Splendours Of Qur'an. Calligraphy & Illumination

Thesaurus Islamicus Foundation, 2015. Martin Lings "Splendours Of Qur'an. Calligraphy & Illumination", Folio. (33.5 x 24 cm). pp. 87+[360]. Publisher's decorative green cloth, with original decorative dust-jacket, patterned endpapers, all edges gilt. 180 colour illustrations in 180 double page colour plates, each appearing in small format with descriptive key and then reproduced again in full-page format. An excellent copy. The finest examples of this distinctive Islamic art form ever published. Within three centuries of its advent, Islam had produced an architecture and a calligraphic art, including that of illumination, that have seldom been equalled and never surpassed, the one centred on the Mosque and the other on the Qur'an. But whereas Islamic architecture is world famous, its calligraphic art has remained relatively unknown and inaccessible. The above work superbly reproduces the formal excellence of colours and texture that distinguish these artistic masterpieces. The aim of this edition has been twofold: to highlight the artform and to honour the late venerable author who first introduced it to a wider audience through the 1976 World of Islam Festival in London and the accompanying publication. In light of our second aim, we rigourously heeded the request of Dr. Lings to present the plates as close to their original pristine condition as possible: as they would have seen upon leaving the workshop soon after the ink on the last page had dried and all the leaves of the manuscript had been bound. However, so as not to deny specialists an accurate view of the originals as they exist today, we have included a complete photographic index of the unretouched transparencies which we hope will satisfy all. Martin Lings (1909-2005), also known as Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din, was an English writer, Islamic scholar, and philosopher. A student of the Swiss metaphysician Frithjof Schuon and an authority on the work of William Shakespeare, he is best known as the author of Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources.