Book Review 07 : Arabic Calligraphy in Manuscripts - translated by Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips

Book Info :

Title : Arabic Calligraphy in Manuscripts
Author : King Faizal Centre for Research & Islamic Studies
Publisher : King Faizal Centre for Research & Islamic Studies
Printer : Saudi Arabian Printing Company Ltd.
Pages : 267 pages
ISBN : N/A

Review:

This is a simple yet an excellent resource for Arabic manuscripts collector as well as calligraphy lovers. I saw this book during my visit in Istanbul and lucky had purchased it. It costed me about 50 Lira.
This book was published for the Arabic Calligraphy exhibiton event taken place in Saudi Arabia in 1987.
This is a helpful resource for me in identifying type of calligraphy. For example this book explains how to tell whether the Nastaliq script is written in Persia or India. Almost every page has a picture of sample manuscript with details of the calligraphy.Indexes on last few pages are also very useful detailing all the names of the authors and also the calligraphers which the manuscripts are referred to in the book. Lastly but not the least, I love the picture at the back cover illustrating a tree with different types of calligraphies. Awesome!!

Below is the comment excerpt from Smitskamp Oriental Antiquarium- Netherlands about this book :

"Important exhibition catalogue, with special emphasis on the various styles of Arabic calligraphy. A special chapter, "The art of Arabic calligraphy and its types", by Fauzî Sâlim "Afîfî is added on pp. 23-60.Displayed on the exhibition were manuscripts from Saudi public and private collections, i.a. from the King Faisal Center, the Dâr al-iftâ", the Imâm Muhammad Ibn Sa"ûd Islamic University, and from the collection of the Farfûr family. Most of these manuscripts have not previously been described in printed publications.The responsibility for the selection of the items, and the description of the manuscripts, lay with the Dutch scholars Q. al-Samarrai and P. Sj. van Koningsveld, with the assistance of A. al-Mashyûkhî. At the end, a select bibliography on Arabic script and calligraphy has been added.This is the English version of the catalogue, which appeared in 1986 in Arabic under the title "al-Khatt al-"arabî min khilâl al-makhtûtât"