UA-R-GC-1914-01-01-1958-02-24_Page-079

CRESWELL COLLECTION THE LIBRARY contains about 3000 volumes, and a latge number of offprints, classified by countries, in about 40 book boxes. The formation of this Library of the Architecture, Arts and Crafts of Islam was begun in 1910, i.e. 48 years ago. As some of the books in the library are so rarethat copies only appear in booksellers catalogues/ this is an important point as a specialist library like this cannot be brought together in a few years. The arrangement of the books on the shelves is by countries, rl1nning from East to West and from right to left, thus: India, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, North Africa and Spain. All the large books, that is to say all books over 17 inches high, rest !: orizontally on sliding shelves. THE PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONNT contains over 8000 photographs, mostly by myself, of Muslim monuments in 'Iraq Syria Palestine Egypt Turkey North Africa Spain mostly 13 x 18 cm. and perhaps 5% of 18 x 24 cm. As regards Egypt, it contains a complete set of photographs of all the Muslim monuments (about 260) down to about A.D. 1650. By complete I mean photographs of the facade, entrance, interior, mihrāb , dome-setting (if there is a dome) , ornament, minaret, etc. by which means one can take a given feature, say the minaret, and and construct a chronological series which, when laid out in a row on the table, would enable anybody to see at a glance the develop-ment of the element in question, for any feature, when presented in chronological sequence, tells the story of its own evolution. This collection has been an invaluable source of reference to me when I want to refresh my memory regarding the features of, let us say, the number of galleries of a minaret in. Constantinople or Aleppo, without moving out of this room. THE BIBLIOGiAPHICAL MATERIAL. I started my Bibliography of the Architecture, Arts and Crafts of Islam in 1912, and it now runs to about 11,300 items under Authors and about 13,500 under Subjects, say about 25,000 cards in all. It has been of great assistance to me in my work from the very beginning, for it has kept me in touch with the whole literature of the subject, and has enabled me tr+ know what to order from the bookseller. + e.g., Memoirs of the Jeypore Exhibittion, Orientalische 3eidenweberei, ,Yandin & Coste, Vo. arYe en Perse, Owen Jones, Alhambra, complete sets (16 vols. of the ournal of Indian Art, Schmoranz, Oriental Enamelled Glass, Riviere, La Ceramigue dans L'Art Musulman, Farrteau ever, Miniatures Persanes, etc