Colour of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires

Title: Colour of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires
Author: Kris Lane
ISBN: 9780300161311
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2010
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
Number of Pages: 280
Condition Note: Excellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.
Publisher Description:

Among the magnificent gems and jewels left behind by the great Islamic empires, emeralds stand out for their size and prominence. For the Mughals, Ottomans, and Safavids green was--as it remains for all Muslims--the color of Paradise, reserved for the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants. Tapping a wide range of sources, Kris Lane traces the complex web of global trading networks that funneled emeralds from backland South America to populous Asian capitals between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Lane reveals the bloody conquest wars and forced labor regimes that accompanied their production. It is a story of trade, but also of transformations--how members of profoundly different societies at opposite ends of the globe assigned value to a few thousand pounds of imperfectly shiny green rocks.