This critical Arabic text edition of K. al-Bayāḍ wa-l-sawād min khaṣāʾiṣ ḥikam al-ʿibād fī naʿt al-murīd wa-l-murād ("The Black and White in the Words of Wisdom by Bondsmen Describing the Seeker and the Mystic Quest"), a substantial handbook of early Sufism by Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan al-Sīrjānī (d. ca. 470/1077), is based on three manuscripts and is introduced by a detailed analytical study of the author and his work. The work is written in the tone of a guiding Sufi master and collects the mystical tradition of early Sufis in the form of anecdotes and concise aphorisms to instill guiding wisdom into the hearts of aspiring Sufi adepts. K. al-Bayāḍ wa-l-sawād forms an integral part of Sufi literature and is an essential source for the intellectual history of Islam until the middle of the 5th/11th century.

Fatimid history is a chapter of both Mediterranean and Islamic history. In the period covered by the book (10th-12th centuries) profound changes took place in the Eastern Mediterranean affecting the history of the region.
Divided into three parts this study deals with the political history of the Fatimid period, the structure of the Fatimid state and the interplay between state and society.
The book is a contribution to the study of Islamic military history addressing such topics as: the formation and upkeep of black slave armies, the role of Christian-Armenian troops in twelfth-century Egypt and military and naval aspects of the Fatimid wars with the Crusaders. Other topics examined are the internal policies of the Fatimid state: notably, among them, the religious policies of the Fatimid regime, the involvement of the state in the urban life of the Fatimid capital city, Fustat-Cairo, and Fatimid attitudes toward non-Muslim communities.

This publication offers a wide-ranging account of the Mongols in western and eastern Asia in the aftermath of Genghis Khan’s disruptive invasions of the early thirteenth century, focusing on the significant cultural, social, religious and political changes that followed in their wake. The issues considered concern art, governance, diplomacy, commerce, court life, and urban culture in the Mongol world empire as originally presented at a 2003 symposium at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and now distilled in this volume. This collection of 23 papers by many of the main authorities in the field demonstrates both the scope and the depth of the current state of Mongol-related studies and will undoubtedly inspire and provoke further research. The text is profusely illustrated by 30 color and 112 black-and-white illustrations.

Contributors are: Sheila S. Blair, Jonathan M. Bloom, Devin DeWeese, Teresa Fitzherbert, Bert G. Fragner, Robert Hillenbrand, Dietrich Huff, Ralph Kauz, Linda Komaroff, Dickran Kouymjian, Mark Kramarovsky, Donald P. Little, Charles Melville, David Morgan, Bernard O'Kane, Judith Pfeiffer, George Saliba, Noriyuki Shiraishi, Marianna Shreve Simpson, Eleanor Sims, John Masson Smith Jr., Abolala Soudavar, Oliver Watson and Elaine Wright.

• Number of titles: 120
• Languages used: Western languages, German, French, English
• Title list available
• MARC records available

This collection includes discussions of diplomatic treaties like those of Bucharest of 1812 and Adrianople (Edirne) of 1829; the commercial and military issue of access to the Black Sea; eye-witness accounts from war theaters; and plans for, and ideas about, future confrontations. The fact that many different perspectives are represented in this collection makes it extra attractive.

Location of originals: National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg more moderate publications.

This collection of essays provides a timely reassessment of nineteenth-century Islamic art and architecture. The essays demonstrate that the arts of that era were vibrant and diverse, making ingenious use of native traditions and materials or adopting imported conventions and new technologies. However, traditionalists, revivalists and modernists all referred in one way or another to an Islamic heritage, whether to reinvent, revive or reject it.
Beginning with an historical introduction and an assessment of changing attitudes towards the visual arts the following essays provide case studies of architecture and art in Ottoman Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, sub-Saharan Africa, Iran, Central Asia, India and the Caribbean. They examine such issues as patronage, sources of artistic inspiration and responses to European art.
The essays have a relevance and importance for our understanding of the societies and attitudes of that time, and have a direct bearing on the more general debate concerning cultural identity and the integration of modern ideas in the Muslim world. The book is richly illustrated with very many illustrations in black-and-white and in full colour.