This book consists of fifty case studies and offers an innovative approach to the study of Medieval Islamic history, concentrating on the analysis of physical objects from the seventh to the eighteenth centuries and across most of the regions that make up the pre-Modern Islamic world.These include a wide range of objects from portable items like coins, vessels and books to major constructions, including mosques, tombs, castles, dams, and canal systems. The central argument is that ...

The Islamic world's artistic traditions experienced profound transformation in the 19th century as rapidly developing technologies and globalizing markets ushered in drastic changes in technique, style, and content.Despite the importance and ingenuity of these developments, the 19th century remains a gap in the history of Islamic art. To fill this opening in art historical scholarship, Making Modernity in the Islamic Mediterranean charts transformations in...

Providing an introduction to the artistic and architectural traditions of the Islamic world, A Story of Islamic Art explores fifty case studies, taken from different regions of the Islamic world and from the seventh to the twenty-first centuries.The novel aspect of these case studies is that they are presented as fictional narratives, allowing the reader to imagine art and architecture, either in their original cultural settings or at some later point in their histories. T...

Islamic art is justly famed for its technological sophistication, varied approaches to ornament, and innovative employment of the written word. But what do we know about the skilled artisans who spent their lives designing and creating the paintings, objects and buildings that are so admired today? This anthology of written sources (dating from the seventh to the twentieth centuries) explores numerous aspects of the crafts of the Middle East from the processing of raw materials to the manu...

This book offers an introduction to the archaeology of the Islamic world. It traces the history of the discipline from its earliest manifestations through to the present and evaluates the contribution made by archaeology to the understanding of key aspects of Islamic culture. The author argues that it is essential for the results of archaeological research to be more fully integrated into the wider historical study of the Islamic world.Organising the book into broad themes allows a focus o...