A Companion to the History of the Book (31 page)

(1) The Codex Containing One Work;

(2) The Homogeneous Codex Containing Several Works;

(3) The Composite Codex Containing Several Works;

(4) The Codex Defining One Work (the bibliographical identity of the texts contained in the manuscript is defined by the individual codex itself, and only by it).

Samely’s is the first serious effort to classify a Hebrew manuscript collection, that of the John Rylands University Library in Manchester, England, according to other criteria than mere content or literary genre. In doing so, he also contributes to the discussion about Jewish literacy after the Middle Ages.

Book Trade and Bibliophilism

Little is known about the medieval Jewish book trade. There are book lists, deeds of sale, and similar legal documents that attest to a more or less free circulation of books. One can, however, only speak of a proper Jewish book trade since the invention of printing. Only then could larger numbers of Jews afford to gather larger collections of books. Early Hebrew books, for example those of Constantinople, were often printed and sold per finished quire, for example following a synagogue service, which may explain the rarity of complete editions. During the seventeenth century, the Frankfurt Book Fair was of importance to Hebrew publishers (who were mostly the printers as well), although it may be assumed that the large majority of books were sold and purchased through Jewish networks. In eighteenth-century Eastern Europe, itinerant Jewish book-dealers played an important role in the distribution of new and old books. As late as the nineteenth century there developed a clear distinction between printers, on the one side, and publishers and book dealers on the other, although especially in Eastern Europe printers were often their own publishers far into the twentieth century. Auctions of Jewish books have taken place ever since the seventeenth century. Today, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Kestenbaum in New York are the most important auctioneers of Hebrew books.

Little is known about the collecting of Hebrew books during the Middle Ages, although we know that some larger collections (dozens of books) did exist. One of the greatest Jewish bibliophiles of all times, David Oppenheimer (mentioned above), took a special interest in books printed on parchment and on tinted papers, notably blue. The abbot Giovanni Bernardo DeRossi (1742–1831) owned an equally important collection of Hebrew books, now in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma. In Russia, the collections of David Guenzburg (1857–1910) and Abraham Firkovich (1786–1874) are worthy of mention, since they contain a large number of important early manuscripts. The private collection of Leeser Rosenthal (1794–1868) of Hanover, Germany is now the core of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana in Amsterdam University Library. Probably the most important private collection of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was that of the Sassoon family of Bombay. The catalogue of its 1,153 manuscripts was published in 1932. The larger part of this collection was auctioned in the 1970s. Today, the needs of bibliophiles are catered for not only by specialized auctions of old books, but also by the appearance of the deluxe facsimile editions of splendid medieval and post-medieval manuscripts.

Conclusion

Alexander Samely’s (1991) definitions of Hebrew manuscripts quoted above are especially significant as they underscore perhaps the most important aspect of Hebraic books in general, handwritten or printed – their variety. What binds the books is the Hebrew script and, in most instances, “Jewish culture.” Otherwise, the variations are endless. Samely’s analysis concentrates on the structure of codices, and consequently on the multifaceted history of their usage. But the variation is, of course, much greater than that. Many different languages were written and printed in Hebrew script: Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish, Arabic, Ladino, Italian, Greek, and German are the most frequent examples. Many centuries divide the Dead Sea Scrolls from modern Israeli literature, and the earliest biblical manuscripts from Syria from Yiddish literature in nineteenth-century Russia. Many miles divide the northern Netherlands from the Yemen, Constantinople (Istanbul) from Brooklyn, and Jerusalem from Poonah. Jewish culture can only on the most generic level accommodate the cultural and historical differences between the Jews of Spain in the Middle Ages, those of Italy in the sixteenth century, and those of India in the nineteenth century. It is only with this endless variation in mind that one can begin to appreciate the cultural-historical wealth of Hebrew book culture.

References and Further Reading

Alexander, Philip and Samely, Alexander (eds.) (1993) “Artefact and Text: The Recreation of Jewish Literature in Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts.” Proceedings of a Conference held at the Un iversity of Manchester, April 28–30, 1992.
Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library
, 75 (3).

