The Arts Of Persia Other Countries Of Islam

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Arts of Persia & Other Countries of Islam" by Hagop K. Kevorkian. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

THIS exhibition has been arranged with a desire to meet the convenience of those who are interested in manifestations of the arts of different countries over which Islam held sway at one time or other in the past. An effort has been made to show under one roof representative examples of works produced at different epochs and stages of the civilizations referred to, so that they may be seen, and perhaps studied, with the minimum expenditure of time.Fine examples of many branches of the arts of these peoples are in permanent exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the museums of great cities throughout the country. It is difficult to find adequate words to describe the enchanting atmosphere of the halls at the Metropolitan Museum where Near Eastern art is installed; and the same can truly be said of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia. These exhibitions must inevitably contribute to the enjoyment and education of countless visitors to these institutions, and will continue to do so in increasing degree to the enjoyment of generations to come.The present exhibition does not comprise a vast number of objects. Its claim to attention lies in the fact that it includes an important series of really first class works which are also of great historical importance. There will be on view as well some comparatively new types of objects of �sthetic and arch�ological interest, obtained as the result of recent excavations.The briefness of time available precluded the possibility of compiling a catalogue, as was at first intended. The present booklet is issued to explain the scope of the exhibition, and extend a cordial invitation to visit it.H.K. [Enlarge]MUHAMMAD (THE PROPHET) WITNESSES ALI (HIS SON-IN-LAW AND SUCCESSOR) DEFEAT AMR BEN ABDWADOne of the eight illustrations for a XIIIth Century Persian Manuscript entitled, "History of Tabari", compiled A.H. 310 (A.D. 922). The present copy is a subsequent one of the Persian version, translated by al B'ala'mi, A.H. 352.It is interesting to note that Tabari records in the book here referred to, that three messages were sent by Muhammad to Khusraw Parniz, imparting the divine warnings. One of the messages, as recorded in an old Manuscript entitled Nihayat ul-Irab, reads:"In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. From Muhammad the Apostle of God to Khusraw son of Hurmazd. But to proceed. Verily I extol unto thee God, beside whom there is no other God. He it is who guarded me when I was an orphan, and made me rich when I was destitute, and guided me when I was straying in error. Only he who is bereft of understanding, and over whom calamity triumphs, rejects the message which I am sent to announce. O Khusraw, submit and thou shalt be safe, or else prepare to wage with God and with his Apostle a war which shall not find them helpless. Farewell." The rise of Islam and its rapid advent to power, is perhaps the most surprising chapter of the history of mankind. The great empires, Persian and Byzantine, which were subjected to the urgent onslaught of this rising power may have been in an enfeebled condition as a result of excess of despotism and internal dissensions, as historians affirm; but that the element of the power must have been in the rationality of the principles contained in the teaching, there can be no doubt."It was undoubtedly to Islam, that simple yet majestic creed of which no unprejudiced student can ignore the grandeur, that Arabs owed the splendid part which they were destined to play in the history of civilization....

While the impact of the Persian style is undeniably reflected in most aspects of the art and architecture of Islamic Central Asia, this Perso-Central Asian connection was chiefly formed and articulated by the Euro-American movement of collecting and interpreting the art and material culture of the Persian Islamic world in modern times. This had an enormous impact on the formation of scholarship and connoisseurship in Persian art, for instance, with an attempt to define the characteristics of how the Islamic art of Iran and Central Asia should be viewed and displayed at museums, and how these subjects should be researched in academia. This important historical fact, which has attracted scholarly interest only in recent years, should be treated as a serious subject of research, accepting that the abstract image of Persian art was not a pure creation of Persian civilization, but that it can be the manifestation of particular historical times and charismatic individuals. Attention should therefore be given to various factors that resulted in the shaping of “Persian” imagery across the globe, not only in terms of national ideologies, but also within the context of several protagonists, such as scholars, collectors and dealers, as well as of the objects themselves. This volume brings together Islamic Iranian and Central Asian art experts from diverse disciplinary and professional backgrounds, and intends to offer a novel insight into what is collectively known as Persian art.

The studies collected in this volume, some of them rather difficult of access, date mostly from the last fifteen years and focus primarily on Persian book painting of the 14th to the early 16th centuries. In this period Iran dominated the art of book painting in the Islamic world. The articles reprinted here examine various aspects of this, the golden age of Persian painting. They range from the period of Mongol rule, when the impact of Far Eastern themes and modes radically transformed the heritage bequeathed to Iran by Arab painting - a textbook case of the clash of civilisations - to the dawn of the modern era and the swansong of the classical style of Persian painting under the early Safavids. Yet other articles focus on the roots of book painting in the themes and styles developed in painted ceramics, on medieval Qur'anic calligraphy, on bookbinding and on the remarkably original variations played on the hitherto hackneyed theme of the figural frontispiece by Arab painters. Two major leitmotifs are explored in this selection of essays. One is provided by the constantly varying interpretations of the Shahnama (The Book of Kings), the Persian national epic, and especially the tendency of painters to interpret this familiar text in terms of contemporary politics. The other is the interplay of text and image, which highlights the tendency of painters to strike out on their own and to leave the literal text progressively further behind while they develop plots and sub-plots of their own. These enquiries are set within the context of a concerted effort to explore in detail how Persian painters achieved their most spectacular visual effects. In its combination of general surveys and closely focused analyses of individual manuscripts, this collection of articles will be of interest to specialists in book painting and in Islamic art as a whole.

When a traveller walks through the old remnants of Persia's mighty past, they are struck by its beauty. The message from the past of this amazing civilisation is still very much alive. Those who want to understand modern Iran must first learn about the rich history and culture of Persia. It is no coincidence that in ancient Achaemenid Persia, Cyrus II, as its first ruler, ordered a decree to be inscribed on a clay cylinder that is believed to be the first declaration of human rights, in which he states his wish to be benevolent and merciful to all conquered nations and tolerant of the religions of his subordinates. This and many other examples illustrate the amazing spirit that reigned in this area. The goal of this book was not only to present Iran in a multifaceted way, but also contribute to a better understanding of Islam. We should all be aware that only by understanding other cultures and showing the tolerance to other beliefs and religions that comes from this understanding can we all make life together on this unique and marvellous planet better.

Shows and describes examples of Persian calligraphy, glass, tile, pottery, lacquer, books, paintings, jewelry, textiles, sculpture, and architecture