This book gives a comprehensive bibliography of manuscripts books articles the parts of books related to calligraphy as well as publications that appeared on calligraphy abroad. In the foreword Prof. Dr. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu underlines the importance of this art for the Islamic world and the characteristics that make it unique among other arts. He then dwells on various activities of IRCICA in the field of calligraphy since its establishment 1980 in the form of research publications training programs competitions and exhibitions. He points out that the bibliographic studies of the literature on calligraphy are a major part of the studies in this field. The book also includes a brief preface by Ali Haydar Bayat and an introduction by Prof. M. Uğur Derman. The present bibliography is the revised and enlarged version of the first edition covering the years of 1888-1988 and published in 1990.

This bibliography is organized in the following way: Part I gives information on the manuscripts located in the libraries in Turkey and related to calligraphy. Part II brings together the printed works in Arab and Latin characters. Part III presents the list of books and articles newspapers and sections on calligraphy and their subjects [....] were added at the end of the bibliographic heading. Part IV brings together the catalogues of auctions covering the subjects of calligraphy calligraphers and materials of calligraphy. Part V brings together the works on calligraphy written outside of Turkey. Part VI presents those articles that were published outside of Turkey and that were available to the author. Part VII includes the necessary addresses for reaching the studies on calligraphy through the Internet. Part VII also contains the indices of authors calligraphers books and periodicals covering the articles on calligraphy different styles and materials of calligraphy. This reference book appears as the most voluminous one of the bibliographies that were compiled till the present day since it covers almost the entire literature in Turkey on this subject.