Recently Acquired Islamic Books
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Estambul Y Sus Revoluciones: Camino Hacia La Modernidad
Estambul y sus revoluciones: camino hacia la modernidad Frédéric Hitzel* i hoy me toca a mí, mañana te tocará a ti”. Esta advertencia, que es “Sfrecuente encontrar grabada en los epitafios de las estelas funerarias otomanas, recuerda al buen musulmán que todos los hombres están desti nados a morir, en un tiempo límite fijado por Dios. Este término predes tinado no puede adelantarse ni atrasarse, tal como lo dice otra fórmula funeraria común en los cementerios de Estambul: “Puesto que le llegó su fin, no podría haber piedad para él”. Este precepto se aplica a todo ser humano, incluso a los sultanes otomanos que, desde su capital de Estambul, gobier nan el más vasto imperio musulmán, que se extiende desde las riberas del Adriático hasta los confines de África del Norte (excepto Marruecos), pa sando por la península arábiga. Sin embargo, es obvio: el soberano otomán no era el primer fiel que llegaba. Era la sombra de Dios en la Tierra, lo que hacía de él una pieza esencial del sistema institucional. Su muerte plantea ba la delicada cuestión de su sucesión. Si bien la mayoría de los sultanes murieron en el trono, algunos fueron depuestos, y otros asesinados. Esto es lo que ocurrió al sultán Selim III, quien tuvo que ceder el trono a su primo Mustafá IV en 1807, antes de ser salvajemente ejecutado el año siguiente. El trágico final de su reinado, sobre el que volveremos más adelante, marcó fuertemente la historiografía turca. En efecto, más que cualquier otro sul tán antes que él, Selim III fue testimonio de una voluntad de renovación del Estado otomano, que hizo de él el verdadero precursor de los sultanes y * Traducción del francés de Arturo Vázquez Barrón. -
Celebrating Nowruz in Central Asia
Arts & Traditions Along the Silk Road: Celebrating Nowruz in Central Asia Dear Traveler, Please join Museum Travel Alliance from March 12-26, 2021 on Arts & Traditions Along the Silk Road: Celebrating Nowruz in Central Asia. Observe the ancient traditions of Nowruz (Persian New Year) in Bukhara, visiting private family homes to participate in elaborate ceremonies not often seen by travelers. Join the director for exclusive, after-hours access to Gur-e-Amir, the opulent tomb of Mongol conqueror Amir Timur (Tamerlane) in Samarkand. Explore the vast archaeological site of Afrasiab, and marvel at the excavated treasures in its dedicated museum in the company of a local archaeologist. We are delighted that this trip will be accompanied by Helen Evans as our lecturer from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This trip is sponsored by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We expect this program to fill quickly. Please call the Museum Travel Alliance at (855) 533-0033 or (212) 302-3251 or email [email protected] to reserve a place on this trip. We hope you will join us. Sincerely, Jim Friedlander President MUSEUM TRAVEL ALLIANCE 1040 Avenue of the Americas, 23rd Floor, New York, NY 10018 | 212-302-3251 or 855-533-0033 | Fax 212-344-7493 [email protected] | www.museumtravelalliance.com BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB Travel with March -
A Luster Bowl in the Ashmolean Museum 1
“The Illusion of an Authentic Experience”: a Luster Bowl in the Ashmolean Museum 1 FRANCESCA LEONI, DANA NORRIS, KELLY DOMONEY, MOUJAN MATIN, AND ANDREW SHORTLAND “THE ILLUSION OF AN AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCE”: A LUSTER BOWL IN THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM The raison d’être of the collector is to provide a livelihood at the time, also identified stylistic discrepancies in the for the dealer and a profitable sport for the faker.1 epigraphic band decorating the rim. Examined under a Sir Alan Barlow’s bequest of Islamic ceramics in 1956 microscope, parts of the inscription appeared to be cop- marked a turning point in the collecting of Islamic art ies of text available elsewhere on the bowl, cold-worked by the Ashmolean Museum. His gift of 167 objects con- after firing and blended in with the original section stituted a remarkable overview of five centuries of ce- through careful retouching (figs. 3 and 4). In spite of this, ramic production in a region stretching from modern-day the decoration appeared remarkably coherent and the Iraq to Turkmenistan, and provided a valuable core of sequence of fragments virtually uninterrupted, thereby Persian material to what would subsequently become ruling out the possibility that the object was a pastiche the third-largest Islamic collection in the United King- of sherds taken from multiple medieval vessels, as at- dom.2 To this day, much of Barlow’s legacy anchors the tested on a number of repaired Islamic wares, including permanent ceramic display in the Sultan bin Abdul Aziz other examples in the Ashmolean collection.4 al-Saud’s Islamic Middle East Gallery of the museum, These various interventions highlighted a complex which presents visitors with a time-lapse view of the history of “restoration” that made the bowl an ideal can- achievements and transformations in this medium be- didate for an extended analysis designed to assess the tween the seventh and the nineteenth centuries, from extent of its genuineness. -
Backstreets & Bazaars of Uzbekistan 2020
