The new year is coming, and it is time to see what we will find in the near future in our libraries about Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, with a focus on ‘medieval period’.
Arabic script before Islam: questions
The following considerations are based on Prof. Laila Nehmé’s presentation (Leiden, Dec 9th, 2014) Recently the University of Leiden has organised a study day on the Qur’anic text. The day was organised following the recent dating of the parchment of a Qur’anic manuscript via C14, that gave an astonishing result: the parchment dates between 650 and…
An inscribed ewer from Iran – from the object to the political ideology
Calligraphy is widespread in Islamic architecture of course, but it can be found also on a series of portable objects: woodwork, pottery and for course metalwork. In these cases the content of the inscription is strictly connected to the use of the object.
Words of wisdom: an inscribed bowl from 10th-century Iran
Pottery produced in Arab-Islamic lands displays in the great majority of cases beautifully inscribed epigraphic bands. The beauty of the inscriptions on pottery is due to the way the text was arranged on the surface and also the way it was designed to produce, in some cases, a sort of rhythm. Kufic is maybe the most…
Corto Maltese and Islamic Art
Every student of Arabic and Islamic culture, art, philosophy… that has spent at least one month studying or doing research in Venice has read the wonderful graphic novel by Hugo Pratt Favola di Venezia – Sirat al-Bunduqiyya. And of course I did when I was studying there. On Dec, 4th (2014) a video-game based on the novel…
Damghan: the minaret of the Friday Mosque (V/XI century)
The minaret of Damghan is something that I have always liked. It is not only because it is Seldjuk, and because it is the only part of the mosque that was not replaced during the Qajar period. It is for two main reasons. The first: the inscription in the lower epigraphic band contains the Light…
Social Media & Islamic Art: a survey
After few months spent dealing with Islamic art in social media, we are more and more interested in understanding what people like about Islamic art and how people use social platforms to get information about it. We thus launched a survey.
Double two-dimensional mihrab from Art Institute Chicago
I was thinking about writing something for the opening of the galleries of Islamic art at the Art Institute Chicago. While browsing the collection owned by the museum, I found a peculiar tile, decorated with a double-arched two-dimensional mihrab, and of course decorated with wonderful cursive inscriptions (accession number 1917.221).
Islamic Art Auctions, Fall 2014 – Some notes
Sometimes researchers tend to close themselves in an ivory tower made of books, articles, journals and objects of art (in my case inscriptions), without considering how the world outside actually relies on money. Also art and art history in some sense. A couple of weeks ago, at Bonhams, the last auction of Islamic Art of…
Jamila’s gravestone – update
This is the update to my previous post: “Redating and relocalising a tombstone from Wikipedia“ After a few days from the first post about Jamila’s gravestone, I am really happy to say that I got some new information. And I must admit that Wikipedia proved to be right, or at least ‘not completely wrong’.
SquareKufic 