GINGKO NEW BOOKS
JANUARY-JULY 2022
FRUIT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHEEL OF LEARNING Essays in Honour of Carole Hillenbrand
Edited by Ali M. Ansari £60.00 April 2022 978-1-909942-59-2 History, Middle Eastern Studies Cloth Hardback, 197x264mm 192 pp | 20 colour & 2 b/w illustrations
An impressive collection of essays by distinguished scholarly authors to celebrate the career of Carole Hillenbrand. 'Read this book and savour for yourself the fruits of knowledge at their sweetest.' Caroline Humfress, Professor in Medieval History University of St Andrews Carole Hillenbrand is an acclaimed academic who has made immense contributions to the fields of Islamic history and art history. hisvolume o T f eleven essays by her students and colleagues as well as the editorAli Ansari, includes articles onthe Fatimids, the Crusades, the Saljuqs, two royal almanacs from Anatoliaas well as more recent history, with a reading of the Arab Spring in Egypt and an interpretative translation of an early Persian history of England.
Carole Hillenbrand is a Fellow of of the British Academy, Professor Emerita in Islamic History at the University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of St Andrews. Ali M. Ansari is Professor of Iranian History and Founding Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews. ................ NEW
FRUIT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHEEL OF LEARNING Essays in Honour of Robert Hillenbrand
Edited by Melanie Gibson £60.00 April 2022 978-1-909942-60-8 Art, Architecture, Middle Eastern Studies Cloth Hardback, 197x264mm 276 pp | 200 colour illustrations
An impressive collection of essays by distinguished scholarly authors to celebrate the career of Robert Hillenbrand. '...a befitting academic tribute to honour one of the giants in the field of Islamic art.' Ulrike Al-Khamis, Director, Aga Khan Museum The respect and affection of the academic community towards Robert Hillenbrand is legendary. This volume of essays by his students and colleagues encompasses some of his wide-ranging interests, with one section devoted to architecture, a second to painting and calligraphy, and a third to the iconography and context of objects. A further two essays fill previous gaps in our understanding by introducing little-known or misattributed pieces: an inlaid metal dish with a Nilotic scene of the eighth century and a carved ivory flask of the Ayyubid period.
Robert Hillenbrand is a Fellow of of the British Academy, Professor Emeritus in Islamic Art History at the University of Edinburgh and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of St Andrews. Melanie Gibson is Senior Editor of the Gingko Library Arts Series. Her publications focus on sculpture, ceramics and glass produced around the Islamic world. ................ NEW
FRUIT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHEEL OF LEARNING Essays in Honour of Carole and Robert Hillenbrand
Edited by Ali M. Ansari &
Melanie Gibson £185.00 April 2022 978-1-909942-61-5
Two volumes in a limited slip-case edition (50 units only)
Cloth Hardback, 197x264mm
A limited cased edition published to celebrate the unmatched career of two of the most eminent British scholars in the field of Middle Eastern Art, History and Culture.
