Intersections: Art and Islamic Cosmopolitanism

by Melia Belli Bose (Editor)

Overview

This richly illustrated volume highlights the history of Islamic cosmopolitanism as documented through works of art from the eighth century to the present; from the Mediterranean, North Africa, South Asia, and the United States; and including painting, architecture, textiles, calligraphy, photography, and animation. These essays examine Muslim artists, patrons, and collectors’ engagement with global influences, as well as artistic exchange between Muslim and non-Muslim societies.

Drawing on Kwame Anthony Appiah’s view of cosmopolitanism as respect for the differences among people and acknowledgment of a shared community across those differences, leading scholars offer case studies of art objects that illustrate such dynamics in the Islamic cultural sphere. In doing so, they bring Islamic art history into dialogue with Western European medieval art, Byzantine art, African art, global modern art, and American art and architecture. This timely volume demonstrates the importance of cultivating coexistence, becoming citizens of the world, and recognizing the possibilities of cultural intersections. It offers historical examples of such intersections, for which works of art provide a visual testament.

Contributors: Amyn B. Sajoo | Melia Belli Bose | Saleema Waraich | Marcus Milwright | William Tronzo | Aliaa El Sandouby | Alicia Walker | Manuela Ceballos | Mika Natif | Michelle Huntingford Craig | Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis | Vivek Gupta | Elizabeth Rauh

A volume in the David A. Cofrin Asian Art Manuscript Series, edited by Allysa B. Peyton

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683401971
Publisher:	University Press of Florida
Publication date:	08/24/2021
Series:	David A. Cofrin Asian Art Manuscript Series
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 12.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Melia Belli Bose, associate professor of South Asian art history at the University of Victoria, is the author of Royal Umbrellas of Stone: Memory, Politics, and Public Identity in Rajput Funerary Art and editor of Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c. 1500–1900.

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Islamicate Art and Inter-faith Intersections

Melia Belli Bose

1. An Inscribed Jug from Raqqa: Scripture and the Expression of Identity

Marcus Milwright

2. Intersecting Sicily

William Tronzo

3. A Crossroads of Travel: Cairo’s Historic Qarafa Cemetery

Aliaa El Sandouby

4. Setting the Elite Table across the Byzantine-Seljug Divide

Alicia Walker

5. Ink, Blood, and Body: Transmission and Ritual Purity in the Early Modern Western Mediterranean

Manuela Ceballos

6. The Story of Plato Making Music and a Multifaceted Mughal Organ

Mika Natif

7. Woven Together: Textiles and Trans-Saharan Exchange

Michelle Huntington Craig

8. Cosmopolitan Interiors: Syrian ‘ajami Rooms and an American Reinterpretation at Frederic Church’s Olana

Elizabeth McCauley-Lewis

9. Articulations of the Illustrated Manuscript: Shahzia Sikander’s Disruption As Rapture

Vivek Gupta

Chapter 10: Bridging Identity: Language, World Making, and Iranian-American Publics in the Work of Siah Armajani

Elizabeth Rauh

List of Contributors

Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This unique and splendid volume contains insights into cultural creativity stretching from medieval Spain to Mughal India, from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. It obliterates dichotomies of East-West, Christian-Muslim, and religious-secular, replacing them with Islamicate traces of dalliance and delight for all who explore these well-wrought essays. Magnificently illustrated.”—Bruce B. Lawrence, author of Who Is Allah?

“Cosmopolitanism is a particularly effective lens through which to examine Islamic art, which is rife with examples of intercultural exchange and fluidity. This volume makes a significant contribution not only to the field of Islamic art, but also more generally to the fields of art history and Islamic studies.”—Deborah S. Hutton, coeditor of Rethinking Place in South Asian and Islamic Art, 1500–Present