User:Reindeer.and.sloth/History of books

Papyrus

Papyrus was a common substrate to be used as notarial documents, tax registries, legal contracts, etc. Scrolls were typically held vertically to be read and text was written in long columns. Literary texts, on the other hand, were traditionally transcribed into the codex form. After the later half of the 10th century CE, leftover papyrus in Egypt was often used by bookbinders for making book covers since paper had replaced papyrus as the dominant substrate for books.

Paper

Paper as a substrate was introduced from China and practiced in Central Asia by the 8th century CE. Rather than the bast fibers used for Chinese papermaking, artisans used rag fibers which could be locally sourced. Under Arab rule, these artisans enhanced their techniques for beating rag fibers and preparing the surface of the paper to be smooth and porous by utilizing starch. By the later half of the 10th century CE paper had replaced papyrus as the dominant substrate for books in the regions under Islamic rule.

Printing press

List of notable printing milestones

1728: The first printing press established in Constantinople printed its first Arabic book, al-Sihah of al-Jawhari.

1924: The first typed Quran is printed in Cairo.

Western Asia & North Africa

Early Period

Page from the Blue Quran manuscript, ca. 9th or 10th century CE

Since the 7th century CE, parchment was used in the codex form for transcribing the Quran. They ranged from being of a larger size used for public recitations to being pocket sized. Books created in this time period placed greater importance on text over image. In many cases, the parchment was dyed (such as the Blue Quran), which was initially executed in Christian Byzantine manuscripts. Earlier Quran manuscripts were oriented vertically, with the height of the book longer than its width. However, later the standard horizontal orientation was established.

Medieval Period

The art of the book as a discipline came to be established in the Medieval Islamic period during the 11th century CE. This is attributed to the rising availability of paper which replaced parchment and was easier to handle and distribute, and that rounded scripts took the place of previously angular scripts. In this period, an array of book types were produced in addition to the Quran, including scientific notes, poetry and literary narratives.

The conversion of members of the Mongol elite classes to Islam in the 13th century CE to form the Ilkhanate led to a surge in patronage for book production and distribution from Tabriz and Baghdad. Large scale operations of producing Qurans were made possible by the availability of Baghdadi paper. The increase in volume of books produced was used as a tool to spread publicity about the workings of the papermaking mills established by the Ilkhans. Along with this, the other artisans working in conjunction to the book arts (calligraphers, bookbinders, illuminators, etc.) all benefited from the increased output. Images began to appear on illuminated manuscripts along with text with illustration becoming a focal point of the book, not just calligraphy. The role of the books produced by the Ilkhans were intended to promote either religion or heritage, and ranged from holy books to historical ones.

Later Period

Manuscript production in the 16th and 17th centuries CE were directed towards royal workshops with the economic power to produce them. Book distribution tied to their use as status symbols in one's collection, or as economic investments and donations. The process of producing a manuscript began with the workshop director designing the overall layout, followed by the process of making the paper (which may be gold-speckled or marbled), the scribe writing the text and finally multiple artisans illustrating the pages with miniature paintings, banners and decorated frontispieces. After the pages were burnished, bookbinders sewed the front cover, spine and back cover with the folios.

Folio from a manuscript of the Shanamah (Book of Kings)

Baghdad emerged as the epicenter for book production in the Ottoman Empire. Books produced in Ottoman workshops included biographies, travelogues and genealogies. In the late 16th century CE patronage to the arts declined, including book production, due to an economic crisis. The arts revived under the rule of Ahmet III who established the Topkapi Palace library in Constantinople to commission new manuscripts. The imagery used in these books began to take influence from contemporary European engravings. Until the late 1500s, availability of printed books increased but not acceptance of the printing press, since the scribes and calligraphers felt they would be out of work should it be introduced.

The Persian Safavids held great importance to the book arts and had a thriving book culture. In this era, the kitab-khana ("book house") was a term serving three definitions - first, it was a public library for the storing and preservation of the books. Secondly, it also referred to an individual's own private collection of books; and thirdly to a workshop where books were made with calligraphers, bookbinders and papermakers worked together. The Safavid style of manuscript illustrations evolved into its own style building from the arts of the Timurid Period. The most well-known manuscript created by the Safavids is the Shahnama, based on the poem by Ferdowsi.

