Book
In Lives of the Prophets: The Illustrations to Hafiz-i Abru’s “Assembly of Chronicles” Mohamad Reza Ghiasian analyses two extant copies of the Majmaʿ al-tawarikh produced for the Timurid ruler Shahrukh (r. 1405–1447). The first manuscript is kept in Topkapı Palace and the second is widely dispersed. Codicological analysis of these manuscripts not only allows a better understanding of Hafiz-i Abru’s contributions to rewriting earlier history, but has served to identify the existence of a previously unrecognised copy of the Jamiʿ al-tawarikhproduced at Rashid al-Din’s scriptorium. Through a meticulous close reading of both text and image, Mohamad Reza Ghiasian convincingly proves that numerous paintings of the dispersed manuscript were painted over the text before its dispersal in the early twentieth century.
Publisher: BRILL
Series: Studies in Persian Cultural History, Volume: 16
Extent: xvi + 344 pp.
ISBN: 978-90-04-37722-6
Book
The Pisa Griffin and the Mari-Cha Lion. Metalwork, Art, and Technology in the Medieval Islamicate Mediterranean is an interdisciplinary study focusing on two unique bronze sculptures produced between the late eleventh and the early twelfth century. Through scientific, historical and art historical analyses it investigates the many issues that surround them, including fundamental questions of location and period, purpose and patronage, their transcultural meanings, and their agency as the function of each has mutated.
By bringing related pieces into the discussion, this study seeks to change our understanding of medieval art and metal production in the Western Mediterranean and to highlight the significance of metalworking in Spain and South Italy. It shows how the relationship between these areas and the rest of the Mediterranean was marked by active exchanges of goods and artistic ideas during the period just prior to the development of the better-known Shirazi, Ayyubid and Mamluk inlaid metalwork.
Pisa: Pacini Editore, 2018.
Hard cover 28.5x25x3.5 cm, 544 pages, 374 colour photos and diagrams, €65.
Book
In Lives of the Prophets: The Illustrations to Hafiz-i Abru's "Assembly of Chronicles" Mohamad Reza Ghiasian analyses two extant copies of the Majmaʿ al-tawarikh produced for the Timurid ruler Shahrukh (r. 1405–1447). The first manuscript is kept in Topkapı Palace and the second is widely dispersed. Codicological analysis of these manuscripts not only allows a better understanding of Hafiz-i Abru's contributions to rewriting earlier history, but has served to identify the existence of a previously unrecognised copy of the Jamiʿ al-tawarikh produced at Rashid al-Din's scriptorium. Through a meticulous close reading of both text and image, Mohamad Reza Ghiasian convincingly proves that numerous paintings of the dispersed manuscript were painted over the text before its dispersal in the early twentieth century.
Publisher: BRILL
Series: Studies in Persian Cultural History, Volume: 16
Extent: xvi + 344 pp.
ISBN: 978-90-04-37722-6
Book
The iconic minaret of Jam stands in a remote mountain valley in central Afghanistan, the finest surviving monument of the enigmatic 12th-century Ghurid dynasty. The re-discovery of the minaret half a century ago prompted renewed interest in the Ghurids, and this has intensified since their summer capital at Jam became Afghanistan’s first World Heritage site in 2002. Two seasons of archaeological fieldwork at Jam, the detailed analysis of satellite images and the innovative use of Google Earth as a cultural heritage management tool have resulted in a wealth of new information about known Ghurid sites, and the identification of hundreds of previously undocumented archaeological sites across Afghanistan. Thomas uses this data to generate a more nuanced understanding of this early Islamic polity and its sustainability, as well as exploring issues of Ghurid identity and ideology.
Sydney University Press, 2018.
ISBN: 9781743325414
Journal
Several volumes of the OSIA series are available for sale via the Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford. For full details, please email KRC administrator Hannah Litvack.
Volume number Volume name Full publication details Hardback price Paperback price OSIA II Animal Symbolism in Warqa wa Gulshah Abbas Daneshvari. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1986. ISBN 019728003X £ 50.00 OSIA III Pots and Pans Michael Vickers (ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1986. ISBN 0197280056 (hardback) ISBN 0197280064 £ 50.00 £ 30.00 OSIA IV Syria and Iran - Three studies in medieval ceramics James Allan and Caroline Roberts (eds). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987. ISBN 0197280072 (hardback). ISBN 0197280080 £ 50.00 £ 30.00 OSIA VI Walid and his friends - An Umayyad tragedy Robert Hamilton. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1988. ISBN 0197280110 (hardback). ISBN 0197280129 £ 50.00 £ 30.00 OSIA IX i Bayt Al-Maqdis 'Abdal al-Malik's Jerusalem Julian Raby and Jeremy Johns (eds). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992. ISBN 019728017X £ 50.00 OSIA IX ii Bayt Al-Maqdis Jerusalem and Early Islam Julian Raby and Jeremy Johns (eds). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000. ISBN 0197280188 £ 50.00 OSIA X i Islamic Art in the Ashmolean Pt. 1 James Allan (ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995. ISBN 0197280196 £ 50.00 OSIA X ii Islamic Art in the Ashmolean Pt. 2 James Allan (ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995. ISBN 019728020X £ 50.00 OSIA XI A Monumental manifestation of the Shiite faith.
