Her: Sindh jo Ajrak

[Nadeem Jamali <jamali@CS.UIUC.EDU>]

Friends,

It seems an out-of-print book on the Sindhi ajrak has been republished
recently, and is not available at http://www.amazon.com Those friends
who have been on Sindh-L long enough will recall the articles posted
some time ago about the ajrak.  Here's what the review at Amazon (taken
from the publisher's site) has to say:

"This is the only major work on Ajrak, the famous double-printed cotton
cloth of Sindh, Pakistan. Since the earliest trading contacts between
Europe and Asia, this cloth has been appreciated and much sought
after. The Venetian Niccolao Manucci wrote in 1659 that it "lasts
beyond all cloths that I have used", and the Englishman William
Fremlin noted that ".. of all sorts of Indian goods, none are in such
request as those of Synda..." Years of painstaking research lies
behind this book, which minutely describes the twenty odd laborious
stages of producing ajrak. The book is unusual in that it also
includes a detailed directory of the craftsmen she found which still
practice the traditional craft correctly. With this book, the humble
Sindhi craftsmen who have struggled to maintain a long and culturally
significant tradition have received their monument. The craft has
revived in recent years, and beautiful photographs well document this
remarkable textile-making process."

Here's rest of the listing:

Sindh jo A J R A K. Cloth from the banks of the River Indus
                           by Noorjehan Bilgrami
                           Our Price: $48.00


                           Hardcover - 196 pages 2 edition
                           (September 1998)
                           Orchid Press; ISBN: 9748299104
                           Availability: This title usually ships
                           within 4-6 weeks. Please note that
                           titles occasionally go out of print or
                           publishers run out of stock. We will
                           notify you within 2-3 weeks if we have
                           trouble obtaining this title.

http://www.Barnesandnoble.com also seems to be carrying the book and
they definitely sounded more optimistic about being able to get it;
I think they're selling it for a little more at $50.  You can also try
to get it directly from the publisher at:

      http://redfrog.norconnect.no/~wop/white_orchid_books.html

White Orchid Books is selling it for $48.

cheers!

Nadeem

--
Nadeem Jamali                                           jamali@cs.uiuc.edu
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois-UC                   http://osl.cs.uiuc.edu/~jamali