Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Oriental Obsession begins in the early sixteenth century with Cardinal Wolsey waiting two years for the delivery of sixty rare Turkey carpets from Venice, and ends in the age of the great exhibitions and emporia on both sides of the Atlantic, before and after 1900, when Islamic objects were seen, appreciated, and bought by millions of the public. The book is concerned with a subject which has not been treated before - the history over four centuries of Islamic artistic traditions and European ideas of Islam as they affected the visual arts of the west and particularly the English-speaking peoples. Studies of individual aspects have been made previously, but this is the first time that an attempt has been made to consider the subject as a whole. The geographical purview extends from Moorish Spain in the west to British India in the east and, besides architecture, the activities that are involved include painting, ceramics, textiles, metalwork, furniture and bookcrafts.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of illustrations
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 1500 to 1660: the growing impetus
• 2 1660 to 1750: the connoisseurs of spectacle
• 3 1750 to 1820: models east of Rome
• 4 After 1820: the painters' vision
• 5 After 1850: the design reformers
• 6 The American story
• Conclusion
• Appendices
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index