~~During the period 1750–1900, a sustained and more comprehensive contact with European ideas and culture affected many aspects of the arts, sciences, education, commerce, technology, and politics of the Islamic world. There was often an uneasy balance between long-standing values and design traditions and a certain attraction...

~~The three major early modern empires—Safavid, Ottoman, and Mughal—continued to provide the main patronage of design and decorative arts in the Islamic world during the period 1600 to 1750. The quality of both the design and the manufacture of ceramics, metalwork, textiles, carpets, lacquerwork, and other objects...

~~Prior to 1400 several major design traditions flourished and disappeared from the Islamic world. The fifteenth century saw the “golden twilight” of Islamic Spain before the Christian Reconquest of 1492. In other parts of the Islamic world, a decorative style based on floral vine scrolls, arabesques, and Chinese-inspired...