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Acknowledgments
vii
Abbreviations
ix
Introduction
Brigitte Miriam Bedos-Rezak and Jeffrey F. Hamburger
1
T HE ICON ICI T Y OF SCR I P T
1Visible/Legible
An Iconic Typology of Writing
Anne-Marie Christin
19
2 Pictorial Talking
The Figural Rendering of Speech Acts and Texts in Aztec Mexico
Elizabeth Hill Boone
31
3 Chrysepes Stichourgia
The Byzantine Epigram as Aesthetic Object
Ivan Drpi
51
4Rebus-Signatures
Batrice Fr aenkel
71
5 From Many into One
The Transformation of Pre-Columbian Signs
into European Letters in the Sixteenth Century
Thomas B. F. Cummins
85
vi
CONTENTS
vii
a bbr ev i at ions
AA Archologischer Anzeiger
AER De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus libri, ed. E. Martene, 4 vols.
(Anvers, 17361738)
AH Art History
AI Ars islamica
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
AJP American Journal of Philology
ArtB Art Bulletin
ArtLomb Arte lombarda
bBer
Babylonian Talmud, tractate Berakhot
BIE Bulletin de lInstitut dgypte
Bm Bibliothque municipale
BMGS Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
BMMA Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
BMQ The British Museum Quarterly
BnF Bibliothque nationale de France
BSl Byzantinoslavica
BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
bYoma
Babylonian Talmud, tractate Yoma
BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift
CahArch Cahiers archologiques
CahCM Cahiers de civilisation mdivale, X eXII e sicles
CCCM Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis
CCSL Corpus Christianorum, series latina
CIFM Corpus des inscriptions de la France mdivale
CPh Classical Philology
DACL Dictionnaire darchologie chrtienne et de liturgie
....
DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers
DOS Dumbarton Oaks Studies
EME Early Medieval Europe
....
EphL Ephemerides liturgicae
ErJb Eranos-Jahrbuch
FS Frhmittelalterliche Studien
GBA Gazette des beaux-arts
HSCPh Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
IEJ Israel Exploration Journal
IRAIK Izvestiia Russkogo arkheologicheskogo instituta v Konstantinople
ix
JbAC Jahrbuch fr Antike und Christentum
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JJS Journal of Jewish Studies
JB Jahrbuch der sterreichischen Byzantinistik
JBG Jahrbuch der sterreichischen Byzantinischen Gesellschaft
JQR Jewish Quartly Review
JRA Journal of Roman Archaeology
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
MarbJb Marburger Jahrbuch fr Kunstwissenschaft
MGH Poetae Monumenta Germaniae historica, Poetae latini medii aevi
MGH SS Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores
MGH Ep Monumenta Germaniae historica, Epistolae
MM F. Miklosich and J. Mller, Acta et diplomata graeca medii aevisacra et
profana (Vienna, 18601890)
NABU Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brves et Utilitaires
NC The Numismatic Chronicle
.
n. st. new style (calendral)
ODB The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
PG Patrologiae cursus completus, Series graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris,
185766)
PL Patrologiae cursus completus, Series latina, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris,
184480)
PLP Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit
RBn Revue bndictine
RBK Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst, ed. K. Wessel (Stuttgart, 1963)
REB Revue des tudes byzantines
REI Revue des tudes islamiques
RES Revue des tudes slaves
SBN Studi bizantini e neoellenici
TM Travaux et mmoires
WSt Wiener Studien
VizVrem Vizantiiskii vremennik
ZKunstg Zeitschrift fr Kunstgeschichte
ZPapEpig Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik
ZRVI Zbornik radova Vizantolokog instituta
abbreviations
9
The Content of Form
Islamic Calligraphy between Text and Representation
I rvi n C emi l S chick
ix, where private communications with Oleg Grabar and Heath Lowry are credited for the idea.
2 Several sayings along these lines appear in Nefes-zde brahim, Glzar Savab, ed. Kilisli Muallim Rifat (stanbul, 1939), 3637.
Nefes-zde died in 1650.
3 Mstakm-zde Sleyman Sadeddin, Tuhfe-i Hatttn, ed. bnlemin Mahmud Kemal [nal] (stanbul, 1928), 10, where the
adth is attributed to the Imm Suy.
173
174
a calligrapher by the name of Mamd Chapnivs, also known as Majnn, who invented a
style of writing in which combinations of letters
formed images of men and beasts.14 Given that
Majnn lived around the turn of the sixteenth
century,15 however, he was certainly not the originator of animated script.16
There is no denying that inscriptions in figural writing are difficult to decipher. Rices
pioneering study of the Wade cup and Yousif
Mahmud Ghulams more recent reconstruction
of the inscriptions on a number of metallic objects
have revealed the fact that animated inscriptions
mainly feature generic content such as benedictions or prayers for the items owner, often
without explicitly naming him.17 For example,
on the top of one of the British Museums ewers
lies the inscription al-izz wal-baq wal-mada
wal-sana wal-rif a wal-al wal-fiya walshif wal-birr wal-a li-ibihi abadan
(glory and endurance and praise and laudation
and eminence and high standing and health
and gratification and reverence and award to its
14 Calligraphers and Painters: A Treatise by Q Amad,
175
Fig. 9.1.
