HSAR 118- Reading Notes 1

Reading: Key themes for the study of Islam, Rizvi

Definition of Islamic Art: contain works of art and architecture created by
communities that identified with the religious praxis of slam or were under
the political influence of Muslim governments.
o The key is to see how appropriation and assimilation of forms
and meaning were done when Islam came into contact with other
religious or political entities
o Context!!!
Who and what is being represented? How?
Heterogeneity and ambiguity is at the heart of what is understood to be
Islamic art and the cultures that produced it.
o Key question: Not to find parallels between any regionally and
historically disparate works of art
but to question: why they could all simultaneously allow us
access into a world breaching almost two millennia and
five continents??
1. Perspectives and problems of studying Islamic/Oriental Arts
a. Orientalism: Scholars in the earlier years of the twentieth century
i. Lack of perspective in paintings
The corresponding flattening as signs of a "primitive" and
"simple" visual aesthetic
ii. They used the Renaissance lens to see Islamic art think of
Islamic art as lower graded
iii. "Islamic city": was a disorderly hodgepodge of buildings
"irrationality" of the inhabitants
iv. Calligraphy/painting: seen as dependent on precedents and
lacking in individuality/creativity beyond the skillful
manipulations
But thats the way it was: relied on previous established
form
2. Ways to examine (waves) arts
a. 19th century: formalist art historiography
i. Categorizing arts according to styles/materials
b. 20th century: Nationalist discourses
c. Now: Look at Islamic art within own social, historical, and religious
context
i. Oleg Grabar
Use of primary text "brings out questions or information
pertinent to the history of the arts."
o Set up problems and pose questions for cultural and
literary historians
Put emphasis on material and literary culture
3. A historical approach
 a. Since arts are products of interactions between culture and politics,
and technology
i. One can gain insights into a society by analyzing an artwork
4. Importance of waqf in maintaining architectures and arts in the Islamic word
a. Prevent destructions when dynasty changed
5. Calligraphy
a. Ways to evaluate them
i. The artifacts on which the art was displayed,
ii. be they books or buildings,
iii. were valued for their beauty and for the skill of the master who
had designed them.
b. Not simply a stringing together of words, but a well thought out
endeavor in which the interaction between the reader, the
calligrapher, and the object itself was one of intricate cultural
negotiations and aesthetic choices Rizvi
6. Albums role in studying Islamic Art
a. Similar to the picture gallery or museum
i. Functioned as design books for other artists and calligraphers to
learn from and imitate.
ii. The authors list previous masters of calligraphy and painting
and insert the works collected in the album into a broader
history of art making
Not to use lineage to differentiate
But to mark differences and similarities among artists
b. The ideal thus was not to find aberrations, but rather conformity
within a dynamic set of visual and semantic expectations