Sheila S. Blair

Sheila S. Blair is a historian of Islamic art who held the Norma Jean Calderwood University Professorship of Islamic and Asian Art at Boston College when she published Islamic Calligraphy in 2006. ^{1 2}

The book's jacket lists among her earlier works the prize-winning Islamic Inscriptions (1998) and A Compendium of Chronicles: Rashid al-Din's Illustrated History of the World (1995), and, as co-author, Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power (2000), Islamic Arts (1997) and The Art and Architecture of Islam 1250–1800 (1994). ¹

Her preface describes the discussion as mainly taxonomic: it tries to pinpoint the features that distinguish one style or script from another, avoids giving the early scripts any but strictly visual labels because she considers naming premature, and prefers dated or datable examples she has examined first-hand. ^{3 4}