MINBAR OF SALADIN: Reconstructing a Jewel of Islamic Art EDITED BY LYNETTE SINGER Book Number: 76112 Product format: Hardback Readers are obviously dying to know what a 'minbar' is - or was. One of the masterpieces of Islamic art, the Minbar of Saladin, perhaps the finest wooden pulpit ever seen, was made in the middle of the 12th century. For some 800 years it stood in the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, until it was burned down by a tourist claiming to be acting on orders from God. Its loss to the Muslim world was immense, and so the decision was taken by the mosque's guardians, the Jordanian royal family, to rebuild it. Nobody, however, could have guessed just how complicated the process would be, nor how long it would take. With the secrets of the original construction all but lost, to rebuild the minbar required not only the unravelling of its astonishingly complex geometry, but also the revival of the almost extinct crafts that had gone into its building. The solutions to these problems were often to be found in unexpected places, and involved scholars and craftsmen from around the world. This book, which accompanies the television film Stairway to Heaven, is the first to document the minbar's creation, destruction and reconstruction. But that is not all. This breathtakingly lovely volume is also a meditation on the beauty of sacred art, and the fragility of our cultural heritage. Packed with dazzling images, not only of the minbar itself and of many other key works, it reveals the history of the Holy Land, the convolutions of sacred geometry and the incredibly skilled processes of the traditional crafts that were involved in the making of those works of art. With forewords by HRH The Prince of Wales and HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan. 208 pages 29cm x 25cm with 213 illustrations, 145 in striking colour, a rare photograph of the original Minbar of Saladin, and glossary. Published price: £29.95 Bibliophile price: £10.00

• published: 16 Nov 2014
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