Arabic script, one of the Semitic alphabets, developed as a form of great reverence for the Qur’an and other sacred texts. These manuscripts were often bound within elegantly designed covers.

Yael Rice explains:
Although the Qur’an is often characterized as a book, it is better understood as an orally proclaimed text. It is in this state that, according to Islamic tradition, the Qur’an was transmitted from God to the Prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632), via the Archangel Jibra’il (Gabriel). Muhammad received the revelations over a period of twenty-two years, and in two different locales (Mecca and Medina). When the Qur’anic text was compiled as a single corpus, following the Prophet’s passing, its 114 suras (chapters) were arranged not in chronological, geographical, or thematic order, but according to length. Barring the first sura (al-Fatiha, “the opening”), the Qur’an proceeds from the longest to the shortest sura. (Yael Rice, “The Qur’an Illuminated,” Marginalia: Los Angeles Review of Books, June 8, 2017. https://bit.ly/2PLF8k3)

Along with the tradition of calligraphy—there were many calligraphers--printing was also used. By the 10th century, if not earlier, a form of block printing was used in order to more easily distribute prayers and sacred writings on strips of paper. The first book in Arabic was printed in 1514 in Italy.

This manuscript was copied by Khalil al-Wasifi Effendi and is part of the Father John Capistran Borley Islamic manuscript collection in the GTU library (https://bit.ly/2OCXCCM). Borley (1919-1997) was a Franciscan priest, a chaplain in the Army, and an archeologist The collection is described by Dr. Ahmed Zildzic, Oriental Institute in Sarajevo, who was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Islamic Studies from 2013 to 2015.