Islam: Art and Architecture

Rating:
Summary: Islam: Art & Architecture
Review: Excellent book. Beautifully written, great photography...and a wonderful tour of the world of Islam. As always, Konemann has provided readers with many, many hours of pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: Islam: Art & Architecture
Review: Excellent book. Beautifully written, great photography...and a wonderful tour of the world of Islam. As always, Konemann has provided readers with many, many hours of pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: put this in your library? this is your library!
Review: Size does matter-this book is huge particularly if you consider the giveaway price(the paper costs more).Ok so it's big and it has pictures-nice ones!It's also comprehensive,diverse and well written,this book is the best there is for an amazing tour of islamic art and architecture.

Rating:
Summary: A great big book
Review: This is simply a magnificent book. Written and published originally in German, well-translated (it reads as if it had been originally written in English, which indicates a good translation), beautifully put together, well edited, with hundreds of full color photographs of mosaics, mosques, palaces, forts, towns, manuscripts, jewels, and mausoleums. The book claims attention. It is a full history of Islam, with maps and timelines in every chapter to help the reader in what might be unfamiliar territory, plus a full history of the development of Art and Architecture in 14 centuries of Islamic culture around the globe. Every page has at least one photograph, and all photographs are of great quality, sharp and clear. Even the photo on page 334, one of the very few in black and white, is good, almost haunting, since the walls shown are in ruins. The paper is also high quality. From the cover onwards it is clear that there is great respect for the culture represented in this book, and for the reader who will go through 600 hundred pages of text and supporting material. My personal highlights: night shot of the Kaaba, in Mecca, p. 2 and 13. Map of Europe, Asia, and most of Africa with sharp, thumbnail-like photographs of Muslim architectonic marvels in those three continents, p. 6-7. Al-Mutawakkil mosque, p. 103. What the facade of the Azhar Mosque in Cairo (p. 140) and the Almoravid clay seal (p. 247) have in common, which is a testimony to the endurance of symbols. The entire "Spain and Morocco" chapter, 207-299.

The appendix, starting on 601, is helpful and clear. The publisher, Könemann, is reponsible for another winner, "Gothic Architecture, Sculpture, Painting," but I believe "Islam, Art and Architecture" is better overall. This book is big and heavy, being more practical as a source of information than as a text that you would read from cover to cover or carry around. I highly recommend it, though, if you are interested in Islam at all from any perspective. My interest is mostly historical, but I can see already that this is a book that I will return to again and again.