كتابت و تذهيب قرآن هاي تيموري در مجموعه هاي داخل و خارج

The Script and Illumination of Timurid Qurʹans in Global Collections

Man has always endeavored to convey messages. These messages can be social, cultural, ethnic, or religious. One of the unsurpassed methods, mainly in expressing religious concepts is illustrating books and scripts. Hence, the script of books and its illustrations have been given significant attention even from pre-Islamic ages. This importance has strengthened after the emergence of Islam when artists began illustrating pages of the holy Quran. The Timurid era is renowned for its art in writing and illustrating the Quran. Hence, script and calligraphy were considered as highly elaborated arts; the Nastaliq was first established in this era by Mirza Ali Tabrizi and many other calligraphers created novel ways of writing. Naskh, Thulth, Toghi, and Regha and at times Nastaliq were applied in translating the Quran and Kufi writing was applied on the titles of surahs. The magnificence of these valuable Qurʹans inspired many artisits of the age especially princes and rulers of the Timurid such as Baysonghor Mirza and Ibrahim Sultan. Therefore, the focal point of this paper is analyzing the characteristics of Timurid scripts and illustration of books. Difficulties in reaching Quranic manuscripts of Timurid era in national and international collections will also be explained. Aims: 1- Introducing the Qurans of the Timurid era in museums and global collections. 2- Investigating the script, illumination and traits of the Timurid Qurʹans. Questions raised in this paper: 1- What is the quantity of Timurid Qurʹans in national and international collections? 2- What are the significant characteristics of the art of book writing and illustrations in the Timurid era?