Social architecture is a theoretical approach that takes the city itself as a text. In the anthropologist’s Clifford Gertz’s words the cityscape is “a story people tell themselves about themselves.” The built environment reflects the...

The present study is a first attempt to throw some light on the development of the human figure in the arts of Islam. It progresses chronologically, basing itself primarily on observation of paintings and sculptures in architectural decoration and minor arts....

This volume is a rumination of the meaning of Persian funerary structures within the context of Islamic traditions and perspectives during the 10th to 14th centuries AD.

The Baghdad Illustrations in this book, present a kaleidoscopic view of the city: Ottoman militaries and courtiers; religious authorities and various Sufi orders; merchants from many countries; Arab and Tartar nomads; European adventurers; local tradesmen,...

PLEASE NOTE: Hardcover is out of print. Please order this softcover edition. In the medieval Muslim world, the dragon was the most frequently represented fabulous beast. This applied across styles and media and in both sacred and secular contexts. Yet its...

The glazed ceramics produced in the Islamic world are of tremendous importance to the fields of art-history, archaeology and the history of technology. Unfortunately their study has been beset by three major problems. Firstly, problems existed with the...

This volume presents a detailed iconographic and stylistic study of a group of profusely illustrated manuscripts, from 1570's-80's. This group comprises 21 copies of three Persian texts, all entitled Stories of the Prophets. The lives and deeds of mostly...

The practice of imitating Chinese blue-and-white porcelain in Iran began in the Timurid period (c. 1370-1505). Attempts to distinguish wares actually made in Iran during the 15th century failed because they depended on analysis of the decoration alone....

The Northern Cemetery of Cairo deals with the beginnings, growth and decline of one of the most important cemeteries of Cairo, which is quintessentially a product of Mamluk patronage. This cemetery was a separate entity isolated on all sides; to the south the...

The core of this work is a catalogue of all known extant monuments built in Khurasan in the reigns of the successors of Timur. The period is virtually con-extensive with the 15th century CE, and is one in which the medieval province of Khurasan was the hub of...