Early Muslim Architecture: Umayyads A.D. 622-750 (2 Vols.)

Oxford University Press, 1969. Cloth. Collectible; Very Good/Very Good. A very solid, well-preserved copy of the 1969 stated 2nd edition of this remarkable undertaking by Oxford University Press. In 2 massive elephant folios. Both volumes tight, clean and VG in their light-green cloth, with bright gilt-lettering at their front panels and spines. And both volumes in very respectable examples of their original (and beautiful) light-gray Oxford dustjackets: crisp, price-intact and VG, with several small closed tears at the panel edges and very light, localized staining along the front hinges. 684 pgs. all told plus 140 crisp black-and-white plates. "In this new edition of the first volume of Professor Creswell's 'Early Muslim Architecture', which was published in 1932, the text has been revised thruout and in addition it includes descriptions of interesting Umayyad monuments brought to light by subsequent excavation, e.g. the Dar al-Imara of Ziyad ibn Abihi at Kufa; the Great Mosque at Wasit, al-Walid's qasr at Minya on Lake Tiberias, his qasr at Jabal Says, Hisham's palaces Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi and Khirbat al-Mafjar near Jericho. The chapter (in two parts) on 'The Mosaics of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem' and 'The Mosaics of the Great Mosque in Damascus' have been revised and expanded by Madame Marguerite Gautier-van Berchem" (from the front jacket flap). Scholarly, imposing and very, very impressive.