Photograph of a printing press in Egypt, ca. 1922

Introduction to printing

Movable type in the Arabic script was initially created by European printing presses. In the 1530s, the first Quran had been printed in Venice by Paganino Paganini. The embrace of the printing press by the general public in the Arab and Persian worlds occurred in the 18th century CE, despite having been introduced in Europe three centuries earlier. The first Arabic printing press was established in Constantinople in 1720 under the reign of Sultan Ahmed III.

In 1815, Muhammad Ali Pasha sent artisans to Milan to learn the principles of printing in order to set up a press in Egypt. The Bulaq Press was established in 1822 and was headed by Nikula al-Masabiki from Syria, who designed the Arabic typesets. The first published book by the printing press was an Italian-Arabic dictionary.

Lithographic printmaking was introduced as a way of mechanical reproduction of text and image by the 19th century CE, shortly after its invention in the Kingdom of Bavaria. The first Persian book to be printed by lithography was a copy of the Quran, using a printing press imported from Russia to the city of Tabriz. Despite the use of movable typography diminishing between 1852 and 1872, the process of printing from stone lithography flourished in Islamic book production. The advantage of lithography included the medium being well suited to adapt the well established artistic traditions found in traditional Islamic manuscripts. In Persia in the mid 1800s, several "mixed-media" codices were created, employing a hybrid range of both handwritten scribed portions and printed matter.

By the 20th century CE movable type increased in popularity again. In Egypt, the majority of the 10,205 books printed from 1822 to 1900 were through letterpress printing. As the arts pertaining to manuscript production such as miniature painting and bookbinding decreased in popularity in the 20th century CE, calligraphy and the art of writing still remain popular.

South Asia

Page from a Jain manuscript depicting the birth of Mahavira, ca. 1400

Syair Perahu, written in Malay, ca. 18th or early 19th century CE

Folio from the Shah Jahan Album, ca. 1620, depicting the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan

Early manuscripts

In ancient times, stone slabs had been used for writing. The oldest surviving books come from the 10th century CE, the earliest belonging to the Buddhist manuscript tradition. Prior to the adoption of paper, these were written on palm leaves, a naturally abundant resource in the southern part of the subcontinent. The pages were usually three feet wide and two inches tall. The process of preparing the palm leaves consisted of drying, polishing and treated with starch to form a surface suitable for writing.The pages were bound together by a single piece of string on the shorter edge, and held with the longer edge of the manuscript running alongside the user’s chest.

Paper was introduced to the Indian Subcontinent from Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula in the 11th century CE by merchants trading with Gujarat. The first papermaking mills were established in the 15th century CE by artisans arriving from Samarkand. However, palm leaves continued to be used as a substrate for manuscripts in parts of eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka. Paper was commonly used in the Jain manuscript tradition from the 15th century CE onwards. The elongated proportions of the palm leaf manuscripts were dropped for thinner forms made possible by the use of paper, however, the pages still used a horizontal orientation. Images took up around one-third of the page, the rest being filled with text.

Mughal Era

The first Mughal Emperor Babur was not a large patron of the arts, however, he chronicled his endeavors in a biographic manuscript called the Baburnama. Following his exile into the Safavid Empire, in 1540 Babur's successor Humayun brought back to the Mughal court artisans of illustrated Persian manuscripts.

Despite being illiterate himself, the book arts flourished under the patronage of Mughal Emperor Akbar. He established a painting workshop adjacent to the royal library and atelier in Fatehpur Sikri in the late 15th century CE, allowing the production of the book and illustrated manuscript to occur more efficiently. Large scale poster-sized manuscript paintings were used as recitation aids to famous stories and narratives, such as the Hamzanama. Akbar's grandson Shah Jahan established a manuscript decoration tradition that included a strong emphasis on text than his predecessors, as well as margins filled with imagery of flowers and vegetation. Manuscpript production had declined from its peak by the time of Shah Jahan's reign and book illustrators and artisans went on to be employed by the regional Rajasthani courts of Bikaner, Bundi and Kota.

During the 17th century CE the influence of the illustrated book declined. Single sheet artworks became more popular since they were more cost-effective to produce and purchase, and were later assembled into albums with decorative elements added later.