by Jon Lackman | 21 April 2009 | Islamic
In caa.reviews, Bernard O’Kane considers Jonathan M. Bloom’s Arts of the City Victorious: Islamic Art and Architecture in Fatimid North Africa and Egypt:
Jonathan Bloom can rightfully be considered the foremost authority on Fatimid art and architecture, having produced a steady stream of articles on the subject over the past twenty-five years. He is thus in a perfect position to produce a synthesis, and this is indeed an excellent survey of the material. Time and again he is able to cut through conflicting bodies of opinion and produce authoritative interpretations or offer new insights into problematic material.
The book discusses art and architecture, organizing it both chronologically and by material in a way that is appropriate and easy to follow. The writing style is aimed at the general reader, but for the specialist there is a suitable scholarly apparatus of footnotes. It is published in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, which in an anonymous note at the beginning disclaims official sanction of the author’s views. It is to Bloom’s credit that he makes no concessions to his patrons in discussing the murky origins of the Isma‘ili movement …
I should emphasize that the areas of scholarly controversy mentioned above do not detract from the author’s achievement. To cover a range of two and a half centuries of art and architecture from Tunisia to Cairo and beyond in a balanced format that judiciously selects some for detailed treatment and with broad sweeps fills in the big picture elsewhere is an extremely impressive achievement. We are fortunate that this gap in scholarship has been authoritatively filled.
