A Qurʾān of Mixed Media: Tabriz 1258 ( )

Transcription

1 Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012) brill.com/jim A Qurʾān of Mixed Media: Tabriz 1258 ( ) Jan Just Witkam Leiden University Institute for Area Studies j.j.witkam@hum.leidenuniv.nl Abstract A lithographed Qurʾān copy published in Tabriz in 1258 AH, which was illuminated by hand, is placed within its technical and cultural context: the period of transition between handwritten and printed book in the Muslim world. Keywords Printing, lithography, Iran, Tabriz, Qurʾān, movable type, transition Introduction After its invention, printing has been reinvented at several occasions, both in technical and in geographical diversity. In the Muslim world, printing only quite late became a generally accepted means of the dissemination of knowledge. Accounting for this many, interesting stories go around, but these do not need to detain us here.1 Several reasons have led to a certain preference for lithography among the Muslims. With lithography, which requires transposing the image of a text onto a stone, the same copyists who before the introduction of lithography wrote manuscripts are involved. Lithographed books are printed books, granted, but in order to make them, the skills of calligraphers remained necessary. They can therefore also be regarded as printed manuscripts. Forms of mixed media and techniques have existed as well. A copy of the Qurʾān printed by lithography in 1258 AH ( ) probably in Tabriz, in 1 I have analyzed several of such stories in my farewell lecture at Leiden University entitled Het einde van het islamitische handschrift ( the end of the Islamic manuscript ), which I delivered on December 10, I am presently preparing it for publication in English under the title Tales of Transition. Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2012 DOI: / X

2 J. J. Witkam / Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012) which also manuscript techniques were employed, is the subject of the present article. The printer only provided the calligraphed basic text in black ink. The calligrapher had skipped the sūra headings. Ornaments and colours were added by hand. The illumination after the printing was not simply a beautifying addition, but an integral part of the making of the book. The Vancouver Qurʾān The lithographed Qurʾān which I describe here is in the possession of the library of the University of British Columbia (ubc) in Vancouver.2 The book evidently comes from Iran. The main Arabic text plus the short prayer in Arabic which precedes it and the colophon which follows it, were printed. All illuminative work, including the sūra headings, was added by hand. The Qurʾān is printed on European laid paper (watermark unidentifijied, countermark: ISMC), the folios remain unnumbered. There are catchwords at the bottom of almost each verso leaf. It can be guessed, by calculation, that it has c. 175 folios, as each ǧuzʾ is contained on slightly more than 11 pages. The paper measures cm, with quires of two sheets. The text was written in fully vocalized naskh script with thuluth features in nineteen lines per page. These lines are separated by horizontal cloud-like dividers in gold. The entire text is set within a composite frame (in red, gold, black, and in blue for the fijinishing touch). An outer frame was last added. The space between the two frames, which may have been intended for notes, has largely remained blank. The calligraphy is dated 1258 AH in the colophon. The back of the volume is covered by leather. The boards have decoration in lacquer both on the outer and the inner sides. The outer decoration is composite with a frame, centre pieces and smaller floral motifs. The decoration on the inner side is floral, showing one single plant: a stalk, leaves, buds and flowers. 2 It is an as yet uncatalogued item in the ubc collections. I am grateful to Mr. Ralph Stanton in the ubc library for pointing out to me the existence of the book and to Ms. Sarah Romkey in the ubc library for providing me with further details on the book s provenance. The book had come to ubc in or shortly after 2003 as part of a collection of books on art in the bequest of Mr. Ladislas Kardos ( ) and his wife Elisabeth. The book contains a gift bookplate to this efffect. Mr. Kardos was a Canadian landscape painter and art collector of Hungarian origin. See on him John Miska, Hungarian art and music in Canada, in Hungarian Studies 19/2 (2005), pp , especially p. 320.

