Ibn al-Bawwab
d. 1022 · Baghdad
A doorkeeper's son who became the second pillar of the Baghdad school. He humanised Ibn Muqla's geometry — rounder, warmer, readable — and copied sixty-four Qur'ans. The one that survives, finished in 1001 and kept at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, is the oldest existing Qur'an in cursive script: proof, a thousand years on, that clarity and beauty are one craft.
Key work: the Chester Beatty Qur'an (1000–1001 CE).
Achievements
- Signed a complete Qur'an in Baghdad in 391 AH (1000–01), written on paper in round script; it is in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (Is 1431).
- Began measuring letters in dots to fix the height of tall letters, the length of extensions and the size of curves (Encyclopaedia Iranica).
- Improved thuluth, naskh and riqa'; rayhan is reputedly his creation (Encyclopaedia Iranica).
- Ran the library of the Buyid ruler Baha al-Dawla in Shiraz.
- Wrote a poem on calligraphy and its tools (the Ra'iyya), later explained by Ibn al-Wahid and quoted by Ibn Khaldun.
- Illuminated his own Qur'an as well as writing it.
Taught by: Muhammad ibn Asad, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Simsimani
Taught: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik
His work
Baghdad, 1000–1001 · Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (Is 1431, f. 9b)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Baghdad, 1000–1001 · Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (Is 1431, ff. 278v–279r)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Baghdad, 1000–1001 · Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (Is 1431, ff. 284b–285a)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
dated 1002 · Marashi Najafi Library, Qom (no. 4358)
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Write in the tradition this hand shaped.
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Living calligraphers you can buy from — signed originals on paper, from AED 550: Anwar Alhulwani (Thuluth) · Ahmed Alhawary (Jali Thuluth, Naskh) · Rasha Kasim (Kufi) · Kufi originals — or every Naskh piece the store makes: Naskh collection.
Sources
- identity wikidata.org
- life, 64 Qur'ans, Chester Beatty Qur'an details, own illumination, death 1022 en.wikipedia.org
- full name, birth c. 350 AH, death 2 Jumada I 413 / 3 Aug 1022, teacher Ibn Asad, Ra'iyya and Ibn al-Wahid commentary, works ar.wikipedia.org
- death 413/1022 vs 423/1031, Shiraz library, Rice's view that five other attributed works are imitations tr.wikipedia.org
- teachers Muhammad ibn Asad and al-Simsimani, students, Shiraz library story, works list fa.wikipedia.org
- d. 413/1022-23; measuring letters in points; improved thuluth, naskh, riqa iranicaonline.org
- rayhan reputedly devised by him iranicaonline.org
- teachers and students; CBL Qur'an described as Rayhan script; Qom Kufic Qur'an 392/1002 reed.edu
- Ra'iyya poem quoted by Ibn Khaldun; commentaries by Ibn al-Basis and Ibn al-Wahid craftsofiraq.uvic.ca
Written by the MASHQ studio · last updated 2026-10-05. Further reading, the standard references in English: Sheila S. Blair, Islamic Calligraphy (Edinburgh University Press, 2006) · Annemarie Schimmel, Calligraphy and Islamic Culture (New York University Press, 1984) · Yasin Hamid Safadi, Islamic Calligraphy (Thames and Hudson, 1978).