Being a fan of Prof. Khalili and his collection, I was so eagerly awaiting the arrival of this book when I ordered it from Amazon. This item is indeed fantastic for someone who is only just starting to explore the rich culture of Islamic Art throughout the ages. Even an excellent reference book for the learned in the field. However, this publication (edition) contains exactly the same content as Khalili's previous publication "The Timeline History of Islamic Art and Architecture" - and therefore I was very dissapointed. The ONLY things that are different are literally the title, front cover art work and the overall size of this publication is about 1/3 smaller than the previous mentioned text. The content, layout, pictures, maps, essay, etc are all identical. So if you already have the Timeline History... book then do not buy this one. If you don't, you might still want to purchase The Timeline History one because in a bigger size the pictures and amps are far better.