Deconstructing the Myths of Islamic Art addresses how researchers can challenge stereotypical notions of Islam and Islamic art while avoiding the creation of new myths and the encouragement of nationalistic and ethnic attitudes. Despite its Orientalist origins, the field of Islamic art has continued to evolve and shape our understanding of the various civilizations of Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Situated in this field, this book addresses how universities, museums, and other educational institutions can continue to challenge stereotypical or homogeneous notions of Islam and Islamic art. It reviews subtle and overt mythologies through scholarly research, museum collections and exhibitions, classroom perspectives, and artists’ initiatives. This collaborative volume addresses a conspicuous and persistent gap in the literature, which can only be filled by recognizing and resolving persistent myths regarding Islamic art from diverse academic and professional perspectives. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, museum studies, visual culture, and Middle Eastern studies.
Robert Irwin delves deep into the cultures of the Islamic world to survey the exquisite arts of painting, architecture, porcelain, enamel, manuscript illumination, metalwork, calligraphy, textiles, and more. Including 217 illustrations, 148 in full color, the book covers the earliest foundations of Islam through the brilliant high point of the 17th century.
This richly illustrated book provides an unsurpassed overview of Islamic art and architecture from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries, a time of the formation of a new artistic culture and its first, medieval, flowering in the vast area from the Atlantic to India. Inspired by Ettinghausen and Grabar’s original text, this book has been completely rewritten and updated to take into account recent information and methodological advances. The volume focuses special attention on the development of numerous regional centers of art in Spain, North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as the western and northeastern provinces of Iran. It traces the cultural and artistic evolution of such centers in the seminal early Islamic period and examines the wealth of different ways of creating a beautiful environment. The book approaches the arts with new classifications of architecture and architectural decoration, the art of the object, and the art of the book. With many new illustrations, often in color, this volume broadens the picture of Islamic artistic production and discusses objects in a wide range of media, including textiles, ceramics, metal, and wood. The book incorporates extensive accounts of the cultural contexts of the arts and defines the originality of each period. A final chapter explores the impact of Islamic art on the creativity of non-Muslims within the Islamic realm and in areas surrounding the Muslim world.
This richly illustrated book allows readers to identify the elements and themes of Islamic art forms, and to examine them in works of painting and metalwork, in calligraphy and manuscripts, ceramics, glass, wood, and ivory.
A bold, readable, and beautifully illustrated introduction to Islamic art and architecture, this renowned book is now available in an updated and revised edition featuring color illustrations throughout. Including over a thousand years of history and stretching from the Atlantic to the borders of India and China, Islamic Art and Architecture is an unparalleled narrative of the arts of Islamic civilization. From the death of the Prophet Muhammad to 1900, Islamic art expert Robert Hillenbrand traces the evolution of an extraordinary range of art forms, including architecture, calligraphy, book illumination, painting, ceramics, glassware, textiles, and metalwork. This new edition includes a chapter examining art produced from 1700 to 1900, an understudied period in the area, exploring how these centuries saw incredible creativity across the Islamic world. Featuring full-color illustrations of masterpieces of Islamic art and architecture, from seventh-century Arabia via Moorish Spain to modern Iran, this book shows the far-reaching stylistic developments that have shaped Islamic art. Including maps, an updated glossary, and suggested further reading, this authoritative and accessible volume sheds light on the recurrent preoccupations and themes that have shaped the arts of Islam since the seventh century.
This fascinating new series will present 12 Exhibition Trails in 11 countries, which follow the chronology of the spread of Islamic art in that area. The Museum With No Frontiers programme is based on the novel idea of organising exhibitions without transporting the works of art, instead allowing the visitor to discover the artefacts, architecture and museums in their original environment and within their historical and cultural context. This concept makes it possible for the Islamic art academic or enthusiast to experience art as a living illustration of social history. Each Exhibition Trail is divided into a number of itineraries that provide detailed information on the history and significance of each structure or work and offer practical information on guided tours, transportation and cultural activities. The beautifully illustrated descriptions of the archaeological sites, artworks and architecture are written by experts in the field who live in the specified area itself. Visit the virtual gallery www.mwnf.org for further information. The exhibition is devoted to significant monuments from the reign of the Umayyad caliphs (660-750 AD) in an area that stretched from Amman to Mo