Monuments of Afghanistan

Ball, Warwick:
Monuments of Afghanistan : history, archaeology and architecture / Warwick Ball. - London : Tauris (Distr. USA: Palgrave Macmillan), 2008. - xxiii, 298 S. : Ill., Kt.
ISBN 978-1-85043-436-8 / 1-85043-436-0
£ 59,50 / US$ 110,00

Beschreibung
No history of China, India, Persia or Russia can be fully understood without continual reference to central Asia. At the heart of the region lie the deserts and mountain range of Afghanistan that even today remain largely unexplored. Yet in the past Afghanistan saw the rise of great cities, empires and civilizations such as the Kushan in the first few centuries AD, the Ghaznavid in the 11th century, and the Timurid in the 15th. Despite bearing witness to ancient and more recent battles, the scarred landscape of Afghanistan is strewn with the monuments to illustrate this rich history: from the recently uncovered Ai Khanum in the north-east and the spectacular 12th century minarets at Jam in the mountains of the west, to the magnificent palatial complexes of the 11th century sultans at Lashkar Bazar in the south and what remains of the 5th and 7th century Buddhist world of Bamiyan in the Hindu Kush - notoriously destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. This book provides a general background to the history and cultural heritage of Afghanistan. It includes broad summaries of the history, architecture and archeology, together with a gazetteer of the main monuments and archeological sites. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
Preface. ix
List of plates. xii
List of figures. xvi
Key to figures. xviii
Notes on transliteration. xix
Authors note. xxi
Chronology. xxii
1. INTRODUCTION. 2
- The land. 6
- The people. 25
2. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. 40
- Prehistory and Bronze Age civilisations. 42
- Iron Age and the Iranians. 50
- Alexander and the establishment of Greek Bactria. 59
- Nomad invasions and the Kushan Empire. 71
- The Turk Empire and last flowering of Gandharan art. 82
- The early Islamic period. 88
- The later Islamic period. 94
3. THE ARCHITECTURAL BACKGROUND. 100
- Groundwork: Bronze Age beginnings. 100
- Culminating traditions: Iron Age developments. 102
- Convergent traditions: Hellenisrism from the West, Buddhism from the East. 104
- Greek, Roman, Buddhist: the art of Gandhara. 111
- Formation of the new and transformation of the old : the architecture of Islam. 116
4. THE DISCOVERY OF AFGHANISTAN. 122
- Greeks bearing gifts. 122
- Pilgrims of the Middle Way. 125
- Exotic imagery and the first Muslims. 128
- The European re-awakening. 129
- Arcadia found: the first Mogul. 130
- Soldiers, charlatans and scholars. 132
- Players in the Great Game. 134
- Advance of the archaeologists. 137
- Road to Katmandu and road to ruin. 139
5. GAZETTEER OF MAIN SITES AND MONUMENTS. 146
Glossary. 277
Bibliography. 279
Index. 294

Autor
WARWICK BALL, F.S.A., M.I.F.A., is a distinguished writer and archaeologist who has conducted excavations in Afghanistan, Iran, Libya and Ethiopia. From 1972-1981 he worked in Afghanistan under successive regimes from kingdom to Soviet occupation. Between 1981-82 he was Acting Director of the British Institute of Afghan Studies. From 1983-85 he was Architectural Conservator in the Department of Antiquities in Jordan, and then between 1985-88 he served as Director of Excavations and Assistant Director of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq. He is now Director of Eastern Approaches, a company organizing tours to central Asia and beyond. He has published numerous books, which include Syria: A Historical and Architectural Guide (1994), Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire (2000) and (with Leonard Harrow) Cairo to Kabul: Afghan and Islamic Studies Presented to Ralph Pinder-Wilson (2002).

Quellen: IB Tauris; Amazon; WorldCat; Blackwell's Bookshop; Palgrave Macmillan.
Schlagwörter: Afghanistan; Kunst; Bauwerke; Architektur; Geschichte; Archäologie