The Art of Orientation: An Exploration of the Mosque Through Objects

by Idries Trevathan (Editor), Mona Aljalhami (Editor), Murdo Macleod (Editor)

The Art of Orientation  celebrates the origins, meanings, and functions of the mosque throughout the world using a careful selection of one hundred and twenty-five artifacts—including intricately designed pulpits, prayer rugs, lamps, and manuscripts. Tracing the evolution of the mosque from the Prophet’s humble mud-brick structure in Medina to the imposing stone assemblies of Cairo and Istanbul, an interdisciplinary group of leading Arab and international authors present a personal, insightful, and accessible survey of Islamic masterpieces past and present.  
 

300 pages, Hardcover

Published March 15, 2021

About the author

Idries Trevathan is a curator and conservator with more than a decade’s experience working with Islamic art collections in the Muslim world and beyond, including the Islamic Arts Museum in Malaysia. Trevathan works regularly on conservation projects and has conducted technical and aesthetic colour studies on a range of Islamic art objects, including the Malay Qur’an manuscripts, Damascene reception rooms and Ottoman porticoes in the grand mosque in Mecca. Trevathan trained as an art conservator at the City & Guilds of London Art School and earned a PhD in colour in Islamic art from the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London. His achievements have been recognised by numerous awards, including the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies Prize for Research, the Hamad bin Khalifa Scholarship, the Zibby Garnett Fellowship and the Knights of the Round Table Award.

Reviews

[Zenab Al-khayat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very amazing easy read book that takes us the different aspects and objects of Islamic Art a book that I personally will keep going back to observing the art.