Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang

Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft Awrang
Author: Marianna Shreve Simpson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 452
Release: 1997-01-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0300068026

Simpson explores the production, purpose and meaning of the Haft awrang (Seven Thrones), providing historical documentation about its princely patron and artists, and analysing its contents. She focuses in particular on the iconography of the seven poems.

Iran and The West

Iran and The West
Author: Cyrus Ghani
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 762
Release: 2013-09-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1136144668

First Published in 1987, this volume offers a bibliography of biographies, autobiographies and books on contemporary politics by prominent 20th century figures on the topic of Iran.

Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700

Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700
Author: Navina Najat Haidar
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2015-04-13
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0300211104

The vast Deccan plateau of south-central India stretches from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the region was home to several major Muslim kingdoms and became a nexus of international trade — most notably in diamonds and textiles, through which the sultanates attained remarkable wealth. The opulent art of the Deccan courts, invigorated by cultural connections to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, developed an otherworldly character distinct from that of the contemporary Mughal north: in painting, a poetic lyricism and audacious use of color; in the decorative arts, lively creations of inlaid metalware and painted and dyed textiles; and in architecture, a somber grandeur still visible today in breathtaking monuments throughout the plateau. The first book to fully explore the history and legacy of these kingdoms, Sultans of Deccan India elucidates the predominant themes in Deccani art—the region’s diverse spiritual traditions, its exchanges with the outside world, and the powerful styles of expression that evolved under court patronage—with fresh insights and new scholarship. Alongside the discussion of the art, lively, engaging essays by some of the field’s leading scholars offer perspectives on the cycles of victory and conquest as dynasties competed with one another, vied with Vijayanagara, a great empire to the south, and finally succumbed to the Mughals from the north. Featuring some 200 of the finest works from the Deccan sultanates, as well as spectacular site photographs and informative maps, this magnificently illustrated catalogue provides the most comprehensive examination of this world to date and constitutes a pioneering resource for specialists and general readers alike.

Images of Thought

Images of Thought
Author: Celina Jeffery
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2009-03-26
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1443807311

With many illustrations and diagrams, Images of Thought provides easy to follow ways in which to read Indian, Persian and European paintings in terms of composition, proportion, colour symbolism and references to myth. Yet it also provides the intellectual contexts of Islamic cultures which inform our perceptions of how this visual language works. The author uses salient aspects of critical theory, anthropology and theology to sensitise viewers to the diversity and difference of cultural readings but never loses sight of the primacy of the visual and formal characteristics, gestures, geometrical structures and their cooperation with myths and theologemes. The book provides access to one of the world’s major visual traditions whose characteristics continue to inform and elucidate Indian and Islamic contemporary thought today. Images of Thought is a major, scholarly and provocative contribution not only to our understanding of cultural individuality but it offers important examples of how to engage in transcultural understanding and ways of seeing.

Muqarnas

Muqarnas
Author: Gülru Necipoğlu
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1997-08-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9789004108721

Eros and Sexuality in Islamic Art

Eros and Sexuality in Islamic Art
Author: Francesca Leoni
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2013
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781409464389

Dedicated to the topic of eroticism and sexuality in the visual production of the medieval and early modern Muslim world, this volume offers new insights and methodological models that extend our understanding of erotic and sexual subjects in the Islamic tradition. The essays shed light on the diverse socio-cultural milieus of erotic images, on the motivations underlying their production, and on the responses generated by their circulation.