The Civilizations of the East : An Indepth Study of Asiatic Arts & Cultures from the Earliest Times to the Dawn of Modern Era - 4 Volumes

by Rene Grousset

The Civilizations of the East  is a stimulating and perceptive survey of oriental civilizations and traces their evolution from the earliest times to the dawn of modern era.

The book provides an unparalleled source of insight into Asiatic arts and cultures. It is a study of eastern ideals and schools of art and contains a detailed account of archaeological and artistic data of the continent. The book also provides a guiding thread among the various styles and periods and gives an adequate and correct idea of the various schools and works. The history of arts is presented in its due relation to general history and shows the continuity and interpenetration of the various aesthetic ideals.

Divided into four volumes the work is copiously illustrated. The first volume is devoted to the near and middle east, in which is included Iran. The second is devoted to the Indian world, both Muhammadan and non-Muhammadan, including farther India and Malay archipelago, the third to China and Central Asia and fourth to Japan and Tibet. An extensive index is included at the end of last volume.

Perceptive, insightful, selective and lavishly illustrated, the book is an indispensable reference tool. The simplicity and clarity of its presentation makes it enchanting to read. The book will prove to be an invaluable asset not only to the academicians, art-historians, archaeologists, orientalists, researchers and libraries but also to the lay reader.

Contents:

1. Vol. 1: The Near and Middle East (including Egyptian, Chaldeo-Assyrian, Persian and Arab Civilizations):
   1. Introduction.
   2. The earliest civilizations of the east: neolithic civilization:
      1. Neolithic remains in the east
      2. The neolithic age in the far east.
   3. Egyptian civilization:
      1. Memphite civilization
      2. Theban civilization.
   4. Chaldeo-Assyrian civilization:
      1. Sumero-Akkadian civilization
      2. Babylonian civilization
      3. Hittite civilization
      4. Assyrian civilization
      5. Assyrian art.
   5. Persian pre-Islamic civilization:
      1. Achaemenid civilization
      2. Achaemenid art
      3. Sasanid civilization
      4. Sasanid art.
   6. Arab civilization:
      1. Pre-Islamic Arabia and Islam
      2. Omayyad civilization
      3. 'Abbasid civilization
      4. 'Abbasid art
      5. Hamdanid society
      6. Moslem Egypt: Fatimid society
      7. Syro-Egyptian civilization under the Ayyubids and the Mamelukes.
   7. Persian Islamic civilization:
      1. Arabo-Persian civilization, from the Samanids to the Seljuks
      2. Persian literature from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries
      3. The origins of Persian painting
      4. Mongol Persia: the II-Khans and the Timurids
      5. Safawid Persia.
2. Vol. 2: Indian Subcontinent and Malay Archipelago (including Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Indo-China):
   1. Buddhist and Brahman India:
      1. Origins of Indian civilization: problem of the relations between India and Chaldea
      2. Aryan India: the Vedic poetry
      3. The life and legend of the Buddha
      4. The earliest Buddhist art: Maurya and Sunga art
      5. The Greek Buddha
      6. Gupta art: the formation of the Indian aesthetic ideal
      7. The religious revolution: rise of Hinduism and the Hindu pantheon
      8. Hindu art.
   2. Farther India and the Malay archipelago:
      1. Javanese art: Indian influence and the Malay revival
      2. The Indianized empires of Indo-China: Angkor, Tourane, and Ayuthya.
   3. Moslem India:
      1. Indo-Moslem civilization under the earliest Turco-Afghan dynasties
      2. Mogul India
      3. Rajput painting.
3. Vol. 3: China and Central Asia: Introduction.
   1. Formation of the Chinese Aesthetic ideal:
      1. Origins of art in the far east: prehistoric China
      2. The Yin and Chou period
      3. The inscriptions on bone of the Yin period
      4. The archaic bronzes: various types
      5. The archaic bronzes: decorative motives
      6. The archaic jades
      7. The Ch'in (Ts'in) period
      8. The Han period: bronzes, mirrors, and jades
      9. Han ceramics
      10. The Han bas-reliefs
      11. Sculpture in Han ceramics
      12. The Chin (Tsin) period and the six dynasties
      13. The art of the steppes: Minussinsk and Noin-ola.
   2. Buddhist influence in China:
      1. Buddhism in Central Asia: Greco-Roman influence
      2. Buddhism in Central Asia: Gupta influence
      3. Buddhism in Central Asia: Iranian influence
      4. Buddhism in China: Wei sculpture
      5. Buddhism in the Suri period
      6. Buddhist sculpture of the T'ang period
      7. T'ang non-Buddhist sculpture
      8. Decorative art in the T'ang period
      9. Painting under the T'ang Emperors and the five dynasties.
   3. Definitive establishment of the Chinese Canon of art:
      1. The Sung period: intellectualization of the Chinese aesthetic ideal
      2. Sung painting
      3. The Yuan aesthetic ideal.
   4. The period of dilettantism and academic art:
      1. Characteristics of the Ming period
      2. The Ch'ing (Ts'ing) period.
4. Vol. 4: Japan, Tibet, Nepal and Bangladesh: Introduction.
   1. Japan:
      1. Japan defined: her national originality and power of adapting foreign influences
      2. Japan in prehistoric days
      3. Introduction of Buddhism
      4. The Nara period
      5. The Heian period
      6. The Fujiwara period (889-1192)
      7. The Kamakura period (1192-1333 or 1337)
      8. The Ashikaga Shoguns (1337-1573)
      9. The Momoyama period, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu
      10. The Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868).
   2. Bengal, Nepal, Tibet:
      1. Significance of Tibetan culture as guardian of the traditions of Bengal
      2. Tibetan art.
   3. Index to the four volumes.