Islamic Art & Archaeology 

• Qur'an Manuscripts -  Calligraphy Illumination and Design  NEW
• Pilgrimage, Sciences and Sufism - Islamic Art in the West Bank & Gaza  NEW   
• The Land of Enki in the Islamic Era
  

Last Updated by : 3rd November 2010

  Qur'an Manuscripts - Calligraphy, Illumination, Design [ Illustrated ] 

  Hardback - 128 pages                                                                          by Colin F. Baker

 
Description from the publisher:  While the significance of the written word reverberates through both Judaism and Christianity, nowhere does the physical presence of scripture matter as much as it does in the Islamic world. Recent controversies over Qur’an desecration by U.S. military personnel serve to illustrate just how revered the book continues to be in Muslim culture. Proof of the devotion the book inspires can also be gleaned by examining the sumptuously produced illuminated Qur’ an manuscripts reproduced in this volume.

Arabic manuscript authority Colin F. Baker explores the central place of the Qur’an in Islamic society and looks at the manuscripts as physical objects, including the celebrated calligraphy and the masterful artists who developed it. Numerous full-colour images display the breadth of illumination styles and production materials used.  

Qur’an Manuscripts is a concise and readable overview of the long history of these manuscripts from across the wide Islamic world, from the eighth to the end of the nineteenth centuries, and from Spain to Southeast Asia.  

    * Key title from the British Library's successful Sacred exhibition

    * Lavishly illustrated

    * Easily accessible to a general audience

   
Colin F. Baker is Head of the British Library’s Arabic section and is co-author of Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections.  

|  Hardback | 128 pages  | 244 x 172mm | 80 colour illustrations  | 

 
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  Pilgrimage, Sciences and Sufism: Islamic Art in the West Bank & Gaza 

 Paperback - 250 pages

Series :  Islamic Art in the Mediterranean

Country:  Palestinian Territories 

Author(s):  M. Hawari, Y. Natsheh, N. Al-Ju’beh, M. Abu Khalaf, M. Sadeq

Local Coordinator(s):  Sa’d Nimr

 
Islamic Art in the West Bank and Gaza explores a period during the reigns of the Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman dynasties, when numerous pilgrims and scholars from all quarters of the Muslim world came to Palestine. The great dynasties commissioned architectural and artistic masterpieces in the most important religious centres. Attracting the most learned scholars, many centres enjoyed considerable prestige and encouraged the spread of a rarefied art that still fascinates today. The Islamic monuments and architecture of this Exhibition Trail clearly reflect the connections between dynastic patronage, intellectual activity and the rich expression of people's devotion, rooted in this land for centuries.

Throughout its entire history, Palestine has witnessed on its territory the convergence of the great Middle Eastern cultures. Besides the obvious destruction and devastation, this convergence enriched the region with highly evolved cultural traditions to ensure a glowing reputation that spread to the outer edges of the new Muslim order. For the faithful undertaking the hadj Palestine rapidly became a sacred destination, which sanctified the pilgrimage to Makkah. Under the Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman dynasties, influxes of pilgrims poured into Palestine to visit Jerusalem and its Haram al-Sharif – the ‘Noble Holy Site'. In this climate of active religiousness, it is not surprising that Palestine became one of the most prestigious centres for learning in the Muslim world. The most eminent erudites came to teach in the al-Asqa Mosque, men of letters whose reputation spanned the whole of the Islamic world devoted themselves with passion to the art of debate, exegesis and rhetoric.


Hundreds of madrasas were built in Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus, Gaza and Zefat, the Haram al-Sharif alone may have accommodated up to 360 masters of different disciplines.These allowed for the decisive launch of Sufic philosophy, while, concurrently, promoting healthy economic activity galvanised by the continuous meetings of scholars and the faithful. Thousands of monumental tombs, mosques, zawiyas and caravanserais were built. To the enormous benefit of art history, these allocations, which, under the Ottoman Empire, were granted as far as Asia, Europe and Africa, have also guaranteed, in the long term, the upkeep and conservation of an impressive architectural heritage. It is thus that in this most modest geographic area, a sumptuous heritage transforms the country into an amazing architectural museum, where the entire panorama of Islamic styles is still present today.  

254 pages  |  216 colour illustrations  |  25 plans

 
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THE LAND OF ENKI IN THE ISLAMIC ERA : Pearls, Palms and Religious Identity in Bahrain

 Hardback - 590 pages                                                                            Timothy Insoll

This book presents the results of research and fieldwork completed in Bahrain in 2001 that had as its primary aim the investigation of the little understood period between the 6th-13th centuries AD. Thus all aspects of the excavated material are considered in detail (see Bahrain photo galleries). However this volume provides more than a presentation of primary archaeological data; hence subjects such as the role of trade and commerce in creating the complex history manifest in the Arabian Gulf region are considered, as are religious and other identities, such as ethnicity and gender. The growth and impact of the Carmathians, the evolution of Shi'ah identity, the significance of Indian and African populations are all evaluated using a multi-disciplinary approach drawing upon archaeology, history, and ethnography. Extracts of reviews include:

• Paulo Farias writing for the Crown Prince Court of Bahrain and the Bahrain National Museum (Jan 2006) states that the book, "is a model of what the best kind of historical archaeology can achieve. By applying sophisticated theoretical insights to a wealth of empirical evidence, it offers to the world scholarship a superb resource for understanding Early and Middle Islamic Bahrain". 
  
  

• Søren Andersen in the Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies (2006, p.50) writes that, "the book presents a refreshing contribution to the archaeology of Bahrain and eastern Arabia and provides what is badly needed to increase our understanding of the material culture of the Islamic periods: more data and discussion".  

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