The rhythm of the pen and the art of the book

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This lavishly illustrated volume takes the reader through a journey of some six centuries of development of the refined arts of calligraphy and illumination in the Islamic world. Much has been written on the dawn and early stages of the development of Arabic script and the position of calligraphy as an art form within Islamic civilization. This catalogue seeks to follow this story further into the golden age of Islamic calligraphy and its appreciation and patronage as the chief form of artistic expression from Islamic Spain to China. The works of art carefully selected for this catalogue, which accompanies an exhibition at the prestigious Sam Fogg gallery in London, follow the impact of the introduction of paper into the Islamic world and its effect on both the quality and the scope of the calligraphic art form. Paper, rather than parchment, allowed for inscriptions to be penned on a massive scale, and one of the highlights here is a monumental half line from the so-called "Baysunghur" Qur'an, which was probably the largest Qur'an manuscript commissioned by an imperial court. Exhibition: Sam Fogg, London, UK (Oct 16-Nov 10, 2017).