Backstreets & Bazaars of Uzbekistan 2020 ! Backstreets & Bazaars of Uzbekistan A Cultural & Culinary Navruz Adventure 2020 – Cultural Series – 10 Days March 16-25, 2020 Taste your way through the vibrant heart of the Silk Road, Uzbekistan, on a culinary and cultural caravan held during the height of Navruz. A centuries-old festival, Navruz is a joyous welcoming of the return of spring and the beginning of a new year, when families and local communities celebrate over sumptuous feasts, songs and dance. Beginning in the modern capital of Tashkent, introduce your palate to the exciting tastes of Uzbek cuisine during a meeting with one of the city’s renowned chefs. Explore the ancient architecture of three of the most celebrated Silk Road oases – Bukhara, Khiva and Samarkand – and browse their famed markets and bazaars for the brilliant silks, ceramics and spices that gave the region its exotic flavor. Join with the locals in celebrating Navruz at a special community ceremony, and gather for a festive Navruz dinner. Along the way, participate in hands-on cooking classes and demonstrations, meet with master artisans in their workshops, dine with local families in their private homes and discover the rich history, enduring traditions and abundant hospitality essential to everyday Uzbek culture. © 1996-2020 MIR Corporation 85 South Washington St, Ste. 210, Seattle, WA 98104 • 206-624-7289 • 206-624-7360 FAX • Email [email protected] 2 Daily Itinerary Day 1, Monday, March 16 Arrive Tashkent, Uzbekistan Day 2, Tuesday, March 17 Tashkent • fly to Urgench • Khiva Day 3, Wednesday, March 18 Khiva Day 4, Thursday, March 19 Khiva • Bukhara Day 5, Friday, March 20 Bukhara • celebration of Navruz Day 6, Saturday, March 21 Bukhara • celebration of Navruz Day 7, Sunday, March 22 Bukhara • Gijduvan • Samarkand Day 8, Monday, March 23 Samarkand Day 9, Tuesday, March 24 Samarkand • day trip to Urgut • train to Tashkent Day 10, Wednesday March 25 Depart Tashkent © 1996-2020 MIR Corporation 85 South Washington St, Ste. -
Ottoman Ceramics in European Contexts 373
ottoman ceramics in european contexts 373 F~L~Z YEN~ØEH~RL~O²LU OTTOMAN CERAMICS IN EUROPEAN CONTEXTS Since the early periods of human history, ceramics ceramics start from the fourteenth century. Examples have been an important part of material culture, are abundant in Italy between then and the present either consumed as functional objects necessary for day; in Holland they are evident in Delft production of everyday—including ritual—use, or appreciated as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; they occur works of art because of their aesthetic value. Within the in France and England in the nineteenth century, in Mediterranean region, where layers and layers of pottery central Europe between the seventeenth and twentieth have accumulated through the ages, ceramics are crucial centuries, and in Moscow during the first decades of references of intercourse between cultures and societ- the twentieth century. The causes of this large distri- ies, leading to an understanding of social systems and bution were of course various and changed according trade relations as well as the diffusion of fashions and to country and circumstance. Sometimes the European tastes. Where archival documentation fails, archeological ceramics were direct copies and imitations of original evidence or collections of ceramics provide the path to examples; sometimes the original features were rein- understanding specific interaction between cultures. terpreted and recreated in a different production tech- Being portable yet fragile commodities, ceramics could nique; sometimes the circulation of both the originals be transported from one country or region to another, and their reproductions generated new and hybrid sty- cutting across cultural boundaries. -
Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Princesses As Collectors Chinese and European Porcelains in the Topkapı Palace Museum
AO39_r1 10.06.10 imAges are fOr pOsitiOn only; pAge numbers nOt firm tülay artan eighteenth-century ottoman princesses as collectors Chinese and European Porcelains in the Topkapı Palace Museum Abstract Ceramic collecting by women has been interpreted as a form of social competition and conspicuous consumption. But collecting differs from conspicuous consump- tion, which involves purchasing goods or services not because they are needed, but because there is status and prestige in being seen to have them, and even in wasting them. Collecting, in contrast, implies conservation and augmentation, the preser- vation of history, aesthetic or scholarly interest, love of beauty, a form of play, differ- ent varieties of fetishism, the excitement of the hunt, investment, and even support of a particular industry or artist. None of these motives, however, readily explains the activities of Ottoman collector-princesses in the eighteenth century—which are all the more mysterious because these women remain relatively anonymous as individuals. It is not easy for us to elucidate the reasons (other than conspicuous consumption) for their amass- ing of porcelain, and of European porcelain in particular. Could the collection and display of ceramics have been a way of actively creating meanings for themselves and others? Do the collecting habits of these princesses shed some light on their personalities and aspirations? By focusing on two among them I will argue that collecting European rather than Chinese porcelain did signify a notable change of attitude -
