Title: Rivers of paradise : water in Islamic art and culture /
Authors: Blair, Sheila; Bloom, Jonathan; Qatar Foundation.; Virginia Commonwealth University; VCUQatar.
Publisher: Yale University Press ; In association with Qatar Foundation ; Virginia Commonwealth University ; Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar,
Year: 2009
Subjects: Islamic arts Congresses.; Water in art Congresses.; Water and architecture Islamic countries Congresses.; Water and civilization Congresses.
Abstract: For millennia the collection, distribution, and symbolism of water have played pivotal roles in the lands where Islam has flourished. This book is the first to address this important subject. A diverse spectrum of scholars covers a wide range of topics: from the revelation of Islam in the 7th century to todayʹs conservation and development issues, from watering oases in the Moroccan desert to the flooded plains of Bengal. Copiously illustrated with beautiful color photographs and newly drawn plans and maps, this book will provoke readers to appreciate and acknowledge the essential, if often invisible and transitory, roles that water played in the arts of the Islamic lands and beyond.
Contents: Foreword / Richard E. Toscan -- Introduction / Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom -- Gardens beneath which rivers flow : the significance of water in classical Islamic culture / Carole Hillenbrand -- Control and abandon : images of water in Arabic poetry and gardens / Yasser Tabbaa -- From the heavens and hills : the flow of water to the fruited trees and ablution fountains in the Great Mosque of Córdoba / D. Fairchild Ruggles -- Sip, dip, and pour : toward a typology of water vessels in Islamic art / Linda Komaroff -- Stones to bring rain? : magical inscriptions in linear Kufic on rock crystal amulet-seals / Venetia Porter -- Charity and piety : Sabil-Kuttabs and the conception of water during the Mamluk period / Howayda al-Harithy -- Art, infrastructure, and devotion : Ottoman water architecture / Walter Denny -- Water on the ground : water systems in two Ottoman Greek port cities / Marcus Milwright and Evanthia Baboula -- Drinking-water as message : the sabil of Muhammad 'ali Pasha in Cairo / Agnieszka Dobrowolska -- Far from the desert : water traditions in the South Asian landscape / Catherine B. Asher -- Paradise flooded : water and architecture in Bangladesh / Perween Hasan -- Landscape and hardscape : historical problems and contemporary solutions to the scarcity of water in the Islamic world / Mohammad al-Asad.