Summary

From Jerusalem's golden-roofed Dome of the Rock, built in the 7th century, to the King Saud Mosque, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, completed in 1989, the Islamic world has created a wealth of art and architectural treasures. This beautifully illustrated book surveys that rich heritage. From architectural monuments to pottery, carpets and costume, it embraces the range of Islamic artistic achievement, including the form most revered by Muslims ? calligraphy. Starting with the original Arab-style courtyard mosques, first seen in Arabia in Madinah's Mosque of the Prophet Muhammad, the book traces the development of mosque architecture through the centuries and in different cultures. In Iran, this flowered in the typically Islamic ?four-iwan? design, consisting of four domed halls (iwans) around an enclosure. In the 16th century in Turkey, architectural developments gave rise to the imposing Ottoman central-dome mosque, with a vast enclosed space beneath one or more domes. The diversity of decorative Islamic art forms is similarly breathtaking, from the vivid Fatimid woodcarvings of 10th?12th-century Egypt, and the Persian manuscript tradition from the 14th century onward, to the exquisite lustreware produced in Islamic Spain in the 14th and 15th centuries. Meticulously researched, with more than 500 photographs and maps, this book is the perfect study aid for students or anyone with a keen interest in Islamic artistic expression and interpretation.