Middle Eastern Encounters

This book focuses on interactions between the Islamic world and other regions from the late eighth to the twenty-first centuries. Some chapters consider the complex relationship between Islam and the cultures of Late Antiquity in the Middle East and Mediterranean basin. The reprinted chapters in this volume have been revised and updated. Topics include relief-moulded pottery production in Raqqa, the construction of palaces in Samarra, portraiture in Arabic manuscript painting, written descriptions of patterned marble in medieval Islam, images of Muslim rulers in early Modern printed books, and the broadcast of the medical examination of Saddam Hussein. Also included are a critical introduction that considers the challenges involved in the study of cultural interactions between Islamic and non-Islamic regions, a cumulative bibliography, and a previously unpublished study of recently discovered photographs, drawings, and writings relating to the Middle East made by soldiers during and after World War I.