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Though various Islamic societies also practiced this art, Europe had one of the longest and most cultivated traditions of illuminating manuscripts. A brief treatment of illuminated manuscripts follows.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Early Qur'anic manuscripts did not have a direct textual structure. To amplify oration and make recitation easier, illuminators created a decorative vocabulary. At first, the illuminators differentiated each surah by pairing it with a unique geometric band. [8]
Europe had the longest and probably the most highly developed tradition of illuminating manuscripts. Various Islamic societies also practiced this art. The term illumination originally meant the embellishment of the text of handwritten books with gold or—more rarely—silver.
The calligraphic tradition, initially growing out of the demand for illuminated Qur'ans, was later used to embellish both religious and secular art in the Islamic world, and often appeared in books alongside (or integrated into) paintings.
The decline of the illuminated manuscript tradition coincided with the ability to mass produce printed text and the increasing numbers of literate people who wanted secular as well as religious books. lluminated manuscripts were created in various sizes depending on their intended use.
Elaine Wright has shown that this text block type did not become widespread in Islamic manuscripts until at least the mid-fourteenth century – a development that coincided with a proliferation in the production of romantic epics, such as the Khamsa of Niẓāmī (d. 1209). 32 The four-column text block was in use from at least the early ...
In manuscripts from other cultures the initial letters are often illustrated; however, since there are no capital letters in Arabic script, Qur’an illumination emphasizes key words and headings. These are generally illuminated in gold or other colors, or written in a different script from the rest of the text, and sometimes even with a ...
