Arts And Crafts Of The Islamic Lands

An unparalleled reference on Islamic arts and crafts that connects cultural history with modern practice

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 manufacture of finished artefacts. You will learn about: the legal and ethical dimensions of the arts and crafts, the organisation of labour in urban and rural contexts, the everyday lives of artisans, the gendered dimensions of making things, and the impact of industrialisation upon traditional methods of manufacture. Each chapter begins with an introduction providing a wider context for the primary sources. There are also suggestions for further reading.

In this impressive collection honouring the German scholar of Islamic art Jens Kröger on his 65th birthday, Avinoam Shalem and Annette Hagedorn bring together twenty-five contributions from a highly distinguished group of experts on Islamic art and specialists of central and south Asian art. Unpublished artefacts and new interpretations are presented in this book.

Islamic Art of Illumination presents an amazing mixture of classical Turkish illumination patterns and their contemporary interpretations. Sema Onat, a prominent illumination artist in Turkey, displays her incredible pieces of art, skillfully swirling her imagination together with classical Turkish Islamic patterns of illumination.

The material and visual culture of the Islamic World casts vast arcs through space and time, and encompasses a huge range of artefacts and monuments from the minute to the grandiose, from ceramic pots to the great mosques. Here, Venetia Porter and Mariam Rosser-Owen assemble leading experts in the field to examine both the objects themselves and the ways in which they reflect their historical, cultural and economic contexts. With a focus on metalwork, this volume includes an important new study of Mosul metalwork and presents recent discoveries in the fields of Fatimid, Mamluk and Qajar metalwork. By examining architecture, ceramics, ivories and textiles, seventeenth-century Iranian painting and contemporary art, the book explores a wide range of artistic production and historical periods from the Umayyad caliphate to the modern Middle East. This rich and detailed volume makes a significant contribution to the fields of Art History, Architecture and Islamic Studies, bringing new objects to light, and shedding new light on old objects.

Presents a brief overview of items such as Qur'ans, manuscripts and miniatures, papyri, calligraphy, glassware, and arms and armor.