Bibliography of Art and Architecture in the Islamic World volume 1: “Art” (837 pages) and volume 2: “Architecture” (653 pages) By Susan Sinclair, ed. (Leiden: Brill, 2012.)

Abstract

Index Islamicus, begun in 1906, is a database of bibliographic information of
publications in all areas of studies connected with the Islamic world. Since that
time, interest in Islamic art and architecture has surged from specialists to many
scholars, students, and general interest worldwide. The recent and updated supplements
Bibliography of Art and Architecture in the Islamic World, edited by
Susan Sinclair, who was assisted by Heather Bleaney and Pablo Garcia Suarez,
fills a serious void by listing the materials from 1906 to 2011.
Sinclair, an independent scholar with a Ph.D. from the University of
London’s Courtauld Institute of Art, is currently researching material in the
medievalArab world and has served as the co-editor of the Index Islamicus
since 2007. With the support of the university’s renowned School of Oriental
and African Studies, she was able to comb the archives of the United Kingdom’s
leading institutions, including the National Art Library in London,
the British Library, the library of the Warburg Institute, the Cambridge University
Library, and the University of Oxford libraries, as well as important
collections located in Spain (e.g., the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the
Biblioteca Islámica, and the libraries of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Cientificas). The compilation of resources from these vast collections as
well as the material available online has brought this bibliographic collection
to a new level.
At first glance, the material may seem to be no more than a listing of
sources on the subject, with no “content” per se to read. However, the value
of such texts and of this set in particular is that the bibliographic listings are
grouped by type and subtypes, which enable researchers in particular areas to
access a wealth of information not necessarily accessible by other search engines
or mechanisms ...