Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press Gunpowder and Essence

Text in Arabic. During the past five centuries, Islamic societies have been fascinated by all kinds of Islamic arts, which have taken to evolve technically and artistically in line with the prevailing tastes of those times. The fact that weapons in those societies were considered personal possessions that reflects the personal taste as well as the social status on the one hand, and the creativity of craftsmen and high levels of craftsmanship on the other, directly affected the aesthetics of the weapons that have reached us today, which contain all types and styles of Islamic arts. Al Mansoori Group is nothing but a modest effort to preserve this great legacy that has been ignored, and did not take its right from scientific, historical and artistic research, whether from institutions or individuals in the Arab world. A group that I hope will be a tributary and useful not only to the researchers but the collectors of Islamic weapons too, the weapons which have been made and used by societies that have faded away, and I happen to be the present witness to their history and valuable antiques.