Islamic manuscripts
When Muslims encountered paper in Central Asia, its use and production spread to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa during the 8th century.
[2] The development of scripts in the Islamic empir, demonstrates the transition from an oral culture to convey information to a written form.
[3] The demand for calligraphy in the early stages of the Islamic empire (circa 7–8th century CE) can be attributed to a need to produce Qur'an manuscripts.
In the Indian subcontinent, for example, Nizari Ismailis utilized the Khwajah Sindhi (Khojki) script, which was closely associated with their identity.
The Qur'an is believed by Muslims to be a divine revelation (the word of god) to Muhammad, revealed to him by Archangel Gabriel.
[9] Under the reign of Umayyad caliph, Abd-al-Malik (685–705), Qur'anic script was standardized and inserted onto other surfaces such as marble as a way to promote Arabic in the region.
The use of paper amplified the development of new writing styles and motivated calligraphers to heighten the manuscripts' aesthetic appeal.
[8] Before the fourteenth century, calligraphers were responsible for both the text and illumination of Qur'anic manuscripts until the artwork became more complex and required its own specialist.
For example, each page had a space reserved for writing which was divided into perfectly equal and parallel lines depending on thickness of the pen.
[8] Subsequently, a more complex system was put in place in order to organize the Qur'an's contents and help individuals read and recite the text.
This system included motifs (aya), chapters (surah), and primary divisions (juz) that are seen between each thirty sections and organize the singular text into different parts.
These illuminations usually use geometry, and nature as inspiration and don't display any sort of iconography due to the values of Islam.
[8] During the reign of the Mamluk and Ilkhanid dynasties (1250–1517), paper became more accessible and allowed for the production of larger scale Qur'ans.
Qur'anic manuscripts produced by Mamluks were noted for gilded foliate scrollwork as well as star-shaped and hexagonal motifs.
[8] The Timurid dynasty (1370–1507) introduced a style of illumination that included fine gilded leaves and stems, red florets, and diamond shaped medallions on a dark-blue background.
The Ottomans also built a manufacturing studio in Istanbul where illuminated Qur'ans were produced into the beginning of the twentieth century.
Scientific manuscripts discuss a variety of topics including but not limited to astronomy, astrology, anatomy, botany, and zoology.
[12] The development of early illustrated scientific manuscripts began under the Islamic Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad in approximately the mid-8th century.
[13] The Book of the Fixed Stars based most of its content on Ptolemy's Mathēmatikē Syntaxis (Almagest), which was translated from Greek to Arabic during the 9th century.
"[18] In this manuscript, the author discusses medical ideas such as: the use of plants for treating illnesses, the use of minerals and their medicinal powers, and the use of animal organs in certain healing processes.
[19] The Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library has a collection of 25,000 Islamic Manuscripts[20][21][22][23][24] including Padshahnama,Tareek ke khandan e timuriya, Divān of Hafez, Safinatul Auliya and Sahih al-Bukhari,[22] hand-transcribed by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Yazdan Bakhsh Bengali in Ekdala, eastern Bengal.
