Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

In no other culture do books have such a prominent place as in the Islamic tradition. Islam was the first religion to distinguish between the faiths that were based on a written revelation (including Judaism and Christianity) and those that were not, placing crucial value on the written record of God’s word. As a result, the Muslim scripture – the Qur’an – provided the ideal context for the development of arts such as calligraphy, illumination, and book binding.

Science and literature were also major catalysts for the production of books, encouraging the evolution of book painting very early on. Essential to the process was the rapid adoption of paper across the Islamic world during the 900s, which, by replacing parchment, made books cheaper to produce and easier to disseminate.

Finally, while books were the principal way to preserve and transmit knowledge, they also functioned as markers of social status. Rulers and princes collected prized copies of important works and sponsored the production of new texts, both religious and secular in content, in major urban centres and courtly ateliers. Individual taste and local traditions often led to distinctive schools of book production, which created some of the most celebrated masterpieces of Islamic art.

Khusraw outside Shirin's palace (EA2012.38) Page from a dispersed muraqqa‘, or album, depicting Layla visiting Majnun in the wilderness, with Persian verses in nasta’liq script on the reverse (EA1960.202) The marriage of Yusuf and Zuleykha (EA1978.203)