Contributors to VOLUME I
Contributors to VOLUME II
Ali Ansari
James Allan
Stephen R. Burge
Barbara Finster
John Chalcraft
Marcus Fraser
Shainool Jiwa
Alain George
Alexey Khismatulin
Daniel Ghose
Christian Lange
Melanie Gibson
Alex Mallett
Margaret S. Graves
W. Richard Oakes, Jr.
Yuka Kadoi
Andrew C.S. Peacock
Linda Komaroff
Kirsten Thomson
Lorenz Korn
Saeko Yazaki
Elizabeth Lambourn Richard McClary Julian Raby
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co-published with the british library
TREASURES OF HERAT Two Manuscripts of the Khamsah of Nizami in the British Library
Barbara Brend Edited by Melanie Gibson £60.00 April 2022 Art, Persian Studies 978-1-909942-54-7 Hardback, 240x290mm (Portrait) 240 pp | 137 colour illustrations GINGKO LIBRARY ART SERIES
‘A treasure, and it takes the study of Timurid painting to new levels of sophistication’ Robert Hillenbrand, Emeritus Professor in Islamic Art History, University of Edinburgh With this book, Barbara Brend provides thorough consideration of two celebrated Persian manuscripts housed in the British Library. These two copies of the Khamsah (Quintet) –a set of five narrative poems by Nizami Ganjavi, a master of allegorical poetry in Persian literature– were produced in Herat in the fifteenth century, one of the greatest periods of Persian painting. Although well known, the manuscripts have never before been written about in relation to each other. Brend tells the story of each poem and the painting that illustrates it, and she formally analyses the images, placing them in their historical and artistic context. The images from both highly-prized manuscripts are beautifully reproduced in colour, and the collected history of one of the manuscripts—recorded in the form of seal impressions and inscriptions—is also included. Ursula Sims-Williams provides a translation and commentary of these important marks of ownership which identify the Mughal rulers Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb. Barbara Brend is a specialist in the field of Persian and Mughal painting. Her most recent books include Perspectives on Persian Painting: Illustrations to Amir Khusrau’s Khamsah and Muhammad Juki’s Shahnamah of Firdausi. ................ NEW
t r e a s u r e s o f h e r at
The picture owes a great deal to the tradition of Herat, so that we may wonder if Bihzad, then employed by Shah Tahmasp, guided the Safavid painter. The conception of a castle of complex architecture, set upon rocks, and especially having an entrance gate between two bastions, calls to mind ‘Iskandar appeals to the hermit’ a picture to be discussed later, Or. 6810, No. 18 [Figure 91].59 Prior to that, a significant example is ‘Isfandiyar slays Arjasp in the Brazen Hold’ in the Shāhnāmah made for Muhammad Juki.60 The composition also reflects an earlier work: the illustration of ‘Khvurshid at the window’ in Salman Savaji’s Jamshīd va Khvurshīd in the Anthology H.796 copied in Yazd in 810/1407 [Figure 48], retaining the figure of a lady at the window, which is not required for the narrative of Add. 25900.61
that is restrained by differing blues. The hand of Nushabah, seen against the ground of her robe, is closely paralleled by that of the Youth in the pictorial shamsah attributed to Bihzad that opens the Freer Anthology copied in 930/1524 at Herat.62 Panels of schist at the foot of the pīshtāq are still painted as in Herat and not in the weakened forms seen in Shah Tahmasp’s Shāhnāmah.63 The depiction of rock continues to be in subtle washes, with some colour very thin; some faces are present. Small dried bushes are again numerous, but fewer than in the two previous Safavid paintings. It seems probable that this is the work of the same artist as ‘Khusrau sees Shirin bathing’ and ‘Iskandar comforts the dying Dara’, and whom I take to be Mirza ʿAli; he is continuing to assimilate the lessons of Herat with increasing subtlety. How the tradition is transmitted is not clear: whether he works from sketches or manuscripts created in Herat, whether Bihzad himself instructs him verbally or draws elements for him. It does not seem possible to follow S.C. Welch, who groups these three pictures together as work of Dust Muhammad, the artist whose name appears below ‘Haftvad’s daughter finds a worm in an apple’ made for Shah Tahmasp’s Shāhnāmah.64 Though the Shāhnāmah picture shares with that in our Khamsah the motifs of a minaret and muezzin, and a gateway with angular machicolations, its style—notably the heavily slanted trees—is more baroque in character.
In addition, Herat’s expressive use of colour is apparent in the near, but not complete affinity of hues, in the garments of Iskandar and Nushabah, both having an assertive orange red
Figure 48. Khvurshid at the window, Jamshīd va Khvurshīd of Salman Savaji in Anthology. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, H. 796, f. 155b. Image by the author, 1977.
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CHAPTER 4 Illustrations in Add. 25900
Double frontispiece, folios 4a–3b
Hitherto, scholars have for the most part accepted these two paintings as designed to be a frontispiece. However, they are not of the same size, their rulings do not match and their scenes represent different times of day, indicating that they were not conceived as a pair.1 In addition, damage suffered by the left-hand page is not reflected on the right, implying that they were not always partners. The right-hand page (folio 3b) has rulings in ink and gold— as with many other manuscripts, the outermost line, in slightly-blurred dark blue, can be considered to have been added during a refurbishment. The picture has a stepped upper line, evidently intended to accommodate text, which has been blocked out in gold: this is not to be expected in a frontispiece. Clearly the folio was extracted from the body of the manuscript, with consequent need to adjust text and illumination at the site. The picture is therefore listed below as No. 4, ‘Khusrau and Shirin entertained’ [Figure 29]. It was positioned at folio 52, but because the original folio was destroyed it is not certain whether the illustration was on recto or verso.2 The left-hand page (folio 4a) has rulings in ink and gold, and also lines in blue and green.3 Later in this manuscript the inclusion of coloured elements in the rulings is found with pictures in Safavid style; however, the painting on folio 4a appears to be of 1490s Herat. One other picture in the manuscript shares Herat style with rulings that include blue and green: No. 12, ‘Bahram Gur in the Black Pavilion’. Since the left-hand frontispiece has this associate within the narrative area, it seems probable that a frontispiece was part of the original scheme. A right-hand page might have succumbed to any number of accidents.
