The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture

The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture provides the most current, comprehensive, and reliable information on this topic of burgeoning importance in world history and the visual arts. The unparalleled scope and depth of these three volumes include wide-ranging subject areas such as: artists, rulers, writers, dynasties, architecture, ceramics, sculpture, metalwork, painting, calligraphy, textiles, and more. The Encyclopedia offers fully-updated articles and bibliographies that draw upon the expansive scholarship of The Dictionary of Art, as well as more than 500 plans, maps, diagrams, illustrations, and color plates. Richly illustrated and accessible, the set is an indispensable reference resource for all those interested in Islamic studies.

Jonathan M. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair share the Norma Jean Calderwood University Professorship of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College and the Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair of Islamic Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. A husband-and-wife team, they study all aspects of Islamic art from the seventh century to modern times. Bloom is particularly interested in the arts of the medieval Mediterranean region as well as the history of paper. His most recent book is Arts of the City Victorious (2007), a study of the art and architecture of the Fatimid period in North Africa and Egypt. Blair is particularly interested in the arts of Iran and Central Asia, the Mongols, and the history of the Islamic book. Her latest book is Islamic Calligraphy (2006), for which she won several international awards. In addition to their hundreds of individual articles, reviews, and monographs, they have written or edited seven books jointly. They also served as consultants to the 3-hour documentary Islam: Empire of Faith, shown nationally on PBS, and are convenors of the Hamad bin Khalifa Biennial Symposium on Islamic Art. Both Bloom and Blair received their Ph.D.s in Middle Eastern Studies and Fine Arts from Harvard University in 1980.