Books: Germany on Jews and Christians, Oxford 1949, Which

Books: Germany 257 on Jews and Christians, Oxford 1949, which discusses several passages by Galen which have only been preserved in Arabic works. The study Al-Flirlibi's theory 01 prophecy and divination, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1957 (special number in honour of Sir David Ross), pp. 142-48, contains, in addition to a discussion of the Greek antecedents of al-Farabi's theory of pro phecy, the demonstration that much of al-Farabi's psychological doctrine as propounded in his al-Madina al-FlirJila is derived from the De anima of Alexander of Aphrodisias. It is particularly expedient to draw the attention of Orientalists to this important article, published in a journal devoted to Greek studies. Lastly, an older article, Zur Traditionsgeschichte der aristotelischen Poetik, in Studi italiani di filologia classica, 1934, pp. 5-14, shows the classical antecedents of the convention whereby the Islamic philosophers count Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics as the seventh and eigth books of his logics, while another one, Un Irammento nuovo di Aristotele, in the same periodical, 1937, pp. 125-37, deals with a quotation from Aristotle in a treatise on psychology attributed to al-Kindi. Oxford S. M. Stern ALMANYA I GERMANY K. ERDMANN, Der orientalische KnuPlteppich, Versuch einer Darstellung seiner Geschichte. - Tiibingen, Verlag Ernst Wasmuth, 1955. 71 pp., 20 text figs., 179 figs. on pis., 8 color pis. Bibliography. Cloth binding. After the premature attempt of F. R. Martin in 1908 to write a history of the ancient carpet ended in failure, the few writers who ventured to cope with the field as a whole, did so in the form of monographs which dealt with the rug pro duction in the main areas in chapter after chapter, and organized the material in each according to the development of certain decorative schemes. In such books the Persian carpet of the 16th and 17th centuries played the major role and was hailed as the unsurpassed perfection in the medium. Kurt Erdmann, one of the foremost experts in the field, after having in three active decades produced many articles on individual pieces, whole groups, and specific problems, also exhibition catalogues, and critical reviews, has now thought the time ripe to write a "history", although he modestly scales down his gallant effort by employing a more restricting subtitle. Fully aware of the difficulties and monumentality of his task, the author strives more to survey the historical development in broad strokes than to offer details and final results, and he thus wishes to present the whole as an outline for future research and as a basis for discussion. For such an all-over picture it was undoubtedly a good idea to keep down the size and to leave out footnotes. A more detailed treatment might have made this general survey too complex and, likewise, critical or substantiating comments at the bottom of pages would have been distracting features. The author tries to overcome this handicap by adding an excellent, well-organized bibliography of about 400 titles which is as complete as anyone but the most specialized student in this field might ask for. (The only very minor flaw is found in the section on the early carpets from Central Asia where the four voluminous works of Sir Aurel Stein are given without further page or plate references.) For the rest, Erdmann relies on fine analytical drawings, most of which were executed by his wife, and in parti cular on the carefully chosen illustrations which include masterpieces and well known pieces of documentary value, as well as many unpublished carpets, especially of types which blend motifs of various origins. While this reviewer, as probably everyone else, approved of the aim and self imposed restraint of the author, it seemed to him, a priori, a near-impossible task, to present the whole history of the knotted carpet in a little more than 40 pages, Oriens XI 17 Kitab!ar: Almanya and even to include such subjects as the European attitude toward the Oriental carpet, the various knotting techniques, and the methods of production. He gladly admits that his preconceived opinion was erroneous. This is not only a clear, precise, and eminently reasonable presentation, most of whose theses will be readily accepted, but the treatment of the material seems with very few and minor excep tions adequate and often ample; and the exceptions are from the author's point of view warranted. The style is lucid and (with the exception, perhaps, of the dis cussion of the Western and Oriental attitudes to infinite repeat patterns on pages 32-33) it is easy to follow the arguments. After a reconstruction of the early history of the carpet, which sounds quite plausible (pp. 11-14), the author treats the Seljuq rugs from Anatolia on the basis of finds in Konya and Bey~ehir, certain Fustat fragments, and a number of repro ductions of such carpets in European paintings of the 14th and 15th centuries (pp. 14-20). He assumes that the Konya and oldest Bey~ehir carpets are from Central Anatolia, the primitive animal rugs from Western Anatolia, and certain carpets with rows of geometric designs in small squares or in diaper arrangements from Eastern Anatolia or the Caucasus. In this survey he also deals with the carpets shown in Persian miniatures of the Timiirid period (not Mongol, as stated on p. 20). The whole discussion, here as well as in later chapters, is governed by a close analysis of the designs and their form or organization. Another valuable feature found here and throughout the book is the reference to more recent carpets including those from other regions in which the old patterns live on in a modified way. Such comparisons are accompanied by excellent illustrations, many of them unpublished, which makes the constant flow of carpet designs vividly clear. On the other hand, there are here and elsewhere comparatively few references to Oriental or European literary sources, but this is probably explained by the wish to keep the text as brief as possible. In the next chapter Erdmann discusses the early Ottoman carpets (formerly called the three types of "Holbein rugs"). He attributes the two small-patterned ones in which rows of octagons alternate with staggered rows of diamonds to the Ushak district, and the one with large star designs in squares to the region of Berga ma (pp. 21-24). In describing the later versions, he comes to a variety which sur rounds star-filled squares with smaller octagons, a type of organization characteristic for the Mamliik carpets of the 15th and 16th centuries. This leads him to a dis cussion of the art of carpet weaving in Cairo up to the Ottoman Conquest in 1517 (pp. 25-26). At this point E. interrupts the historical account by reviewing the three types of production, i.e., in nomadic, peasant, and urban milieus and shows how the reduced and petrified repertory of designs, which was all that was available to the greatly improved technical facilities in the urban workshops of 15th century Iran, finally lead to a revolution and change of patterns. The new carpets are based on the work of the artists of the book who had introduced a new compositional arrangement, the medallion scheme, and new forms of decoration taken from the world of flora and fauna, the latter both real and imaginary (pp. 26-30). Having explained this stylistic transformation with all its implications, the author takes up the five great Persian centers of production: Tabriz, Kashan, Kerman, Herat, and I~fahan, and concludes it with a survey of various later types, made in the 17th century (pp. 30-42). The next chapters discuss the Caucasian-Northwest Persian carpets from about 1500 to the late 18th century (pp. 42-45), the rug manufacture in Ottoman court style in Cairo (pp. 45-49), the various types of Ushak carpets (pp. 49-52), and the Anatolian prayer rugs from the unique example of the early 16th century in Berlin down to the common types called Ladik, Kula, Ghiordes, Melas etc. of the 18th and 19th centuries (pp. 53-54). The final chapter, one page and a half long, is devoted to the marginal regions, China, Mughal India, and Spain (pp. 54-55). Here the author is extremely brief. So brief, in fact, that one would have forgiven .

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