A Study Of The Book Design Transition Of The Koran Collected In Shandong Library

Being an important part of the Islamic art,the binding art of the manuscripts of the Koran bears a strong religious meaning,as it originated from Islam.The handwritten copies were brought to China with the spread of Islam in the Tang Dynasty.Numerous ethnic groups in China,having been converted to Islam with the dissemination of the Islamic culture,created unique ethnic art,and the binding art of the Koran plays a role that cannot be underestimated.Bearing the Islamic art as the soul,and meanwhile absorbing some Chinese traditional formative elements of books,the binding art of Chinese manuscripts of the Koran had gained its own characteristics.Given that,with the cultural heritage,i.e.the manuscripts of the Koran as a subject,this thesis,by field investigation,literature searching,interviews,to name a few,at the theoretical direction of artistic stylistics and sociology of art,is to wage an in-depth study on the binding style of the Koran collected in Shandong Library.The author intends to start from reviewing the origin and progress of the handwritten copies of the Koran worldwide,then investigate the spread and manufacture of the copies within China,compare the Chinese ones with the contemporary and earlier foreign editions,analyze the features of the formative elements,summarize the changes of the binding style,and finally find the causes of the book design changes of the manuscripts of the Koran collected in Shandong Library.With the comparison of the manuscripts in Shandong Library and the contemporary foreign copies,it is found that the Chinese ones in Shandong Library have special format and jacket,modified form of written characters,simplified illustrations and patterns as well as different writing materials.From the differences,the characteristic of primary color applied in layout in the Koran manuscripts in Shandong Library is found.That is the expression of the integration of the religious tint and local culture in binding style,the transition of aesthetic idea,the weakening of vignette subjects and so on.To trace the causes,the author will start from the Islamic socio-cultural background of the early Qing Dynasty,whose loose religious policy gave rise to the emergence of the unique Chinese Islamic religious education system,namely the mosque education.The diffusion of mosque education had promoted the making and spreading of the manuscripts of the Koran,and the particular religious education had to some extent prompted the formation of the character style of the manuscripts in Shandong Library.Secondly,the thesis aims to analyze the impact of natural environment and the science of book design on the transition of binding style of the studied cases from the perspective of reginal impact of the manufacturing site.At last,the role played by sponsors and users on the book design changes of the manuscripts will be analyzed from the point of sociology of art.