The Experience of Islamic Art on the Margins of Islam
Irene A. Bierman
Ithaca Press
This book is a collection of papers from the 15th Giorgio Levi Della Vida Conference which explore the meaning of Islamic art in liminal contexts. The volume opens with an extended essay on various modes of experience of Islamic art, examining the origins and the continuing use of the so-called Mantle of Roger II of Sicily and the Capella Palatina in Palermo as case studies of Islamic art in liminal spatial and temporal zones. The book also looks at the use of Mamluk luxury objects in the Byzantine court at Constantinople, deconstructing an event in which the sudden perception of the name of Muhammad inscribed on a bronze platter used in ritual service led to the resignation of the Patriarch John XI Bekkos in 1279, and further explores the cross-use of Islamic and Byzantine forms of ornamentation in Qur'ans and lectionaries from the 9th through the 14th centuries. Another essay surveys France's use of 'Islamic' art and architecture in the centennial celebration of its occupation of Algeria, analyzing the hierarchy of forms in the imperial repertory which enhanced the supremacy of the colonizer and contributed to the rationale for colonizing. Also studied is the construction of sacred space in India's medieval Deccan where the Krishna River supposedly divided the Muslim north from the Hindu south. As well, the book looks at historical cycles of conquest and the appropriation of sacred sites in the Indian subcontinent, showing how reformulated and reconstructed myths and memories can serve to motivate new actions in new settings.