FYSP 106: Symmetry at the Alhambra: Background Information

Deals with all aspects of Islamic art and architecture ranging from the Middle East to Africa to Central, South, and East Asia and includes entries on artists, rulers, writers, ceramics, sculpture, metalwork, painting, calligraphy, textiles, and more. Also available online (see link).

This unique reference is a comprehensive encyclopedia dedicated to the institutions, religion, politics, and culture in Muslim societies throughout the world. Beginning coverage in the sixth century and extending it to the present day, the Encyclopedia covers Muslims in the Arab heartland as well as South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

The Dictionary of Islamic Architecture provides the fullest range of artistic, technical, archaeological, cultural and biographical data for the entire geographical and chronological spread of Islamic architecture - from West Africa through the Middle East to Indonesia, and from the seventh to the eighteenth centuries of the Common Era.

Provides an overview of Islamic art and architecture from the seventh to the thirteenth centuries, a time of the formation of a new artistic culture and its first, medieval, flowering in the vast area from the Atlantic to India.

Describes over two hundred works of Islamic art of this period and also investigates broader social and economic contexts, considering such topics as function, patronage, and meaning.

The two-volume Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture surveys the field in all its grandeur, whilst encouraging original approaches to canonical subjects and offering new scholarship on previously neglected topics. The combined volumes showcase more than 50 newly commissioned essays that bridge the gap between the summary treatment of the traditional survey and the specialized monograph.