• Note from Founder and Director of NYU Center for Dialogues
• Introduction
• Changing impressions: Muslim Voices: Arts and Ideas
• The Arts of Islam in the Eyes of the West: A Historical View
• Cultural exchanges: viewing history through gifts and commerce
• Gift exchanges: Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne
• Gift exchanges: Venice and the Ottoman Empire
• Commerce: coins, jewelry, and other goods
• Commerce: twentieth-century changes
• Creative Lives Under Changing Circumstances
• Early Muslim Society
• The Post-Mongol Muslim World
• The Early Modern Muslim World
• The Muslim World in 1900
• The Muslim World Today
• The Arts of Islam: A Brief History
• A. Poetry and Song
• B. Quranic Chant
• C. Calligraphy
• D. Belles Lettres
• E. Music and Dance
• F. Theater
• G. Painting, Sculpture, and Design
• H. Architecture
• Islamic Art Today
• Conclusion
• Recommended Further Reading
  General
• Poetry and Prose: Arabic
• Poetry and Prose: Persian
• Poetry and Prose: Turkish
• Poetry and Prose: Urdu
• Quranic Chant
• Music and Song
• Calligraphy
• Painting and Design
• Architecture
• Theater and Cinema
• Dance
• Videologue

Commerce: twentieth–century changes

Not until the twentieth century, with the burgeoning of the Industrial Revolution, did Europeans begin to turn away from fine imports from Muslim lands. Though the capitalist need to expand the markets for industrial goods on a worldwide scale eventually spelled the demise of most high–quality craft production, both for domestic consumption and for export, the Muslim reputation for exquisite cultural products continued. However, it became increasingly tinged with exoticism as a succession of international fairs and expositions beginning with Great Britain’s Crystal Palace Exposition of 1851, which included an exhibit from India, familiarized European consumers with images of “Eastern” products, often in artificially contrived “native” settings.

While these historical patterns of gift–giving and cultural exchange could be elaborated further, they point to a clear conclusion: despite the marvels of worldwide travel and communication, educated and prosperous Europeans and Americans today, are less familiar with the artistic traditions and current cultural standards of the world’s various Muslim societies than their social counterparts were during almost any one of the first thirteen centuries of cultural contact. Today’s Americans and European tourists visit Muslim countries and buy souvenirs, but the items they buy are usually mediocre imitations of the artisanal production of the past, not works by artists who are considered within those societies to be great talents. That is to say, a Western tourist in Iran is more likely to acquire a shabby knock–off of a Persian miniature painting than a canvas by a contemporary Iranian oil painter. By the same token, despite the electronic techniques that have revolutionized the production and distribution of cultural performances, familiarity with Muslim music, theater, and dance has generally decreased.