In a triumph of scholarship, Stefano Carboni has drawn on a huge range of sources to produce a beautiful and comprehensive history.

The book is based on the superb al-Sabah Collection in Kuwait and includes detailed descriptions of some 500 objects, accompanied by hundreds of newly taken photographs and specially commissioned drawings. Beginning with the legacy of Roman and Sasanian traditions in the early years of Islam, the coverage extends well over a thousand years to the last phase of glass production in Mughal India and Safavid and Qajar Iran in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Dr Carboni’s authoritative text, the beauty of the objects themselves and the fine quality of the reproductions combine to reveal to scholar and layman alike an aspect of Islamic art that has for too long been neglected.