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Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art SERIES EDITOR: ROBERT HILLENBRAND ADVISORY EDITORS: BERNARD O' KANE AND JONATHAN M. BLOOM This series offers readers easy access to the most up-to-date research across the whole range of Islamic art, representing various parts of the Islamic world, media and approaches. Books in the series are academic monographs of intellectual distinction that mark a significant advance in the field. 'His survey of the surviving towers and his formulation of the problems they raise will surely remain standard for many years to come.' Journal of the American Oriental Society 'The style is remarkably clear and at points exhilarating.' British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies A lavishly illustrated history of the origin and development of the minaret This beautifully illustrated history depicts the origin and development of the most visible element of Islamic architecture: the minaret. The argument is iconoclastic - that the minaret, long understood to have been invented in the early years of Islam as the place from which the muezzin gives the call to prayer, was actually invented some two centuries later to be a universal symbol of the presence of Islam. Originally published in 1989, this new edition has been thoroughly revised, expanded and generously illustrated in colour, substantially broadening both the chronological and geographical scope. Coverage spans from early Islam to the modern world, and from Iran, Egypt, Turkey and India to West and East Africa, the Yemen and Southeast Asia, in a sweeping tour of the minaret's position as the symbol of Islam. Jonathan M. Bloom is Norma Jean Calderwood Professor of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College and Hamad Bin Khalifa Endowed Chair in Islamic Art at Viriginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of numerous books including Arts of the City Victorious: Islamic Art and Architecture in Fatimid North Africa and Egypt (2008) and (with Sheila S. Blair) the three-volume Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture (2009). Published in association with al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait Cover image: iStockphoto. Cover design: Cathy Sprent [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com
List of contents
List of Figures
Series Editor's Foreword
Preface
Map
INTRODUCTION
PART I:
CHAPTER 1 The History of Scholarship and the Nature of the Problem
CHAPTER 2 The Adhan, the Mi'dhana and the Sawma'a
CHAPTER 3 Manars and Manaras
CHAPTER 4 The Mosque Tower
CHAPTER 5 Why Were Towers Added to Mosques?
PART II:
CHAPTER 6 The Minaret in the Maghrib in the Ninth Century
CHAPTER 7 The Triumph of the Cordoban Minaret in the Maghrib
CHAPTER 8 The Minaret in Egypt through the Ayyubid Period
CHAPTER 9 The Minaret in the Eastern Islamic Lands before the Seljuqs
CHAPTER 10 The Seljuq Minaret
PART III:
CHAPTER 11 The Minaret after the Mongol Conquest
CHAPTER 12 The Minaret Beyond the Persianate World
CHAPTER 13 The Minaret in the Modern World
Bibliography
Illustration Acknowledgments
Index
About the author
Jonathan M. Bloom is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of fifteen books and hundreds of articles on all aspects of Islamic art and architecture, including the art of the Fatimid dynasty, and the history of paper. He and his wife and colleague Sheila Blair edited the prize-winning 3-volume Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture (2009) and organize the Hamad bin Khalifa Biennial Symposia on Islamic Art and Culture.
Summary
From early Islam to the modern world, and from Iran, Egypt, Turkey and India to West and East Africa, the Yemen and Southeast Asia, this richly illustrated book is a sweeping tour of the minaret's position as the symbol of Islam.
