Although the spread and development of Persian language and literature have been the subject of many studies, and while recent work on Islamic art history has resulted in the decipherment of many Persian inscriptions on metalwork and ceramics, the varying uses and importance of Arabic and Persian on works of art and architecture and the reasons for changes in the balance of power between them have been unexplored until now. The primacy of Persian in cultural life was firmly established in the sixteenth century with the advent of the Safavids and the Mughals; this book studies the changes in previous centuries that took place in Islamic societies from Anatolia to Bengal that permitted Persian to gain importance in the artistic sphere at the expense of Arabic.

Three of the chapters examine the material chronologically in the Islamic world from Anatolia to Central Asia; the third deals with Hindustan, as its position on the periphery of the Persian-speaking world, its distinction as an Islamic state with a majority of non-Muslims and its slow start followed by an astonishing fertile flowering of Persian inscriptions all give it a special status.

Many of the poetical inscriptions, whether on architecture, metalwork, ceramics or textiles, are translated into English here for the first time. A large number of photographs, many in color, permit the reader both to enjoy .the variety of inscriptions and to understand their increasing importance.