Beit-Arié, Malachi (1981)
Hebrew Codicology: Tentative Typology of Technical Practices Employed in Hebrew Dated Medieval Manuscripts
. Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

— (1993a)
The Makings of the Medieval Hebrew Book: Studies in Palaeography and Codicology
. Jerusalem: Magnes.

— (1993b) “Transmission of Texts by Scribes and Copyists: Unconscious and Critical Interferences.”
Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library
, 75 (3): 33–51.

— (1993c)
Hebrew Manuscripts of East and West: Towards a Comparative Codicology
. The Panizzi Lectures 1992. London: British Library.

— and Engel, Edna (2002)
Specimens of Mediaeval Hebrew Scripts. 2: Sefardic Script
. Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

—, and Yardeni, Ada (1987)
Specimens of Mediaeval Hebrew Scripts. 1: Oriental and Yemenite Scripts
. Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Brisman, Shimeon (1977)
A History and Guide to Judaic Bibliography
. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press.

Gold, Leonard Singer (ed.) (1988)
A Sign and a Witness: 2,000 Years of Hebrew Books and Illuminated Manuscripts
. New York: New York Public Library.

Hill, Brad Sabin (1989)
Hebraica (Saec. X ad Saec. XVI) Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the Library of the Valmadonna Trust: An Exhibition at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
. London: Valmadonn a Trust Library.

Iakerson, S. M. (2005)
Catalogue of Hebrew Incunabula from the Collection of the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary
. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Karp, Abraham J. (1991)
From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress
. Washingt on : Library of Congress.

Melker, S. R. de, Schrijver, Emile G. L., and Van Voolen, Edward (eds.) (1990)
The Image of the Word: Jewish Tradition in Manuscripts and Printed Books. Catalogue of an Exhibition Held at the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam (14 September–25 November 1990)
. Amsterdam: Jewish Historical Museum.

Metzger, Thérèse and Metzger, Mendel (1982)
Jewish Life in the Middle Ages
. New York: Chartwell.

Narkiss, Bezalel (1984)
Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts
, rev. Hebrew edn. Jerusalem: Keter.

Offenberg, A. K. (1990)
Hebrew Incunabula in Public Collections: A First International Census
(Bibliotheca humanistica & reformatorica 47). Nieuwkoop: De Graaf.

— (1992)
A Choice of Corals: Facets of Fifteenthcentury Hebrew Printing
(Bibliotheca humanistica & reformatorica 52). Nieuwkoop: De Graaf.

— (2004)
Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century Now in the British Library. BMC Part xiii: Hebraica
. ’t Goy-Houten: HES & De Graaf.

Parry, Donald W.and Tov, Emanuel (eds.) (2004–5)
The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader
. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Richler, Binyamin (1990)
Hebrew Manuscripts: A Treasured Legacy
. Cleveland: Ofeq Institute.

— (1994)
Guide to Hebrew Manuscript Collections
. Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

Roth, Cecil (ed.) (1971)
Jewish Art: An Illustrated History
. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society.

Sabar, Shalom (1990)
Ketubbah: Jewish Marriage Contracts of the Hebrew Union College Skirball Museum and Klau Library
. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

Samely, Alexander (1991) “The Interpreted Text: Among the Hebrew Manuscripts of the John Rylands University Library.”
Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library
, 73 (2): 1–20.

Sirat, Collette (1985)
Les papyrus en caractères bébraïques trouvés en égypte
. Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Steinschneider, Moritz (1852)
Catalogus librorum hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana
. Berlin: Typis Ad. Friedlander.

Tov, Emanuel (ed.) (1993)
The Dead Sea Scrolls on Microfiche: A Comprehensive Facsimile Edition of the Textsfrom the Judean Desert
. Leiden: IDC.

Vinograd, Yeshayahu (1993)
Thesaurus of the Hebrew Book
, 2 vols. Jerusalem: Institute for Computerized Bibliography.

