The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture - Hardcover

Jonathan M. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair share the Norma Jean Calderwood University Professorship of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College and the Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair of Islamic Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. A husband-and-wife team, they study all aspects of Islamic art from the seventh century to modern times. Bloom is particularly interested in the arts of the medieval Mediterranean region as well as the history of paper. His most recent book is Arts of the City Victorious (2007), a study of the art and architecture of the Fatimid period in North Africa and Egypt. Blair is particularly interested in the arts of Iran and Central Asia, the Mongols, and the history of the Islamic book. Her latest book is Islamic Calligraphy (2006), for which she won several international awards. In addition to their hundreds of individual articles, reviews, and monographs, they have written or edited seven books jointly. They also served as consultants to the 3-hour documentary Islam: Empire of Faith, shown nationally on PBS, and are convenors of the Hamad bin Khalifa Biennial Symposium on Islamic Art. Both Bloom and Blair received their Ph.D.s in Middle Eastern Studies and Fine Arts from Harvard University in 1980.

*Starred Review* The value of a spin-off reference work lies in its updated content, lower cost, and depth of coverage appropriate for specialized collections. The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture lends a new perspective to a discipline that has become critically important since the publication of its parent set, the 34-volume Dictionary of Art (1996). Bloom and Blair, Islam and central Asia editors for the parent set, used as their point of departure the Dictionary of Art’s 468-page article on Islamic art plus Islam-related content from other articles, including Arms and armor, Jewelry, and Papercuts. They define Islamic art as that “made by artists or artisans whose religion was Islam, for patrons who lived in predominantly Muslim lands, or for purposes that are restricted or peculiar to a Muslim population or a Muslim setting.” Within that framework, the encyclopedia encompasses “art and architecture in southern Europe, northern Africa, and west, central, and south Asia over 14 centuries.” The goal was to “make the relatively obscure field of Islamic art as accessible as possible to the widest possible audience” and to “encourage readers to explore other aspects of Islamic civilization and the interrelationships between Islamic art and other artistic traditions.” The encyclopedia contains 1,600 articles by 375 scholars and more than 600 photographs, black-and-white reproductions, color plates, drawings, maps, and floor plans. Entries often begin with a brief definition and then place the topic within the context of Islamic art. Some include alternate vocabulary, such as the 14 words used for Caravanserai in locations from Baghdad (dar) to Fez (funduq). Articles on broad topics are long—the editors note the book-length Architecture—and headnotes list their divisions, usually chronological and geographic. Many of the extensive bibliographies (Berber, Calligraphy) include items published after 2005. Bibliographies also include carefully selected Web sites, such as the complete digital archive of Gertrude Bell’s photos, diaries, and letters. This set is an exemplary spin-off. It is not only highly recommended for academic and larger public libraries but its survey articles and sections on history, historiography, and approaches to scholarship are required reading for graduate students, who will find especially valuable the editors’ tip that “there are dissertations waiting to be written here!” Also available in an e-reference edition as part of the Oxford Digital Reference Shelf collection. Articles in Oxford Art Online, the electronic Dictionary of Art, are not the updated versions. Also available as an e-book. --Christine Whittington