$45.00
The world of ISLAM. Faith, people, culture.
490 illustrations, 160 in colour, 330 photographs drawings and maps.
A concise, illustrated history of Islam which considers all aspects of its remarkably rich civilisation.
The central area and period of Islamic greatness - the Middle East and North Africa from the advent of Islam in the seventh century to the aftermath of the Mongol conquests in the thirteenth - produced a culture of extraordinary depth, variety and richness. Art, social life, trade, mysticism, literature, music, science and warfare all developed uniquely Islamic forms; all are fully considered and lavishly illustrated. Islam spread far outside its core space and time; Spain, Iran, Ottoman Turkey and Monghul India all developed their own striking variations of basic Islamic institutions and artefacts. Then, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Islam came into close contact with the advancing West; and the two cultures are still struggling to come to terms with eachother. All these themes are fully developed in the book; a comprehensive coverage which is further enhanced by 160 pages of illustrations, more than half of them in color.
Richard Ettinghausen, Oleg Grabar, Fritz Meier, Charles Pellat, A. Shiloah, A. I. Sabra, Edmund Bosworth, Emilio García Gómez, Roger M. Savory, Norman Itzkowitz, S. A. A. Rizvi, Elie Kedorie.
By Bernard Lewis.