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Fruit of Knowledge, Wheel of Learning (Vol II)

Essays in Honour of Professor Robert Hillenbrand

Collected essays honoring the work of British professors Carole and Robert Hillenbrand.

Carole and Robert Hillenbrand are legendary British professors, both of whom have made immense contributions to the fields of Islamic history and art history, and they are highly respected and beloved by the academic community. For these two volumes, editors Melanie Gibson and Ali Ansari have gathered an eclectic mix of scholarly contributions by colleagues and by some of their most recent students who now occupy positions in universities worldwide. The eleven articles in the volume dedicated to Carole Hillenbrand include research on a range of topics, including the elusive Fatimid caliph al-Zafir, a crusader raid on Mecca, and the Persian bureaucrat Mirza Saleh Shirazi’s history of England. In Robert Hillenbrand's volume, the thirteen articles include studies of a rare eighth-century metal dish with Nilotic scenes, Chinese Qur’ans, the process of image-making in both theory and practice, and a shrine in Mosul destroyed by ISIS.

340 pages | 200 color plates | 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 | © 2021

Art Series

Art: Middle Eastern, African, and Asian Art


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Reviews

"In its thematic breadth, intellectual depth, and innovative thinking Fruit of Knowledge, Wheel of Learning is indeed a befitting academic tribute to honour one of the giants in the field of Islamic art today. At the same time, it speaks of Robert’s outstanding calibre as a teacher and mentor, fostering the next generation of scholarly thought leaders at the top of their game."

Ulrike Al-Khamis, Director and Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto

"This beautifully produced volume ranges in time from early Islam to early modernity, in geography from Anatolia to China, and in medium from architecture to the portable arts, painting and paper. The extraordinary range of the contributors' essays offers a fitting tribute to the inspiring and pioneering scholarship of a towering figure in the history of Islamic art and architecture."

Finbarr Barry Flood, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of the Humanities, New York University

"Fruit of Knowledge, Wheel of Learning contains a series of essays as engaging and diverse in their interests and subject matters as the man they celebrate. As many of the contributors are Robert Hillenbrand’s former students, they also testify to his abilities as a learned and inspiring teacher."

Scott Redford, Nasser D Khalili Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology, SOAS, University of London

Table of Contents

CONTENTS



Foreword 6

Melanie Gibson and Ali Ansari



Robert Hillenbrand: An Appreciation 8

Melanie Gibson



Robert Hillenbrand: Publications 10



A Builder of Mosques: The Projects of al-Walid I, from Sanaa to Homs 16

Alain George



Back to Tulul al-Ukhaydir 50

Barbara Finster



Twin Minarets in the Architecture of Iran 64

Lorenz Korn



Memorial for a Memorial: The Mashhad of Imam ?Awn al-Din and the Destruction of Medieval Monuments in Mosul by ISIS 78

Richard P. McClary



David Talbot Rice and Persian Art History 92

Yuka Kadoi



Beyond the Beholder’s Share: Painting as Process 100

Marga ret S. Graves



Blurred Boundaries: Interactions Between Royal Ateliers and Commercial Workshops in the Persianate World 132

Udayan Da niel Ghose



Some New Uses of the Geniza: Mercantile Letter—On the Materiality of Writing in the Indian Ocean World 158

Elizabeth La mbourn



Beyond the Taklamakan: The Origins and Stylistic Development of Qur?an Manuscripts in China 180

Marcus Fraser



Syrian Nilotics and the History of Silver Inlay in the Near East 200

James Allan



An Ayyubid-era Figural Ivory: A Sculptural Miniature 222

Julian Raby



‘Healing for what is in the Breasts’: Ceramic Breastfeeding Figures from the Medieval Islamic World 240

Melanie Gibson



Chinese Porcelains from the Ardabil Shrine: Collecting and Display in Iran 268

Linda Komaroff



Author Biographies 286

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