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Ramon Harvey revisits the Muslim theologian Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) from Samarqand and puts his system, and that of the Māturīdī school, into lively dialogue with modern thought to show that a contemporary Muslim philosophical theology (kalām jadīd) can provide original and constructive answers to perennial theological questions.
Picturing the life story of Jalal ad-Din Rumi, a premier Muslim mystic and the original Whirling Dervish, the images in three extant manuscripts of Aflaki's Wondrous Feats of the Knowers of God provide a unique way to interpret the text. Part One: History and Context provides the medieval Anatolian historical setting; the broad contours of literary and artistic works of Islamic Hagiography; and the specific details of the three manuscripts to be explored. Part Two: Text and Image proposes a method for interpreting a hybrid literary-visual document as a grand narrative of the Family Rumi at the inspirational and ethical core of a virtuous community: flourishing within a complex Muslim society under divine providence. Pictures in the three manuscripts were produced by studios of painters under the patronage of major late 16th-century Ottoman sultans. The result of their efforts is a kind of 'visualised hagiography' uniquely capable of suggesting distinctive and often surprising twists on the narratives, enhancing the text with images of striking beauty and rich detail.
Describes and analyses British pressure to partition and ultimately destroy the Ottoman Empire Although it was at times valuable to Britain to support the Ottoman Empire against Russian encroachment, by the end of the 19th century successive British governments had begun to sponsor the dismemberment of the Empire. British public opinion and political pressure groups portrayed the Ottomans in universally defamatory terms, affecting the diplomatic actions of politicians. Some politicians themselves harboured deep prejudices against the Turks and Islam. The result, through numerous incidents, was British pressure to dismember the Ottoman Empire. Justin McCarthy shows how - from ignoring provisi...
Focusing on 5 objects found in the main media from the 10th to the 16th century - ceramics, metalware, painting, architecture and textiles - Sheila S. Blair shows how Greater Iranian artisans played with form, material and decoration to engage their audiences.
"In their own words, Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair espouse 'things and thinginess rather than theories and isations'. Its many insights, firmly anchored in artistic practice, are supported by ample technical know-how. The range is wide - mosques becoming temples; how religious buildings reflect politics; Yemeni frescoes and inscriptions; domestic Syrian 18th-century ornament; Egyptian bookbinding techniques; recycling and repair in Damascene crafts; conservation versus restoration; narrative on ceramics; metalwork with architectural motifs; lost buildings reconstructed; how objects speak; Muslim burials in China; the role of migrating potters; Mughal painting; stone carpet weights; the use of metals in Islamic manuscripts, calligraphy and modern artists' books. This book's practical, down-to-earth dimension, expressed in plain, simple English, runs counter to the current fashion for theoretical explanations and their accompanying jargon when exploring the world of Islamic art. This bottom-up approach differs radically and refreshingly from that of much top-down contemporary scholarship. It privileges the maker rather than the patron."--Publisher description.
An immense building campaign, initiated in 1590-91 at the millennial threshold of the Islamic calendar (1000 A.H.), transformed Isfahan from a provincial, medieval, and largely Sunni city into an urban-centered representation of the first Imami Shi'i empire in the history of Islam.This beautifully illustrated history of Safavid Isfahan (1501-1722) explores the architectural and urban forms and networks of socio-cultural action that reflected a distinctly early-modern and Perso-Shi'i practice of kingship.The historical process of Shi'ification of Safavid Iran and the deployment of the arts in situating the shifts in the politico-religious agenda of the imperial household informs Sussan Babaie's fascinating study.
An interdisciplinary study of one of the most important monuments in Islamic art.
Based on a comprehensive interpretation and comparison of the existing sources - including city records and expenses, chronicles, official booklets, letters, collections of poems and speeches - this book offers a detailed analysis of triumphal entries in early-modern Scotland. It examines Scottish triumphal entries as politicised events taking place in the urban scenario, where the relationship between urban authorities and rulers was represented and negotiated both visually and through the use of space. In particular these events are viewed in relation to the urban space where they took place, and each other. The book argues that the significance of triumphal entries becomes clearer when th...
War and Literary Studies poses two main questions: First, how has war shaped the field of literary studies? And second, when scholars today study the literature of war what are the key concepts in play? Seeking to complement the extant scholarship, this volume adopts a wider and more systematic approach as it directs our attention to the relation between warfare and literary studies as a field of knowledge. What are the key characteristics of the language of war? Of gender in war? Which questions are central to the way we engage with war and trauma or war and sensation? In which ways were prominent 20th century theories such as critical theory, French postwar theory, postcolonial theory shaped by war? How might emergent concepts such as 'revolution,' 'the anthropocene' or 'capitalism' inflect the study of war and literature?
This anthology of essays by a group of distinguished scholars investigates post-1945 city planning in Britain; not from a technical viewpoint, but as a polemical, visual and educational phenomenon, shifting the focus of scholarly interest towards the often-neglected emotional and aesthetic aspects of post-war planning. Each essay is grounded in original archival research and sheds new light on this critical era in the development of modern town planning. This collection is a valuable resource for architectural, social and urban historians, as well as students and researchers offering new insights into the development of the mid-twentieth century city.