3 232 J. J. Witkam / Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012) On the fijirst recto page (as on the last verso page) are owners notes in Persian: details on a marriage in 1307/1928 and the birth of seven children between 1308/1929 and 1329/1950 are given. Ff. 1b-2a: Double illuminated page (floral designs, use of gold, blue, red, green; text printed in black), with a prayer in Arabic to be said before the recitation of the holy text. Ff. 2b-3a: Double illuminated opening page, with sūrat al-fātiḥa (f. 2b) and the beginning of sūrat al-baqara. On either page is a small rectangle containing six lines, set within composite illuminated frames. Over the two text blocks are the sūra titles, underneath are the usual formulas: lā yamassuhu illā al-muṭahharūn (f. 2b), and Tanzīl min Rabb al-ʿālamīn (f. 3a). F. 3b: Continuation of the Qurʾānic text. On the lower part of the outer margin of f. 3b is an illuminated cartouche with a quotation in Persian in nastaʿlīq script on the authority of the Imām (?) Ǧaʿfar <al-ṣādiq> about the reward on the Day of Judgment for those having recited sūrat al-baqara and sūrat Āl ʿImrān: He is God, may He be exalted. It is transmitted on the authority of the Holy Abī Ǧaʿfar, may peace be upon him, that whoever recites the sūras Baqara and Āl ʿImrān, enters the plain of Resurrection in such a way that these two sūras throw a shadow over his head, just like two clouds. The illuminated header for sūrat Āl ʿImrān (f. 16b), handwritten text in red ink on a gold background in a cartouche, with illuminations fijilling up the line, is the model for the sūra headings throughout the volume. In the margin next to the beginning of sūrat al-tawba is a handwritten cartouche with an Arabic taʿwīdh, incantation, in thuluth. This may be a compensation for the lack of basmala, which can often be observed at this position: Illuminated marginals indicate the beginning of aǧzāʾ and their halves. These marginals are set in the space between the two frames, e.g. on f. 6b. niṣf al-ǧuzʾ; on f. 9a. al-ǧuzʾ al-thānī; on f. 11b. niṣf al-ǧuzʾ; on f. 14b. al-ǧuzʾ 3, etc.

4 J. J. Witkam / Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012) Sometimes instead of niṣf al-ǧuzʾ, the synonym ḥizb is written. A diffferent marginal is used for the saǧda indications, e.g. in sūrat al-naḥl, or as a saǧda wāǧiba at the end of sūrat al-ʿalaq. The last recto page contains sūrat al-nās, written in colophon style with illumination. This is followed, on the same page, by a colophon in Arabic in thuluth script. The colophon begins with praise of God and continues with blessings on the Prophet Muḥammad and an invocation of the imam ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib. Then the ruling monarch of Iran is mentioned, Muḥammad Shāh Qāǧār (reigned CE), then follows the printer, al-ustādh Āqā Ǧabbār b. al-ḥāǧǧ Ghafffār al-tabrīzī, and fijinally the copyist, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-tabrīzī.3 The date of copying is given as well: 1258 AH ( CE). The fact that both the printer and the copyist have the nisba al-tabrīzī in their name may indicate that the book was printed in Tabriz, but a place of printing is nowhere given. Iranian lithograph printing began in Tabriz in 1248/1832 or 1250/1834 anyway, with a Qurʾān,4 and this is not exceptional, as several other early lithographed Qurʾāns from Iran are known to exist.5 The Taṣdīq and complete text of the colophon run as follows: 3 Mahdī Bayānī, Aḥwāl wa-āthār-i Khūshnawīsān, bā Namūna-hāʾī az Khuṭūṭ-i Khūsh. Vol. 4. Ed. Ḥusayn Maḥbūbī Ardakānī. Tehran (Muʾassasa-yi Intishārāt wa-chāp-i Dānishgāh-i Tehrān) 1358 [1979], p. 13, No. 46, mentions an Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-tabrīzī, who, in 1271 AH, writes calligraphic thuluth and riqāʿ, and who is also involved in printing. I gratefully acknowledge Prof. Marzolph s references to Bayānī s Aḥwāl wa-āthār, and to the Urmawī collection of lithographic books (personal information 29 June 2012). 4 See Ulrich Marzolph, tullip. A Projected Thesaurus Universalis Libri Lithographici Illustrati Persorum, in Philip Sadgrove (ed.), History of Printing and Publishing in the Languages and Countries of the Middle East. Journal of Semitic Studies, Supplement 15 (2004), pp , p One dated 1266 AH, see Fihrist-i Kitāb-hāyi- Chāp-i sangī-yi Kitābkhāna-yi Mīr Ǧalāl al-dīn Muḥaddith Urmawī (Tehran 1389 [2010]), vol. 2, p. 1260, no ; and one dated 1311 AH, see Fihrist-i Kutub-i Chāp-i Sangī-yi mawǧūd dar Kitābkhāna-yi Sāzeman-i Madārik-i Farhangī-yi Inqilāb-i Islāmī. Tehran (Sāzeman-i Madārik-i Farhangī-yi Inqilāb-i Islāmī) 1371 [1992], p. 100, No No doubt there are more.

