Arts of the Islamic World draft syllabus, subject to small changes
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Arts of the Islamic World
draft syllabus, subject to small changes
Door and knocker from the Great Mosque at Cizre (detail), upper Mesopotamia (now
Turkey), 13th century; cast & engraved bronze, walnut, poplar & brass; Turkish and
Islamic Arts Museum, Istanbul.
What’s Islamic about Islamic art? What makes a mosque in Indonesia different from one in Iberia?
Where are all the pictures? And what about that tired old question of iconoclasm – or the destroying of
images? Should art historians only talk about the rock crystal and porcelains and silks made for sultans
and emperors, or can we also look at ceramics and cottons and other things made for humbler folk?
What’s with all that ornament? Do materials matter, and can fine art be mass-produced? To answer
some of these questions, we’ll be exploring big themes, such as the requirements of worship and
imperial building campaigns, daily life and its objects, conventions of representation (or picture-
making), the absolute triumph of calligraphy as an art form, the way Mediterranean and Oceanic trade
connected different cultures, and how looting, plunder, and finally colonialism and nationalism also
impact on the way we see and understand art and architecture in the twenty-first century.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12.30-1.45, Campbell Hall
Dr Amanda Phillips, Department of Art
Office Hours: Thursdays 3-5pm and by appt
Email: ahp2n@virginia.edu; extension 4-6126; office Fayerweather Hall 306Course Objectives You will learn to talk about Islamic art and architecture from many times and places
and to use appropriate terms to describe salient features and relate them to their historical and cultural
contexts. You will also be able to explain why monuments in Indonesia and Iberia and Iran and Istanbul
are the same, but also different, for instance, and be able to articulate some of the reasons why pottery
and metalwork share close visual connections. By the end of term, you will have a solid understanding
of the amazingly broad scope of this topic, its main themes, and its place in larger world art history and
culture, and also be able to talk about what makes it unique and exciting and important to you and to
people around the world.
Course Format The course considers objects and monuments mostly based on chronology and
geography, with occasional lectures on thematic topics. We’ll also pause in class for reading and
listening exercises, to learn skills in formal analysis, and to go over any questions. For these reasons,
you must do the readings before class. Reading before class also helps you recognize vocabulary and
the names of people and places, some of which may be unfamiliar at first.
Abbreviated versions of the presentations used in the lectures will be placed on Collab at the end of
each week as an aid for response-writing. No material from this class—including recordings, PDFs of
images, readings, etc—may be disseminated electronically or otherwise.
Assignments and Grading, details at the end of the syllabus
36% one-page responses to lectures and reading, totaling six over the course of the semester.
20% a mid-term take-home essay, four pages.
25% a final take-home essay, five pages.
19% intangibles: class participation during discussions, collegiality, enthusiasm.
COVID Statement Please come to class! but please also know that if you are ill, you can and should
stay home and there will be no penalties for absences. Let me know, we’ll work out extended deadlines
and a way for you to make up work as necessary. Ask your colleagues to fill you in on class discussions,
and plan to come to my office hours to chat about any questions you might still have after you do the
readings.
In Class When you do come to class, please be prepared for some discussion both in small groups and
in the classroom. This means doing the reading, and looking especially at primary sources, ahead of
time. I will be paying attention to who is also paying attention, engaging their classmates, and
expressing interest in the course material… your intangibles grade is based on these factors. The rubric
is partly A for effort and partly recognizes true work with the material, and thoughtfulness of responses
and questions. By contrast, ill-preparedness also factors into grade calculations.
Students are expected to observe UVa’s Honor Code.
2Opportunities for extra credit. There will be three lectures on Grounds this spring that you can attend
for extra credit, for 1.5 points each on your final grade, and with a total of 3 points maximum.
Thursday 24 February, Martina Rugiadi, speaking about archaeology in Afghanistan
Date tbc, Janice Leoshko, speaking about art in South Asia (check the Fralin Museum site)
Date tbc, BuYun Chen, speaking about Chinese textiles (check the Fralin Museum site)
There is no single textbook for this class. Readings are available on Collab, where links to on-line
resources such as podcasts and videos are also provided.