Case of the Gunbad-i 'Alawiyan, HamadanRaya Shani. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996. ISBN 0197280218 £ 50.00 OSIA XII The Court of the Il-Khans 1290-1340 Teresa Fitzherbert and Julian Raby (eds.) Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996. ISBN 0197280226 £ 50.00 OSIA XIII 'Amiriya in Rada': History and Restoration
of a Sixteenth-century Madrasa in the YemenSelma al-Radi. With contributions by Ruth Barnes, Yahya al-Nasiri and Venetia Porter. Ed Robert Hillenbrand, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1997. ISBN 0197280234 £ 50.00 OSIA XIV Samarra: A Medieval Islamic City reconsidered Chase Robinson (ed.). Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 0-19-728024-2 £ 50.00 OSIA XV Persian Steel - The Tanavoli Collection James Allan and Brian Gilmour. 2 vols. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000. ISBN 019-728025-0 £ 80.00
Book
Praised as one of the finest calligraphers of his time, Ruzbihan Muhammad al-Tab‘i al-Shirazi would have produced numerous Qur’ans during the course of his career, but only five signed by him have survived, of which the Chester Betty manuscript—produced in Shiraz—is surely his finest. Equally deserving of praise is the team of highly skilled, yet anonymous, artists responsible for the manuscript’s decorative programme, the combined quality, extent, diversity and complexity of which sets the manuscript apart from almost all others of its time. The manuscript is not dated, but work on it probably began about 1550.
The book is a detailed and comprehensive study of the manuscript with chapters on the writing of the text (including a discussion of problems encountered in the spacing of the text and omissions and errors made by the calligrapher), the reading and recitation of the text and the decoration of it. Much of the discussion is the result of close examination of the manuscript under high magnification, which often revealed surprising and previously unknown aspects of production. An essay on the pigments used in the manuscript, by Kristine Rose Beers, the Chester Beatty’s Senior Conservator, is also included.
Ad Ilissum/Paul Holberton Publishing, London
Hardback, 300 x 240 mm
320 pages, 430 colour illustrations
ISBN 978 1 912168 04 0
Website
The Berlin Museum of Islamic Art's object database includes over 11,000 objects and is now available online, at www.smb-digital.de.
Please look for „Museum für Islamische Kunst“. Currently the descriptions are only available in German. However you may search the collection in a special search form („Advanced Search“) according to date, material, object/term and geographical reference and enjoy the multiple views of the objects featured under the headline „Multimedia“.
Website
The Manar al-Athar website, based at the University of Oxford, aims to provide free, downloadable, high resolution, searchable images for teaching, research, and publication. These images of archaeological sites, with buildings and art, will cover the areas of the former Roman empire which later came under Islamic rule, such as Syro-Palestine/the Levant, Arabia, Egypt, North Africa and Spain. The chronological range is from Alexander the Great (i.e., from about 300 BC) through, the Islamic period to the present. It is the first website of its kind providing such material labelled jointly in both Arabic and English. There are currently over 30,000 images online.
Book
One of the largest and most important palatial houses of late 18th- and early 19th-century Damascus belonged to the Farhi family, who served as financial administrators to successive Ottoman governors in Damascus and Acre. The conversion of Bayt Farhi to a hotel provided a unique opportunity to make a detailed examination of its architecture, which is comparable to those of affluent Christians and Muslims, and decorated with high quality materials in the latest styles.
Lavishly illustrated with extensive color photographs, plans, and reconstruction drawings the book brings to life the home environment of the lost elite Sephardic community of Ottoman Damascus. It will be an essential resource for those studying the architecture, history, and culture of Syria and the Ottoman Empire. Co-published with Manar al-Athar, University of Oxford.
Annual of ASOR, 72
Manar al-Athar Monographs, 4
ISBN-13 9780897571005
ISBN-10 0897571002
356 pages (255 col & 47 b/w illus.)
$89.95
Book
Introducing a new concept of urban space, Cities and Metaphors encourages a theoretical realignment of how the city is experienced, thought and discussed.
In the context of ‘Islamic city’ studies, relying on reasoning and rational thinking has reduced descriptive, vivid features of the urban space into a generic scientific framework. Phenomenological characteristics have consequently been ignored rather than integrated into theoretical components. The book argues that this results from a lack of appropriate conceptual vocabulary in our global body of scholarly literature. It challenges existing theories, introduces and applies the concept of Hezar-tu (‘a thousand insides’) to rethink the spaces in historic cores of Fez, Isfahan and Tunis. This tool constructs a staging post towards a different articulation of urban space based on spatial, physical, virtual, symbolic and social edges and thresholds; nodes of sociospatial relationships; zones of containment; state of intermediacy; and, thus, a logic of ambiguity rather than determinacy. Presenting alternative narrations of paths through sequential discovery of spaces, this book brings the sensual features of urban space into the focus.
The book finally shows that concepts derived from local contexts enable us to tailor our methods and theoretical structures to the idiosyncrasies of each city while retaining the global commonalities of all. Hence, in broader terms, it contributes to a growing awareness that urban studies should be more inclusive by bringing the diverse global contexts of cities into the body of our urban knowledge.
Please submit resources to the HIAA secretary including the resource name and type, and several sentences about its nature, and a link to further information.