The Philosophical Dimension of the Islamic Illumination in Designing Qur'anic Manuscripts

Abstract

The philosophical dimension that was followed by the designers of Qu'ran manuscripts is considered in general a keystone in making the Qur'an scripts in the Islamic world. This moral philosophical dimension was later on deemed as principles for its design in manufacturing the sacred script. Accordingly, Illumination was used as an agent for building the art of writing, covering, lining as well as other arts that represent to main structural principles in making the Islamic script that is used as a profession for making codicology and in studying the material holder not to forget its symbolic dimension without taking account to the content. This study aimed at examining the philosophical dimension of using Islamic Illumination that is deemed as one of the main structural principles in designing the Islamic manuscript as well as its technology which is considered a field that distinguishes the research as one of the structural basis in designing the Islamic book, since Illumination as a feature to designing the Islamic book due of the beauty, design value and the sacred content. In this study, the researcher examines this philosophical and symbolic dimension as well as the principles and techniques which the craftsman used in using Illumination as designing principles to divide the page and space to add the Qur'anic sacred text in the Qur'anic scripts and introduces it in terms of using a sacred content. The researcher studies a sample of Qur'anic pages that refer to various Islamic ages, analyzed them, studied the design structure, the technique and the philosophical dimension of Illumination.The study concluded that Illumination was introduced to the Qur'anic script in order to create dignity and to show the greatness of God, not to forget the Illumination dominated on the Qur'anic script for the purposes of completeness, were it was introduced in the Qur'anic text to open a moral/ spiritual way for the one who works in designing the scripted Qur'an holly books.

Keywords: The Philosophical Dimension, of Illumination, Script, The Sacred Art.

DOI: 10.7176/JTHS/47-04

Publication date: February 29^th 2020