Most readings come from the following sources:
Archnet (Aga Khan Program, MIT): www.archnet.org
A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, ed. Necipoğlu and Flood (Blackwell, 2017): required
sections on Collab.
Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art & Architecture (GE): required sections on Collab.
Khamseen Islamic Art History Online, https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/khamseen
Metropolitan Museum Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History (TOAH):
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/
Museum with No Frontiers (MWNF): http://www.discoverislamicart.org/index.php
Week by week schedule, subject to update
Week One, January 20: Where did it all begin? What does it mean? Why are we here?
Tuesday: answer the professor’s introductory email by Wednesday 19 January at noon, and be
prepared for a little chatting across the lecture hall. Also, intro lecture, “What is Islamic Art?”
[no response this week]
Week Two, January 25 & 27, Holy Lands: Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem – where do traditions begin?
Tuesday: In the Before
TOAH: essay, The Art of the Hellenistic Age; essay, Byzantium, c. 330-1453; essay,
Trade and Commercial Activity in the Byzantine and early Islamic Middle East; essay,
Sasanian Empire, 224-651; essay, Gandhara.
Thursday: Mecca and Medina, the Ka’ba and the first Mosque
Archnet: Ka’ba; Haram al-Sharif; Masjid al-Nabawi (the Prophet’s mosque at Medina)
TOAH: essay, The Birth of Islam
Khamseen: Ka'ba (Simon O'Meara), Haram (Harry Munt), Qibla (Hala Auji), Mosque (Christiane
Gruber)
Primary Source: the Quran about qibla, the hadith about waqf
response due Saturday 29 January at noon
Week Three, February 1 & 3, the Dome of the Rock, the Great Mosque of Damascus, Desert Palaces
Tuesday: Abd’ al-Malik in Jerusalem
Archnet: Qubba al-Sakhra (Dome of the Rock); Haram al-Sharif
MWNF: The Umayyads; al-Aqsa Mosque; Church of St. Stephen
TOAH: essay, Icons and Iconoclasm in Byzantium, essay, Figural Representation in Islamic Art
3Listen, BBC Radio & Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects:
Gold Coins of Abd’ al-Malik
Thursday: The Great Mosque of Damascus, Palaces in the Transjordan, & Umayyad Objects
Archnet: Khirbet al-Mafjar; Qasr al-Hayr east; Mshatta; Umayyad Mosque in Damascus (Jami’ al-
Umawi al-Kebir); Damascus
TOAH: essay, The Art of the Umayyad Period
Listen, Barakat Trust Podcast Series, Alain Fuad George discusses his new book on the Great
Mosque of Damascus
response due Saturday 5 February at noon
Week Four, February 8 & 10, Transitions: art, architecture, and archaeology at center and at the
edges
Tuesday: Harun al-Rashid’s Baghdad, the Translation Movement, and the City of Samarra
Archnet: Baghdad; Dar al-Khilafa (Jawsaq al-Khaqani); Mutawakkil Mosque
MWNF: The Abbasids and their Vassals
TOAH: essay, The Art of the Abbasid Period
Listen BBC Radio & Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects: Harem Wall
Painting Fragments from Samarra
Primary Source: The Reception of the Byzantine Ambassadors at Baghdad
Thursday: Classical Mosques, and also Pottery, Archaeology, & Luxury Goods
Companion: Oliver Watson, Ceramics and Circulation
Archnet: Mosque of ibn Tulun; Great Mosque of Kairouan; Masjid No Gumbad
Khamseen: Craft and Aesthetics in Byzantine and Early Islamic Textiles (Elizabeth Williams)
Selection from Alf- Layla wa Layla (2021 edition!)
Response due Saturday 12 February at noon
Week Five, February 15 & 17, Whose writing, whose weaving?
