Islamic Art, Architecture and Archaeology

A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF

ISLAMIC ART, ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHAEOLOGY

General and Reference

* Blair, Sheila S. and Jonathan M. Bloom. “The Mirage of Islamic Art: Reflections on the Study of an Unwieldy Field,” Art Bulletin 85/1 (2003): 152-180. This article is a “must-read” for anyone who wants to handle art in a class on Islam. Not only does it have thorough and comprehensive bibliographical notes, but it discusses the major issues of the field in a fair manner, pointing out both benefits and short-comings of approaches and terminology. It should be pointed out that Blair and Bloom are primarily art historians, so their writing is generally critical of a religious studies perspective on art.

“Islamic Art,” in Dictionary of Art, vol. 16, ed. Jane Turner. London: Macmillan, 1996. Multiple authors contributed to this overview which has several discussions on definitions and terminology.

Petersen, Andrew. Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. London: Routledge, 1996.

Surveys and Textbooks (By their nature, these works necessarily take a somewhat universalist approach.)

*Blair, Sheila S. and Jonathan M. Bloom. The Art and Architecture of Islam, 1240-1800. Pelican Hisotry of Art. New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1994. Conceived as a sequel to the Ettinghausen, Grabar and Jenkins-Madina volume, this is a frequently assigned text for introductory classes on the subject. This work takes an approach which handles individual monuments and dynasties, especially in Iran.

——. Islamic Arts. London: Phaidon, 1997. In this volume, they handle the topics by periods and the various media.

Brend, Barbara. Islamic Art. London: BritishMuseum Press, 1991. A nice single volume, but focused primarily on the pieces housed in the BritishMuseum.

*Ettinghausen, R., O. Grabar, and M. Jenkins-Madina. Islamic Art and Architecutre 650-1250. Pelican History of Art. New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 2001. This is considered by many to be the best survey and textbook on the topic up to the thirteenth century. Most introductory courses to Islamic art and architecture seem to use this. The work is more heavily archaeological and focused on the western Islamic lands than the Blair and Bloom book (which makes complete sense considering the time period and nature of subject). Blair and Bloom pointed out that the title was changed by the publisher in order to put the word “Islamic” up front (2003: n. 3).

Hillenbrand, Robert. Islamic Architecture: Form , Function, and Meaning. Edinburgh: EdinburghUniversity Press, 1994. This is an important work on Islamic architecture, treating the various features of the subject typologically. It breaks from the more traditional overviews in order to engage the reader with, in addition to architecture, literary works and more nuanced analyses of history and culture.

——. Islamic Art and Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1999. Another single volume textbook which can be useful for undergraduates, however its geographical focus is somewhat narrow, leaving out important works.

Hoag, John D. Islamic Architecture. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1975. This takes a more traditional approach to architecture than Hillenbrand’s (1994).

Irwin, Robert. Islamic Art in Context: Art, Architecture, and the Literary World. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997. This book is organized into less traditional chapter topics, resulting in a somewhat awkward text for undergraduates. However, the discussions are interesting, so I can see assigning certain chapters for discussions.

Hisotry of the Field and the “Larger Issues”

Allen, Terry. Five Essays on Islamic Art. Sebastopol, CA: Solipsist Press, 1988. A response to Grabar 1973.

Grabar, Oleg. The Formation of Islamic Art. New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1973. Grabar discusses issues concerning whether or not the field of “Islamic art” actually exists, as well as questions surrounding its origin and nature. As a response from a former student, see Allen 1988 above.

——. “From the Museum to the University and Back,” pp. 9-30 in Eleventh Presnetation of the Charles Lang Freer Medal. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, Feer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2001.

Shalem, Avinoam. Islam Christianized: Islamic Portable Objects in the Medieval Church Treasuries of the Latin West. Ars Faciendi: Beitraege zur Kunstgeschichte. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1997. Discusses European attitudes of Cursaders and medieval travellers regarding Islamic art.

