This volume illustrates the Ghassan I. Shaker Collection of Islamic manuscripts. Devoted primarily to Qu'rans, the Shaker Collection is notable for the quality of the calligraphy, the superb illumination in gold, and the excellence in binding. This beautifully illustrated volume will appeal to the general reader as well as to a broad range of specialists.

Golden Pages: Qur'ans and other manuscripts from the collection of Ghassan I. Shaker

Arts & Photography

Safwat, Nabil F.

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Azimuth Editions

This volume surveys the Persian miniature and associated arts held in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. The most comprehensive catalogue yet of these collections, it comprises more than 400 works dating from the 15th to the early 20th centuries, including illustrated and illuminated manuscripts, single-page miniatures and drawings, painted lacquer and oils on canvas, presented side by side to give an overall picture of the development of the arts of Iran over five centuries. .

Persian Manuscripts, Paintings and Drawings: From the 15th to the Early 20th Century in the Hermitage Collection

Adamova, Adel

Reference

A renowned scholar examines the beauty and impact of drawings and prints by Piranesi, as well as the Italian architect's relationship with his friend and colleague Sir John Soane. An 18th-century architect and printmaker, Giovanni Battista Piranesi was a lifelong champion of Rome, publishing more than 1,000 etchings of the Eternal City and its ancient monuments. Piranesi's English contemporary Sir John Soane was also an architect specializing in the neoclassical style. When the two artists met, they formed a profound and complex creative and intellectual relationship that nurtured Soane's later career. Among Soane's greatest legacies is the London museum that bears his name, and some of its most important holdings are a number of preparatory drawings Piranesi developed for a publication on the Greek temples at Paestum. These drawings are accomplished examples of Piranesi's topographical observation and great works of art in their own right. This book offers exquisite reproductions of the drawings as well as 30 additional works from Piranesi's oeuvre. Together they offer a unique understanding of early Greek classical architecture seen through the work of an 18th-century master.

Piranesi, Paestum and Soane

John Wilton-Ely

Graphic Design

The North Italian Album in Sir John Soane's House 48 pages, 36 illustrations This second publication in the series of small picture books on individual works of art in Sir John Soane's Museum ) features the anonymous North Italian Album, a unique work of the Italian Renaissance - 68 highly coloured designs on vellum for architecture, furniture, stage sets and decorative objects. Lynda Fairburn traces the relationship between this pattern book an its sources which are unusually vivid and personal. The book is a valuable reference for Renaissance architecture and design. Lynda Fairburn has written and taught widely on Italian Renaissance architecture.

The North Italian Album in Sir John Soane's Museum

Travel

Fairbairn, L.

Europe

Status symbols, diplomatic gifts, artistic mediums and economic treasures--figured silk fabrics were among the most powerful and most characteristic artistic products of the Ottoman Empire. Wars were fought for control of silk revenues, and governments devoted major bureaucratic efforts toward the organization, regulation and taxation of silk production. Ipek: The Crescent &amp; the Rose is the most comprehensive and magnificently illustrated overview of Ottoman silk textiles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Its lavish, full-bleed, six-color reproductions of fabrics from the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, and from lesser-known ecclesiastical treasuries in the Balkans, Sweden, Poland and Russia, demonstrate the creativity of Ottoman weavers in rich detail, and will appeal to anyone with an interest in design or a general appreciation for visual delights. Accompanied by scholarly essays that shed light on the different historical, legislative, economic and technological factors that determined the history of these textiles.

Ipek: The Crescent & The Rose: Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets

Denny, Walter B.

Atasoy, Nurhan

Denny, Walter

Mackie, Louise W.

History & Criticism

Lovely photos from the Czartoryski, Kraków's most famous museum. This museum is renowned for its possession of Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine - one of only three existent Da Vinci oil paintings.

The Czartoryski Museum

Adam, Zamoyski

George Dance was a pioneering architect with an adventurous spirit who designed the first Neo-Classical building in England (All Hallows, London Wall), as well as the first Indian-style elevation (the City of London's Guildhall), introduced the circus and crescent to London town planning; invented the ammonite capital, designed a prototype art gallery, and made early use of structural iron and other technical innovations. This comprehensive catalogue of his architectural work also includes the drawings of the elder George Dance, architect to the City of London for more than 40 years whose major building is the Mansion House.