12

The Islamic Book

Michael Albin

The realm of the Islamic book includes the Arabic, Persian, and Turkish-speaking countries, as well as parts of South, Central, and Southeast Asia. There have been many differences among these regions in their approach to the book in the past as well as in modern times. But there are also some commonalities, including veneration of the Qur’ān, patronage of the book arts, periods of intolerance, and a three-hundred-year delay in introducing Gutenberg’s invention.

There is no evidence that Arabs practiced the art of bookmaking before or during the lifetime of Muhammad the Prophet (d. 632). If the Arabs of Mecca and Medina possessed writing in the Arabic language, it was probably a primitive script adapted from elsewhere. Islamic tradition asserts that the Prophet was illiterate and that he occasionally dictated portions of the revelation to be written on materials such as bone, palm leaves, or animal hides. As it developed, Arabic script came to be formed of twenty-eight letters, graphemes indicating long vowels, and a number of diacritical markings indicating short vowels. Arabic is written from right to left and is cursive in appearance. It has no capital letters nor, in the classical form, punctuation. Although the earliest Muslims did not possess a script to represent their spoken language, they doubtless had knowledge of books in codex form, thanks to their contacts with Jews, Christians, Manicheans, and others whom they encountered in trade. The term
book
occurs frequently in the Qur’ān and may indicate (according to context) a book, anything written, or the Quran itself. During Muhammad’s life, the principal means of preserving the holy text was memorization. After his death, it was perceived that (for reasons including the death of Muhammad’s contemporaries in battle and dialect differences) a standardization of the text was needed. According to Muslim tradition, this was begun under the first Caliph, Abu Bakr (d. 634), whose associates were commissioned to collect the various verses, written and oral. This work continued under the third Caliph, Uthman (d. 656), who directed that a universal text be established. At the time of Uthman, at least part of the scripture had been committed to writing. Some scholars have recently asserted that the text as we know it was not established until the eighth century.

With an accepted text thus established, the age of the Islamic manuscript can be said to have dawned. Muslims adopted the codex from the outset as the primary medium for copying the Quran, using parchment in preference to papyrus. (Paper was introduced at a later date.) Muslims retained a high regard for the powers of memorization. In fact, to this day millions of Muslim schoolchildren learn to read and write by memorizing and copying the Qur’ān. The very meaning of “Qur’ān” is ambiguous in this regard, as it can be translated as a text to be read or, alternatively, recited. From the seventh century onward, there is evidence that copyists at the Umayyad court in Damascus and in certain important provincial towns such as Kufa in Iraq began to copy the Quran in what is called Kufic script. This hand, angular and largely devoid of vowel indicators or other aids to reading, bears little resemblance to today’s cursive Arabic
naskh
style of handwriting and typography. Early Qur’āns were copied on parchment, in Kufic script, in a horizontal codex format or as vertical
cahiers.

In addition to the rapid development of the script in the century after Muhammad’s death, the book arts (including binding, ink manufacture, and parchment preparation) advanced as well, stimulating a lively interest in books both religious and secular. Three elements contributed to this outpouring of books. First, the canon was expanded beyond the Quran to include traditions of the Prophet and Islamic law. Secondly, history, biography, astronomy, astrology, medicine, philosophy, and literature were translated into Arabic. And demand was driven by book purchasers, from the lowly to the princely. The elite of the ruler’s court and the wealthy merchant classes commissioned works to fill their libraries, which served scholars and were regarded as symbols of refinement. Scholars and laymen alike frequented booksellers’ markets to read, copy, and discuss texts: vestiges of this trade can be found in many Islamic cities today.

Practitioners of the book arts and crafts from early Islam to the mid-nineteenth century (when modern methods of book production became firmly established in the major cultural centers) included calligraphers, copyists, painters, sketchers, gilders, cutters, and binders. The bookseller was often adept at some, if not all, of these crafts, and he was the essential middleman in this commerce.

