The Nuhad Es-Said Collection of Islamic metalwork is one of the finest in private hands. It contains examples of inlaid bronzes and brasses from 6th/12th and 7th/13th Herat and 7th/13th century Mosul, from Ayvubid Syria, Saljuk Anatolia, the Mamluk empire and the Dehli sultanate, and from Il-Khanid, Timurid and Safavid Iran. Inlaid with gold, silver and copper, and bearing planetary and astrological figures, mystical symbols, and effusive dedications to sultans and petty rulers, these objects take the reader into a world where superstition, religion and politics jostle for supremacy, and are evidence that works of art reflect the societies they serve. An extensive introduction puts the collection in its social and artistic context. This is followed by the catalogue which describes and discusses each piece in detail. Every object is illustrated with at least one color plate and there are numerous black and white photographs. In this revised edition the author has updated all important aspects of the text; he has also added a table of analyses with a short commentary at the end of the book.

Islamic Metalwork: The Nuhad Es-Said Collection

Allan, James W.

Arts & Photography

Sotheby Parke Bernet Pubns

The Nuhad Es-Said Collection of Islamic metalwork is one of the finest in private hands. It contains examples of inlaid bronzes and brasses from 6th/12th and 7th/13th Herat and 7th/13th century Mosul, from Ayvubid Syria, Saljuk Anatolia, the Mamluk empire and the Dehli sultanate, and from Il-Khanid, Timurid and Safavid Iran. Inlaid with gold, silver and copper, and bearing planetary and astrological figures, mystical symbols, and effusive dedications to sultans and petty rulers, these objects take the reader into a world where superstition, religion and politics jostle for supremacy, and are evidence that works of art reflect the societies they serve. An extensive introduction puts the collection in its social and artistic context. This is followed by the catalogue which describes and discusses each piece in detail. Every object is illustrated with at least one color plate and there are numerous black and white photographs. In this revised edition the author has updated all important aspects of the text; he has also added a table of analyses with a short commentary at the end of the book.

Islamic Metalwork: The Nuhad Es-said Collection

History & Criticism

Philip Wilson Publishers

Nishapur: Metalwork of the early Islamic period

Metropolitan Museum of Art

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)

Religion & Spirituality

Azimuth Editions

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