Dr David Lewis James, historian of Islamic art and manuscripts, died on 22 November 2012 at his home in Ronda in Spain, at the age of 71. He leaves a daughter and two sons.
A graduate in art from the University of Newcastle, his postgraduate studies at the University of Durham were, apart from Arabic language, entirely in the field of Islamic art, more especially miniature painting and calligraphy. In 1969 he was appointed Islamic curator at the Chester Beatty Library & Gallery of Oriental Art in Dublin, where he soon acquired a solid reputation in the field of Islamic manuscripts and related arts, supported by a number of significant scholarly publications, as well as some more popular articles, during the 1970s and 1980s. He later worked on secondment to the Nour Foundation in London, producing lavish scholarly catalogues of some of the finest MSS in the Khalili Collection. At both these institutions he acquired and demonstrated a particular expertise in the great Qur’an MSS of the Mamluk and Ilkhanid periods, which was enhanced by research in other important libraries and museums.
His career, however, came to an abrupt and disastrous halt in 1992, when he was convicted of the theft of items from the Chester Beatty Library, and served a jail sentence in Ireland. He confessed to the crime, acknowledging the justice of the verdict; to those who knew him best, this episode seemed to be a bout of uncharacteristic madness. But inevitably it cut him off from the rather narrow circle of scholars in his field, and from the institutions housing Islamic art and MSS.
After leaving Ireland he took up residence in a cottage at Ronda in Andalucia, and pursued a relatively contented life there among local and visiting friends. He became an independent writer and scholar, turning increasingly to research on Arabic texts from early Islamic Spain: two of his scholarly studies and translations, from original MSS, have recently been published as monographs. He did not, however, lose interest in art: at his death his study of the illustrations in the Maqamat of Al-Hariri was in the press. His scholarly reputation is assured, despite the vicissitudes of his career.
David James: bibliography
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Books
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Islamic art: an introduction
London, New York, Sydney & Toronto: Hamlyn, 1974 96 pp.
Arab painting
Edinburgh & London: Charles Skilton, 1978 50 pp.
(Previously published in Marg 29 iii, 1976.)
Islamic masterpieces of the Chester Beatty Library
London: World of Islam Festival Trust, 1981 48 pp
Das arabische Buch: eine Ausstellung arabischer Handschriften der Chester Beatty Library, Dublin im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg aus Anlass des Euro-Arabischen Dialoges, Kulturelles Symposium 1983. The Arab Book: an exhibition of Arabic manuscripts from the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg on the occasion of the Euro-Arab Dialogue, Cultural Symposium April 1983
[Dublin: Department of Foreign Affairs], 1983 [34] pp.
Masterpieces of the Holy Quranic manuscripts: selections from the Islamic world
Kuwait: National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters, [1987] 112+XXIV pp.
[Arabic & English. Arabic title: Badā'i` al-makhṭūṭāt al-Qur'ānīya.]
Qur'āns of the Mamlūks
London: Alexandria Press; Thames & Hudson, 1988 271 pp.
(with others)
Calligraphie islamique: textes sacrés et profanes. Islamic calligraphy: sacred and secular writings.
Geneva: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire; Treasures of Islam, 1988.
The master scribes: Qur'ans of the 10th to the 14th centuries AD
London: Nour Foundation, in association with Azimuth Editions & Oxford University Press, 1992 240 pp. (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, II)
After Timur: Qur'ans of the 15th and 16th centuries
London: Nour Foundation, in association with Azimuth Editions & Oxford University Press, 1992 256 pp. (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, III)
Manuscripts of the Holy Qur'ān from the Mamluk era
Riyadh: King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, 1999 279 pp.
[New ed. of Qur'āns of the Mamlūks, London 1988.]
Early Islamic Spain: the History of Ibn al-Qūṭīya. A study of the unique Arabic manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, with a translation, notes and comments
Abingdon: Routledge, 2009. 174 pp. (Culture and Civilisation in the Middle East, 15)
A history of early Al-Andalus: the Akhbār majmūʻa. A study of the unique Arabic manuscript in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, with a translation, notes and comments
Abingdon: Routledge, 2012. 191 pp. (Culture and Civilisation in the Middle East, 26)
Articles
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Mamluke painting at the time of the 'Lusignan Crusade', 1365-70. A study of the Chester Beatty Nihāyat al-su'l wa'l-umniya . . etc. MS of 1365
Humaniora Islamica, 2 (1974) pp.73-87.
