Princes, Dervishes and Dragons

Lisa Golombek (Curator Emerita, Royal Ontario Museum, Department of World Cultures, Islamic Arts; PhD., U. of Michigan, 1968. At ROM since 1967) is Professor Emerita at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. She is author and co-author of five books and over 70 articles covering a wide range of topics in the field of Islamic arts, including architecture (The Timurid Architecture of Iran and Turan with D. Wilber, 1988, Princeton U. Press), ceramics, epigraphy, textiles, and Persian gardens. The author has extensive experience in fieldwork covering the areas of her research (Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia) and many other countries in the Middle East. While she has published on the arts of the wider Islamic world, her main focus has been on the cultures of greater Iran, including Afghanistan and Central Asia. Her period of specialty was the fifteenth century, but since taking on the study of Safavid pottery, her interests have shifted to the pre-modern period in Iran (c. 1600–1900). The Isfahan Urban History Project, carried out in 1974–76, traced the historical growth of the city and laid the foundations for her later research on Safavid palaces. The hunt for tiles across the globe in order to re-create the Safavid tile arcade has led to investigation into the dispersal of the Iranian cultural heritage by dealers catering to demand from European markets in the late nineteenth century. This material forms a chapter unto itself in the book. Robert B. Mason (PhD., U. of Oxford, 1994; Royal Ontario Museum, Collections Database Manager; Associate Professor, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations Department, University of Toronto) is an archaeologist, anthropologist, art-historian, geologist, and materials scientist whose experience and research has included study of the art, technology, trade, and industry from the beginnings of time to the industrial revolution around the world. A particular area of specialisation is the material culture and archaeology of the Middle East and Europe during the Islamic and Mediaeval periods (roughly 500 AD to the present).

Long overlooked by scholars due to their dispersal in collections across the world, the Safavid cuerda seca tile panels at the heart of this study find new clarity through the ingenious reconstructions of Golombek and Mason. The authors' comprehensive analysis—spanning patronage and production, context and display, iconography and reception, and, ultimately, dispersal—establishes this groundbreaking book as the definitive reference on these fascinating ensembles of Persianate pictorial art.

• List of FIguresList of TablesPrefaceSeries Editor's ForewordMap of Iran, Major CitiesMap of Isfahan in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries I. The Safavid Tile Arcade in Context1. Introduction2. Creating and Recreating the Friezes3. Precedents for Tile Panels in Black-line Technique; the Hasht Behesht Palace4. The Art and Artists of the Tile Arches5. The Iconographic Program6. The Quest for the Original Site7. The 'Afterlife' of the Safavid ArcadeII. Catalogue of Friezes8. The Catalogue of FriezesConcordance of Spandrel Numbering (Catalogue Numbers and SP Numbers)ReferencesIndex