Middle East (non-fiction)
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The Travels of Ibn Battutah
by Ibn Battutah
He did not return to Morocco for another twenty-nine years, travelling instead through more than forty countries on the modern map, covering seventy-five thousand miles …
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The Travels of Ibn Battuta in the Near East, Asia and Africa 1325-1354
by Ibn Batuta
In 1326, Ibn Battuta began a pilgrimage to Mecca that ended 27 years and 75,000 miles later. His engrossing account of that journey provides vivid …
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The Muqaddimah
by Ibn Khaldūn
The Muqaddimah, often translated as "Introduction" or "Prolegomenon," is the most important Islamic history of the premodern world. Written by the great fourteenth-century Arab scholar …
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The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
by Amin Maalouf
The author has combed the works of contemporary Arab chronicles of the Crusades, eyewitnesses and often participants. He retells their story and offers insights into …
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Harun Al-Rashid and the World of the Thousand and One Nights
by André Clot
A symbol of the fabled Orient, Harun al-Rashid, the caliph portrayed in The Thousand and One Nights, was the son of a Yemenite slave who …
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Saladin
by Stanley Lane-Poole
This compelling biography focuses on the ruler's sagacity and intelligence, and explains why Saladin was a man admired--even by his enemies.
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The Assassin Legends
by Farhad Daftary
For hundreds of years Westerners have been fascinated by stories of the Assassins, their mysterious leader and their remote mountain stronghold at Alamut in Northern …
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Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva
by Pierre Chuvin
Samarkand, Boukhara, Khiva: centered around these Central Asian cities is a spectacular artistic heritage of architecture and decoration that has remained, until recently, just out …
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The Alhambra
by Robert Irwin
The Alhambra, which resembles a fairy tale palace, was constructed by slave labour in an era of economic decline, plague and political violence. Its beautifully …
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Mirage
by Nina Burleigh
Little more than two hundred years ago, only the most reckless or eccentric Europeans had dared traverse the unmapped territory of the modern-day Middle East. …
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The Golden Road to Samarkand
by Wilfrid Blunt
Taking as his title the famous phrase from Flecker's "Hassan", the author follows the journeys of a number of men who have ventured across Central …
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Splendors of Islam
by Dominique Clevenot
Since human representation is forbidden in Islamic religious monuments, design & ornamentation reach unparalleled heights in Islamic tiles, mosaics, stucco, brickwork, & ceramics, enhanced by …
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Arabic Art in Color
by Prisse d?Avennes
Ever since the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, Cairo has been one of the great centers of Islam. The noted French historian …
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Islamic Designs in Color
by NikolaÄ Simakov
Over 160 rich, sumptuous designs, reproduced from rare 19th-century edition. Royalty-free motifs include geometrics, florals, other designs in many shapes and sizes.
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Islamic Design
by Daud Sutton
There are two key aspects to the visual structure of Islamic design: calligraphy using Arabic script, and abstract ornamentation using a varied visual language. Focusing …
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Palace and Mosque
by Tim Stanley
The arts of Islam, a great and ancient culture, are presented here in all their astonishing richness and diversity. From the Middle East came the …
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Peerless Images
by Vice-President Eleanor G Sims
This book is the first survey of the figural arts of the Iranian world from prehistoric times to the early twentieth century ever to consider …
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Hunt for Paradise
by James Allan
This catalogue documents the most opulent period of later Persian history through over 125 superlative works of art from public and private collections in Europe, …
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Islamic Art
by Barbara Brend
Presents a region-by-region history of the art of the Islamic world, looking at architecture, the art of the book, mosaics, pottery, textiles, and other decorative …
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Heaven on Earth
by Courtauld Institute of Art
Catalogus van een tentoonstelling over kunst en kunstnijverheid uit het islamitische cultuurgebied van de negende tot en met de negentiende eeuw.
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The Golden Age of Persian Art 1501-1722
by Sheila Canby
The golden age of Persian art was the era of the Safavid dynasty. In this time of dynamic religious and political developments, painting and textiles …
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Al-Kindi
by Peter Adamson
Part of the 'Great Medieval Thinkers' series, this book focuses on an Islamic philosopher, Al-Kindī. It surveys what is known of his life, examines his …
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The Dome of the Rock
by Oleg Grabar
The Dome of the Rock was fully restored in the last half-century, it was built during the reign of Herod.
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Islamic Calligraphy
by Sheila Blair
Front cover As before with IRAN'S BOOK OF THE YEAR IN ISLAMIC STUDIES flash in bottom right corner Spine As before Back cover WINNER OF …
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A History of Arabic Astronomy
by George Saliba
Based on the most recent manuscript discoveries, this book broadly surveys development sin Arabic planetary theories from the eleventh century to the fifteenth. Taken together, …
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A Brief Introduction to Astronomy in the Middle East
by John M. Steele
One of two titles launching a series offering insight into Arabic advances in science and culture.
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Cosmology and Architecture in Premodern Islam
by Samer Akkach
A fascinating exploration of how the transcendent is expressed in the spatial sensibility of premodern Islam.
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Tamerlane
by Justin Marozzi
Marozzi travels in the footsteps of Tamerlane the Great (1336-1405), the last great Mongol conqueror of Central Asia, the ruler of a vast empire, and …
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Sea of Faith
by Stephen O'Shea
O'Shea chronicles both the meeting of minds and the collisions of armies that marked the interaction of Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages--the better …
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Arabia Felix from the Time of the Queen of Sheba
by Jean-François Breton
Sheba, or Saba, is a region of high mountains and vast deserts situated in the southwest of the Arabian peninsula, in present-day Yemen. In the …
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Sheba
by Nicholas Clapp
In an adventure that is part history, part travelogue, Clapp sets out on a quest to find the Queen of Sheba one of the most …
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The Animals' Lawsuit Against Humanity
by Matthew Kaufmann
In this interfaith and multicultural fable, eloquent representatives of all members of the animal kingdom--from horses to bees--come before the respected Spirit King to complain …
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Arabian Sands
by Wilfred Thesiger
Wilfred Thesiger was born in Addis Ababa in 1910 and educated at Eton and Oxford. Though British, he was repulsed by the softness and rigidity …
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The Valleys of the Assassins
by Freya Stark
Hailed as a classic upon its first publication in 1934, The Valleys of the Assassins firmly established Freya Stark as one of her generation's most …
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Assassins
by W. B. Bartlett
The so-called 'Assassins' are one of most spectacular legends of medieval history. In the popular imagination they are drug-crazed fanatics who launched murderous attacks on …
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Shiraz in the Age of Hafez
by John Limbert
The fourteenth-century Persian city of Shiraz was home to Shams al-Din Mohammad Hafez Shirazi, a classical poet who remains broadly popular today in modern Iran …