Jennifer A. Pruitt is assistant professor of Islamic art history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
A highly scholarly and perceptive book about a complicated, enigmatic dynasty: the Fatimids. The author explains the meaning of early Fatimid architecture in Tunisia and Egypt by probing their sectarian identity and bid for political legitimacy. -D. Fairchild Ruggles, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign This book offers a new reading of Fatimid architecture and urbanism, using texts, archaeology, and monuments to explore artistic creation-and destruction-against a backdrop of contested medieval religious identities and the negotiation of sectarian differences. -Glaire Anderson, University of Edinburgh