.
It also explains the birth of a new genre of painting, representing realistically the details of daily life contemporary to the painter of the illustration.
The movement had largely died out by the early 14th century, five decades following the invasion of the Mongols in 1258 and the downfall of the Abbasids' rule.
Another example are the Fatimids who fueled a renaissance in Arabic figurative arts, thus developing a stylized and distinct style.
When the Fatimid dynasty dissolved during the twelfth century, the libraries and collections of books that existed in Cairo were dispersed, making it difficult to locate any complete manuscripts.
It is rare to have an example of both text and illustrations of the same page, which makes it difficult to gather information about illuminated manuscripts.
While it is unclear whether this page originated from a work of, potentially, scientific or zoological subject matter, it is an example of larger patterns of naturalistic and figural representation within Fatimid art.
Formalism is the main characteristic of the manuscripts of this period: the decorations are schematic and reduced to a minimum, geometric compositions, stylized folds of clothing.
The features of the characters sometimes take on those of Mongol rulers, depicting "Asian eyes", similar to those of certain turkic Mamluk emirs and monarchs.
The oldest manuscript of this style dates back to 1273 with Ibn Butlan's Banquet of the Physicians (Ambrosian Library, A.125 Inf.).
[52] One of the stylistic features that distinguished Mamluk manuscript decoration was the presence of gilded foliate scrollwork over pastel-coloured backgrounds set within wide margins.
[54] One of the last important illustrated Arabic manuscripts is a copy of Al-Qazwini's Wonders of Creation dated around 1370 and 1380 in Baghdad (Freer Gallery of Art, 54.33-114).
Subsequently, the few rare manuscripts still produced in this region lost their originality and almost totally assimilated to the Ottoman or Persian style.
Many examples of figurative representations such as frescoes and reliefs of humans and animals adorn the palaces of the Umayyad period, as on the Mshatta Facade,[56] or the desert castles of the Levant, or the harems of the Abbasid era.
For example, In the Hariri of 1222 (BNF Ar.6094), the figures in the miniatures wear turbans while having Byzantine features and attitudes close to Christ or his apostles.
Baghdad, Mosul and northern Syria were the main centers for the manufacturing of manuscripts, usually the origin of the works is often difficult to determine.
[61] The Maqamat manuscripts provide an opportunity to employ an iconography directly inspired by daily life in the Arab towns of the time.
[62] Love stories are present in Arabic literature, but only two illustrated manuscripts are known, the most famous of which is Hadith Bayad wa Riyad.