Isabelle Dolezalek Arabic Script on Christian Kings Das Mittelalter Perspektiven Mediävistischer Forschung
Isabelle Dolezalek Arabic Script on Christian Kings Das Mittelalter Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung Beihefte Herausgegeben von Ingrid Baumgärtner, Stephan Conermann und Thomas Honegger Band 5 Isabelle Dolezalek Arabic Script on Christian Kings Textile Inscriptions on Royal Garments from Norman Sicily Gedruckt mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) ISBN 978-3-11-053202-9 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-053387-3 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-053212-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: Satzstudio Borngräber, Dessau-Roßlau Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Gedruckt auf säurefreiem Papier Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Contents Preface — IX Introduction — XI Chapter I Shaping Perceptions: Reading and Interpreting the Norman Arabic Textile Inscriptions — 1 1 Arabic-Inscribed Textiles from Norman and Hohenstaufen Sicily — 2 2 Inscribed Textiles and Arabic Inscriptions in European Medieval Arts — 43 3 Historical Receptions of the Ceremonial Garments from Norman Sicily — 51 4 Approaches to Arabic Inscriptions in European Medieval Arts: Methodological Considerations — 64 Chapter II An Imported Ornament? Comparing the Functions -
Reimagine a F G H a N I S T a N
REIMAGINE A F G H A N I S T A N A N I N I T I A T I V E B Y R A I S I N A H O U S E REIMAGINE A F G H A N I S T A N INTRODUCTION . Afghanistan equals Culture, heritage, music, poet, spirituality, food & so much more. The country had witnessed continuous violence for more than 4 ................................................... decades & this has in turn overshadowed the rich cultural heritage possessed by the country, which has evolved through mellinnias of Cultural interaction & evolution. Reimagine Afghanistan as a digital magazine is an attempt by Raisina House to explore & portray that hidden side of Afghanistan, one that is almost always overlooked by the mainstream media, the side that is Humane. Afghanistan is rich in Cultural Heritage that has seen mellinnias of construction & destruction but has managed to evolve to the better through the ages. Issued as part of our vision project "Rejuvenate Afghanistan", the magazine is an attempt to change the existing perception of Afghanistan as a Country & a society bringing forward that there is more to the Country than meets the eye. So do join us in this journey to explore the People, lifestyle, Art, Food, Music of this Adventure called Afghanistan. C O N T E N T S P A G E 1 AFGHANISTAN COUNTRY PROFILE P A G E 2 - 4 PEOPLE ETHNICITY & LANGUAGE OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 5 - 7 ART OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 8 ARTISTS OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 9 WOOD CARVING IN AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 0 GLASS BLOWING IN AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 1 CARPETS OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 2 CERAMIC WARE OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 3 - 1 4 FAMOUS RECIPES OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 5 AFGHANI POETRY P A G E 1 6 ARCHITECTURE OF AFGHANISTAN P A G E 1 7 REIMAGINING AFGHANISTAN THROUGH CINEMA P A G E 1 8 AFGHANI MOVIE RECOMMENDATION A B O U T A F G H A N I S T A N Afghanistan Country Profile: The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country situated between the crossroads of Western, Central, and Southern Asia and is at the heart of the continent. -
Transfer of Islamic Science to the West
Transfer of Islamic Science to the West IMPORTANT NOTICE: Author: Prof. Dr. Ahmed Y. Al-Hassan Chief Editor: Prof. Dr. Mohamed El-Gomati All rights, including copyright, in the content of this document are owned or controlled for these purposes by FSTC Limited. In Production: Savas Konur accessing these web pages, you agree that you may only download the content for your own personal non-commercial use. You are not permitted to copy, broadcast, download, store (in any medium), transmit, show or play in public, adapt or Release Date: December 2006 change in any way the content of this document for any other purpose whatsoever without the prior written permission of FSTC Publication ID: 625 Limited. Material may not be copied, reproduced, republished, Copyright: © FSTC Limited, 2006 downloaded, posted, broadcast or transmitted in any way except for your own personal non-commercial home use. Any other use requires the prior written permission of FSTC Limited. You agree not to adapt, alter or create a derivative work from any of the material contained in this document or use it for any other purpose other than for your personal non-commercial use. FSTC Limited has taken all reasonable care to ensure that pages published in this document and on the MuslimHeritage.com Web Site were accurate at the time of publication or last modification. Web sites are by nature experimental or constantly changing. Hence information published may be for test purposes only, may be out of date, or may be the personal opinion of the author. Readers should always verify information with the appropriate references before relying on it. -
Kjeld Von Folsach and Joachim Meyer. the Human Figure in Islamic Art
