Pages Of The Quran: The Lygo Collection by Will Kwiatkowski

Low stock: 3 left

293mm x 240mm x 14mm

Pages: 132

The Lygo Collection of QurGÇÖan manuscripts, which date from around a century after the Prophet MuhammadGÇÖs death in 632 CE to the middle of the 16th century, includes pages from some of the most celebrated manuscripts of the period as well as lesser-known ones, and provide a comprehensive overview of stylistic developments in QurGÇÖanic calligraphy and illumination. During the period represented by this outstanding collection, the scriptsand formats used for copying and illuminating the Holy Word multiplied and developed GÇô visual testimony to the extraordinary exchange of ideas that took place under the GÇÖAbbasid dynasty, which stretched at its height from the Atlantic to the borders of China. The consistent esteem in which the art of the calligrapher was held across the Islamic world reflected the status of the QurGÇÖan as the unmediated word of Allah and its centrality to the notions of Islamic culture and identity. As the most continuously copied text in the Islamic world the QurGÇÖan is one of the best prisms through which to view changes in calligraphy and manuscript production GÇô a survey of which is given in an introductory essay. Accompanying beautiful reproductions of each of the 73 objects in the collection are detailed descriptions in which the characteristic of the script and design as well as the history of each manuscript is considered. Important early examples in the Lygo Collection include a folio from a famous late 8th-century QurGÇÖan writtenentirelyin gold Kufi script, every page of which is framed by an illuminated border, and a leaf from the Blue QurGÇÖan GÇô one of the most famous and luxurious Kufi QurGÇÖan manuscripts, written in gold on blue parchment, dating to the 9th or 10th century. The preeminence of the early Kufi scripts was challenged in the 11th century by various cursive scripts and there was a concurrent change from papyrus to paper and from a landscape to an upright format for many copies of the QurGÇÖan. A highly decorated leaf in the Lygo collection is from an 11th-or 12th century manuscript considered to be one of the masterpieces of QurGÇÖanic calligraphy and illumination and is thought to have stretched over 2,250 leaves in total. New heights in calligraphy and illumination were reached under Mongol rule GÇô a period of artistic brilliance and innovationGÇô and the monumentality in QurGÇÖan production by the Mamluk and Timurid dynasties can be seen as an artistic response to the Mongol challenge. A large fragment in the Lygo collection comes from a magnificent QurGÇÖan of extraordinary dimensions thought to be made for Timur, the founder of the Timurid Empire.