Folio. 295 pp., profusely illustrated in colour photographs, cloth in d/w, biblio., index, copy in mint condition, White Star Publishers, Vercelli, Italy, 2005.

Synopsis

Since its inception, Islamic art has produced marvellous works. As early as A.D. 687, just 50 years after the death of the prophet Muhammad – the Umayyad masterpiece, the Dome of the Rock, was built in Jerusalem. Shortly afterwards, the Great Mosque was constructed Damascus, the capital of an empire that did not cease to expand. In 750, the horsemen of Islam occupied North Africa from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, and Cordoba became the capital of a caliphate. The more than 400 colour photographs in this book, edited by Henry Stierlin, an expert on Near and Middle Eastern cultures from prehistoric times to our days, illustrate the magnificent works produced by the dynasties that have written Islamic history for more than a millennium: the Umayyad, Abbasid, Turkish Seljuks, Fatimids, Ayyubids, Mamluks of Cairo, Aghlabids of Kairouan, Almohades and Merinids of Morocco, Nasrids of Granada, and the Ottomans of Istanbul. Fantastic works of art and architecture from miniatures and calligraphy to great mosque complexes enhanced civilisation between the 7th to 18th centuries in a West thrown on the defensive by the power of the new faith. This book presents a study of architecture: mosques, Koranic schools, palaces, forts, gardens, public baths and mausoleums.