Arthur Upham Pope and his research methods in Muhammadan art:Persian carpets

This paper looks at the emergence of Persian carpet scholarship in the early twentieth century, and the formative role played by Arthur Upham Pope, one of the American pioneers of Iranian art studies and collecting. By examining the background to his article published in the Art Bulletin in 1925, the paper considers how Persian carpets were incorporated into Islamic art-historical discourse in the early twentieth century

George Lane (ed.). The Phoenix Mosque and the Persians of Medieval Hangzhou

Edited by George Lane, The Phoenix Mosque and the Persians of Medieval Hangzhou intends to contextualise one of the historic mosques on the coastal region of East China and their related cultural relics, particularly tombstones and stelae, some of which are masterfully carved and inscribed. Located in Hangzhou (the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty) and known as the Phoenix (Fenghuang) Mosque, this architectural complex is uniquely blending Chinese and Islamic styles. Although its original..

Atefeh Seyed Mousavi. Narrative Illustration on Qajar Tilework in Shiraz

This book is the forty-sixth volume of an interdisciplinary series in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte des Islamischen Orients, published by Verlag für Orientkunde since 1949. Based on the author’s doctoral dissertation, Narrative Illustration on Qajar Tilework in Shiraz, explores a group of illustrated tiles from nineteenth-century public and private buildings in Shiraz. This unique artistic phenomenon has received little scholarly attention, compared with a ..

Marie-Catherine Rey, Huei-Chung Tsao (eds.). Jade: Des empereurs à l'art déco / Jade: From Emperors to Art Deco

This beautifully illustrated volume has been published to accompany an exhibition on the arts of jade, organised jointly by the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques - Guimet in Paris and the National Palace Museum in Taipei in autumn 2016 - winter 2017. Showcasing more than 200 pieces drawn from not only the Chinese imperial collection but also local French collections, the exhibition demonstrates the significance of jade culture across Eurasia from ancient to modern times. Although jade is clo..

Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt. China’s Early Mosques

China’s Early Mosques is one of the latest additions to the Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art and among the most unique publications in the field of so-called “Islamic architecture” in recent years. While the history of Middle Eastern (i.e. Iran, Turkey and the Arab world) architecture since the seventh century remains the focal point in this field of research, Steinhardt enters the field from East Asia. As a study of Chinese architectural history, too, China’s Early Mosques is far too unique ..

Lamia Balafrej. The Making of the Artist in Late Timurid Painting

How did Persian artists self-represent themselves within paintings in the absence of a tradition of self-portraiture? How did Persian beholders engage themselves with the style of painting in the past? By addressing these fundamental questions in the study of Persian painting, The Making of the Artist in Late Timurid Painting examines the performative and self-representational abilities of Persian artists through the detailed examination of the Cairo Bustan, the earliest surviving illustrated..

Louise W. Mackie. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th–21st Century

This lavishly illustrated and physically imposing volume – a winner of the 24th I.R. Iran World Award for Book of the Year (2017) – has been published as the result of a long-term research endeavour by Louise W. Mackie, an internationally renowned expert of Islamic textiles and a former curator of textiles and Islamic art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. With more than 500 illustrations, mostly in color, Symbols of Power offers an unparallel amount of information on the historical and cultural..

Juliane von Fircks, Regula Schorta (eds.). Oriental Silks in Medieval Europe

This volume is a collection of papers given to the international colloquium, “Oriental Silks in Medieval Europe,” a scholarly forum which was held in 2011 at the Abegg-Stiftung, one of the leading textile research centres in Europe. Although it intends to be published as part of the series of the conference proceedings, known as Riggisberger Berichte, Oriental Silks in Medieval Europe comes out as a solid scholarly volume, written by more than twenty renowned textile experts, as well as art a..

Anna Beselin. Knots, Art & History: The Berlin Carpet Collection

Among the celebrated carpet collections in European museums, the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin possesses one of the oldest and finest collections of this kind. Although several attempts have been made to publicise the Berlin carpet collection in the past, Knots, Art & History marks the first publication of the united carpet collection of the Museum in English. This book is divided into the following two main sections: art-historical notes (pp. 14-39) and a catalogue of select examples (46 o..