Islamic artists channelled their energies not into easel painting and
large-scale sculpture, but rather into what Western scholars, obeying a
very different hierarchy of art forms, rather disparagingly term the
decorative arts or even the minor arts. In point of fact, some of the
greatest masterpieces of Islamic art are in the media of ceramics,
metalwork, textiles, ivory and glass. Often the images they bear express
a complex set of meanings, for Islam inherited much material from the
iconographic systems of earlier civilizations, notably those of the
ancient Near East and of the classical world. Islam also developed its
own distinctive vocabulary of signs and symbols. Accordingly, questions
of iconography and meaning bulk large among the studies gathered
together in the present volume. These studies, written over a period of
almost thirty years, and taken from a wide variety of published sources,
deal with aspects of the decorative arts from Spain to India and from
the 7th to the 17th century. They focus in turn upon ceramics and
metalwork; on coins, carpets and calligraphy; and on carving in wood and
ivory. They are arranged under three headings. The first comprises
general surveys of the field covering the content of these arts and
confronting the challenges they present, such as the Islamic approach to
three-dimensional sculpture. The second deals with questions of
iconography and meaning, while the third comprises a series of studies
devoted to specific media such as ivory, woodwork and numismatics. This
volume therefore offers not only a general introduction to some of the
problems posed by Islamic art, but also readings of key objects in an
attempt to explore their meaning; and finally, an in-depth focus on
individual objects representing specific genres and media.