S. Vernoit ed. Discovering Islamic Art: Scholars, Collectors and Collections, 1850-1950. London: I.B. Taurus, 2000. This edited volume is a good resource on the history of the field in relation to Art History. R. Hillenbrand’s chapter, “Richard Ettinghausen and the Iconography of Islamic Art” may be helpful for those interested in Ettinghausen’s highly influential contributions to the field in the mid-20th century U.S.

Universalist approaches possibly shaped by ideology

Burckhardt, Titus. Art of Islam: Language and Meaning. London: World Islam Festival, 1976.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Islamic Art and Spirituality. Albany: SUNY Press, 1987. Nasr is himself an Iranian philosopher.

For a criticism of this approach:

Grabar, Oleg, “Reflections on the Study of Islamic Art,” Musqarnas 1 (1983): 1-14. Many scholarsagree with Grabar that the universalist approach combined with such explicit ideology neglects historical context.

Regional Approaches (a few examples listed by modern nations)

Iran

Pourjavady, N. The Splendour of Iran. London: Booth-Clibborn, 2001. This work is unfortunately limited by modern political boundaries, which, from an historical perspective, makes little sense.

India

Asher, Catherine B. Architecture of Mughal India. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1992. Asher expands the definition of “Islamic architecture” in order to examine that of non-Muslims, as well. However, since this narrows the field temporally, it could also have been placed below, under “Dynastic.”

Morocco

De l’Empire romain aux villes imperials: 6000 ans d’artau Maroc. Paris: Musee du Petit Palais, 1990.

Syria

Kalter, Johannes, Margareta Pavaloi, and Maria Zerrnickel. Syrien: Mosaik eines Kulturraumes. Stutgart: Hanjörg Mayer in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Linden-Museum Stuttgart, 1991.

Spain

Barrucand, Marianne and Achim Bednorz. Moorish Architecture in Andalusia. Cologne: Taschen, 1992. Excellent pictures.

Dodds, Jerrilynn D. ed. Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain. New York: MetropolitanMuseum of Art, 1992.

Turkey

Akurgal, Ekrem, Cyril Mango, and R. Ettinghausen. Les tresors de Turquie: L’Anatolie des premiers empires, Byzance, les siecles de l’Islam. Geneva: Skira, 1966. Examines the region, more properly “Anatolia” than “Turkey” here, over broader temporal parameters.

Akurgal, Ekrem ed. The Art and Architecture of Turkey. New York: Rizzoli, 1980.

Uzbekistan

Kalter, Johannes and Margareta Pavaloi. Usbekistan: Erben der Seidenstrasse. Stuttgart: Hansjörg Mayer in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Linden-Museum Stuttgart, 1995.

Yemen

Costa, P. and E. Vicario. Arabia Felix: A Land of Builders. Milan: Electa, 1977.

Daum, Werner ed. Yemen: 3000 Years of Art and Civilisation in Arabia Felix. Innsbruck: Pinguin, 1988. This includes all of southern Arabia.

Veranada, Fernando. Art of Building in Yemen. London: AARP, 1981.

For a work on Early Islamic Jerusalem:

Grabar, Oleg. The Shape of the Holy. Princeton, NJ: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1996.

Dynastic and Ruler-oriented Approaches(These often are connected to particular collections or exhibitions.)

Tresors fatimides du Caire. Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe, 1998.

Atil, Esin. The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1987.

Brand, Michael and G.D. Lowry. Akbar’s India: Art from the MughalCity of Victory. New York: Asia Society Galleries, 1985.

Diba, Layla S. ed. Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925. New York: BrooklynMuseum of Art, 1998.

Golombek, Lisa and Donald Wilber. The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1988.

Koch, Ebba. Mughal Architecture: An Outline of Its History and Development (1526-1858). Munich: Prestel, 1991.

Komaroff, Linda and Stefano Carboni eds. The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353. New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 2002.

Lentz, T.W. and G.D. Lowry. Timur and the Princely Vision. Los Angeles: Los AngelesCountyMuseum of Art, 1989.

Meinecke, Michael. Die Mamlukische Architecktur in Ägypten und Syrien. Glückstadt: J.J. Augustin, 1992.

