Moshaf Neyrizi

Description

Moshaf Neyrizi

Aydin Aghdashloo

After the Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire, Calligraphy and transcription  began with the Holy Qur›an. Though there have certainly been spectacular examples of this art before the Islamic conquest, the development of this art in its fullest capacity is indebted to both the divine blessings and the hard work of many artists who spared no effort in celebrating and glorifying the divine word. In fact, when one is dealing with the word of God, one cannot help but exert his utmost efforts to create beauty and originality.

Throughout the centuries, each template which was used for the Qur›an›s binding (bindery) and illumination became a model for the entire Iranian and Islamic bookmaking: more colorful, elaborate and sophisticated Sura headings and headpieces (head ornaments) began to appear and interlinear gilding became prevalent. At the beginning, the first two pages and then the next few pages were illuminated completely. Historiated border-painting and gold plated flower and plant motifs appeared on the page margins. Plain leather bindings were first replaced by stamped and inlaid bindings and lator by lacquer-painted bindings. As a result of the spread of Islam to Samarkand, a delicate and exquisite paper took the place of the former white and delicate vellums.

Until the sixth century AH, early Qurans were, less or more, written in the Kufic script. An account of the development of this beautiful script is another story. It was during the time of Ibn Muqlah that naskh script as well as other scripts including muhaqqaq, thuluth and rayhan became prevalent. After centuries, naskh script is still a common script for Qur›an transcription.  The reasons underlying its popularity may be its ease of readability, its simplicity and the fact that it has for a long time penetrated deeply into the hearts of its readers. However, there were also many Qur›ans which were copied in other scripts mentioned above, or even in nastaliq script.

Soon, illuminated Qur›ans with gold-plated Sura headings began to appear:   a rectangular leading to a circle with plain brown, red and azure flowers and shrubs in the golden background. Four centuries later, the brilliant art of illumination was born out of these plain designs and from the eighth to the thirteenth century AH reached the peak of its perfection. The covers were made from brown leather ornamented with golden motifs. The covers made between the ninth and eleventh centuries remained unique. Since the eleventh century, painting flowers and birds on the Qur›an covers became customary, a practice which continued until 100 years ago.

Each book written and decorated between the third and fourteenth centuries AH imitated the main pattern of the beautiful Qur›ans designed by the distinguished and devoted artists.  The only difference was the addition of images to scientific and historical texts, which led to the creation of a different form of art. However, the division of the volumes, headpieces, script, sura headings, tables, historiated border paintings widely imitated the pattern of the illuminated Quran manuscripts.

The Qur›ans were transcribed and designed in such a way that believers could both read them conveniently and enjoy the beauty of their scripts, colors and designs. They were designed in such a brilliant way to show that the mortal man has spared no effort in transmitting the eternal meaning to express his utmost respect and gratitude to God.

The present Qur›an which is copied by a devoted person and published in the best possible way is one of the best examples of Quranic transcription in twelfth-century Iran, and displays all the characteristics and privileges of art in that period. It›s a shining example and that’s why, out of thousands other exquisite versions, it has been selected for printing. The cover of the Qur›an has been decorated with elegant, twisted and symmetrical gold-plated flowers, branches and leaves on a red background, with Qur›anic verses in Reqa script on the margins. The same is done inside the cover page except for a few differences: the background is black with a medallion in the center and there are no verses on the margins.