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Iran/Volume 1
192 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1990
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January 28, 2018
Catalogue of Early Muslim Era Architecture in Iran
There being only 11 pages of text in this volume, an extensive review is hardly warranted. It is part of a much larger series put out in the UK in the 1970s dealing with the architecture of the Muslim world. Though it is called a survey, it must be admitted that it is a very brief survey, which talks about the architecture of Iran during the period 650 A.D. to 1353 A.D. This covers the early period of Arab rule, then the rise of local kingdoms, the Seljuk Turkish invasion and rule, and finally the Mongol era, in which at first a lot of architecture was destroyed and only later built. Another volume must cover the later periods, from which a lot more has survived, but I don't have that one. The bulk of this book is a catalogue of photographs of a great number of ruins-of mosques, minarets, caravansarais, tombs, mausoleums, etc.---plus those of a few buildings that have remained relatively intact. Two dozen are in color, the rest in black and white. While a few of the buildings are extremely impressive, and the interior stucco work on some, beautiful, a large number would be of interest only to specialists. In general, this book belongs in the collection of a person studying Muslim or Iranian architecture. I suspect that, as a catalogue, it is quite complete. I doubt very much if non-academics would read it unless they came from Iran, or had close connections to that country for some reason. There are many other books on Iranian art and architecture to chose from.
There being only 11 pages of text in this volume, an extensive review is hardly warranted. It is part of a much larger series put out in the UK in the 1970s dealing with the architecture of the Muslim world. Though it is called a survey, it must be admitted that it is a very brief survey, which talks about the architecture of Iran during the period 650 A.D. to 1353 A.D. This covers the early period of Arab rule, then the rise of local kingdoms, the Seljuk Turkish invasion and rule, and finally the Mongol era, in which at first a lot of architecture was destroyed and only later built. Another volume must cover the later periods, from which a lot more has survived, but I don't have that one. The bulk of this book is a catalogue of photographs of a great number of ruins-of mosques, minarets, caravansarais, tombs, mausoleums, etc.---plus those of a few buildings that have remained relatively intact. Two dozen are in color, the rest in black and white. While a few of the buildings are extremely impressive, and the interior stucco work on some, beautiful, a large number would be of interest only to specialists. In general, this book belongs in the collection of a person studying Muslim or Iranian architecture. I suspect that, as a catalogue, it is quite complete. I doubt very much if non-academics would read it unless they came from Iran, or had close connections to that country for some reason. There are many other books on Iranian art and architecture to chose from.
Displaying 1 of 1 review