Introduction: General Considerations --
I. From the Earliest Civilizations to the Fall of the Achaemenids --
II. Seleucids, Parthians, Sasanians: Reassertion of Persian Forms --
III. Early Islam: New Purposes --
IV. The Seljuks: Structure as Beauty --
V. The Meaning and Function of Persian Decoration --
VI. The Mongols: Destruction and Grandeur --
VII. The Timurids: Refinement and Opulence --
VIII. The Safavid Culmination --
IX. Summary of Forms and Structural Problems --
