Embracing a thousand years of history and an area stretching from the Atlantic to the borders of India and China, Robert Hillenbrand - a world authority on Islamic art and architecture - has written an unrivalled new synthesis of the arts of Islamic civilization.

From the death of the Prophet Muhammad to the survival of the Ottoman Empire well into the modern age, Hillenbrand traces the evolution of an extraordinary range of art forms, including architecture, calligraphy, book illumination, painting, ceramics, glassware, textiles and metalwork.

Complete with maps and glossary, this is an accessible and definitive guide to the arts of a vastly accomplished civilization.