This book explores a pivotal period in the history of the book in the Islamic world and Iran, i.e. the Mongol period viewed in a long-term perspective, under the Ilkhanid and the Djalayirid dynasties. It examines the issue of the maturation of classical Arabic calligraphy through the life and work of YÄqÅ«t al-MustaʿṣimÄ«, which are for the first time subjected to a systematic analysis, highlighting the importance of his school and the Baghdadi masters for the arts of the book of the following decades. The study also looks at the manuscripts of the Muslim Ilkhans and the Vizier RashÄ«d al-DÄ«n in the context of the birth of the kitÄbkhÄnah and the rise in the status of calligraphers and painters under the last Ilkhanids and the Djalayirids.
Nourane Ben Azzouna, Ph.D. (2009, Ãcole Pratique des Hautes Ãtudes, Paris), is Associate Professor of Islamic Art History at the University of Strasbourg. She has published several articles on the history of the book and calligraphy in Arabic script, as well as a monograph with Markus Ritter on the Golden QurʾÄn in Munich (Adeva, 2015).
All interested in the history of Arabic and Persian calligraphy, as well as other arts of the book (illumination, bookbinding) and codicology, and the Mongol period in greater Iran.