Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Sunni Revival -- The Transformation of Qur'anic Writing -- The Public Text -- The Girih Mode: Vegetal and Geometric Arabesque -- Muqarnas Vaulting and Ash'ari Occasionalism -- Stone Muqarnas and Other Special Devices -- The Mediation of Symbolic Forms.

Islamic world of these significant forms operated within a system of reciprocating, ceremonial gestures that conveyed a new, formal language, which helped negotiate the gap between the myth of a unified Sunni Islam and the actual political fragmentation that existed in the Islamic world.

In subject matter and approach, The Transformation of Islamic Art during the Sunni Revival makes original contributions to the study of Islamic art, revealing that this relatively neglected sector of medieval Islamic art and architecture is of critical importance for reevaluating the entire field of study. It challenges the essentialist and positivist approaches that still permeate the study of Islamic art, and offers a historical and semiotic alternative that explores meaning within the ruptures of change.