Related Books: Nature and Art, Islam and Sufism

Choice - U.U. Bates  

The art in this book includes calligraphy, literature, music, and 'plastic arts' (which turn out to be Persian miniatures). Nasr attempts to demonstrate the superiority of the arts in his native Persia. Most of the examples for discussion of 'spirituality' in Islamic art are drawn from Iran or literature written in Persian. This biased approach limits the validity of the book. The over-embellished language of the essays is burdened further with references to obscure Persian literature unfamiliar to Western readers.
 
Journal of the American Academy of Religion  
For the sheer beauty of its material production this book has few peers. . . . Quotations from numerous literary genres are rendered in exquisite calligraphy, while images abound. . . . Most of these essays have already been published elsewhere, and several readers will hear in them echoes of themes that have long been linked to Nasr. But in the postscript . . . each will discover something new, a forceful diatribe against the ugliness of the modern world. .. . The burden of providing an alternative to such distortion falls on proponents of traditional Islamic values, the vanguard of whom are artisans and artists, musicians and writers. It is a message that not all will welcome, and many will ridicule or dismiss, yet it is here propounded with a passion that is at once inimitable and eloquent.