A Bibliography of Islamic Art

In July 2004 1 published my 2-volume study, The Meaning of Islamic Art, which had taken exactly 24 years to research, write, revise and seek a publisher, I had begun my study of the subject in 1980 and the final manuscript was ready in early 1994.  It had taken me exactly 10 years to find a publisher for it.  when The Meaning of Islamic Art appeared I was fighting for my life at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology in Lahore with slender chance of survival.  It was a year before I recovered and received from God the gift of a second life.  The deliberate and cruel refusal of the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research, Islamabad, to return the bibliography which I had sent to it in June 1994 had been tormenting my mind for nearly 10 years and was a significant factor in my physical collapse.  After my recovery in 2005 I began to explore the possibility of preparing the bibliography de nouveau.  I did not have the resources or the energy to visit Europe and work in its libraries.  I consulted my European friends and former colleagues in the field who extended their sympathy and promised help. Encouraged by this, I set out to compile a new bibliography.  The task was arduous and involved writing long letters, ordering photocopies and consulting some secondary sources.  My health did not allow long hours of work, but I persisted because in my mind was a guilty feeling that I had been unfair to the readers of The Meaning of Islamic Art in not providing them with a proper bibliography, although the fault was not mine but entirely of the National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research which had not only flouted a legal and moral obligation to publish the bibliography but also refused to return what was my property.