Tuesday: Holy Scripts: Calligraphy and Epigraphy
Archnet Timeline: The Samanids
Companion: Alain George, The Qur’an, Calligraphy, and Early Civilization
Khamseen: A Samanid Epigraphic Dish (Marika Sardar)
TOAH: the Met’s Excavations at Nishapur
Thursday: Textiles from Egypt and Baghdad
Mackie, Symbols of Power, (Cleveland, 2015), Chapter Three: Tiraz
Khamseen: Khil'a, Tiraz (Meredyth Winter)
Response due Saturday 19 February at noon
Week Six, February 22 & 24, From Script to Decoration, from Syria to Spain to Sicily
Tuesday: The Western Mediterranean: Al-Andalus and the Maghreb
Archnet: Great Mosque of Cordoba; Jami al-Kutubiyya; Great Mosque of Tinmal
Archnet Timeline: Umayyad in Spain
TOAH: Art of the Almoravid and Almohad Periods
4Companion: Abigail Balbale, The Berber Dynasties
Khamseen: the Mihrab at the Great Mosque of Cordoba (Glaire Anderson)
Primary Source: Abd’ al-Rahman, “Ode to a Palm Tree”
Thursday: Mosques in Cairo and Palaces in Palermo
Archnet: Ziza Palace; al-Azhar Mosque; al-Aqmar Mosque
Companion: Lev Kapitaikin, Staging Multiculturalism
Khamseen: al-Aqmar Mosque (Jennifer Pruitt)
GE: Muqarnas, I
Response due Saturday 26 February at noon.
Week Seven, March 1 -- one class only
Tuesday: Courtly Culture in the Mediterranean and Beyond
Archnet: The Alhambra Palace, including the Palaces of Lions and Myrtles
TOAH: Art of the Fatimid Period; the Art of the Nasrid Palace
al-Qantara: Rock Crystal; Mantle of Roger of Sicily
Khamseen: Mina'i (Richard McClary)
Primary Source: the Looting of the Fatimid Treasury
Thursday: Extra break day -- use the time to prepare your mid-term essay, due Friday at 5pm in
Assignments
[no weekly response]
[Spring Break]
Week Eight, March 15 & 17: Total Disruption: the Mongols and their Legacies
Tuesday: from China to Iran, from Minds to Hearts: Book-painting under the Mongols
TOAH: essay, the Art of the Book in the Ilkhanid Period; essay, A New Visual Language
Transmitted Across Asia; essay, Folios from the Great Mongol Shahnama; essay, Folios from the
Jami’ al Tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles)
The Art of the Qur’an, Catalog nos tbc
Primary Source: Rashid al-Din on his atelier endowment
Thursday: Architecture and the Competitive Impulse in Iran and Anatolia
Archnet: Takht-i Sulayman; Gunbad-i Uljaytu; Çifte Minareli Madrasa in Sivas; Sultan Han
(caravansaray); Alaeddin Mosque
Archnet Timeline: Ilkhanids
TOAH: essay, the Art of the Seljuq Period in Anatolia; essay, the Takht-i Sulayman and
Tilework in the Ilkhanid Period
Response due Saturday 19 March at noon.
Week Nine, March 22 & 24: Turkic Slaves in Egypt and Warlords in Central Asia
Tuesday: the Mamluks in Cairo
Archnet Timeline: Mamluks
5Archnet: Sultan al-Zahir Baybars Mosque; Funerary Complex of Baybars al-Jashankir; Funerary
Complex of Qansuh al-Ghuri; Wakala of Qansuh al-Ghuri
Khamseen: the Khanqah of Baybars al-Jashinkir (Bernard O'Kane)
MWNF: Doorwings and knocker (Cizre)
TOAH: essay, The Art of the Mamluk Period
Thursday: Timur and his Court: Ambition on an Imperial Scale
Archnet Timeline: Timurids
Archnet: Madrasa of Ulugh Beg; Mosque of Bibi Khanum; Shah-i Zinda Complex
TOAH: essay, The Mantik al-Tayr of 1487
Primary Source: the arzadasht (petition of the artisans)
Response due Saturday 26 March at noon.
