Islamic Art

Taschen Basic Genre

by Annette Hagedorn, Norbert Wolf (Editor)

The delicate splendour and fairytale beauty of Islamic art
The art which arose from the 7th century in the Islamic empires reached from Spain and Morocco to the borders of China. It bore the stamp above all of Arabs, Persians and Turks, but outstanding contributions also came from Egypt and India. "Islamic Art" presents prominent luxury ceramics, prayer mats, goldsmithery, as well as witnesses to the decorative arts and calligraphy – and above all the masterpieces of the splendidly colourful courtly book illumination of Persia and the Mughal emperors of India. The book examines the contributions of the different countries and how they influenced each other, and in this way vividly illustrates the unfolding of the delicate splendour and fairytale beauty of Islamic art from its beginnings into the modern era.

Genres: Art, History, Art History

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Sotiris Makrygiannis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This covers the period from creation of Islam until 18th century. In strictly Islamic states no humans or animals can be painted but at start lots of them were painted and in a fantastic way. Moguls brought with them calligraphy from China and Arabs took it in a brand new level, in paintings, in carpets, this book shows how rich in culture Muslim countries are, or at least were for a long period of time. Found Alexander the Great paintings but the painter probably from China had faces look more like Mongols than Europeans. In fact during the Persian-mongol fights mainly the faces were Mongols than Arabic, again probably the artists were imported to teach them the skills.orthodox symbols can be found mixing with the Arab-indian art, like angels holding musical instruments. you can creaky see that Muslims are part of the Abraham branch of deletion and that is in the stories that you see in those pictures. Suleiman the Magnificent I the magnificent, signature is almost like mine and that was a surprise to me :)

[Mehmet Dönmez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sadece Arap değil, İslam coğrafyasına damga vurmuş Pers, Moğol, Hint ve Osmanlı gibi çeşitli medeniyetlerin sanat üzerine birbirinden çok farklı eserlerini (minyatür, hat, dokuma, çini...) en meşhur örnekler üzerinden detaylı olarak incelediği bir başucu eser. Seçilen eserlerin detaylı çözümlemesi, diğer sanatlarla ve medeniyetlerle olan etkileşimini okurken kitap hiç bitmesin istedim, ben New Yorktaki meşhur sahaf Strandden tesadüfen kelepir fiyatına almıştım, umarım bir an önce Türkçeye çevrilir.

[Marija · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is consisted off two parts: the first one is the historical introduction and spreading of the religion, which I found very useful. The second part were the most important works of art. The general idea of the book is very good but the introduction was slopily written with some bad writing (or translation), every description was brief and undetailed, and the author doesn't give a solid explanation of some terms that were used.

[Amelia Alam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever wanted to know the lore of Islamic art? This book is great for it! Interesting to see how colonialism and interacting with others over time has changed the progression of Islamic art. I liked how the book was structured by first telling you the different periods of Islamic art and the overall timeline first, then going into specific art pieces. Really cool to see different forms of art such as paintings, ceramics, and even the prayer mat! Made me realize that Islamic art is not art necessarily from the religion or only to the religion but rather inspiration of art from Muslim civilizations.