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Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain
D. Fairchild Ruggles Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0271022477 |
Book Description
A history of the gardens and palatine architecture of Islamic Spain.Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain offers a new interpretation of the history of gardens in Spain during the period of Islamic rule from the eighth through the fifteenth centuries. Islamic gardens, with their cultivated garden beds and water channels, are traditionally regarded as an early reflection of paradise, which the Koran describes as a "garden watered by four streams." However, D. Fairchild Ruggles argues that the early palace garden was primarily an environmental, economic, and political construct, and that paradisiac symbolism did not develop until gardens acquired tombs.
D. Fairchild Ruggles discusses three aspects of medieval Islamic Spain: the landscape and agricultural transformation as documented in the Arabic scientific literature and geographies, the typological formation of the garden and its symbolic meaning in the eighth through the tenth centuries, and the role of vision and the frame in the spatial apparatus of sovereignty through the fifteenth century.
Ruggles explains that, while the repertoire of architectural and garden forms was largely unchanged from the tenth through the fifteenth centuries, their meaning changed dramatically. The royal palace gardens of Cordoba expressed a political ideology that placed the king above and at the center of the garden and, metaphorically, his kingdom. While this conception of the world began to falter in later centuries, the patrons of architecture still clung to the forms and motifs of the earlier golden age. In Granada, instead of creating new forms, artists at the Alhambra reworked and refined familiar vocabulary and materials; the vistas fixed by windows and pavilions referred not to the actual relationship of the king to his domain but rather to the memory of an expanding
Customer Reviews:
paradise lost.......2005-04-19
serious scholarship accessible to the layperson.......2004-09-18
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GARDENS, LANDSCAPE AND VISION IN THE PALACES OF ISLAMIC SPAIN
D. FAIRCHILD (ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF LANDSCAPE HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, USA) RUGGLES Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000ORAGC6 |
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Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in the Palaces of Islamic Spain
D. Fairchild Ruggles Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000OQZECO |
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Picturing Iran: Art, Society and Revolution
Shiva Balaghi , and Lynn Gumpert Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1860648835 |
Book Description
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2005-12-13
Beautiful & Informative Book.......2003-03-26
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Children Of Ceausescu
Herta Muller Manufacturer: Umbrage Editions ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 1884167101 |
Book Description
More than a decade after the fall of the Iron Curtain and the overthrow and execution of brutal Romanian dictator Nicholas Ceausescu, the worst AIDS epidemic among children in the world bears out its infamous legacy in Romania, still one of the poorest and most fractured societies in Eastern Europe.
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101 Things Kids Can Do to Annoy Their Parents
Ray Comfort Manufacturer: Bridge-Logos Publishers ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Accessories:
ASIN: 0882707590 |
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William Maxwell: A LITERARY LIFE
Barbara A. Burkhardt Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0252030184 |
Customer Reviews:
Written with knowledge.......2006-08-24
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Emmanuel Appadocca, Or, Blighted Life: A Tale of the Buccaneers
Maxwell Philip , and William E. Cain Manufacturer: University of Massachusetts Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1558490760 |
Customer Reviews:
My first pirate story.......2004-04-07
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Emmanuel Appadocca;: Or, Blighted Life. : A Tale of the Buccaneers
Maxwell Philip , and William E. Cain Manufacturer: University of Massachusetts Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 1558490752 |
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William Maxwell: A Literary Life
Barbara A. Burkhardt Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000OPNYLS |
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Fast Cash With Quick-Turn Real Estate: How Anyone Can Quickly Turn Single Family Houses into Cash
Ron Legrand Manufacturer: Results Publishing Inc. ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0965485102 |
Customer Reviews:
Superceded.......2004-11-20
Fast Quick Money.......2004-07-25
Usually skeptical..........2004-04-18
And to the naysayer reviewers who say it cant be done in my town because of real estate prices, well all I can say is - duh! Get off of your can and drive 45 miles to a smaller town. I live in a high priced area of the country and you can still find these properties. They are nothing you want to move into and live in mind you, but they are there, and there is someone else you can flip them to for a profit.