The codex was introduced soon after the Prophet’s death. The techniques and “feel” of Islamic binding differ from Coptic or Greek antecedents. Most characteristic of Islamic bindings is the foredge flap, which extends from the front cover to protect the entire foredge of the volume. This flap is usually made of two parts: a rectangular strip covers the foredge and is articulated to a triangular extension that tucks into the book. Thus only the top and bottom of the text block are left unprotected. Spines usually bore no title; instead, a brief title was written on the top or bottom edge. The book was usually shelved on its foredge. As is the case with Islamic arts and crafts generally, elite binding differed from more quotidian covers. Great sums were lavished on beautifully bound Qur’āns, adorned with elaborate tooling on leather covers. Little is known about early bookbinders, their styles or techniques. The earliest extant fragment of a book cover dates to ninth-century Egypt. Scholars have had to content themselves with citations in early works on the craft and the plentiful specimens available from the fourteenth century onward.

From earliest times, the manuscript took on a form that it did not relinquish until well after printing was established in the mid-nineteenth century. The text opens with the
basmallah,
the invocation of the name of God. After a few lines of introduction, which may include the titles, the text proper begins with the phrase
amma ba’d:
“and thus”. Commentaries and super-commentaries are common. The original text might occupy the center of the page, with one or more commentaries written in the margins. Sometimes material is added to the end of the main work. An important feature of the manuscript, as well as early printed books, is the colophon, or tailpiece, providing the name of the author, the title of the work, the copyist, date, and place of copying. There is often reference to the regnant governor or patron.

Not all manuscripts were
chefs-d’oeuvre
such as we are accustomed to seeing in museums. The vast majority were workaday copies prepared for use by the author’s students or other interested persons. Standards of transmission were fixed by tradition. In a typical scenario, the scholar would dictate his text to his students in the mosque. One or more of these would act as amanuensis. After the work was complete, the professor would review and correct what the scribe had written. Those who mastered the text would receive written permission
(ijazah)
to teach it.

No other aspect of book production has received more attention than manuscript ornamentation. Systematic scholarship in the field began in the early twentieth century and continues with Sheila Blair, Jonathan Bloom, and others. These scholars have produced valuable surveys of the history of paper, calligraphy, and miniature painting. Today, Ottoman book illustration receives much attention, perhaps because Turkish museums and libraries are generally accessible to scholars.

The layperson visiting an exhibit of Islamic book illustration or binding from Central Asia, Turkey, Iran, or Mogul India may be surprised to find that pictorial arts flourished in these Muslim territories. He or she may well ask what became of the well-known prohibition of animal or human images. Sir Thomas Arnold, writing in the 1920s, tackled this question squarely. He noted that because of religious strictures, book illustration enjoyed a lower status than calligraphy. While the Qur’ān is silent on the subject of figurative painting, the traditions of the Prophet
(hadith)
are unambiguously opposed to it. Arnold quoted an operative
hadith
from Bukhari (d. 870) to the effect that “the Prophet is reported to have said that those who will be most severely punished by God on the Day of Judgment will be the painters.”

Underpinning this attitude toward representational painting is the idea that the painter blasphemes in “usurping the creative function of the Creator” (Arnold 1965: 6). Arnold argued simply that the monarchs and the wealthy, while flaunting the religious prohibition, took care to confine their appreciation and patronage of figurative art within the palace walls. This topic remains alive. In a 1996 report on the stance of modern theologians toward painting, Ahmad Issa concludes that the majority of modern religious authorities concur in the view of the ancients. In Issa’s interpretation, however, painting is permissible as long as it does not lead to blasphemy. The traditionalists, and those who followed them through the centuries, found nothing wrong with non-representational art. Early Qur’āns featured geometric or vegetative ornamentation to mark the divisions of the text or adorn chapter headings. The arabesque has entered the English language from this source.