Rogers, J.M. Empire of the Sultans: Ottoman Art from the Khalili Collection, 4th ed. Alexandria, VA: Art Services International, 2000.

Welch, Anthony. Shah Abbas and the Arts of Isfahan. Cambridge, MA: FoggArt Museum, 1973.

Monuments (These are not, for the most part, full publications on the monuments, but rather general sourcebooks and exhibition collections.)

Begley, W.E. and Z.A. Desai. Taj Mahal: The Illumined Tomb. Cambridge, MA: Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, 1989.

Blair, Sheila S. The Ilkhanid Shrine Complex at Natanz, Iran. Cambridge, MA: HarvardUniversityCenter for MiddleCenterStudies, 1986. Well-documented, though perhaps not the most important shrine.

Golombek, Lisa. The Timurid Shrine at Gazur Gah. Toronto: RoyalOntarioMuseum, 1969. As with Blair’s book, well-documented, though perhaps not the most important shrine.

Grabar, O. “The Umayyad Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem,” Ars Orientalis 3 (1959): 33-62. One of the first major works by Grabar, this article examines the building in its late antique and early Islamic setting. The Dome of the Rock has not been fully published. For a more comprehensive list of articles, see Blair and Bloom 2003: n. 74.

——. The Alhambra. Cambridge, MA: HarvardUniversity Press, 1978. A popular book on the subject.

Pal, Pratapaditya et al. Romance of the Taj Mahal. Los Angeles: Los AngelesCountyMuseum of Art, 1989.

Mosques, SecularBuildings and Other Architectural Features

Bloom, Jonathan. Minaret: Symbol of Islam. Oxford Studies in Islamic Art. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1989.

Ettinghausen, R. ed. The Islamic Garden. Washington, D.C. Dumbarton Oaks, 1976. This is a classic on the topic, but if you’re looking for good pictures, see Khansari et al. below.

Fishman, M. and Hasan-Uddin Khan. The Mosque: History, Architectural Development and Regional Diversity. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994. Excellent color pictures.

Holod, Renata and Hasan-Uddin Khan. The Contemporary Mosque: Architects, Clients and Designs since the 1950s. New York: Rizzoi, 1997.

Khansari, M., M. Reza Moghtader, and M. Yavari. The PersianGarden: Echoes of Paradise. Washington, D.C.: Mage, 1998.

Necipoglu, Gulru ed. Pre-Modern Islamic Palaces. Ars Orientalis 23, 1993. This obviously deals with secular architecture, and may be useful in considering the notion of “Islamicate” versus “Islam.” While there is a lot of literature on secular architecture, most is either highly specialized (like dig reports) or is not in English.

Other Media of Art

Calligraphy

Blair, Sheila. Islamic Calligraphy. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 2006. It is hoped that this much-needed survey of Arabic calligraphy, due out this February, will live up to expectations and fill a serious gap. Otherwise, there are few works that successfully withstand heavy criticism. See the entry in the Dictionary of Art.

Whelan, Estelle. “Writing the Word of God: Some Early Qur’an Manuscripts and Their Milieux, Part I,” Ars Orientalis 21 (1990): 199-48. Whelan was one of the first scholars to take an art historical approach to Arabic calligraphy, which helped to illustrate the centrality of this art form in Islam and show how it differs from other traditions.

Manuscript Art

Grabar, O. Mostly Miniatures: An Introduction to Persian Painting. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 2000. This is a more up to date treatment than Martin’s (see below).

Martin, F.R. The Miniature Painting and Painters of Persia, India, and Turkey from the 8th to the 18th Century. London: Quaritch, 1912. This is an oldie but goodie, still used by scholars as a reference work on book illustration.

Metalwork

Baer, Eva. Metalwork in Medieval Islamic Art. Albany: SUNY Press, 1983.

Ceramics

Lane, Arthur. Early Islamic Pottery. London: Faber and Faber, 1947. Along with his second volume, it is a classic handbook.

——. Later Islamic Pottery. London: Faber and Faber, 1957.

Glass

Carboni, Stefano. Glass from Islamic Lands. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2001.

