This major reference work covers all aspects of architectural inscriptions in the Muslim world: the artists and their patrons, what inscriptions add to architectural design, what materials were used, what their purpose was and how they infuse buildings with meaning. From Spain to China, and from the Middle Ages to our own lifetime, Islamic architecture and calligraphy are inexorably intertwined. Mosques, dervish lodges, mausolea, libraries, even baths and market places bear masterpieces of calligraphy that rival the most refined of books and scrolls.

This analytical edition makes available a unique corpus of primary-source material and demonstrates its wide implications for African and Arabic studies.Through Arabic transciptions, English translations, line-drawing reconstructions, and plate illustrations, the volume catalogues the large number of eleventh-fifteenth century Arabic-Islamic inscriptions from the Republic of Mali - including the earliest datable writing from West Africa. Dr Moraes Farias uses this rich resource to reinterpret West African chronicles and oral traditions, and to demonstrate that the Tuareg and Songhay, peoples divided by civil war in the 1990s, share a composite history. This volume also discusses a wide range of linguistic and literary issues, and contributes to current debates about the nature of epigraphic evidence.

The two-volume Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture bridges the gap between monograph and survey text by providing a new level of access and interpretation to Islamic art. The more than 50 newly commissioned essays revisit canonical topics, and include original approaches and scholarship on neglected aspects of the field. This two-volume Companion showcases more than 50 specially commissioned essays and an introduction that survey Islamic art and architecture in all its traditional grandeur Essays are organized according to a new chronological-geographical paradigm that remaps the unprecedented expansion of the field and reflects the nuances of major artistic and political developments during the 1400-year span The Companion represents recent developments in the field, and encourages future horizons by commissioning innovative essays that provide fresh perspectives on canonical subjects, such as early Islamic art, sacred spaces, palaces, urbanism, ornament, arts of the book, and the portable arts while introducing others that have been previously neglected, including unexplored geographies and periods, transregional connectivities, talismans and magic, consumption and networks of portability, museums and collecting, and contemporary art worlds; the essays entail strong comparative and historiographic dimensions The volumes are accompanied by a map, and each subsection is preceded by a brief outline of the main cultural and historical developments during the period in question The volumes include periods and regions typically excluded from survey books including modern and contemporary art-architecture; China, Indonesia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sicily, the New World (Americas)

This volume offers an overview of the state of the field, and shows the importance of Islamic inscriptions for disciplines such as art history, history and literature. The chapters range from surveys to detailed exploration of individual topics, providing an insight to some of the most recent cutting-edge work on Islamic inscriptions. It focuses on the period from the rise of Islam to the fifteenth century, ranging across the Islamic world from the Maghreb to India and Central Asia, and inscriptions in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. The five sections of the book draw together some of the principal themes: 'Royal Power' investigates the role of sultanic patronage in epigraphy, and the use of inscriptions for projecting royal power. 'Piety' examines the relationship between epigraphy and religious practice. 'Epigraphic Style and Function' explores the relationship between the use of specific epigraphic styles and scripts and the function of a monument. 'Inscribed Objects' moves from monumental inscriptions to those on objects such as ceramics and pen-cases. The final section considers the interplay between inscriptions and historical sources as well as the utility of inscriptions as historical sources.

The essays in this volume bring to light the artistic exchanges that occurred between successive Islamicdynasties and those further afield in China, Armenia, India and Europe from the 12th to the 19th centuries. All the articles present original research, many of them taking advantage of innovative scientific means allowing us to look at already familiar objects in a new light. Subjects include tile production during the reign of Qaytbay, book bindings associated with Qansuh al-Ghuri, depictions of fish on Mamluk textiles, the relationship between Mamluk metalwork and Rasulid Yemen and Italy respectively. A number of the articles are concerned with epigraphic inscriptions found on the buildings of the Fatimid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods, examining the inscriptions on the Mausoleum of Yahya al-Shibihi in Cairo, others trace the revival of building inscriptions in 19th century Egypt, and how a Mamluk inscription from the Madrasa Qartawiya in Tripoli is replicated in Istanbul during the Ottomanperiod. The relationship between ceilings of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo and the MoukhroutasPalace in Constantinople is also explored, as is the unacknowledged debt that European lacquer worksowes to Persian craftsmen. Other topics covered include the architecture of the Nusretiye Mosque in Istanbul, the role played by Armenian architects in the reshaping of Ottoman cities in the 19th century, the role of the hammam in Ottoman culture and representations of beauty on Iznik pottery. Arictles on Port St. Symeon ceramics, the Armenian patrons of Chinese export wares of the 18th century, the history of the art of khatam khari in Iran, the artistic, architectural and literary influences in India between the 15th and 17th centuries, the influence of Timurid architecture in 15th century Bidar and the influence of a 16th century Hindavi Sufi Romance are also included. "

Family guide, Dazzling details in folded front cover.