A Little Real Estate Reality Check Here..........2003-01-01
"A heck of a lot of information between the covers".......2002-06-12
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A Millennium of Family Change: Feudalism to Capitalism in Northwestern Europe
Wally Seccombe Manufacturer: Verso ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Accessories: ASIN: 0860913325 |
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Zorndorf 1758: Frederick faces Holy Mother Russia (Campaign)
Simon Millar Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1841766968 Release Date: 2003-06-20 |
Book Description
In January 1758 Count Wilhelm Fermor marched into East Prussia at the head of 45,000 Russians. Frederick the Great was dismissive of the Russian army and failed to take the threat seriously. With the Russians laying siege to the fortress of Cüstrin, Frederick crossed the River Oder and cut their supply lines. On 25 August the two armies met at Zorndorf. This book details the bitter day-long battle in which the Russian infantry refused to buckle. Casualties were horrific, the Russians losing almost half their army. Frederick had managed to stave off the Russian threat but his opinion of their army had changed dramatically.Customer Reviews:
Frederick the Great's Bad Day.......2003-08-05
Zorndorf 1758 has the usual sections on introduction, chronology, opposing leaders and opposing armies, but omits the section on opposing plans (which is incorporated elsewhere in the text). A rather lengthy 17-page prelude covers Frederick's abortive siege of Olmutz and his march to the Oder River. The Battle of Zorndorf is covered in a 40-page narrative, followed by a 5-page aftermath section. Millar provides a detailed order of battle, but unit strengths are not mentioned. The campaign narrative is supported by six 2-D maps (Eastern Europe 1758, Russian & Prussian movements in August 1758, the Siege of Custrin, Frederick's march to Zorndorf, initial positions at Zorndorf, and the final Prussian attacks) and three 3-D Birds Eye View tactical maps of the battle. The three battle scenes by Adam Hook are: Russian Cossacks burning Zorndorf; Russian cavalry charging the Prussian advance guard; and Prussian infantry attacking the Russian Observation Corps.
Although a Russian invasion of East Prussia in 1757 had come to naught, a renewed invasion in the spring of 1758 was more successful. Russian forces under General Fermor launched a surprise winter campaign (typical!) that caught the Prussians by surprise and quickly overran virtually most of East Prussia, while Frederick was busy facing the Austrian armies in Moravia. When the Russians approached the Oder River, a scant 80 kilometers from the capital in Berlin, Frederick was forced to race north to blunt the invasion. Millar's description of Russian conduct in East Prussia is interesting; the Russian troops did not molest the people or ravage the land, and they even read an official apology from the Tsarina for damages done in the 1757 campaign! Readers will surely be apt to contrast this self-restrained invasion in 1758 with the savage Soviet invasion of East Prussia in 1945.
Millar's description of the Russian army in 1758 is also interesting. The Russian army of this period was not the "steamroller" of later years but rather, a relatively limited, long-service force that could send fewer than 70,000 troops to fight in the West. Although Millar notes that the Russians had "the best trained and equipped" artillery in Europe, they were burdened with a sloppy command and control system (exercised from the court in St Petersburg) and a cumbersome logistic system. On the other hand, the Russian Army was blessed with tough, steady troops who could absorb a huge amount of punishment without routing. Since most of Frederick's tactics were designed to precipitate flight in unsteady opponents, the Prussian tactics were ill suited for dealing with the Russian threat.
Millar notes that Frederick was probably not in top form at Zorndorf, noting that he committed his smaller army to battle with conducting proper reconnaissance and failed to take advantage of the initially disorganized Russian forces. As usual, Frederick tried to turn his enemy's flank but when this did not work out, he decided to conduct a "frontal oblique order attack" (i.e. a frontal attack on one of the enemy's wings). Frederick's improvised battle plan was not particularly good and his subordinates botched it, resulting in 2/3rds of the Prussian infantry being rendered temporarily hors de combat. Indeed, Frederick's attempts to personally rally his routed troops failed. Millar is probably too generous with Frederick, preferring to blame his subordinates, but it is obvious that the Prussian tactical plan at Zorndorf was uninspired and possibly foolhardy. What saved Frederick from total defeat was the absence of the Russian commander from the field and the consequent lack of higher leadership. Nevertheless, the Russian cavalry commander was independent enough to overrun some of the Prussian artillery and disorganize much of the rest of Frederick's infantry.
However, Millar notes that the Prussian cavalry under Seydlitz got in some serious blows that did real damage to the Russian infantry. Frederick kept attacking futilely for ten hours until both armies were fought out. Both sides still held the field and Millar rightly calls Zorndorf a draw. It was also a very bloody battle indeed, with 35% losses for the Prussians and 45% for the Russians. While the Russian threat to Berlin was stopped for the moment, Frederick had badly damaged his ever-shrinking army in a poorly thought-out action. Zorndorf was certainly not one of Frederick's greater moments and his handling of the campaign was marked more by arrogant assumptions than tactical genius.