Catalogue of the Drawings of George Dance the Younger (1741-1825) and of George Dance the Elder (1695-1768): From the Collection of Sir John Soane's Museum (Soane Catalogue Series)

Lever, Jill

The Ismailis are a geographically, linguistically and ethnically diverse Shi'a Muslim community - the second largest in the world. Scattered in more than twenty countries of Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, they are currently led by their 49th Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan. In four chapters this book traces their history, within the wider context of Islamic history and the world in general, over the better part of fourteen hundred years. Each chapter is fully illustrated and accompanied by relevant maps and diagrams such as genealogical charts. The book has more than 300 illustrations, most in colour, consisting of images from illustrated manuscripts, artefacts, architecture, community documents, as well as important historical and contemporary photographs of members of the Ismaili community (many from private collections and archives) and the varied geographical contexts in which they live. A chronology of key events, a glossary of important terms, and a bibliography are also provided. Farhad Daftary is head of the Department of Academic Research and Publications and Associate Director at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. An authority in Ismaili studies, his publications include A Short History of the Ismailis(1998), The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Ismailis (1994), and Ismaili Literature (2004). Dr Daftary's books have been translated into Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu and numerous European languages. Zulfikar Hirji is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at York University, Toronto. He is the editor of Muslim Plurality and Pluralism (2008), the author of Moving Subjects, Shifting Paradigms: Multi-sited Ethnography and Indian Ocean Communities (forthcoming), and has articles in journals including 'Anthropology of the Middle East', 'Sociologus', and books including Textiles in Indian Ocean Societies (2005), Modern Ismaili Communities (2008).

The Ismailis: An Illustrated History

History

Daftary, Farhad

Middle East

Twelver Shi'ism is the dominant faith in southern Iraq and Iran and it has had a major historical role also in India, in particular in the Deccan and in Lucknow, but its distinctive art and architecture have received little attention and seldom appear in books on the arts of the Islamic World. This book attempts to correct this situation. It looks first at the history of the great Shi'i shrines of Iran and Iraq, a subject almost completely untouched in the standard works on Islamic architecture; at the role of Shi'i and, unexpectedly, Sunni (orthodox Islamic) patronage in their development; at the collecting of relics, and the use of inscriptions and symbols to identify religious buildings; and at the way in which different secondary Shi'i religious buildings (e.g. tekiyehs, ashur khanehs and kerbalas) appeared in Iran and in India. It then turns to the impact of Shi'ism on the craft industries, highlighting in particular the role of shrines in promoting art, the likely importance of Shi'ism in the development of Iran's steelworking industry, the use of inscriptions to identify objects as Shi'i, and the rise of figural art to communicate the Shi'i faith - in the arts of the book, in paintings of the Kerbala drama, and, since the Islamic revolution, on Iranian banknotes and stamps. Finally it turns to the impact on the art of Shi'ism of the annual Muharram processions, with their magnificent steel and brass standards ('alams), and highlights the syncretism characteristic of Shi'i art and architecture in the sub-continent.

The Art and Architecture of Twelver Shi'ism: Iraq, Iran and the Indian Sub-Continent (Biennial Ehsan Yarshater Lecture)

Allan, James W.

Religion & Spirituality

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Azimuth Editions publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Azimuth Editions

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Azimuth Editions publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Golden Pages: Qur'ans and other manuscripts from the collection of Ghassan I. Shaker

Persian Manuscripts, Paintings and Drawings: From the 15th to the Early 20th Century in the Hermitage Collection

Piranesi, Paestum and Soane

The North Italian Album in Sir John Soane's Museum

Ipek: The Crescent & The Rose: Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets

The Czartoryski Museum

Catalogue of the Drawings of George Dance the Younger (1741-1825) and of George Dance the Elder (1695-1768): From the Collection of Sir John Soane's Museum (Soane Catalogue Series)

The Ismailis: An Illustrated History

The Ismailis: An Illustrated History

The Art and Architecture of Twelver Shi'ism: Iraq, Iran and the Indian Sub-Continent (Biennial Ehsan Yarshater Lecture)