The Muslim Architecture of Egypt. Volume I: Ikhshids and Fatimids, A.D. 939-1171. Volume II: Ayyubids and Early Bahrite Mamluks, A.D. 1171-1326.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952-59. First edition. Two volumes, folio (46 x 36 cm), pp.xxvi, 290, 125 plates, 173 illustrations and plans, large folding map in 2 sheets; pp.xxiv, 300, 127 plates, 151 illustrations and plans. Volume I is 175 of 550 copies, Volume II is 107 of 550 copies. A fine set in original cloth, with rather torn and frayed dust-jackets. These volumes "remain essential instruments of knowledge in the field of early Islamic art and architecture... and the best that the field can offer to others" in Oleg Grabar's assessment in Muqarnas (Vol. 8, 1991, p.1), words which remain as true today as then. Grabar noted too that this edition, with the volumes "in their imperially gigantic original form" was physically unequalled by subsequent abridgements and revisions. Creswell's magnum opus has attracted criticism for its pose of scientific neutrality but its depth of detail and documentation remains unmatched. The first volume covers: The Rise of the Fatimids and the Foundation of Mahdiya; The Ikhshids; The Foundation of Cairo; The Mosque of Al-Azhar; The Mosque of Al-Hakim; The First Half of the Eleventh Century; The Houses of Fustat; The Mausoleums of the Cemetery of Aswan; The Works of Badr Al-Gamali; The Fatimid Fortifications of Badr Al-Gamali; The Wazirate of Al-Afdal Shahinshah; Six Late Fatimid Mausoleums; The Works of Ma'mun Al-Bata'ihi; The Mashhad of Sayyida Ruqayya; The Works of the Khalif Al-Hafiz Li-Din Illah; A Fatimid Qa'a; The Mausoleums of Yahya Ash-Shabih and Qasim Abu Tayyib; Remains of the Mashhad of Sayyida Al-Husayn; The Mosque of As-Salih Tala'i. The second volume contains: The Citadel; The Walls of Salah Ad-Din; The Mausoleum of Imam Ash-Shafi'i; The Later Ayyubid Period; The Origin of the Cruciform Plan of Cairene Madrasas; The Bahrite Mamluks; The Works of Sultan Baybars Al-Bunduqdari in Egypt; Mausoleums combined with a Ribat, a Madrasa, or a Khanqa; The Maristan, Mausoleum, and Madrasa of Sultan Qala'un; Four Late Thirteenth Century Mausoleums; The Works of Sultan Lagin, etc; Three Early Fourteenth-Century Madrasas; The Khanqa and Mausoleum of Sultan Baybars Al-Gashankir; The Great Aqueduct and the Qasr Al-Ablaq; The second decade of the fourteenth century; The Mosque of the Emir Ahmad Al-Mihmandar, etc. L.W. Boothe wrote on North African Islamic architecture.