Though these pictures were chosen because they show the important moments of the history of this painting, they are also and more importantly chosen because of their aesthetic qualities. We will try to define their intrinsic beauty as singular works of art but also as monuments of a different culture.
Oleg Grabar
In this book, Oleg Grabar adopts a unique point of view as well as an unprecedented approach to iconography. He delivers a complete survey of the art of painting miniatures in the lands of Islam from the 10th to the 17th century. He reveals its richness: from the highly coloured paintings of the Levant to the masterpieces of the Persian court of Shah Tahmasp, without forgetting the jewels of moghol India or the mysterious creations of the Black Feather.
After 60 years of passion and intimacy with these civilisations and their arts, the author invites us on a journey through magical worlds, remote and wonderful echoes of the greatest literary texts unknown in the Western. The rarity of the reproductions and the exceptional beauty of the published details of the miniatures radically renew the perception of these arts.
Oleg Grabar. Foreign correspondent at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Paris) and citizen of the United States of America since 1960, Oleg Grabar taught art and architecture of Islam at Harvard (Agha Khan chair). He is now professor emeritus in Princeton (Institute for Advanced Study). World-recognized specialist, he directed the Albright Institute of archaeological research in Jerusalem and the excavations of omneyade palace of Qasr al-Gharbi in Syria. In 2001 the UNESCO put him in charge of inspecting the work on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and got the Charles Lang Freer medal, an exceptional distinction that was only awarded 10 times.