Week Ten, March 29 & 31: South and Southeast Asia: Conquest and Conversion
Tuesday: Architecture and Manuscripts in the Deccan, 1200-1500
Archnet: Qutb Complex (Quwwat al-Islam); Ajmer Mosque; Mahmud Gawan Madrasa; Great
Mosque of Bijapur
Aga Khan Museum: Two folios from Qurans in Bihari Script (India)
Khamseen: The Gwalior Qur’an (Marika Sardar)
Thursday: Trade and faith in Southeast Asia
Companion: Imran bin Tajudeen, Trade, Politics, and Sufi Synthesis
Ann Kumar et al., Illuminations: The Writing Traditions of Indonesia (1996), Chapter Three,
pp. 33-48.
Listen: BBC Radio & Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects:
Episode 83, Shadow Puppet of Bima
Read and watch, UNESCO World Heritage, Karagöz (Turkish shadow puppet)
Response due Saturday 2 April at noon.
Week Eleven, April 5 & 7: No, You Can’t Go Back to Constantinople
Tuesday: The Ottomans, the Iranians, and the Italians, 1400-1500
Archnet Timeline: Ottoman
Archnet: Mehmed Çelebi Külliyesi, Fatih Külliyesi (Mosque complexes of Sultans Mehmed I and
Mehmed II)
TOAH: essay, Venice and the Islamic World, 828-1797; essay, Commercial Exchange […]
Thursday: A New World Capital: Istanbul, c. 1555
Archnet: Süleymaniye Külliyesi; Şehzade Külliyesi (Mosque complexes of Sultan
Süleyman and Prince Mehmed)
TOAH: essay, the Art of the Ottomans Before 1600; essay, the Age of Süleyman
‘The Magnificent’
Listen, BBC Radio & Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects:
The Tughra of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
Response due Saturday 9 April at noon.
6Week Twelve, April 12 & 14: Where Imperial Ambition meets Mass Production
Tuesday: Textiles and Ceramics from the Ottoman Empire
TOAH: essay, Silks from Ottoman Turkey
Phillips, Sea Change, pp. tbc
Primary Source: The Sultanic Enquiry into Silk Weaving, 1502
Thursday: Iranian art and architecture c. 1620
Companion: Farhad and Simpson, Safavid Arts and Diplomacy, p. 942-949 only.
Archnet: Maidan-i Imam; Masjid-i Imam; Mosque of Shaykh Lutfullah; reading on Shrine of
Hazret Massumeh at Qom, tbc
TOAH: essay, Shah Abbas and the Arts of Isfahan
Response due Saturday 16 April at noon.
Week Thirteen, April 19 & 21: South Asia, Africa, and the Indian Ocean
Tuesday, Mughal architecture and art in the 17th century
Archnet: Taj Mahal Complex; Fatehpur Sikri
TOAH: essay, the Art of the Mughals before 1600; essay, the Art of the Mughals after
1600; essay, The Shah Jahan Album
Listen, BBC Radio & Neil McGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects:
Episode 82, Miniature of a Mughal Prince
Thursday, Islamic Architecture and Material Culture in the Global South
Ismaheel Akinade Jimoh, “The Art of Qur’anic Penmanship and Illumination among Muslim
Scholars in southwestern Nigeria,” in Word of God, Art of Man, ed. Suleiman (2010), pp. 175-88.
The Great Mosque of Djenne, please visit the University of Cape Town’s Black Monuments Matter
exhibition (2021), and look through the material there.
Khamseen: Swahili Mosques between Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean (Stéphane
Pradines)
Response due Saturday 23 April at noon.
Week Fourteen, April 26 and 28: Baroque, ne0-Baroque, and Modern
Tuesday: Global Baroque? What Global Baroque?
Nuruosmaniye Mosque; Fountain of Ahmed III
TOAH: Art of the Ottomans after 1600
Archnet: Kakh-i Gulistan (The Gulistan Palace)
GE: Photography, III (pp. 118-19)
Thursday: From Globalism to Modernity? And what does that mean, exactly?
Companion, Iftikhar Dadi, “Calligraphic Abstraction.”
Response due Saturday 30 April at noon.
Week Fifteen, May 3 -- one class only
Tuesday: Ziuddin Sardar, The Destruction Mecca, NYTimes online, September 30, 2014.
