Calligraphy · a Light
One Qur'an in Ibn al-Bawwab's hand survives, in Dublin
Ibn al-Bawwab worked in Baghdad around the year 1000 and took the proportional system of Ibn Muqla and made it supple. Contemporaries said he was a doorkeeper's son who learned to decorate rooms, then to write, and that he could match another calligrapher's hand well enough to replace a missing volume without anyone noticing. Of everything he wrote, one complete Qur'an survives carrying his name, copied in Baghdad in the year 391 of the Hijra, which is 1000 to 1001 CE. It is the earliest surviving Qur'an in naskh, the cursive book hand that took over from angular Kufic for scripture. It has been in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin since the collector acquired it.
Chester Beatty Library, Dublin · 391 AH
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- He measured letters in dots and lost his writing handIbn Muqla · Baghdad, c. 885 to 940 CE
- He cut the pen at an angle and changed the lettersYaqut al-Musta'simi · died 1298 CE
- An Ottoman calligrapher copied forty seven Qur'ansShaykh Hamdullah · Amasya 1436 to 1520
- A Baghdad scholar chose seven readings out of manyIbn Mujahid · Baghdad, died 936 CE