A fascinating exploration of the world of medieval Islamic science and art. Glaire D. Anderson, using the ninth century Andalusi polymath 'Abbas Ibn Firnas as her starting point, takes us on a journey through the connections between science and the visual arts, poetry and mechanical devices, engineering and design to traditional crafts, eventually revealing an intellectual milieu that was based on linking these endeavors in marvelous ways. This is a remarkably innovative and fresh look at medieval Islamic culture that should interest readers from many different fields and specializations.
Glaire D. Anderson is an historian of Islamic arts and architecture during the age of the caliphs (650-1250), with a focus on Umayyad Córdoba and the arts of Islamic Iberia (Arabic al-Andalus). She is author of The Islamic Villa in Early Medieval Iberia: Aristocratic Estates and Court Culture in Umayyad Córdoba (2013), and co-editor of The Aghlabids and Their Neighbors (2018) and Revisiting al-Andalus: Perspectives on the Material Culture of Islamic Iberia and Beyond (2007).
