The Islamic World

The British Museum has published a book to mark the opening of the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World, featuring 250 reproduced images of various works of art from across the globe. Many of these photographs are as pleasing to the eye as the raqs sharqi and remind us that half the human brain is devoted to visual processing. These are accompanied by well written scholarly texts and cover everything from architectural decoration to jewellery, and calligraphy to metalwork. The tome envelops a truly impressive and ambitious time span – from the era around the dawn of Islam to the present day. There is a tendency to squeeze in too many images on as many pages as possible, meaning they must necessarily be of reduced size. On some occasions it may have been better advised to fill an entire page with one sample, in order to capture the true craftsmanship and technical skill contained in the subject matter. However, what strikes me more forcefully is the absence of an adequate theoretical discussion of the underlying approach and goals of the text. Without this the key vice of such literature, for readers, can be dull obscurantism, learned pedantry and lush sentimentalism. A longer introductory chapter (it is presently only three pages long), or the addition of a concluding chapter, could have supplied appropriate space for discussion of some of the more basic elements of the book as a whole.