Iconophilia and Iconophobia in Early Islam

With all the lunacy going on currently about movies and Muslims, a recent book helps to give us some critical historical perspective on iconophilia, iconophobia, and iconoclasm in early Islam:  Kenneth Holum and Hayim Lapin, Shaping the Middle East: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in an Age of Transition, 400-800 C.E. (University Press of Maryland, 2011), 263pp.

This book contains numerous articles of interest, including "Images, Icons, and the Public Space in Early Islamic Times: Arab Christians and the Program to Claim the Land for Islam" by Sidney Griffith.

About this book the publisher tells us:

Essays by leading archaeologists, historians, and art historians on the Middle East during the four centuries preceding the rise of Islam. The most recent archaeological findings with interpretation are presented. Archaeological plans, as well as color photographs of sites and artwork, are included.
Caesarea Palaestinae: A Paradigmatic Transition?
Caesarea in Transition: The Archaeological Evidence
Qays riyah as an Early Islamic Settlement
Archaeological Evidence for the Sasanian Persian Invasion of Jerusalem
The Province of Arabia during the Persian Invasion (613-629/630)
Continuity and Change in the Cities of Palestine during the Early Islamic Period: The Cases of Jerusalem and Ramla
Pella, Jarash, and Ammn: Old and New in the Crossing to Arabia, ca. 550 750 C.E.
Changes in the Settlement Pattern of Palestine Following the Arab Conquest
The Peninsular Arab Presence in Oriens (Bil d al-Sh m) in Byzantine and Umayyad Times
Aspects of the Rabbinic Movement in Palestine, 500 800 C.E.
The Muslim Appropriation of a Biblical Text: The Messianic Dimensions of Isaiah 21:6 7
Sefer Eliyyahu: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Jerusalem
The Many Facets of Middle Eastern Art: Late Antique, Christian, Islamic