Final essay, about 1500 words, due Friday May 6 at 5pm, via Assignments.
7Weekly Assignments – 6 total, 6 points each
We all know how to use Google Maps and Wikipedia to look up the what, where, when, and who. For
this reason, we’ll not be memorizing and taking quizzes, but instead writing and talking with the aim of
learning about why and how. We’ll also be figuring out how to use different types of primary and
secondary sources, including objects and monuments, and developing our critical and analytic thinking.
Each week on Thursday at 2pm, I’ll use the Test & Quizzes function of Collab to post a question, or
give another kind of instruction; you’ll respond to in about 400-500 words in the text box (probably you
should cut and paste from another source), and turn in the assignment by the following Saturday by
noon. You must complete three responses before February 26, and three more before April 30, for a
total of six. You may choose any week’s topic you desire—these might be most interesting, most
familiar, the ones you understood best, or fit in best with your own study schedule, holidays, etc—but
you must complete each one for its assigned week. This means you cannot leave all three until the last
minute.
The information you include should be drawn from the lectures, discussions, and reading—extra
research is neither necessary nor encouraged.
Guidelines and expectations for each response
Some questions will focus around a building or object or patron, some questions will be about themes
or major trends in history or art history. First, you’ll need to identify what you’re talking about, by giving
first of all the who, what, when and where – in some cases just once; in other cases several times (ie,
with several pieces of pottery or textiles, or a compare and contrast between two buildings). In a
sentence or two, explain why the topic is important—what about this monument/book page/bowl
makes it worth writing about? At some point in the answer, you’ll be describing what you see using
specialist vocabulary, and linking visual/material/architectonic/site elements with historic context.
What part of the object/building/book is determined by what part of historical context, or otherwise?
When answering a thematic question, use at least three examples (all identified) to back up your main
point, and work to link them with
These will be graded as 6, 5, or 4, or zero points, examples following.
6- point grade Follow the directions above, including reaching / staying within word limit. Spell-check
and read for clarity and for style. Use appropriate vocabulary and identify all of what is important (and
leaving out what is not) including bringing higher-level insights from lectures and readings, meaning
historiography, methodology, and critical categories.
5- point grade Follow the directions above, including reaching / staying within word limit. Spell-check
and read for clarity. Use appropriate vocabulary and identify most of what is important in terms of facts
and a few main themes.
4- point grade Follows the directions incompletely and/or has major errors of fact or interpretation.
8Examples of question and response:
Why does the Dome of the Rock look the way it does?
6 point answer Abd’ al-Malik, the Umayyad caliph (r. 685-705), had several related aims when he
commissioned the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which was completed in the 690s. We can
understand these aims by looking at the building’s site, structure and format, and decoration in context
of the time, and relate them to Abd’ al-Malik’s desire to cement the importance of Islam as a religion
and his dynasty as righteous Muslim rulers. Abd’ al-Malik was the Umayyad Caliph and his capital was
at Damascus. But Jerusalem was an important city for religious reasons: for the Jewish community, it
was the location of the Temple; for the Christian community, it was the site of the Crucifixion of Christ
and his resurrection; for Muslims, it was the location of the ‘furthest mosque,’ where the Prophet came
on his Night Journey. The site Abd al-Malik selected has a large rock which the architects left exposed
at the center of the structure. There are several possible reasons that Abd al-Malik chose to build an
octagonal structure with a dome: the octagon encourages circumambulation around the central rock;
the dome itself signals an important space; the structure was inspired by that of the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher, but was meant to improve upon it or compete with it.
Abd al-Malik and his mosaicists also chose specific decoration that reinforced the same ideas—using
older symbols such as jewels and winged crowns to show Islam’s triumph over the Byzantines and
Sasanians, and avoiding figural representation because it was inappropriate or in order to set the new
Islamic style apart from the Christian art in the area. The inscriptions around the top of the mosaics are
verses of the Quran, selected because they highlight the ‘one-ness’ of God, in contrast to the Trinity of
Byzantium. Jerusalem, in this period, was majority Christian. They are in gold, on a dark background,
which might symbolize God’s word shining out of the darkness of ignorance.
