Skip to Main Content

ARTH 442 History of Islamic Art and Architecture - Dr David Simonowitz

Muslim Journeys Art Spots

The Islamic Art Spots are seven visual essays, presented in a series of short films designed to make art from Muslim societies an integral part of the Muslim Journeys experience.

The Art Spots were written and presented by D. Fairchild Ruggles, Professor of Art, Architecture, and Landscape History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and produced by Twin Cities Public Television.

Getting Started

For background information, start with an exhaustive reference work such as  Grove Art Online or its predecessor in print, the Encyclopedia of World Art (N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, 1959-1983.  Ref. N 32 .E4833) - half of each volume consists of illustrative plates.  Both the 'Guided Tour' and 'Tips for Users' (available from the Home page) provide useful information on searching Grove/Oxford Art Online.

Bibliographies located in books or at the end of journal articles can be very helpful.  To learn if Pepperdine has access to a particular journal, search for the name of the journal in the library catalog, or use the 'Journals & Periodicals' search feature on the Library's Web site.

Specialized Online Encyclopedias

ARTstor Images for Your Presentation

Great Mosque

Great Mosque, 965-968, Cordoba Spain, ARTstor: The Hartill Archive of Architecture and Allied Arts

The best place to find images for your presentation is the database, ARTstor.  Log on to ARTstor, create a personal account and create an image group.  Then view information on how to Export of Power Point


You can search ARTstor by the name of an art work, by geography, by classification (for example, architecture), or by collection (for example, Beyond the Taj).  Use the Advanced Search to limit by date.

Helpful videos on using ARTstor can be found on UTube