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The cosmic script : sacred geometry and the science of Arabic penmanship /
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"A fully illustrated, landmark study of Islamic calligraphy traced back to its deepest historical and cultural roots Explores the sacred geometry of each letter form of the Arabic alphabet as attributed to renowned 10th-century scribe Ibn Muqla Traces Ibn Muqla's system to the cross-cultural encounter between Greek learning and the scientific, artistic, and philosophical pursuits of classical Islam A richly illustrated, two-volume presentation of decades of research with more than 430 full-color illustrations Calligraphy is the central visual art of Islam. At its core resides a perennial challenge: What letter shapes traced by human hands are rightful bearers of the divine message? The answer lies in the "Proportioned Script" of Ibn Muqla, renowned scribe, man of letters, and minister under the great Abbasid Caliphate in 10th-century Baghdad. Emphasizing harmony and geometry, Ibn Muqla's system has governed the practice of Arabic scribal art up to the present day. In this two-volume, richly illustrated study, Ahmed Moustafa and Stefan Sperl analyze each letter form of Ibn Muqla's perfected penmanship and share their decades of research on Islamic letter shapes, revealing the history, linguistics, philosophy, theology, and sacred geometry that underlie this spiritual art form. In volume one the authors reveal the trilogy of prophecy, penmanship, and geometry at the foundation of Ibn Muqla's Proportioned Script. Providing a fully illustrated analysis of Islamic calligraphy's geometrical principles as transmitted in surviving writings and key manuscript sources, they examine the geometric grid of square, circle, and hexagon that informs the pen strokes of each letter shape and explore how the golden ratio appears within the matrix of the grid. They examine the development of Ibn Muqla's system in the context of the sciences, arts, and penmanship of 10th-century Baghdad and trace its origins to the cross-cultural encounter between Greek learning and the scientific, artistic, and philosophical pursuits of classical Islam. In volume two the authors analyze the calligraphic forms of each letter of the Arabic alphabet. They decode the sacred geometry of each form as it appears within the geometric grid, providing letter samples from ancient sources. Unearthing the theoretical and scientific foundations of Arabic calligraphy, this landmark study examines the aesthetic implications of Ibn Muqla's theory for the visual, verbal, and aural arts of Islam as well as the Islamic mystical tradition"--
""A fully illustrated, landmark study of Islamic calligraphy traced back to its deepest historical and cultural roots"--Provided by publisher"--
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2 volumes : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 29 x 34 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9781620553961 (hardback : set)
Jews in Byzantium : dialectics of minority and majority cultures /
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In the ever increasing volume of Byzantine Studies in recent years there seems to be one very apparent void, namely, the history and culture of the Byzantine Jewry, its presence and impact on the surrounding convoluted Byzantine world between Late Antiquity until the conquest of Byzantium (1453). With the now classic but dated studies by Joshua Starr and Andrew Sharf, the collective volume at hand is an attempt to somewhat fill in this void. The articles assembled in this volume are penned by leading scholars in the field. They present bird's eye views of the cultural history of the Jewish Byzantine minority, alongside a wide array of surveys and in-depth studies of various topics. These topics pertain to the dialectics of the religious, literary, economic and visual representation world of this alien minority within its surrounding Byzantine hegemonic world.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004216440 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Continuity and innovation in the magical tradition
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This volume brings together thirteen studies by as many experts in the study of one or more ancient or medieval magical traditions, from ancient Mesopotamia and Pharaonic and Greco-Roman Egypt to the Greek world, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It lays special emphasis on the recurrence of similar phenomena in magical texts as far apart as the Akkadian cuneiform tablets and an Arabic manuscript bought in Egypt in the late-twentieth century. Such similarities demonstrate to what extent many different cultures share a "magical logic" which is strikingly identical, and in particular they show the recurrence of certain phenomena when magical practices are transmitted in written form and often preserve, adopt and adapt much older textual units.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004215269 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Al-Maqrizis Traktat über die Mineralien : Kitab al-maqasid al-saniyyah li-ma'rifat al-agsam al-ma'diniyyah /
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Der kurze Traktat al-Maqāṣid al-saniyyah li-maʿrifat al-aǧsām al-maʿdiniyyah des berühmten ägyptischen Geschichtsschreibers al-Maqrīzī (gest. 845/1442) befasst sich mit der Klassifikation der Mineralien, ihren medizinischen Anwendungen sowie Theorien über ihre Entstehung. Käs legt hier erstmals eine kritische Textedition mit deutscher Übersetzung und ausführlichem Kommentar vor. Grundlage der Edition des arabischen Texts war in der Hauptsache ein Leidener Codex, der von al-Maqrīzī eigenhändig korrigiert und mit Glossen erweitert wurde. Ein Faksimile der Handschrift wird in diesem Band ebenfalls abgedruckt. Käs konnte nachweisen, dass der Traktat fast vollständig von den Enzyklopädien Ibn Faḍlallāh al-ʿUmarīs und al-Qazwīnīs abhängig ist. Die Inhalte der Mineralienkapitel dieser Werke lassen sich ihrerseits bis zu den frühen arabischen Naturphilosophen und ihren griechischen Vorläufern zurückverfolgen. The short treatise entitled al-Maqāṣid al-saniyyah li-maʿrifat al-aǧsām al-maʿdiniyyah by the famous Egyptian historiographer al-Maqrīzī (d. 845/1442) deals with the classification of minerals, their medicinal uses and theories of their coming into being. Käs presents for the first time a critical edition of this text along with a German translation and a detailed commentary. The edition of the Arabic text is mainly based on the Leiden codex corrected and enlarged by al-Maqrīzī himself. A facsimile of this manuscript is also provided in this volume. Käs was able to prove that the treatise depends almost exclusively on the encyclopedias by Ibn Faḍlallāh al-ʿUmarī and al-Qazwīnī. The contents of their chapters on minerals can in turn be traced back to the early Arabic natural philosophers and their Greek precursors.
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1 online resource (xiii, 326 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004290273 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.