340 x 220 mm, hardback, 254 pages, over 200 illustrations
PRICE: £75.00
ISBN: 978 1 903470 53 4
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The Shahnama (‘Book of Kings’), which chronicles the history of Iran from the Creation to the Islamic conquest, was written by the poet Firdawsi at the turn of the 11th century. Its central importance to Iranian culture is reflected in the thousands of copies made since then, many superbly illustrated and produced for royal and other powerful patrons. One of these copies, presented to Queen Victoria in 1839, is one of the finest treasures among the collection of Islamic manuscripts now in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Its 148 colourful images, which are in superb condition, show heroes, mythical beasts and bloody combats and are complemented by particularly sumptuous marginal illumination in gold.
B.W. Robinson relates the history of the Shahnama’s composition, and describes the Windsor manuscript and the circumstances under which it came to Britain. He also provides a lively summary of the narrative to accompany black-and-white illustrations of every painting. Over 50 of these are also shown in full-colour plates. Eleanor Sims discusses in detail the likely attribution of the paintings in the Windsor volume, and compares other 17th-century Shahnama manuscripts; she also examines the wider cultural milieu reflected in the paintings.
The late B.W Robinson (1912–2005) was an authority on many aspects of Islamic and Japanese art. Eleanor Sims, formerly of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the editor of Islamic Art, is an independent scholar who has written widely on Iranian art. Manijeh Bayani is a specialist in Arabic and Persian epigraphy.
The selection consists of Qur’ans, illustrated Islamic manuscripts and scientific and religious manuscripts. All are handsomely illustrated and fully discussed. The manuscripts are from all parts of the Islamic world and represent the finest achievements of the form. More
Given the status of the Qur‘an as the eternal and uncreated word of Allah, the art of the pen became the focus of an extraordinary energy in the Muslim world. Ink and Gold charts the development of Islamic calligraphy – the noblest, most stylized and original of the Islamic arts – over a period of some 1200 years, from its beginnings in the Arabian Peninsula. More
Produced for the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, this book traces the development of the early Ottoman style under influence from their neighbours; the impact of the patronage of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror; and the development of the ‘classical’ style under his successor Bayezid II. A catalogue section provides beautiful illustrations of 41 masterpieces of bookbinding; with technical appendices, bibliography, concordance and index. More
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Illuminator, painter, scribe, clerk, teacher, doctor of theology, restorer and binder, Mesrop was one of the greatest Armenian artists of his and following generations. He was prolific, working for at least forty-two years in Sos (New Julfa) from 1608 to 1651. This book will be the first serious study of the forty-six of his manuscripts that have survived. The focus of the book, however, is The Four Gospels, one of the few manuscripts painted entirely by Mesrop’s hand and one of the most extensively illuminated in his oeuvre. More
Around 1800, an anonymous engraver in Sharanakula, a small temple place on the southern coast of Orissa, illustrated a palm-leaf anthology of love poems. The one hundred Sanskrit quatrains, which are said to be the work of the 7th-century poet Amaru, describe the behaviour of enamoured couples, their longing for each other, the lovers’ anxieties, their ecstatic joy as well as their doubts and sorrows. More