{"title":"Approaching the Last Decades of Arabic Manuscript Culture (1870–1930): Materiality","authors":"Cornelius Berthold","doi":"10.1163/1878464x-01502005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>In the late 18th and first half of the 19th century, print gained a permanent foothold in the Middle East and enabled the mass production of books in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian. As a consequence, handwriting gradually ceased to be the primary technology for making books. This article, the second of two, examines the materiality of a selection of Arabic manuscripts mostly made between 1870 and 1930 <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\">CE</span>. It shows how scribes not only adapted to the availability of new types of pens or stationery when making their manuscripts, but also that some of them adopted layout choices and paracontent typical of printed books. Tradition and change are both visible in the objects that were analysed, and it is especially against the backdrop of a growing print industry in the Middle East that Arabic manuscript culture’s strengths and its ability to adapt emerge.</p>","PeriodicalId":40893,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Islamic Manuscripts","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Islamic Manuscripts","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1878464x-01502005","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In the late 18th and first half of the 19th century, print gained a permanent foothold in the Middle East and enabled the mass production of books in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian. As a consequence, handwriting gradually ceased to be the primary technology for making books. This article, the second of two, examines the materiality of a selection of Arabic manuscripts mostly made between 1870 and 1930 CE. It shows how scribes not only adapted to the availability of new types of pens or stationery when making their manuscripts, but also that some of them adopted layout choices and paracontent typical of printed books. Tradition and change are both visible in the objects that were analysed, and it is especially against the backdrop of a growing print industry in the Middle East that Arabic manuscript culture’s strengths and its ability to adapt emerge.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Islamic Manuscripts (JIM) explores the crucial importance of the handwritten book in the Muslim world. It is concerned with the written transmission of knowledge, the numerous varieties of Islamic book culture and the materials and techniques of bookmaking, namely codicology. It also considers activities related to the care and management of Islamic manuscript collections, including cataloguing, conservation and digitization. It is the Journal’s ambition to provide students and scholars, librarians and collectors – in short, everyone who is interested in Islamic manuscripts – with a professional journal and functional platform of their own. It welcomes contributions in English, French and Arabic on codicology, textual studies, manuscript collections and collection care and management. Papers will be peer-reviewed to maintain a high scholarly level. The Journal of Islamic Manuscripts is published on behalf of the Islamic Manuscript Association Limited, an international non-profit organization dedicated to protecting Islamic manuscripts and supporting those who work with them.