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Inscribing characters, letters or words for others to read; the instruments (q.v.) used in such inscription. The Qurʾān attests to written materials and the process of writing with a variety of lexemes — both metaphorical and concrete (see metaphor ) — supplying evidence that supplements epigraphic traces of the development of writing in seventh-century Arabia (see orality and writing in arabia; arabic script). Among the most prominent qurʾānic terms for materials used in the writing process are: ink ( midād,q 18:109), parchment ( qirṭās, pl. qirāṭīs,q 6:7, 91), pen ( qalam, pl. aqlām;…

From early times written copies of the qurʾānic text were embellished with various kinds of ornament that served to divide the text into manageable units, enhance readability, and enliven the visual qualities of the page and the book. Like the Torah of the Jews but unlike the Bible of the Christians, the Qurʾān was never illustrated with pictures, but rather embellished only with non-figural, nonrepresentational decoration. In contrast to the study of western manuscripts, where the term illumination encompasses both figural and non-figural decoration, scholars of Islamic…