Summary: In this program, art critic Waldemar Januszczak travels through the heart of the Middle East and beyond to study a wide range of Islamic architecture, decoration, and art objects. Providing helpful historical background on the faith-with an eye on the explosive spread of early Islamic culture-the program examines the pristine beauty of India's Taj Mahal as well as one of the world's oldest...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Continuing his trek across the Muslim world, art scholar Waldemar Januszczak introduces viewers to masterworks in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia-from the gigantic and surreal mud mosques of Mali; to a rare, 10th-century Egyptian ewer carved out of a single piece of rock crystal; to the inspired urban planning of the ancient city of Isfahan in Iran; to the stunning architecture of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: London's Victoria and Albert Museum contains one of the finest collections of Islamic art in Europe or America. It is housed in the V&A's recently constructed Jameel Gallery-a facility designed to increase awareness and appreciation of Islamic art. This program highlights the beauty and complexity of the Jameel collection; it also enables viewers to closely examine individual pieces-including...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: By replacing paganism with monotheism and tribal life with empire-building, the Arabs of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties effected a complete paradigm shift in their worldview. This program studies the codification of Islamic law and assimilation of non-Arab texts-and the ensuing competition between the ulema, or doctors of the law, and the philosophers, who saw reason as an equal to divine...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Exploring a clash between sacred customs and contemporary athletic aspirations, this program follows an Iranian women's soccer team daring to push traditional limits and pursue victories both on and off the field. Interviews with players and their families are combined with commentary by supporters of the sport as well as cultural leaders in the wider region who convey various opinions about...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: As life among the aristocracy in Damascus and Baghdad attained its zenith of refinement, another important cultural center was developing in Islamic Cordoba. This program focuses on the remarkable cultural contributions of Ziryab, a talented young musician who fled the East for Andalusia and became the era's preeminent arbiter of style and taste. After creating a popular new form of music and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program addresses the expansion of the Arab empire into Spain, where Muslims ruled with tolerance for more than seven centuries. The introduction and consolidation of Islamic power in Spain, the creation of the Umayyad emirate by the sole survivor of the Umayyad dynasty, the rise of Cordoba as a cultural rival of Abbasid Baghdad, and the gradual ebb of Arab rule on the Iberian Peninsula...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Lewis, Bernard.
Summary: This collection of essays, written by the foremost Western expert in Islamic studies, gives essential background on present Middle Eastern conflicts with the West, and how this religion, from its first expansion to the exploits of Saddam Hussein, has been fatefully involved with the Western world.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Open Court 2001
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 909 LEWSummary: Peace, prosperity, and the implementation of Islamic law: that is the dream of Jinan al-Ubaidy, an influential member of Iraq's parliament who is calling loudly for Sharia-based government-and, as her opponents say, for a return to the subordination of women to men. Filmed on location in war-torn Baghdad, this program exposes the deteriorating state of women's rights as fundamentalist Islamic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Many Americans still wonder how the United States became so reviled in the Muslim world. Digging up the historical roots of al Qaeda, this documentary examines the years of economic stagnation, religious fanaticism, and political and military oppression in the Middle East that gave rise to the attacks of September 11, 2001. It features rare footage and insightful commentary by leading scholars...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: The precarious hopes and daily struggles of Gaza strip residents are documented in this compelling program, which focuses on the 2003 summer ceasefire-a chapter of Israeli-Palestinian history filled with American ambivalence, disappointing prisoner releases, and the eventual disintegration of the ceasefire itself. A pacifist Gazan artist, his militant-minded son, and the pragmatic widow of a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006