CRESWELL, Keppel Archibald Cameron. The Muslim Architecture of Egypt. I. Ikhshids and Fatimids. A.D. 939-1171. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952.
Large folio. Original green cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt; pp. xxvi, 290, [2], highly illustrated with plates in photogravure, two large colour-printed folding plans in rear pocket, a few text illustrations; cloth a little marked, otherwise a very good copy.
First edition, number 365 of 550 copies printed; in 1959 followed a second volume covering the years up to 1326. This volume, one of the most sumptuously produced works on the subject covers the Rise of the Fatimids and the Foundation of Mahdiya; The Ikhshids; The Foundation of Cairo; The Mosque of Al-Azhar; The Mosque of Al-Hakim; The First Half of the Eleventh Century; The Houses of Fustat; The Mausoleums of the Cemetery of Aswan; The Works of Badr Al-Gamali; The Fatimid Fortifications of Badr Al-Gamali; The Wazirate of Al-Afdal Shahinshah; Six Late Fatimid Mausoleums; The Works of Ma'mun Al-Bata'ihi; The Mashhad of Sayyida Ruqayya; The Works of the Khalif Al-Hafiz Li-Din Illah; a Fatimid Qa'a; The Mausoleums of Yahya Ash-Shabih and Qasim Abu Tayyib; Remains of the Mashhad of Sayyida Al-Husayn; and the Mosque of As-Salih Tala'i. Creswell originally went to Egypt in 1916 on a military posting. His passion for the architecture kept him in Cairo where he became Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at several universities before being knighted in 1970.
Provenance: Bought in Egypt at the time of publication, before the owner had to leave the country due to political unrest, years before the second volume was published.
#2101549