Intersections by Bose, Melia Belli;

Short description:

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.

Long description:

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.

Table of 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