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: 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: Why was Islamic philosophy, once the epitome of Arab learning, eventually rejected by Muslims? And why, after assimilating it, did Europeans distance themselves from its formulators? This program seeks to understand the religious climate of the late Middle Ages, in which universities and madrassas became centers of power and models for evolving sociopolitical systems. The potentially heretical...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Art may represent a quest for beauty and perfection, but throughout history it has also explored a terrifying realm of doom, decay, and darkness. This program delves into the age-old human compulsion to surround ourselves with images of death. Starting with the Neolithic relics known as the Jericho Skulls, the film identifies a pattern of morbidity and death fetishism covering a broad swathe of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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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: No storytelling medium is more powerful than the modern movie-but the ability to inspire and entertain by combining words and pictures is hardly a recent phenomenon. This program reveals the age-old roots of the cinematic narrative form and their evolution over the centuries. Beginning in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Nineveh, the film points to the Epic of Gilgamesh as one of the earliest...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: When did we begin to create images and, more importantly, find tangible meaning in them? How did this conceptual leap lay the groundwork for our modern, visually oriented culture? This program investigates when and why humanity underwent what archaeologists call the "creative explosion" and invented pictorial art. Beginning with the Altamira cave paintings in Spain, the film addresses questions...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Historically, the arts in Africa were largely communal and unrecorded. But much has changed over the past century, and this program takes a look at art in sub-Saharan Africa as it exists today through profiles of Senegalese rap groups Alif and Wageble and the rap collective Fight and Forget, who use their music as a form of political activism; Senegalese sculptor Babacar Niang, whose workshop...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is a world-renowned cultural center filled with some of the ancient world's most precious artifacts-including the famed burial mask of King Tutankhamun and the Royal Mummies of Luxor. The museum's collection is so large that it has traditionally shown only half of its holdings at any one time. This program documents an expanded presentation that enables viewers to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
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
View online at AVOD
Summary: Over seven centuries of Islamic rule, Spain became the cultural jewel of Europe. This program illustrates that flowering of art and science, placing the rebirth of classical learning in Andalusian rather than Italian cities. Writer Bettany Hughes speaks with Antonia Almagro of the Spanish National Research Council about the intellectual and aesthetic revelations a visitor from Florence or...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: n the villages of sub-Saharan Africa where traditions are still strong, art is an integral part of daily life. This illuminating program examines the symbolism, aesthetics, and functionality of African art through the vast region’s sculpture, masks, architecture, ornaments, clothing, and utensils. In addition, indigenous African religious beliefs are explored through rituals—a spiritual form of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Belgium's Tervuren Museum contains the world's largest collection of Central African art, which consists of approximately 250,000 pieces. Noted journalist Paul Solman discusses the power and the true price of this collection with art historian Ramona Austin and journalist/author Adam Hochschild. In the immense Congo region, there are more than 250 different cultures, so there is a broad range...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: With the grandeur and geometric sophistication of the Alhambra as a powerful opening example, this program looks at Islamic culture in southern Spain following the Berber invasion of 711. Scholar Bettany Hughes talks with Professor Antonio Fernandez-Puertas of the University of Granada, who has studied Nasrid art and architecture for 40 years; with Professor Lauro Olmo Encisco of Alcala...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Who actually built the pyramids? What innovations enabled the ancient Egyptians to practice mummification? Why did they select certain treasures for their journeys to the afterlife? This classic program travels to a land of mystery and marvel as archaeologists investigate the secrets of long-lost Pharaonic culture and technology. Viewers encounter the sophisticated methods used to construct the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Filmed at the Bibliotheque Nationale, this program spotlights an outstanding representative work of Persian miniature: Five Poems by the 12th-century poet Nezami, as interpreted in the 17th century by Haydar Qoli Naqqash, a painter of the Safavide School, and calligrapher Abd al Djabbar. A marriage of artistic and poetic languages, this masterpiece serves as a dual entry point into Persian art...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: My role as a writer is to create positive myths, says Amin Maalouf. The Lebanese-born novelist and journalist also acknowledges "the material that history gives me." This program features conversations with Maalouf about his imaginative, historically grounded novels and his identity as a Christian Arab living in Paris. On-screen readings by the author present excerpts and themes from Leo...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program captures the feverish work of the multinational rescue archaeology team that excavated low-lying areas of Zeugma and key portions of Apamea before inundation by the Birecik Dam, in Turkey. Catherine Abadie-Reynal, director of the French contingent, and other experts describe their efforts to map the cities and to discern the tides of Greco-Roman history that once flowed through the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Enter the tombs at Tarquinia and Cerveteri, and the walls speak eloquently of the art and culture of ancient Etruria. The superb frescoes painted to enhance the walls of these tombs tell us in detail about the environment in which the Etruscans lived. They also depict the elaborate houses of the dead in which priceless treasures were buried along with the deceased. These detailed and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This series covers history from 3500 B.C. to the 1780's. This course analyzes civilizations by looking at their geographic and political environments, their technologies, economies, social institutions, and cultural achievements. Students will look at history from new perspectives, come to understand the connections between human beings despite time and distance, and appreciate the lasting...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: The Teaching Company 1995
Copies Available at Woodmere
4 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 909 WORCall number: DVD 909 WOR PART 1
Call number: DVD 909 WOR PART 2
Call number: DVD 909 WOR PART 3
Gerolymatos, André.
Summary: Provides an account of the history of covert operations in the Middle East, looking at how the United States and other Western powers have tried to establish control over the region's resources and commerce, while at the same time working to prevent the spread of communism.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Thomas Dunne Books 2010
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 327.1241 GERSummary: Few modern authors have not been influenced by the medieval Middle Eastern literary classic "The book of a thousand and one nights." Over one thousand years ago, a legend was told about a beautiful young woman who attempted to prolong her impending execution by telling adventure tales to a murderous sultan for a thousand and one nights. The tales she wove are set in India, Persia, Egypt,...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: A & E Television Networks 2006
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in NEW Digital Video Disc, Call number: DVD E-TV LEGSummary: We often think that people from a thousand years ago were living in the Dark Ages. But from the 7th century onward in Muslim civilization there were amazing advances and inventions that still influence our everyday lives. People living in the Muslim world saw what the Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Greek, and Romans had discovered and spent the next one thousand years adding new developments and...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: National Geographic 2012
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Juvenile Nonfiction, Call number: J 297.2 ONENoble, Thomas F. X.
Summary: Explores the five momentous centuries that link the Classical and Modern worlds and shows how the fall of the Roman Empire gave rise to three great civilizations: Medieval Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and the Islamic Caliphate. Examines many features of the period between A.D. 253 and A.D. 750, including the development of these unique civilizations, their memorable political and religious...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: Teaching Co. 2008