The Orient in a Mirror

by Roland Michaud, Sabrina Michaud

. 2003, bright clean copy, no markings, with light wear to dustjacket, Professional booksellers since 1981

Genres: Photography, Art

1000 pages, Hardcover

First published May 8, 1984

Reviews

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not "Orient" as in "the Far East;" it's more "Orient" as in "Oriental carpets" and "Orientalist art" - i.e., Central Asia from Turkey east through Muslim India. The book is a gorgeous, high-concept affair pairing vignettes from 14th-19th century Islamic miniatures with identical twin mid-twentieth century photos, showing how much of Central Asian culture has remained unchanged over the centuries. The Michauds' photos were shot mainly in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and northern Iran during the 1960's and early '70's - i.e., before the shit seriously hit the fan.

This is how I picture the Islamic world whenever I read Peter Hopkirk's epic Central Asian histories (Foreign Devils on the Silk Road; The Great Game; Like Hidden Fire and Setting the East Ablaze); this is Islam before it became "the bad guy;" this is the Islam of peace and culture; this is the world as it should be but no longer is and may never be again...

The only negative here is the impenetrable introduction by Najm ud-Din Bammat - it was just WAY too dense and mystic-philosophy for me to get beyond the first couple of paragraphs, (although I realize that says more about me than either Najm or the Michauds). But if you're like me just turn the page(s) until you get to the pictures, and all is immediately forgiven.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Looked at’ would be more accurate than ‘read’ as I gave up on the dense/ convoluted introduction. Beautiful pairings of photos from 1960s central Asia with eerily similar images of the same subjects from miniatures done in Persia and surrounding countries centuries earlier. Painful to contemplate what has probably happened in these places since, but the quiet beauty of scenes from everyday life is calming and reminds us of the inherent culture and dignity of Islam. As well as the physical isolation in much of central Asia that can feed fear of change—being asked to move ‘ahead’ by centuries in a moment.

Subjects include landscapes and people washing their feet before prayer, playing games, weighing chickpeas and spinning with ancient technologies, leading a bear, smelling a carnation, cooking over an open fire, loading camels....

Recommended. I will come back to this one for both the photos and the miniatures. Well-done.