Art of Islam, Language and Meaning (Library of Perennial Philosophy Sacred Art in Tradition)

Fast service from quality7 vendor. Book was is great condition-shipped fast. I was excited to receive the book. Good book for anyone's library.

The best account on Islamic art I have ever read.

I love the fact that a book like this was available on Kindle! Outstanding classical and a must for Islamic art lovers.

It's a good effort to understand the islamic architecture.

excellent!

I really like the book but the Kindle formatting was a mess. I had at least 4 major glitches that forced me to manually jump to a later page to move on. Otherwise, the material is great and the writing is clear. I may buy the print version so I can see the illustrations better. Great starting point for an overview of Islamic art. But my experience was ruined by bad formatting.

Art of Islam is a masterpiece and is considered to be the most in-depth study on the subject ever written. It was commissioned by the World of Islam Festival (London) and originally published in 1976; in 2009 it was republished in a revised commemorative edition featuring over three hundred fifty color and black-and-white illustrations (two hundred eighty-five of which are new), and including a new introduction. Titus Burckhardt (1908–1984) was one of the most widely respected authorities on Islamic art as well as having a profound understanding of the Islamic tradition and its mystical dimension, Sufism.Burckhardt’s work has stood the test of time and has demonstrated its enduring value to those wanting to understand the art of Islam. Because modern art has no parallels with Islamic art, or any sacred art, for that matter, it challenges the Western mindset and its Eurocentrism—its ability to appreciate art as understood in a theocentric civilization, where nothing stands outside the sacred. Art in this context contains something beyond its artistic form, something timeless and universal, as there is no “art for art’s sake” in Islam or any other sacred art. The important connection between sacred art and contemplation has been forgotten and lost in the modern world. The Prophet defines iḥsān as “serving [or worshiping] God as if you see Him, because if you do not see Him, He nonetheless sees you.” It is in tracing beauty, whether in a form of art or in the cosmic order, back to the origin that we can realize that the metaphysical dimensions of aesthetics are a doorway to the Divine. As the Prophet has expressed it, “God is beautiful and He loves beauty” (p. 224).-Islamic Perspective, Volume 26 (Winter 2021)

Sadly enough this and several other of the author's titles can be difficult to obtain. Nevertheless, "Art of Islam" is possibly the finest book ever written on Islamic Art, not because it says all there is to be said on this vast and fascinating subject but because it says the right things in the right connections. In fact, I've never been able to understand why this and Burckhardt's "Fez, City of Islam" and "Moorish Culture in Spain" are missing from literature lists in many works on Islamic ornaments, architecture and town planning. Titus Burckhardt was a spiritual giant (if the expression be allowed) whose love for the sacred art and craft he wrote so much about was like a flame burning in perfect stillness. "Art of Islam" is a blissful and edifying experience even for readers with plenty of foreknowledge on the subject. Below is a list with some of the topics (not an index) as I found them along the reading of the book:Genesis and history of Islamic art; Nature of sacred art; Sacraments/Liturgy/Sacred art; The propagation of Islam; Christianism versus Islam; Sufism; Ritual orientation; Structure of Christian basilicas; Mosques in general and in particular; Supersaturation and crystalization in art; Buddhist art; Migration of Asian art; Byzantine art; Idols and icons; Iconoclasm versus Aniconism; Arabesques and interlacements; Sacred numbers 5, 6, 8 and 40, the Ka'ba, Dome of the Rock, Arches, Muqarnas, Mihrabs, Minbars, Portals, Persian versus Gothic vaults; Polarity in languages; Arabic, Chinese and other languages; Book art; Arabic calligraphy; Persian miniatures; Literary style of Quran; Prayer; Pre-Islamic Arabs; Reality and painting; Functionalism; Beauty and Reality; Desintegration of Western art; Expressions of Oneness; Ternary in geometry; Qualitative form versus limiting form; Light and shadow; Magic power versus spiritual elegance; Psychological "law of imitation" among conquered peoples; Government and people; Aristocracy; Public estate; Town planning; Commercial structures; Regulation of daily life; Family life; Social classes; Knighthood and art; Quranic schools; Priesthood and Clergy; Canonization in the Islamic world; Jurisprudence; Veils, Turbants, Gold, Silk and Art of garments; Carpets; Mughal art; Nomads; Umayyads, Sassanids, Seljuks, Safavids, Timurids and Copts; Virgin Mary; Abraham; Symbolism of the loom and of the sword; Necropolises; Pilgrimage to the tombs of saints; and much, much more.As it says on one of Amazon.com's bookmarks: "The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it" [E. Drew]. Burckhardt's "Art of Islam" is definitely not a book to fail this test.