Space-forms in the works of the Baghdād Maqāmat illustrators, 1225-58
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 37 (1974) pp.305-320.
Rylands Arabic MS. 42: recent discoveries
Bulletin of John Rylands University Library, 59 (1976-77) pp.249-253.
The Manual de Artillería of al-Ra'īs Ibraāhīm b.Ahmad al-Andalusī with particular reference to its illustrations and their sources
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 41 (1978) pp.237-257.
Two medieval Arabic accounts of Ireland
Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 108 (1978) pp.5-9.
Celtic & Islamic art: a short survey and comparison
Art about Ireland, 1 iv (1979) pp.10-14
The Moorish citadel of Ronda
Azure, 4 (1979) pp.8-9.
An early Mosul metalworker: some new information
Oriental Art, 26 iii (1980) pp.318-321.
[In a manuscript in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.]
Farben, die wie Juwelen schimmern: königliche islamische Handschriften aus Persien, Indien und dem Osmanischen Reich
Kunst und Antiquitäten, 1980 v (1980) pp.26-41.
The Noble Sanctuary
Azure, 8 (1981) pp.8-9.
[A Turkish painting (ca. 1730-1754) of the Dome of the Rock in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.]
Koranverse en miniature: orientalische Talismane und Siegel aus geschnittenen Steinen
Kunst und Antiquitäten, 1981 ii (1981) pp.14-22.
Kunststücke auf kleiner Fläche: islamische Lackmalerei auf Bucheinbänden, Dosen und Federkästen
Kunst und Antiquitäten, 1981 vi (1981) pp.26-32.
Lacquer items in the Chester Beatty Library
Lacquerwork in Asia and beyond. Ed. W.Watson. A colloquy held 22-24 June 1981,
London: Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1982 pp.318-332. (Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia, 11)
Islamische Weltbilder: Landkarten und topographische Gemälde
Kunst und Antiquitäten, 1983 i (1983) pp.54-61.
Some observations on the calligrapher and illuminators of the Koran of Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Jāshnagīr
Muqarnas, 2 (1984) pp.147-157.
Dürer und der Orient: der Einfluss Albrecht Dürers und seiner Zeitgenossen auf die Mogulmalerei Indiens
Kunst und Antiquitäten, 1984 vi (1984) pp.30-41
The "millennial" album of Muhammad-Quli Qutb Shah
Islamic Art, 2 (1987) pp.243-254.
Calligraphy, epigraphy and the art of the book = Kalligrafi, epigrafi og bogkunst
Louisiana Revy, 27 iii (1987) pp.20-23.
The commentaries of Ibn al-Baṣīṣ and Ibn al-Waḥīd on Ibn al-Bawwāb's `Ode on the art of calligraphy` (Rā'iyyah fī l-Khaṭṭ)
Back to the sources: Biblical and Near Eastern studies in honour of Dermot Ryan. Ed. K.J.Cathcart & J.F.Healey. Sandycove: Glendale, 1989 pp.164-191.
[Incl. Arabic text & translation.]
Geistliche und weltliche Schrift: Formen der islamischen Kalligraphie
Kunst und Antiquitäten, 1989 iv, pp.46-51.
Masterpieces of Islamic art in the Hermitage
Arts & the Islamic World, 19 (1990) pp.12-15.
Qur'ans
Arts & the Islamic World, 22 (1993) pp.11-17.
(From the Nasser D Khalili Collection.)
A note on the awlād al-Ḥilū: a scribal dynasty of Fās (Fez)
Manuscripta Orientalia, 12 ii (2006) pp.3-7
Jūda al-khaṭṭ. The excellence of calligraphy. Al-Zabīdī's summary of the history of calligraphy. A translation of the final chapter of the author's Ḥikmat al-ishrāq (Cairo, 1184/1771), with an introduction
Manuscripta Orientalia, 12 iii (2006) pp.3-14.
More Qur'āns of the Mamlūks
Manuscripta Orientalia, 13 ii (2007) pp.3-16.
A lost work by Ibn al-Qūṭiyya
Manuscripta Orientalia, 15 ii (2009) pp.57-59
Al-Andalus in Africa. Some notes on the transfer of technology by the 17th century Spanish Morisco refugees to North Africa and the Sahel
Manuscripta Orientalia, 17 ii (2011) pp.28-32.
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