
Caught in a Whirlwind: Cultural History of Ottoman Baghdad as Reflected in Illustrated Manuscripts
Sophie Kazan
Melis Taner
2020, Brill, 978-9-00441-269-9, $154 hb.
Caught in a Whirlwind describes the short decade of relative peace following the Treaty of Constantinople in 1590 between the warring Safavid Persians, led by Abbas the Great, and the Sunni Muslim Ottoman Empire, led by Sultan Ahmed I. Located in the disputed Mesopotamian and Southern Caucasus territory, Baghdad became the site of bitter conflict. Melis Taner observes some of the manuscripts created during this short decade of intense creativity. Like an academic detective, she considers what individual manuscripts reveal about the two empires’ heated rivalry, the creativity of individual artists, and the visual culture and patronage at the time. Taner’s mastery of her subject as well as the detail and artistry of the illuminations provide tremendous insight into a rare period of creativity under pressure.
You may also be interested in...
Book Deconstructs Myth Surrounding Egypt’s Most-Famous Boy King
Egyptologist Aidan Dodson sifts the evidence—from tomb paintings to statuary to temple inscriptions—in his quest to recover the real King Tutankhamun.Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature Winner Gives Voice to Marginalized
“No one else will be destined to write a life story as squalid as mine, although it’s all true,” comments the elusive protagonist of Algerian author Ahmed Taibaoui’s noir novel.The Ebb and Flow of History on the Zambezi River
In tracing the past six centuries of history, historian Malyn Hewitt captures the cyclical rise and fall of the river and its people.