Las artes del libro en al-Andalus y el Magreb

Hossam Mujtâr al-Abbâdî, professor of the Faculty of History at the University of Alexandria has made a very complete and novel study about the arts of books in al-Andalus and the Maghreb between the tenth and fifteenth centuries (IV h-VIII h) , in which he exhaustively analyzes various aspects related to the production of books at a time and place where some of the most beautiful copies of books ever created were produced. The author studies the diverse materials that intervene in the processes of creation of the book, from the tools used for the writing to the types of ink and parchment that were used in the Arab and Islamic world; the origin, development and use of paper; and also the different steps of the production process of the book, such as the dyeing of skins, the elaboration of tails, the gilding of the covers, the preparation of raw materials such as gold, iron, leather, and so on. It also studies the presence and characteristics of the different decorative elements: colors, calligraphies, geometric drawings, metals, etcetera.

With this work, Dr. al-Abbâdî, contributes decisively to the advance of the investigation around the study of the Arab bookbinding. His work includes the translation of various sources written by various Maghrebi and Oriental scholars, such as the anonymous one dedicated to the emir Ibn Bâdîs, Umdat al-kuttâb wa iddat dawî-l-albâb (from the tenth century AD / IV), or Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Qalalûsî in his Tuhaf al-jawâss fi dikr al-jawâss.