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The period ca. 645-770 marked an extraordinary era in the development of East Asian Buddhism and Buddhist art. Increased contacts between China and regions to both its west and east facilitated exchanges and the circulation of ideas, practices and art forms, giving rise to a synthetic art style uniform in both iconography and formal characteristics. The formulation of this new Buddhist art style occurred in China in the latter part of the seventh century, and from there it became widely dissemin...

Women and Contemporary Art in the Gulf offers a unique focus on the roles of women in contemporary art, cultural production and arts institutions in the Gulf. Drawing on in-person experiences of the art and sites discussed, as well as research on regional artists and arts institutions, DeTurk argues that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been largely excluded from the critical discourse about, and display...

A vital new perspective on British history from award-winning broadcaster Fatima Manji"This is such an important, brave book that sheds a calm, bright light on the complexity of history at a time when simplistic assumptions have become the norm. It is truly brilliant" Elif ShafakWhy was there a Turkish mosque adorning Britain's most famous botanic garden in in the eighteenth century? And more importantly, why is it no longer there? How did one of the great symbols of an Indian king's power, a pa...

Designed to provide a detailed exploration into the exceptional array of art and architecture in Egypt, this captivating volume will surely enthral anyone interested in the country's art and history. This brand new edition is in lightweight softcover which combined with the compact format makes it an excellent travel companion, as well as a fascinating background read. Despite its portable format this is an extremely comprehensive guide covering all major places of interest, with numerous essays...

This book is regarded as the most authoritative work on tribal rugs. It paints a fascinating picture not only showing superb examples of tribal rugs, but also the way in which they are woven and the life of the tribes themselves.

In medieval warfare, organization, staff services, hierarchy of command, and codes of military law were nonexistent. Machiavelli changed all that. For him, discipline was of supreme importance. War is war, he believed, a no-holds-barred contest, and victory the supreme aim to which all other considerations must be subordinated. To this end, Machiavelli instituted the systematic conception of troop formation, which until then had been almost unheard-of. The Art of War was widely read and highly e...

Twelver Shi'ism is the dominant faith in southern Iraq and Iran and it has had a major historical role also in India, in particular in the Deccan and in Lucknow, but its distinctive art and architecture have received little attention and seldom appear in books on the arts of the Islamic World. This book attempts to correct this situation. It looks first at the history of the great Shi'i shrines of Iran and Iraq, a subject almost completely untouched in the standard works on Islamic archit...

Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art houses one of the richest collections of artifacts from all periods of Islamic history and all parts of the Islamic world. Structured as a guide, but fully illustrated with superb color photographs, this book suggests a simple but comprehensive itinerary through one of Egypt's most fascinating museums. Taking readers through the various exhibits, this useful guidebook explains and illuminates the esthetic and historic importance of the museum's main works on display...

Situated in the fields of contemporary literary and cultural studies, the ten essays collected in Generations of Dissent shed light on the artistic creativity, cultural production, intellectual movements, and acts of political dissidence across the Middle East and North Africa. Born of the contributors' research on dissidence and state co-option in a variety of artistic and creative fields, the volume's core themes reflect the notion that the recent Arab uprisings did not appear in a cultural, p...

In this groundbreaking book, a range of internationally renowned and emerging academics, writers, artists, curators, activists and filmmakers critically reflect on the ways in which visual culture has appropriated and developed new media across North Africa and the Middle East. Examining the opportunities presented by the real-time generation of new, relatively unregulated content online, Uncommon Grounds evaluates the prominent role that new media has come to play in artistic practices - and...

The past to self-discovery and inner and outer peace...Divine Names is a unique contribution to understanding life and oneself on a deeper level: by learning to open to the Divine. It draws on original Arabic literatureoften not available in European languagesand on the authors many years of personal practice, teaching, and guiding others on their spiritual paths to healing, to becoming whole. It focuses on the use of the Divine Names in dhikr, individual meditations and healing practices.

(This title was originally published in 1992/93.)

The city of Nishapur, located in eastern Iran, was a place of political importance in medieval times and a flourishing center of art, crafts, and trade. Excavated by the Iranian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum in 1935-40 and again in 1947, the site yielded a wealth of artifacts. This volume is the fourth in a series issued by the Museum to publish the excavated finds. The objects are now divided between The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Iran Bastan Museum in Tehran. The Ni...