ISBN10: 0905035011, ISBN13: 9780905035017, [publisher: World of Islam Festival Trust, [London], first edition, 1976] Hardcover First Edition Cloth, gilt cover-device, 4to, 31 cm. 19, 242 pp : ills (colour) ; From the blurb - "Within three centuries of its advent, Islam had produced, from elementary beginnings, an architecture and a calligraphic art (including that of illumination) which have seldom been equalled and never surpassed; the one being centred on the Mosque and the other on the Qur'an. But whereas Islamic architecture is world-famous, its sister art has remained relatively unknown and inaccessible. Black-and- white photographs are not lacking, and these may serve well enough for certain scholarly purposes. But a page of script, impressive though it can be in black and white, loses far more than is generally realized without the tints of the paper and the ink. Therefore, we have tried to display the best that this two-fold art has to offer, and to reproduce the formal excellence of colours and texture that qualify the original works amongst the masterpieces of man's creative achievement. As to the manner of display, our first consideration has been what we believed the artist himself would have wanted; hence the number of double-page facsimiles. Of the 114 coloured plates in this volume, 75 are spread over two pages. As regards provenance, there are 17 plates from Qur'an manuscripts in the British Library; the remaining 97 have been ...