The name Allah in two
documents written
approximately two
centuries apart. Left: in
a letter reputed to have
been sent in 628 by the
Prophet Muammad
to Mundhir b. Sw
al-Tamm, ruler of
Qatar (Chamber of the
Holy Relics, Topkap
Palace Museum,
21/397); right: in a
Qurn manuscript
in Kf script, ninth
century (The Nasser D.
Khalili Collection of
Islamic Art, KFQ 44).
Photos courtesy of Topkap
Palace Museum (left) and
The Nour Foundation,
courtesy of the Khalili
Family Trust (right).
Ettinghausen (Wade Cup, 33032 n. 4), who offers two alternative readings for Rices al-rama (mercy): al-zna (beauty,
ornament) and al-rutba (rank, dignity). He suggests that the
latter is more likely, and I agree wholeheartedly.
20 Jonathan M. Bloom, A Mamluk Basin in the L. A. Mayer
Memorial Institute, Islamic Art 2 (1987): 19.
176
Fig. 9.2.
The first few words
of the animated
inscription on the
Wade cup: glory
and prosperity
and fortune.
Seljuk Iran, early
thirteenth century.
Illustration by the
author after D. S. Rice,
The Wade Cup in the
Cleveland Museum of
Art (Paris, 1955), pl. 2
and fig. 20.
177
178
33 Sab 34:13.
34 Bukhr, Libs, 160, 167, 170, 171; Muslim, Libs wa
Ziynah, 121, 123, 125; Ab Dwd, Libs, 132, 137, 138; Ibn Mjah,
Libs, 1002.
35 Ab Dwd, Libs, 132.
39 al-Taghbun 64:3.
40 al-Infir 82:68.
41 Bukhr, Libs, 164; Muslim, Libs wa Ziynah, 150.
42 Bukhr, Libs, 165, 166, 169; Muslim, Libs wa Ziynah,
13041; Ab Dwd, Libs, 133, 135, 138; Ibn Mjah, Libs, 104.
179
180
181
182
been claimed that calligraphy is primarily ornamental; that texts are generally meaningless, full
of errors, or illegible; and that those that do have
a discernible meaning are usually haphazardly
chosen or formulaic. For example, Ettinghausen
wrote that to be effective as a communication,
an inscription has to appeal to a literate person
in his own language with clear, legible characters without nearby distractions....It is at once
clear that Arabic inscriptions in often highly
ornate mosques and other religious buildings
throughout the Muslim world cannot be communications of the same natureto be read by
all and sundry.63
What is surprising about this argument and
others like it is that they are so often binary:
either calligraphy is meant to be read, or it is not;
either it contains meaningful text or it is purely
ornamental. In fact, of course, some lean one way
and some the other. Many inscriptions are clear
and eminently readable, and then again, others
are fanciful with only the most tenuous ties to
plain textthe animated writing discussed earlier being a case in point. Even more important,
however, is the fact that such terms as reading
and legibility are culturally specific at a very
fundamental level; that is, they do not mean the
same thing to everyone, in every location, and
in every age. At a time when literacy was not as
widespread, and when the division between orality and literacy not as firmly established, as they
are today, an inscription would certainly have
been processed differently. Many calligraphic
inscriptions would have contained texts familiar
to large segments of the population, who would
have been able to read (that is, recognize) them
after deciphering no more than a word or two. In
particular, this would certainly have been true
of Qurnic inscriptions on the walls of mosques
and other sacred buildings. In addition, many
inscriptions were meant to be talismanic or apotropaic; their purpose was not to be read by the
average person, but to embody the power of the
Word for an otherworldly audience.
In short, whether or not they can be read letter by letter, calligraphic inscriptions are very
seldom purely decorative. On the contrary, they
are repositories of meaning, and, as we shall see,
the medium often adds to the message.
Beyond Text:
The Content of Form 64
The literal meaning of calligraphy is beautiful
writing, but Islamic calligraphy is sometimes
more than that. A calligraphic composition
sometimes entails a certain value added in
the sense that it conveys more meaning than the
same words would have if they had been recited
or written as plain text.
There is a long tradition of letter symbolism
in the literatures of Muslim societies.65 Thus, in
Ottoman poetry, the letter alif ( )was likened
to the beloveds slender stature; mm ( )to her
mouth; jm ( )to a lock of hair curling around
her ear; nn ( )to her eye and eyebrow; sn ()
to her teeth; the dot (nuqta) to a mole on her fair
skin, and so forth. These images were combined
in countless ways, as in the following couplet by
the poet Bk (15261600):
Dehnn mm zlfn cm kan nn olmutur
Seni ey zlf Leyl her gren Mecnn
olmutur66
Your mouth becomes a mm, your hair jm,
your eyebrows nn
64 The resemblance between this subtitle and the title
and anyone who lays eyes on you, O beauteous Leyl, becomes Majnn.
