The Legacy of Ghengis Kahn: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353 [Hardcover]

Linda Komaroff (Editor), Stefano Carboni (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300096917 | ISBN-13: 978-0300096910 | Publication Date: November 1, 2002

In the 13th century, under the leadership of Genghis Khan, nomadic horsemen burst out of Mongolia and began their sweep across Asia, creating the largest empire the world has ever known. Particularly in China and Iran (Persia), the results were far-reaching: the Mongols imposed enormous changes but were also influenced by the highly developed civilizations of their new subjects. During the century they ruled Iran - the period of the Ilkhanid dynasty (1256 to 1353) - the Mongols adopted Islam and sponsored a brilliant cultural flowering that encompassed many branches of the arts and transformed local Persian artistic traditions. This volume, which focuses on the Ilkhans and their culture, features some 200 extraordinary objects in colour, including manuscript paintings and illuminations, ceramic tiles, metalwork and textiles. Essays by eight scholars provide the historical and political background and address such subjects as the art of the book, religious art, and the transmission of designs across Asia.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Published in association with New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, this exhibition catalogue for a show currently at the Met (and to be mounted in Los Angeles this spring) offers 280 illustrations (200 in full color) of the cultural explosion that paradoxically took place after the brutal Mongol conquest of the Islamic world. Komaroff, curator of Islamic art and department head of ancient and Islamic art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Carboni, the Met's associate curator of Islamic art, have assembled eight illustrated essays from various scholars, detailing not only the art, but what life was like in "Ilkhanid" (or "subject to Khan") lands. Glorious full-page manuscript plates like King Kayd of Hind Recounting His Dream to Mihran from the Great Mongol Shahnama ("Book of Kings") show colors and spatial conceptions very different from Medieval Christian art. Tilework, architectural plans, tapestry, metalwork, lacquered pieces and much more material culture round things out beautifully, though the book's layout can make it seem like standard, somewhat stodgy catalogue fare. While the Mongol conquest did mean the end of parts of the flourishing, formerly Turkish-ruled patchwork empire's culture, this book and exhibit make a historically downplayed "legacy" come to life.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"[T]he first systematic investigation of the artistic achievements of the Iranian world in the aftermath of the . . . Mongol conquests." -- Choice

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 424 pages
• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300096917
• ISBN-13: 978-0300096910
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #602,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)