Jonathan M. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair share the Norma Jean Calderwood University Professorship of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College and the Hamad bin Khalifa Endowed Chair of Islamic Art at Virginia Commonwealth University. A husband-and-wife team, they study all aspects of Islamic art from the seventh century to modern times. Bloom is particularly interested in the arts of the medieval Mediterranean region as well as the history of paper. His most recent book is Arts of the City Victorious (2007), a study of the art and architecture of the Fatimid period in North Africa and Egypt. Blair is particularly interested in the arts of Iran and Central Asia, the Mongols, and the history of the Islamic book. Her latest book is Islamic Calligraphy (2006), for which she won several international awards. In addition to their hundreds of individual articles, reviews, and monographs, they have written or edited seven books jointly. They also served as consultants to the 3-hour documentary Islam: Empire of Faith, shown nationally on PBS, and are convenors of the Hamad bin Khalifa Biennial Symposium on Islamic Art. Both Bloom and Blair received their Ph.D.s in Middle Eastern Studies and Fine Arts from Harvard University in 1980.

Library Journal Best Reference

Booklist Editors' Choice

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

"This volume is everything that one has come to expect from a Grove title: literate, comprehensive, and authoritative . . . for libraries with specialized art or Islamic collections, this is essential."--Library Journal (Starred Review)

"The editors are to be saluted for the vast amount of readily accessible information contained in these three volumes."--The Art Magazine

"It is not only highly recommended for academic and larger public libraries but its survey articles and sections on history, historiography, and approaches to scholarship are required reading for graduate students, who will find especially valuable the editors' tip that 'there are dissertations waiting to be written here!'"--Booklist (Outstanding Review)

"Based on their collective and solo achievements, Bloom's and Blair's GEIAA is destined to become the definite work in the area of Islamic art and architecture, which will undoubtedly be on the shelves of all libraries."--American Reference Books Annual