My only concerns for this volume are the author's wandering attention and apparent lack of research into Russian sources. Millar spends too much time on pre-campaign events in Moravia and then too much on post-campaign events in Bohemia. Meanwhile, the early phases of the Russian invasion get too little attention. Apparently, Millar is more interested in the Austrian Front than the Russian Front. This wandering focus is particularly noticeable in the 5-page Battlefield Today section, where Millar starts discussing a modern visit to Zorndorf then starts talking about toy shops in Berlin, the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Potsdam, and the nightlife in East Berlin. If I want to read a tour guide about Berlin I will buy one. Focus on the subject, please! It is also obvious throughout the text that Millar is a great admirer of Frederick and this probably colors his evaluation of mis-managed battles like Zorndorf.
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A History of Wiltshire: Volume I Part 2 (Victoria County History)
Manufacturer: Victoria County History ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: 019722735X |
Book Description
Volume I(2) contains a series of chapters originally planned to accompany within a single volume a comprehensive gazetteer of Wiltshire's prehistoric remains. In the event the gazetteer was published as Volume I(1) in 1957 and the chapters are now ap-pearing after a considerable lapse of time. Although the chapters are based largely upon the evidence contained in the gazet-teer, the authors have taken account of relevant excavations and research under- taken since 1957. The first five chapters tell the story from the beginning of human settlement until the end of the final phase of bronze technology, and they take, so far as archaeological evidence permits, a narra-tive form: thus some monuments with long life-spans, such as Stonehenge and Avebury, appear and re-appear as the chronological account unfolds. Those chapters cover a period for which the Wiltshire evidence is of great significance; they are written by Professor Stuart Piggott, whose long and close acquaintance with the antiquities of Wiltshire has enabled him to enter into considerable detail and often to set the local evidence against a continental or wider British background. Six chapters follow taking the story from the early pre-Roman Iron Age down to the end of the Roman era. Here the nature of the evidence makes a narrative style easier to adopt. The growing complexity of the settlement form is traced from the single enclosed farmstead of the early Iron Age to the hamlets and even small villages of the Roman period. The steady course of Romanization in Wiltshire is traced until its eventual collapse and the British victory at Mount Badon. A final chapter deals with the Pagan Saxon period, using archaeological, documentary, and place- name evidence; it gives special attention to that impressive but enigmatic earthwork known on its Wiltshire course as the East Wansdyke. Numerous line illustrations have been drawn specially for the volume.
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The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior
David Allen Sibley Manufacturer: Knopf ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0679451234 Release Date: 2001-10-02 |
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
From the creator of the seminal field guide, The Sibley Guide to Birds, comes another indispensable book for bird watchers. This veritable bible to the world of birds is the collaborative effort of 48 expert birders and biologists, who combine scientific accuracy and detail with an easily readable and well-organized format. How does a tiny chickadee survive subzero temperatures? How do flocks of birds synchronize their flights? How can an albatross cross miles of ocean without flapping its wings? Which bird brains are actually intelligent? It's all here in essays giving an overview of avian evolution, biology, and the aerodynamics of flight and in chapters devoted to the 80 bird families of North America, each one detailing taxonomy, habitats, feeding, breeding, vocalizations, migrations, and more. Concerned about declining populations, Sibley also discusses the conservation status of each species and the factors that threaten them. This fascinating source of information is destined to be a well-thumbed companion. -- Lesley ReedBook Description
“Once in a great while, a natural history book changes the way people look at the world. In 1838, John ames Audubon’s Birds of America was one...In 1934, Roger Tory Peterson produced Field Guide to the Birds...Now comes The Sibley Guide to Birds.”Customer Reviews:
Another Gem.......2007-07-28
An informative book........2007-01-11
From the perspective of a non-birder..........2006-08-24
The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior.......2006-08-08
Instructive, engrossing, delightful .......2006-05-04
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The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior (LEATHER BOUND)
David Allen Sibley Manufacturer: Easton Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Leather Bound ASIN: B000TV6CFC |
Product Description
Leather bound book accented in 22kt gold.
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The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior. (Ornithological Literature).(Book Review): An article from: Wilson Bulletin
Sara R. Morris Manufacturer: Wilson Ornithological Society ProductGroup: Book Binding: Digital ASIN: B0008FW94W Release Date: 2005-07-30 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Wilson Bulletin, published by Wilson Ornithological Society on June 1, 2002. The length of the article is 603 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
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The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior (LEATHER BOUND
David Allen Sibley Manufacturer: Easton Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Leather Bound ASIN: B000OFEIW2 |
Product Description
Leather bound book accented in 22 kt gold.Books:
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