The idea of publishing this concise introduction was entirely that of the director of the Benaki Museum, Angelos Delivorrias, and I am truly grateful to him for the exceptional honor of entrusting its realization to me.

I am also grateful for his continuous encouragement and interest in my work and for his acute suggestions and observations, which made a significant contribution to the shape of the text.

The inauguration of the Museum of Islamic Art seemed an ideal opportunity for attempting to give the visitor an outline of the ideas which engendered the works of art on view, and to provide some information on their intellectual background and, more generally, on the significance of Islamic literature and the multiplicity of concepts, beliefs, literary genres and movements which it contains.