The reader is invited to view Islamic art as no more and no less than ordinary art, neither better nor worse than anything else that counts as art. It follows that there are no special techniques required in Islamic aesthetics as compared with any other form of aesthetics.

Foreword; Introduction; 1. Eleven Common Mistakes about Islamic Art; 2. God as Creator, Calligraphy and Symbolism; 3. Religion, Style and Art; 4. Literature; 5. Music; 6. Home and Garden; 7. The Miraculousness of the Qur'an; 8. Philosophy and Ways of Seeing; 9. Interpreting Art, Interpreting Islam, Interpreting Philosophy; Notes; Bibliography; Index of Qur'anic Passages; Index.

Oliver Leaman has written yet another challenging and iconoclastic work. This is a useful and imaginative project and clearly fills a need! Leaman is an accomplished and productive author and the book will be of genuine and considerable interest. -- Professor Lenn E. Goodman, Vanderbilt University, Nashville Oliver Leaman is a very distinguished, internationally regarded scholar of philosophy! his profound philosophical knowledge enables him to apply and analyse concepts of aesthetics to a multitude of art forms. -- Professor Ian R. Netton, University of Leeds ... although it claims to be but an introduction to the subject, it is an engaging and comprehensive one, with up-to-the-minute, primary-sourced chapters on literature, music, the Qur'an and medieval philosophies of seeing, not to mention the four on the visual arts. -- British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Oliver Leaman has written yet another challenging and iconoclastic work. This is a useful and imaginative project and clearly fills a need! Leaman is an accomplished and productive author and the book will be of genuine and considerable interest. Oliver Leaman is a very distinguished, internationally regarded scholar of philosophy! his profound philosophical knowledge enables him to apply and analyse concepts of aesthetics to a multitude of art forms. ... although it claims to be but an introduction to the subject, it is an engaging and comprehensive one, with up-to-the-minute, primary-sourced chapters on literature, music, the Qur'an and medieval philosophies of seeing, not to mention the four on the visual arts.