Jerusalem was also strategic for Abd al-Malik. The Umayyads did not control Mecca and Medina. Some
Muslims were sometimes unable to make the Hajj, and also the Holy Cities themselves were under
someone else’s control. Some historians think that Abd al-Malik wanted to designate Jerusalem, which
he did control, as the new destination of the Hajj, and the Dome of the Rock—with a rock, a connection
with the Prophet, a place to circumambulate, an ancient history, and in proximity to Damascus—was
intended to substitute for the Ka’ba. Other historians, using evidence such as the platforms of the
Haram al-Sharif, argue that the Dome of the Rock, with its vegetal and jeweled decoration, was meant
to represent a paradise attained through correct practice of Islam, and reached by the faithful walking
literally transcending, via a large ramp, the earlier prophetic traditions of Jerusalem.
5 point answer Abd al-Malik was the Umayyad caliph and wanted to patron a monument to show his
power in Jerusalem, because it was a holy city for Christians and Jews, as well as Muslims. It was also
closer to his own capital, Damascus. The Dome of the Rock was built in the 690s. Jerusalem had
surrendered peacefully to the Muslim armies, which meant many of its buildings were left intact. But
the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) had been in ruins for some time, with only the remains of several
Byzantine monasteries there. This allowed Abd al-Malik to take the land for himself.
The site was high and large, and the Dome of the Rock is at the highest point of the three terrace-like
platforms. It is octagonal in shape, with a large dome over the top. Its interior has marble columns in
two concentric rings around an exposed rock. The rock is symbolic, it is where the Prophet came during
9his Night Journey. It may also be where he led some faithful in early prayer. Jerusalem was considered
the furthest place from Mecca.
The decoration of the Dome of the Rock is mosaics, with vine and jewel decorations. It is important that
it doesn’t show human figures, which are forbidden in Islamic art. Instead, it shows crown-like motifs
that come from Byzantine art and wing decorations that come from Sasanian art. The artists chose
these motifs because they were familiar with them, and knew how to make them. They also might have
wanted to use visual vocabulary familiar to people coming there to worship, so that they would feel
comfortable and understand that the Umayyads were taking over from the Byzantines and Sasanians,
who ruled in Iran.
The calligraphy used above the mosaics is gold on a dark blue ground. Unlike the vegetal decoration, it
is blocky and square. The script does not include either vowels or diacritics, which meant that most
people could not read it too well. But most people would recognize it anyway, because it was verses
from the Quran. Many Muslims would have memorized the Quran, and would therefore be able to
figure out just from reading a few words, which verses they were. The verses are ones that mention that
God is One, and this is because it was important in Jerusalem because many Christians there believed in
the Holy Trinity. The color scheme is also significant, with gold and blue being royal colors, and also
dramatic.
The Dome of the Rock has a gold dome and tiles on the outside, which are modern. They were
commissioned by the King of Jordan, in imitation of the Ottoman tiles that were originally there.
4 point answer. The caliph wanted to build a mosque that was more important than the mosques in
Mecca and Medina and Damascus so that he could show his power and also so that people would
worship his dynasty. He got Christian artists to decorate it with jewels and crowns because he wanted
to show how rich he was. The Prophet came to the Dome of the Rock, which shows it was important,
and he preached from the rock while people walked around it. Also, the dome is probably coming from
a Roman tradition, like the Pantheon, but the outside has tiles, like a lavatory. There were also some
Persians who came there to decorate it, too, with symbols of wings because birds were also popular in
this time.
Mid-term essay (20%) and final essay (25%)
For these papers, students will be asked to select one of their responses from the first / second half of
the semester, and expand it into a longer essay, incorporating more information, comparative
examples, and larger issues of theme, topic, and methodology.
Mid-term essay, about 1200 words or 4 pages, due Friday March 4 at 5pm, via Assignments in
Collab.
Final essay, about 1500 words or five pages, due Friday May 6 at 5pm, via Assignments in Collab.
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