Islamic Art History : HOME

Islamic Art alphabetical glossary

A virtual museum that explores Islamic art and material culture in the Mediterranean region, with submissions from 14 countries.

The Ashmolean has an important collection of works from the Islamic Middle East, totalling well over 4,000 objects. The collection includes fine pieces of ceramics, metalwork, glass, wood and ivory, textiles, and works on paper and parchment, made in a wide region extending from Spain to Central Asia over a period of over a thousand years.

This website is conceived as a companion to the Islamic galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Intended as a general introduction to Islamic art, it draws upon examples from the museum’s comprehensive collection, which includes works from an area extending from southern Spain to Central Asia, ranging in date from the seventh century up to the present day. The text is designed for readers who seek to go beyond the obvious surface beauty of Islamic art to discover the rich historical and cultural traditions from which this art emerged.

A collection of over 280 Islamic manuscripts, published texts, and maps dating from the 10th to 20th centuries CE, selected from Houghton Library and the Harvard Art Museum/Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

The peer-reviewed journal is the leading publication for the exchange of textile scholarship in North America. A new volume is released each fall, digitally and in print. Articles feature research on the cultural, technical, historical and aesthetic significance of textiles from all around the world.

The museum offers textiles and rugs from the Islamic world, and rugs & clothing from around the world, dating from 3000 BC to the present. The collection ranges from rugs produced in court and urban workshops to works woven by women in rural villages and nomadic encampments. Among these are superior examples of 15th-century Mamluk rugs from Egypt, Spanish carpets and classical Indian carpet fragments.