Figure 28. Khusrau and Shirin entertained. 136 x 77 mm. Add. 25900, f. 52.
Figure 21. Frontispiece (left-hand page). 128 x 78 mm. Add. 25900, f. 4a.
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Co-published with BIPS
URBAN HISTORIES OF RAJASTHAN Religion, Politics and Society (1500-1800)
Elisabeth M. Thelen £40.00 May 2022 978-1-909942-660 History, Religion, South Asia Studies Royal Hardback, 156x234mm 4 maps & 4 illustrations |260 pp Available
as an e-book
Series: Studies in the History and Culture of the Persianate World of The British Institute of Persian Studies
‘This book is an outstanding contribution to early modern Indian social history’ Milinda Banerjee, Lecturer in Modern History, University of St Andrews Literary descriptions of premodern Indian cities have included a diversity of peoples found in the streets and markets, evoking a sense of wealth and abundance, and connection to regional and global networks of trade. But they also raise questions on how the residents lived together and negotiated their differences: which differences mattered, when and to whom? How did state actions and policies affect urban society and the lives of various communities? How and why did conflict occur in urban spaces? In considering these questions, this book explores the histories of urban communities in the three cities of Ajmer, Nagaur and Pushkar in Rajasthan, between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The focus of this study is on everyday life and contextualising religious practices and conflicts by considering patterns of patronage and looking at conflict more broadly within society. Various archival documents are examined and the findings demonstrate the complex and sometimes contradictory ways religion intersected with the political, economic and social realms. Elizabeth M. Thelen is a postdoctoral research associate in the History Department at the University of Exeter. She earned her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in History, specialising in the history of South Asia, and her PhD dissertation received the British Institute of Persian Studies Early Career Researcher Prize. ................ NEW
POET AND BUSINESSMAN Abd al-Aziz al-Babtain and the Formation of Modern Kuwait
Leif Stenberg £20.00 March 2022 978-1-909942-00-9 Biography, Middle Eastern History Trade Paperback with flaps, 148x210mm 320 pp | 16 illustrations Available
as an e-book
This book reviews and analyses the modern history of Kuwait by telling the story of Abd al-Aziz Sa‘ud al-Babtain (b. 1936), a businessman, philanthropist, and poet whose own story closely interweaves with the history of the state. 'The Poet and Businessman' takes a uniquely wide-ranging view of this history and is a rare study of an individual from a generation in the Gulf who witnessed firsthand the discovery of oil and experienced the many benefits it brought. It was this discovery, which also came with societal costs and challenges, that has played a crucial part in the socio-economic and cultural development of Kuwait and the wider Gulf region. By constructing an overview of the modern history of Kuwait in parallel with the life of Abd al-Aziz Sa‘ud al-Babtain, Stenberg succeeds in filling a lacuna in contemporary scholarship on the Middle East, especially on a neglected area of Arabian history. The result is a balanced account of the state of Kuwait enriched by the story of a remarkable and influential individual.
Leif Stenberg is the Dean of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC). He is also a professor at AKU-ISMC and in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. From 2007 to 2017, he was the founding Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University, Sweden. ................ NEW
notable media coverage
THE UMAYYAD MOSQUE OF DAMASCUS Art, Faith and Empire in Early Islam
Alain George £60.00 ART HISTORY, ARCHITECTURE Hardback, 240x290mm (Portrait) JUNE 2021 978-1-909942-45-5 264 pp | 260 illustrations GINGKO ART SERIES
‘…this sumptuously illustrated and beautifully produced book…shows us that there is still much to learn from buildings we thought we knew. Alain George fires the imagination through his careful but evocative reimagining.’ Scott Redford, Times Literary Supplement ‘Alain George’s illuminating new study shows us that the Umayyad Mosque has always been claimed by rival faiths.’ Sameer Rahim, Apollo Magazine ‘George examines the mosque in great detail, illustrating practically every section of the building, the quality of the photographs almost making it seem like the reader is actually there looking at each part of the building…’ Asian Review of Books ‘In this comprehensive biography of the Umayyad Mosque, Alain George explores a wide range of sources to excavate the dense layers of the mosque’s history, also uncovering what the structure looked like when it was first built with its impressive marble and mosaic-clad walls.’ Asian Art Newspaper
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