The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book by James Raven

Author:James Raven [Raven, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780191007507
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2020-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

This Qurʾan codex is signed and dated in a full colophon (tailpiece) by ʿAli ibn Hilal (d. 1022), better known by his sobriquet Ibn al-Bawwab (literally, son of the doorkeeper). He began work as a house painter and then turned to illumination before becoming a calligrapher, so famous, in the words of the scholar and biographer Yaqut (1179–1229), that he ‘excelled all those who preceded him and confounded all those who succeeded him’. Ibn al-Bawwab attests not only to the stature and professionalism of the scribal class but also to its organization into schools. He traced his calligraphic lineage to the Baghdadi calligrapher Ibn Muqla (885–940), and Ibn al-Bawwab himself related a story about how successfully he could imitate his predecessor’s hand. Once when he was in charge of the library of the Buyid prince Bahaʾ al-Dawla (r. 998–1012) at Shiraz in southwestern Iran, Ibn al-Bawwab reported that he had found twenty-nine of the thirty parts of a Qurʾan manuscript transcribed by Ibn Muqla. They were scattered among the various parts of the library, but a lengthy search failed to turn up the missing volume. Ibn al-Bawwab reproached his patron for treating the work so carelessly and offered to complete the missing section on condition that Bahaʾ al-Dawla reward him with one hundred dinars and a robe of honour if he could not detect the forged section. The prince was unable to do so but also failed to reward Ibn al-Bawwab, who instead asked permission to help himself to the Chinese paper kept in the library. It provided him with supplies for a number of years. Assuming this charming anecdote is true, it shows that already by the tenth century there was a ready market for books by famous hands; that one calligrapher could imitate, even forge, the hand of another; and that Chinese paper was available and prized as a writing support.

The story also alludes to the large size of the Buyid library, a report confirmed by the Jerusalem-based geographer al-Muqaddasi (c.945–91), who left a lengthy description of the library that Bahaʾ al-Dawla’s father and predecessor ʿAdud al-Dawla (d. 993) had built and where Ibn al-Bawwab served as librarian. It was, according to the chronicler who walked around it, part of the ruler’s palace in Shiraz, the likes of which the chronicler had never seen in East or West. The library comprised 360 compartments above a large assembly hall; a manager, a librarian, and a supervisor chosen from among the people of good repute in the town oversaw the library. There was, al-Muqaddasi continues, not a book on all the various sciences that was not there. The library consisted of a long oblong gallery with rooms on every side. Attached to the walls of the gallery and the rooms were bookcases made of decorated wood that measured 6 feet high and 3 cubits long. The bookcase doors opened from above, with the books arranged on shelves inside. There were bookcases for every subject and catalogues listing the names of the books, both reserved for people of distinction.

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