Abstract
The art of calligraphy and illumination of manuscripts holds a revered place in Islamic art because Musilms believe that God revelaed to them the World through the Prophet Muhammad in the form of the Koran. The beauty of the Blue Koran, one of the most exquisite early manuscripts of the Koran, speaks for itself with its richly dyed parchment with gold and silver inking. But this object of beauty is an object of mystery as well. A century-long debate among scholars centers around the Blue Koran and its provenance. Here their opinions will be weighed and new evidence and theories will be brought to light. This project was begun in anticipatio of the exhibit at the McMullen Museum in the fall of 2006 of the David Collection, an impressive and varied collection of Islamic art.
Highlights
In the West the term "artist" connotes a painter or sculptor; i n the Islamic lands, this title is more applicable to a calligrapher
The first item of the inventory, described as a Koran divided into seven large sections, was first associated with the Blue Koran by the scholar Ibrahim Shabbuh i n 1956
Because the first few decades of Fatimid rule were turbulent, Bloom is forced to date the Blue Koran i n the middle of the century under the reign of either al-Mansur or al-Muizz li-Din Allah,when the economy and political stability were favorable for the production of such a fine manuscript
Summary
In the West the term "artist" connotes a painter or sculptor; i n the Islamic lands, this title is more applicable to a calligrapher. The first item of the inventory, described as a Koran divided into seven large sections, was first associated with the Blue Koran by the scholar Ibrahim Shabbuh i n 1956 It refers to a manuscript i n which each page is written on blue-black parchment with five lines of gold Kufic script with verse markers, chapter titles and the number of verses i n a surah done i n silver. Stanley supports a Neo-Umayyad patronage with the fact that the mihrab i n the Great Mosque at Cordoba has epigraphy i n gold, outlined i n red, "just as the text of the Blue Koran is outlined i n a reddish ink," on a blue-black ground He cites a story of an Umayyad caliph commissioning a Koran i n gold ink i n the early 8 t h century, and suggests that the Neo-Umayyads imitated their ancestors, the Umayyads i n Syria.111. I f the manuscript was not made i n Kairouan, its high quality suggests that it was probably a gift from a person of high status from another Islamic dynasty, given to show respect and to demonstrate the giver's incredible wealth and claim to greatness, as the Neo-Umayyads may have done
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