I was so very thrilled to find this much loved book in Kindle format - because some very mean person ‘borrowed’ my original hard-bound version and never returned it !And I am reading it for the nth time not on my kindle but on an iPad Pro which brings alive all the fabulous photographs in vivid color.I have always had the Taj Mahal in my heritage memory as a North Indian Muslim but it was only after reading this book that I could truly appreciate the perfection of its design .And EVERY Chapter brings its own revelations ! One of the world’s true classics .

I read this book with interest and profit; I’d worried about reading an art book in Kindle format, but needlessly — the pictures are all there, and can be enlarged for closer examination; only in a very few places were words jumbled up, though mysterious gaps mid word are common, and often there is no gap left after a punctuation mark.I’m not sure where the European sense of art comes from, perhaps from ancient statuary, admired without reference to its original religious meaning; in any event, art has come to be a category with no obvious utility, inspiring contemplation of a quasi religious sort. Burckhardt (or his translator?) uses the term (is "Kunst" quite the same?) in the context or Islam, to which are distinctions between "art" and "craft" is alien. The main focus of the book is therefore on architecture. The author offers a cogent explanation: in Christianity, sacrament and ritual are separate, so music and painting can exist alongside the sacrament, and eventually, independently of it; in Islam, the rite of prayer is so closely ordained by the Qur'an that there is no space for European-style art alongside it.I have in fact seen and admired many of the buildings dealt with, and was duly impressed by their "beauty", but although I perfectly well knew what a "qibla", "mihrab" or "minbar" is, still I did not understand the significance or Islamic architecture, and having read the book, I wish I could go back and look at them again.There is more to this book than I’ve outlined; a good section on calligraphy, of course, carpets, for example, or clothing... and town planning (?), the Muslim house... but there is no getting away from the centrality of the mosque.

Burckhardt was a truly remarkable man. His insights into the profound meaning of symbols in religious art is almost without parallel. The basis of Islamic symbology is very different to the solar symbology of Christianity. The Kindle version is very readable (with some small layout issues) but the art work can be expanded and studied. A lot was Burckhardt’s own work.

This book was first published in 1976, and what's on sale now is a commemorative edition, with updated illustrations. The book has clearly stood the test of time. Burkhardt's writing is elegant and erudite, always a pleasure to read. His knowledge seems encyclopaedic . . . And examples are drawn from a wide variety of Islamic lands. my particular interest is in Central Asia, but, unfortunately, not many of the examples are drawn from there . . . I suspect because it was difficult to travel there in former times. A strength of the book is the way it roots Islamic art in platonic philosophy (ironically, only available to us today because it was preserved by being translated into Arabic). Burl hard tis seeking to set out a unified overview of the art, but often says there are variants within the art as the Arabs met up with the pre-existing cultures in the lands they conquered and converted. I would have appreciated learning more about the variants, but that would be another book. Burkhardt was also a convert to Sufism, and his writing displays the sense of gentleness and love which underlies that approach to Islam.In short, this is a very beautiful book to read . . . A useful antidote to current media driven images of the destructive violence of "jihadism". I shall treasure the way it has given my vision of some very beautiful and mystifying objects more compassionate depth.I would recommend this book to anyone.

Sorry, got a little bored writing restrained,respectful (mini) reviews but this book is bloody ravishing. You'd think with the quality and layout, they might be compensating for lame or sparse writing but this is Burckhardt at his insightful best. For anyone who feels the beauty of Islamic art (he also does a similar number on Far Eastern and Christian traditions-the man was a 'kin prodigy!).