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