Reviews Kjeld von Folsach and Joachim Meyer. The Human Figure in Islamic Art. Holy Men, Princes, and Commoners. Copenhagen: The David Collection, 2017. 280 pp. ISBN 978-8792949-96-7. here is still time to catch this exhibition at the Da- the achievements of the arts in the Islamic world (and T vid Collection Museum in Copenhagen, where it those achievements are legion) must take into account closes on 13 May 2018. And one should make a point how and why humans were depicted and try to un- of visiting, not only for this special, coordinated selec- derstand how they were viewed. Not least in interest tion from the museum’s treasures, but to see the rest is the possibility that the visual material can shed light of the collection, whose Islamic holdings are among on aspects of daily life that otherwise might not be the most important anywhere in the world. Don’t, clear just from written texts. In conveying these un- however, arrive with busloads of other tourists, as the derstandings, von Folsach and Meyer have succeeded museum spaces are intimate, which makes for a won- admirably. derful viewing experience but cannot accommodate As is the case both on the museum’s website and in huge crowds all at once. The website photos of the the books it publishes, the image quality is superb — corridors and rooms where the exhibition is mounted there is no better museum photography than that by emphasize how stunning it must be to see the material Pernille Klemp, who does all their work. -
427 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXVIII N° 3-4, Mei-Augustus 2011 428 Approach Focused on How Cultures of Vision Impact Their Respect
427 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXVIII N° 3-4, mei-augustus 2011 428 approach focused on how cultures of vision impact their respective arts and vice versa. One of Belting’s premises is that perspective is a so-called symbolic form, a position first argued by Erwin Panofsky in an essay published in 1927. The concept of symbolic form hails from the neo-Kantian philosopher Ernst Cassirer, who believed that man makes sense of the world he perceives by means of symbolic forms. The human being, incapable of knowing reality other than through its subjective mind, has various categories of symbols that mediate between his per- ception and his understanding, and these categories vary according to time and place. Panofsky proposed to see per- spective as a symbolic form that defined Western modernity. Belting agrees and explains further the importance of per- spective for Western modernity. He explains how a painting with linear perspective draws the onlooker into the repre- sented scene. Only through a frontal confrontation with the vanishing point of the painting does the artwork make proper sense. The perspective needs the presence of the onlooker and conforms to the onlooker’s subjectivity and vice versa. In Belting’s words: “Perspective has been a cultural tech- nique and not merely a matter of the arts. For it symbolized the right to a perception (Wahrnehmung) that anyone could engage in with one’s own vision.” (p. 25). Having established the crucial importance of linear per- spective in the first chapter, the second chapter informs on the classical Arab understanding of vision, and the issue of Islamic aniconism. -
The Pseudo-Kufic Ornament and the Problem of Cross-Cultural Relationships Between Byzantium and Islam
The pseudo-kufic ornament and the problem of cross-cultural relationships between Byzantium and Islam Silvia Pedone – Valentina Cantone The aim of the paper is to analyze pseudo-kufic ornament Dealing with a much debated topic, not only in recent in Byzantine art and the reception of the topic in Byzantine times, as that concerning the role and diffusion of orna- Studies. The pseudo-kufic ornamental motifs seem to ment within Byzantine art, one has often the impression occupy a middle position between the purely formal that virtually nothing new is possible to add so that you abstractness and freedom of arabesque and the purely have to repeat positions, if only involuntarily, by now well symbolic form of a semantic and referential mean, borrowed established. This notwithstanding, such a topic incessantly from an alien language, moreover. This double nature (that gives rise to questions and problems fueling the discussion is also a double negation) makes of pseudo-kufic decoration of historical and theoretical issues: a debate that has been a very interesting liminal object, an object of “transition”, going on for longer than two centuries. This situation is as it were, at the crossroad of different domains. Starting certainly due to a combination of reasons, but ones hav- from an assessment of the theoretical questions raised by ing a close connection with the history of the art-historical the aesthetic peculiarities of this kind of ornament, we discipline itself. In the present paper our aim is to focus on consider, from this specific point of view, the problem of a very specific kind of ornament, the so-called pseudo-kufic the cross-cultural impact of Islamic and islamicizing formal inscriptions that rise interesting pivotal questions – hither- repertory on Byzantine ornament, focusing in particular on to not so much explored – about the “interference” between a hitherto unpublished illuminated manuscript dated to the a formalistic approach and a functionalistic stance, with its 10th century and held by the Marciana Library in Venice.