Islamic calligraphy

No civilization has revered the Word more deeply than Islam, and in none has calligraphy become so major and universal an art form. This superbly illustrated book, which includes examples of the work of many of the most famous calligraphers of all time, is the first to allow the reader to follow calligraphy from its origins in pre-Islamic times, through its reform with the invention of the strict rules which make it so disciplined an art and which led to its periods of greatest flowering, right up tot he innovations of the present century. But writing is not confined to the pen, inscriptions appear virtually everywhere--on furniture and textiles, on metalware and ceramics, and most strikingly of all, on buildings. The breadth of approach of text and illustrations makes this a book of equal interest to the Westerner and the Muslim, the traveller and the museum visitor, the student and the artist. -- Back cover.