The Technique Of Islamic Bookbinding: Methods, Materials And Regional Varieties

The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding Islamic Manuscripts and Books Arnoud Vrolijk (Leiden University) VOLUME 8 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/imb The Technique of Islamic Bookbinding Methods, Materials and Regional Varieties By Karin Scheper LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: UBL Or. 1218, a Qur’an in maghribi script, dated 1718. Photo by Karin Scheper. The damage at head and tail of the full leather binding reveals part of the construction: the leather spine-lining and tiedowns of the endband are visible. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Scheper, Karin.  The technique of Islamic bookbinding : methods, materials and regional varieties / by Karin Scheper.   pages cm. — (Islamic manuscripts and books, ISSN 1877-9964 ; volume 8)  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 978-90-04-29092-1 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-29111-9 (e-book) 1. Islamic ­bookbinding—History. 2. Manuscripts, Arabic—Netherlands—Leiden. 3. Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden. Bibliotheek. I. Title.  Z270.I74S34 2015  686.3—dc23 2015003089 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual ‘Brill’ typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1877-9964 isbn 978-90-04-29092-1 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-2 9 1 1 1 -9 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. One who seeks this art should have quick understanding, good observation, dexterity of the hand, and be certain without being hasty. The latter is a good manner of getting along and it has the elegance of attracting others of grace and good character. Tamim Ibn al-Muizz Ibn Badis, ca. 1025 CE, ‘Twelfth chapter on the art of binding books in leather and the use of all its tools until it is finished by the bookbinder’, in: Mediaeval Arabic bookmaking and its relation to early chemistry and pharmacology, translated by Martin Levey (1962), p. 42. … The intelligent ones will understand this with simple directions. For others loud shouting will be necessary. Another group will need cursing but not the stick. A stick will be necessary for the last group. Ahmad Ibn Muhammad al-Sufyani, 1619 CE, ‘Art of bookbinding and of gilding’, in: Mediaeval Arabic bookmaking and its relation to early chemistry and pharmacology, translated by Martin Levey (1962), p. 5. ⸪ Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1 Materiality Matters A Detailed Sketch of the Current State of Knowledge and Outline of the Research 12 The Information Value of Binding Structures 12 Present Situation of the Book Archaeology of Islamic Manuscripts 20 Obstacles in the Study of Islamic Book Making 24 Linking Physica