It is now recognized that heritable diseases are due to defective structure or function of specific genes. The knowledge of various developments in genetics can greatly reduce individual human suffering as well as the economic and social costs to the society. Simultaneously, this deluge of genetic information also poses several ethical, legal and social dilemmas which must be resolved by broad discussions at the popular level. This is possible only if the common people have the knowledge of at least the basics of this field. This richly illustrated book will be a small but significant step in this direction. The focus is on thallasaemia, a major inherited disease in India.

Court and Craft: A Masterpiece from Northern Iraq (The Courtauld Gallery)

Arts & Photography

Ward, Rachel

Melville, Charles

Hillenbrand, Robert

Shreve Simpson, Marianna

History & Criticism

Paul Holberton Publishing

The last two volumes in this series have looked at the confrontation between Christian and Moor in Medieval Spain exclusively from the Christian side.This book attemps to redress the balance by looking at many of the same incidents from the Moslem point of view.

Christians and Moors in Spain: Volume III Arabic Sources (Hispanic Classics Series)

Ubaydli, Ahmad

Religion & Spirituality

Liverpool University Press

India has the Mahabharata, Greece has Homer’s epic cycle, and the national history of Iran is chronicled in Firdausi’s epic poem The Book of Kings, or Shahnama. This lavishly illustrated study explores the intricate complexity of this epic as it is beautifully rendered in a rare fifteenth-century reproduction. The Shahnama positions Iran at the heart of human civilization, and its sprawling and compelling narrative stretches from the beginning of time to the seventh-century takeover of the Persian Empire by Muslim Arabs. Ibrahim Sultan, governor of Shiraz in southern Iran from 1415 to 1435, commissioned an edition of the Shahnama that contained a lavish assortment of intricate original paintings. This version is now in the collection of the Bodleian Library, and The Persian Book of Kings explores this rare text in extensive detail. The authors investigate the life of the poet Firdausi, unpack the literary context of the poem and its illuminations, and examine the royal court of Ibrahim Sultan for whom the manuscript was commissioned. The richly colored miniatures and illuminations spread through the text are given full exploration in this study, with examinations of both the artists’ techniques that influenced generations of illustrators and the artworks’ meanings. The book also features a helpful glossary of Persian terms and a list of the numerous characters that appear in the epic. A gorgeously produced study of one of the great literary works of human history, The Persian Book of Kings offers a fascinating look at the myths and legends of an ancient culture.

The Persian Book of Kings: Ibrahim Sultan's "Shahnama" (Treasures from the Bodleian Library)

Literature & Fiction

Abdullaeva, Firuza

Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

Accompanying a major scholarly exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery, this book explores one of the most beautiful and enigmatic objects in The Courtauld's collection: the so-called 'Courtauld wallet', a brass container richly inlaid with gold and silver, imitating a lady's textile or leather bag, and probably made in Mosul in northern Iraq around 1300. No other object of this kind is known. Decorated all round with courtly figures and on the top with an elaborate banqueting scene featuring an enthroned couple, it has long been recognized as a masterpiece of Arab metalwork. Yet, despite the superb quality of its design and craftsmanship and its status as a unique object, this exceptional metalwork bag has never been properly published. Thus it remains little known outside a small circle of specialists, and little understood even within that circle. Encompassing a variety of multidisciplinary essays by distinguished historians and art historians - on subjects ranging from music at the Mongol court, Mosul under Mongol governorship and Mongol marriage customers to the role of women under the Ilkhanids - this publication aims to explore the origins, function and iconography of this splendid luxury object as well as the cultural context in which it was made and used. It will bring together other images of enthroned Mongols with female consorts, as well as scenes of hunters, revelers an musicians in a variety of media, including illustrated manuscripts, ceramics, textile, and metalwork. By presenting the bag alongside carefully selected contemporary material, it will provide an insight into courtly life under the Mongols in the newly conquered areas of their empire, and will also provide an unrivaled opportunity to investigate the inlaid brass tradition in Mosul after the Mongol Conquest. Objects made before and after this seismic event will be reproduced side by side to demonstrate how the Mosul metalworkers adapted their work for their new patrons.

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Books by Melville, Charles