Few specimens of Islamic book illustration existed before 1200, although human forms appear in extant manuscripts produced in Baghdad in the years preceding the Mongol destruction of the city and its libraries. The successors of Genghis Khan formed dynasties of their own and patronized the book arts, including painting. Central Asian and Mogul courts in India achieved fame as much for their artistic books as for any other aspect of their culture. Later, in the sixteenth century, the Iranian court fostered similar interest in the high art of book illustration. The influence of both the Timurid and Persian painters was transmitted to the Ottoman court in Istanbul, where painting thrived from the seventeenth century to the end of the empire in 1924.

Beyond the problems of the anathema on painting, Blair and Bloom, in their important article “The Mirage of Islamic Art” (2003), list challenges in the field of Islamic arts in general, including book illustration. Among the points they raise are: the definition itself of the Islamic book; art history viewed through a colonial and postcolonial lens; the artificial dichotomy between architecture and other Islamic arts, such as calligraphy and painting; the cultural differences generated by geography and 1,400 years of history; the lack of biographical information about artists; the inaccessibility of art in museums and libraries; problems of authenticity, fakes, and revivals; and the illegibility of calligraphy to Western museum-goers and even scholars.

The most well-known miniaturists flourished from the early fifteenth century onward. Tamerlane (1336—1405) and his successors created great libraries and ateliers in what is now Iran, the Central Asian countries, Afghanistan, and India. The vast reach of the Mongol empire, extending from China westwards, led to the incorporation of Chinese motifs in Islamic painting. They are one of the distinct characteristics of what we call the Timurid style. As Blair and Bloom note (1994: 69):

The Timurid visual vocabulary which had developed in Iran and Central Asia in the fifteenth century came to permeate the visual arts of other regions, notably Turkey and Muslim India, and there developed what has come to be called an International Timurid style characterized by chinoiserie floral motifs integrated into languid arabesques which became particularly important in the development of a distinct Ottoman style in the sixteenth century.

The apogee of Timurid miniature painting was reached with Kamal al-Din Behzad (d. c. 1536). Educated as a painter in a palace environment, he perfected his skill in the studios of Timurid Herat. When the Safavid Persians occupied the city, he moved to their capital, Tabriz, in western Iran, where he administered the Shah’s library and scriptorium. He had many apt pupils and is credited with introducing a relaxed, humanistic style into the art form. Also associated with Herat was Crown Prince Baysungur (d. 1433), a patron who lavished attention and treasure on books and other arts. One report from Tabriz to Baysungur detailed the work done on twenty-two artistic projects, including manuscripts. Artisans included “painters, illuminators, calligraphers, binders, rulers and chest-makers, who worked individually and in teams” (Blair and Bloom 2003: 59). Herat and Tabriz were joined by the central Iranian city of Shiraz as the chief centers of bookmaking artistry. However, artists dispersed eastward during the politically unsettled sixteenth century, fleeing the court of Tabriz to Central Asia and India.

Calligraphy was greatly admired by the Ottomans, practiced by many sultans, and remains a major art form in today’s Turkey. Hafez Osman (d. 1698) is recognized as the master calligrapher of the Quran. Blair and Bloom note that his style “remained the model for calligraphers of later generations; in the late nineteenth century manuscripts of the Koran penned by him were lithographed and circulated throughout the Islamic world” (2003: 248). Nevertheless, court painting continued, producing such high accomplishments as the
Shahnama-yi Al-l ‘Uthman
(The Book of the Ottoman Dynasty).

The libraries of medieval Islam offer scholars useful ways of studying Muslim cultural life in general and the treatment of books in particular. For instance, Arnold Green (1988) uses the anthropological concept of diffusion to explain much about the nature of Islamic libraries. Diffusion involves the selective adoption of an activity or institution of one culture by another, often by reason of propinquity. In Green’s view, Arabs, although conquerors in the Middle East, borrowed much from the conquered, including the institutionalization of book collections. In the seventh and eighth centuries, Arab Muslims used these collected religious writings, the Quran, and
hadith,
for “introspective” purposes. Later, under the Umayyads, “extrospective” interest in the writings of the Greeks, Copts, and others led to translations into Arabic and thence to the building of libraries such as the Bayt al-Hikma in Damascus.