Here, the lovers nameMajnn, meaning
crazed, mad with passionis composed of
letters that mime the beloved Leyls features,
offering a mystical interpretation of the wellknown romance of Leyl and Majnn. Just as
the love of the lover is the mirror image of the
beauty of the beloved, so too does Mans loving
quest for God derive without mediation from
His absolute beauty.
Another nice example is afforded by Sultan
Sleyman I (1494/951566), known to Turks
as The Lawgiver and to Europeans as The
Magnificent, who was a poet of some distinction writing under the pen name Muhibb. In
the following couplet, he teasingly refers to the
beauty mark right above the lips of his beloved
in terms of Arabic script:
Hl-i mknn dehnun zre dmidr
galat
Komad hattatlar det del mme nukat67
Your musk-black mole must have landed
above your mouth by mistake
for it is not customary for calligraphers to
dot the letter mm.
Another use of the dot motif is the following
playful reproach by Fuzl (14951556), a contemporary of Sultan Sleymans:
Ham ettin kaametim tek terk-i ser kldmsa
mzurum
Ne zrm var eer der olsa olmaz nokta dl
zre68
You have bent my back, so if I took leave of
my head, I must be forgiven
for what excuse would I give, were I told
the letter dl does not take a dot?
The image here is based upon a comparison of
the letters dl ( )and dhl (), which are identical
67 Muhibb Dvn: zahl Metin, ed. Cokun Ak (Ankara,
1987), 410.
68 Fuzl Dvn, ed. Abdlbk Glpnarl (Istanbul, 1961),
139.
183
184
185
Fig. 9.3.
The positions
taken by the body
during daily
prayersstanding,
genuflection, and
prostration
likened to the letters
alif, dl, and mm,
spelling the name
dam. Calligraphy
by Mohamed
Zakariya (2001).
Authors collection.
Fig. 9.4.
The invocation
prince of the
believers, Al son of
Ab lib, may the
generosity of God be
upon his victorious
countenance, and
may God be pleased
with him in the
form of a lion. From
a scroll signed A
Allh Muammad
of Tabriz (1458).
Topkap Palace
Museum, E.H. 2878.
Photo courtesy of
Topkap Palace
Museum
84 al-Baqarah 2:164.
Fig. 9.5.
The Caliph Al
driving the camel
carrying his own
coffin, with his sons
asan and usayn
in tow. Anonymous
Alev-Bektash
calligraphy, Turkey,
nineteenth century.
Authors collection.
187
Fig. 9.6.
The well-being of
the hearts [depends
on] the comingtogether of the
lovers. Inscription
on the Sultan
Byezd II Bridge on
the Sakarya River,
signed Abd Allh,
1495/1496, Geyve,
Adapazar, Turkey.
Photograph by
Mehmed zay
188
the Sakarya River in the town of Geyve, province of Adapazar, in Turkey (fig. 9.6). It is dated
901 AH (1495/96 CE). The text is in Arabic,
and says shif al-qulb liq al-mabb
(The well-being of the hearts [depends on]
the coming-together of the lovers.) This is certainly an apt inscription for a bridge, but there
is a very interesting detail in the calligraphy that
deserves a more careful look. The inscription is
written twice in mirror-images, a style that is
called muthann or doubled. This in itself
isnot unusual. However, mirrored calligraphies
are usually divided into left and right halves,
that is, the axis of symmetry is usually vertical.
Here, on the other hand, it is horizontal, which
makes the calligraphy look very much like a
bridge and its reflection in the river. Indeed,
189
Fig. 9.7.
And we have
not sent you but
as mercy to the
worlds (al-Anbiy
21:107), followed by
a couplet in Turkish.
Mustafa Halim
zyazc, dated
19291930, Turkey.
Authors collection.
Fig. 9.8.
Hilye-i erfe
(word-portrait
of the Prophet).
Hafz Osman
Efendi, dated
1697/1698,
Turkey. Topkap
Palace Museum
Library, G.Y.1430.
Photo courtesy of
Topkap Palace
Museum
ah1264), 12.
191
Fig. 9.9.
The names of the
Caliphs Ab Bakr and
Umar placed between
captions. Anonymous
Ottoman devotional
manuscript, nineteenth
century, Turkey.
Private collection.
Photograph courtesy of
Atika Mzayede, Istanbul.
such inscriptions as the signifier of the signifier of the signifier? (Cf. Jacques Derrida, Of Grammatology, trans. Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak [Baltimore and London, 1976], chap. 1.)
Fig. 9.10.
Poem in praise
of the Basmala.
Mehmed Nazif
Bey, dated 1901/2,
Turkey.
Authors collection.
193
194