In the Name of God, who is the creator of all the beauties.
Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 4000 BC. And Persian art or Iranian art has one of the richest art heritages in world history.
In the Iranian civilization, the Arts of Book is one of the most significant factors affecting the emergence and development of native arts in Iran the historical background of which dates back to Sassanid dynasty (224-651 AD). The interest of Manichaeans in writing their works with artistic creativity led to the development of art and techniques of the Arts of Book, especially calligraphy and visualization. But due to the fact paper and animals skins on which a drawing or writing was done are made of materials with less durability in long terms, the ancient instances of this arts are rare.
Undoubtedly, the emergence of Islam and Islamic-religious values alongside civilization criteria led to a new approach in the Iranian civilization. This period could be regarded as the onset of changes in those arts that are associated with the Arts of Book. The Islamic teachings, based on the Holy Quran, resulted in ultimate development of the arts of book and its associated arts. In this regard, the calligraphy art is distinctively significant among Muslims because they originally regarded it as the incarnation of divine revelation. As a result, development of this art was more significant than other arts such as the Arts of Book.
A rich background of civilization along with an outstanding culture of Iranians led me to write a book on them and now, it is ready. Of course, the diverse developments in the domain of traditional art and techniques of the Arts of Book due to the diversity of associated subjects, skills and techniques in the Iranian civilization makes this task excessively difficult so that one mightn’t be able to delve into different associated subjects with precision.
The present book is in sixteen chapters which includes instances of works by the significant artists of Iran collected through a comprehensive study and reviews of scientific and educational remains as well as works of art in the Iranian civilization the selection of which was based on my personal experiences in the three decades of comprehensive study of calligraphy and book layout arts presented now to those academic students of different fields of study who are interested in this issue.