Ward, Rachel ed. Gilded and Enamelled Glass from the Middle East: Origins, Innovations. London: BritishMuseum Press, 1998.

Textiles

Baker, Patricia L. Islamic Textiles. London: BritishMuseum Press, 1995. A good, readable introduction with colored pictures.

Carpets

Denny, Walter B. The Sotherby’s Guide to Oriental Carpets. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994. Denny’s handbook “bridges the gap” between the carpet dealers and the highly-technical scholarly works.

Islamic Iconography

Baer, Eva. Islamic Ornament. Edinburgh: EdinburghUniversity Press, 1998. This work embraces a taxonomic approach to Islamic iconography, tracing the transformations of various motifs temporally and geographically.

Ettinghausen, Richard. Studies in Muslim Iconography I, The Unicorn. Freer Gallery of Art Occasional Papers. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute 1950. Though a classic and highly influential treatment of Muslim iconography, Ettinghausen’s work has been criticized for his universalist approach in Islamic imagery.

Archaeology (As a defined field, “Islamic Archaeology” is shaky at best. Thus so, little in the way of reflective and survey works are out there. But if you’d like to satisfy some morbid curiosity as to what this field is about, please avail yourself of the following.)

Hamilton, R.W. Khirbat al Mafjar; an ArabianMansion in the JordanValley. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959. This is purely a site report from the Umayyad palace complex near Jericho. A non-specialist should keep in mind when this excavation was carried out.

Magness, Jodi. The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine. WinonaLake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2003. This volume is a fairly technical work in which the author redates several sites based on ceramic evidence. Her conclusion can effectively reinterpret the historical context in which Islam entered Palestine in the seventh century.

Whitcomb, Donald ed. Changing Social Identity with the Spread of Islam: Archaeological Perspectives. Chicago, IL: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2005. This short volume is the result of a mini-conference that took place at the Oriental Institute. It gathered a handful of scholars in order to share ideas on Islamic archaeology and issues of social change.

“Archaeology,” in Encyclopedia of the Qur’an. The entry contains a discussion about archaeological evidence of the Qur’an, an interesting parallel to so-called “Biblical Archaeology,” as known concerning the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.

Meyers, E.M. ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. New York: Oxford Press, 1997. Though this four volume encyclopedia is notexplicitly geared toward “Islamic archaeology,” it has some useful entries and bibliography. For specific sites in Palestine, see also Stern 1993.

Stern, E. ed. The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and Carta, 1993. This has a much more limited geographical focus, but has an excellent and comprehensive listing of sites, as well as bibliography.

Major Journals

Ars Islamica (1934-1951), renamed Ars Orientalis (1951-present)

Arts and the Islamic World

Islamic Art

Muqarnas

Atlāl (Department of Antiquities of Saudi Arabia, since 1977)

Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies (held annually since 1971)

Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy (since 1990)

Websites and Images

Sloane Art Library’s online Research Guide for Islamic Art and Architecture:

Accessible via UNC Library home page – follow link to Art Library, then to “Course and Research Guide.” This site well-done and should have anything you would need, including where to find images; comprehensive bibliographies, indexes and abstracts; relevant journals;catalogue subject headings; and links to other relevant sites (including other universities, programs, and museums).

The Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture:

This is a program based out of both Harvard and MIT. I include this because these sorts of programs are not common in the U.S., and because the websites can keep you generally informed as to what is happening in the field (in Cambridge at least). It also provides some helpful links and syllabi.

ARTstor:

Accessible through UNC Libraries, this is an online database which is easy to use and has a fairly impressive collection of online images.

Grove Dictionary of Art Online:

Not quite as user-friendly as ARTstor, in my opinion.

Google Images:

Without a doubt, this is the best place to find images online—easy to use, and if it’s out there, they’ll find it (just don’t trust the accompanying literature and always double-check dates and titles).

** In the end, if you can’t find an image, simply scan it out of a book. In addition to the titles listed above, exhibit and museum catalogues are always a great source. (Copyright laws generally don’t bother you unless you print it, so for teaching and presentation purposes, I think you’re alright.)

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