Critical Review: R. Hillenbrand, "Brick verses Stone: Seljuq Architecture in Iran and Anatolia". Ed. I. Poonawala, Turks in the Indian Subcontinent, Central and West Asia: The Turkish Presence in the Islamic World. Oxford University Press (2017) 105-143, £20.99

Firstly, this review enquires into the meaning of the term West Asia employed in the title of this book of conference proceedings and finds it carries a confusion of meanings in respect to the geograph­ical area and the countries that are indicated through the use of this modern term. Secondly this review suggests that the statement that the constructional materials employed determines the difference be­tween Great Seljuk and Rum Seljuk architecture fails to address the matter of the finished appearance of these buildings and, in part has been made possible through the modern mis-translations of the words mâhir ressâmlar recorded in a primary source describing the external appearance of Rum Seljuk architec­ture. To state that the scale of buildings in Seljuk Iran were greater than those of Rum Seljuk Anatolia, without establishing the size of the respective Muslim urban populations, 80% to about 10%, and the length of time that there was a population of Muslim inhabitants in a Muslim ruled country, respectively of more than 500 years to less than 200 years is likewise misleading, as is the statement that the Chris­tians were minorities in Seljuk-Turkish ruled territory in 13^th c. Anatolia.