5 234 J. J. Witkam / Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012) ١٢٥٨ On the upper half of the verso side of the last leaf is a prayer in Arabic. On the lower half are four notes on births in Persian with dates between AH ( CE), whereas the last date is not well visible. On top of the frames of all pages, there are small handwritten cartouches containing words, set within the outline of blue ink. On top of the recto pages these cartouches contain the sūra names. On top of the verso pages they contain Persian indications for Fāl, the taking of omens. Opening the volume would immediately indicate the omen. There are fijive diffferent categories: bisyār khūb = very good; khūb = good; wasaṭ or miyāna = intermediate, middle; bad = bad; bisyār bad = very bad. It would be interesting to compare the Fāl in the present book with other copies of the Qurʾān with Fāl indications. Sometimes such Qurʾān manuscripts contain rules for the use of the Fāl, but that is not the case for the present Qurʾān. Conclusion The sūra headings were not printed from the stone, but added by hand. The opening pages (fff. 2b-3a) have only very little text. This indicates that calligrapher, printer and illuminator had predefijined roles in the making of the fijinal product. In the pre-press phase the calligrapher Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-tabrīzī left space open in which the unknown illuminator could fijill in illumination and text. For the illuminated double pages at the beginning,

6 J. J. Witkam / Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012) this is the case a fortiori. It is this cooperation between copyist, printer and illuminator that characterizes this Qurʾān as a book of mixed media. Though printed, it gives it the outward appearance of a handwritten book.6 6 In a following article, I will discuss another example of mixed media techniques as employed in lithographed books. This article and the announced followup are sequels to my earlier study on the subject: Tussen handschrift en druk. De produktie van het handgeschreven boek in het Midden Oosten in een tijd van overgang / Between manuscript and printed book. The production of the manuscript book in the Middle East in a period of transition, in: Jaarverslag / Annual Report 1994, E.J. Brill N.V., Leiden 1995.

7 Prayer preceding the Qurʾānic text, Tabriz of 1258 ( ). Printed text with illumination added by hand. MS Vancouver, UBC, without class-mark, fff. 1b-2a. 236 J. J. Witkam / Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012)

8 Double opening page in the lithographed Qurʾān from Tabriz of 1258 ( ). Printed text of sūrat al-fātiḥa and the beginning of sūrat al-baqara, with illumination added by hand. MS Vancouver, UBC, without classmark, fff. 2b-3a. J. J. Witkam / Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012)

9 Continuation of sūrat al-baqara in the lithographed Qurʾān from Tabriz of 1258 ( ). Printed text with illumination added by hand. Fāl cartouche on top of the verso page (at right). Qurʾānic book lore in the cartouche in the margin. MS Vancouver, UBC, without class-mark, fff. 3b-4a. 238 J. J. Witkam / Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012)

10 Last opening in the lithographed Qurʾān from Tabriz of 1258 ( ). Printed text of sūrat al-kāfijirūn through sūrat al-nās, and the colophon, with illumination added by hand. Fāl cartouche on top of the verso page (at right). MS Vancouver, UBC, without class-mark, end. J. J. Witkam / Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 3 (2012)