Isfahan and Its Palaces

By Sussan Babaie,

Book cover of Isfahan and Its Palaces: Statecraft, Shi'ism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran

Book description

Winner of the Houshang Pourshariati Iranian Studies Book Award 2009 This beautifully illustrated history of Safavid Isfahan (1501-1722) explores the architectural and urban forms and networks of socio-cultural action that reflected a distinctly early-modern and Perso-Shi'i practice of kingship. An immense building campaign, initiated in 1590-91 at the millennial threshold…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Isfahan and Its Palaces as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love this book (and think you will too) because of the way in which it weaves together architectural, art, social, and religious history so as to tell the story of one of the greatest cities in the Islamic world: Isfahan.

Its beautiful illustrations take readers to a place that many will not have a chance to visit while connecting the beauty of its built environment to cultures that come before and after the Safavid moment.

Its author is THE guide to the topic, and gaining a sense of the history of built environments is of critical importance for anyone…

From William's list on Islamic art and it's hidden beauty.

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