Customer Reviews

Turkey: From the Seljuks to the Ottomans (World Architecture)

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This is one of the first books to be published in the Taschen World Architecture series that promises to cover about 30 or 40 books in total, and if you're looking for intelligent and beautiful books on architecture at real people's prices, then this might be the series for you.

The photography in this book is stunningly beautiful; however, it is not just an art book, and the written sections are extremely interesting and intelligent without being overly-simplistic or overly scholarly. The book is organised by era, starting with the Selcuks, and finishing with the late Ottomans. There are lots of very good, very clear photos illustrating each era; I think my particular favourite is a picture of a mosque in Eastern Turkey, with Mt. Ararat in the background.

We bought this book because of it's subject matter -- Turkish architecture -- but it is such a beautiful book (and at such a good price for an "Art" book) that I'm now tempted to collect the whole series as it is published.....

One note for fans of Turkey and the many eras of architecture in that country: as this book specifically covers the period from the Selcuks to the Ottomans, none of the Roman architecture is included, so no pictures of the Hagia Sophia, Ephesus, etc. Some hope though -- there is at least book on Roman architecture in the series.

A quick survey, centered on Sinan, little outside Anatolia, but beautiful shots of many different sizes.Not much late Ottoman.