The Arts of Islam: Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection

This magnificent publication presents the highlights of the largest and finest privately owned collection of Islamic art in the world.

Nearly 500 masterpieces have been selected from over 20,000 works in the Khalili Collection. The result is a fascinating and diverse body of material, representing a collection that ranks among the best in the world.

Created for sultans, princes and merchants between the 7th and the early 20th centuries, these precious objects reveal the extensive contact between the Islamic empires and their conquered lands from Spain and Morocco, across Northern Africa and Egypt, the Middle Eastern nations of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Palestine, and stretching as far east as Mongolia, India and China.

The treasures presented here include rare Qur’ans and illustrated manuscripts, exquisite glass, ceramics and jewellery, magnificent textiles, carpets and paintings, from the dawn of Islam until recent times. Professor Khalili’s collection illustrates the great artistic and cultural achievements of Islam and provides a synoptic vision of the arts of the entire Islamic world. It was formed with an acute awareness of the criteria by which Muslims themselves have judged and still judge their art.

With texts by an international team of scholars and specialists, headed by Professor J. M. Rogers, honorary curator of the Khalili Collection, this volume is a beautiful and inspiring celebration of the masterpieces of the arts of Islam.

­Professor Rogers was the inaugural holder of the Nasser D. Khalili Chair of Islamic Art and Archaeology at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, and is currently honorary curator of the Khalili Collection. He was previously Deputy Keeper in the Department of Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum in charge of the Islamic collections. He is the author of numerous articles and books on Islamic art, architecture and history.