Search results for ""Author Doris Behrens Abouseif""

Minarets have defined Cairo's skyline since its early history: they are one of the most characteristic features of Islamic architecture. In Egypt, where civilizations have manifested themselves through awe-inspiring structures since antiquity, 'a thousand minarets' reveal the impact of Islamic civilization and urban aesthetics. "The Minarets of Cairo" offers an accessible and vivid insight into the religious, historical and architectural significance of the minaret in Cairo from the Arab Conquest, through the Abbasid, Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. Students and scholars will welcome historian and art historian Doris Behrens-Abouseif's excellent new research and analysis as well as over one hundred illustrated entries for individual minarets, brought to life by Nicholas Warner's masterly architectural drawings and reconstructions. With nearly three hundred illustrations, this beautiful book provides depth and color, displaying to full effect historic Cairo's most impressive monuments.

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This volume presents vessels, fittings and other objects made in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Yemen from the early Islamic period through to the end of the Ottoman era in the 19th century. The pieces include exquisite platters, serving-vessels, candlesticks and pen-boxes produced for royal courts, but also many beautifully decorated bronze domestic items, such as bowls, lunch-boxes, door-knockers, buckets and lamps. The metalwork traditions in this book reflect the complex history of the Arab world following the advent of Islam. The collection starts in the Late Antique period, which informed the early Islamic royal styles of the Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid dynasties, and goes on to trace the emergence of Mosul as a centre for metalwork in the 12th–13th centuries; the courtly Mamluk style during the Bahri period (1250–1380s); the Circassian era (1380s–1517); the growth of the European export market from the 15th century; distinctive vernacular styles in Yemen during the 14th–16th centuries; and the many revivals and fusions of international styles over six centuries of Ottoman rule (1517–1900s). Finally, an enigmatic group of zoomorphic fittings that defies easy dating is celebrated for the craftsmanship and charm of its animal figures. This beautifully illustrated volume features many important unpublished pieces and is essential reading for specialists, but it will fascinate and inform anyone with an interest in Islamic culture and history, metalwork and the decorative arts of the Arab world.With 350 illustrations

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Images are the cornerstone of culture. At a single glance, a society’s understanding of itself is crystallized in them; they are the agents of a common perspective, as well as witnesses to it. At the same time, there is a whiff of ideology and distorted perception about them. In between the two poles of the crucifi x and the gold calf, there is a field of tension where Christianity and Islam dwell. The histories of both religions fluctuate between the extremes of idolatry and iconoclasm. Sometimes they lean in one direction, and sometimes in the other, while at other times they seek a conciliatory balance. Outside of theological debates, this opens up an area full of aesthetic distinctions and approaches. This exhibition catalogue offers a richly illustrated, thoroughly informative look at these unusual histories of art and their currency in the world today.

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