DU2852 Umayyad Visual Culture between Continuity and Change

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2018
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Katharina Meinecke, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres, Docent in Church History
Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres, Docent in Church History
Supplier department: Department of Art History – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites
The course is offered to the students of the History of art
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
The course wishes to give an overview of the visual culture of the Umayyads, Islam's first dynasty (661-750 CE). The Umayyads were a global player at the crossroads: their vast empire, which reached from the Iberian Peninsula to the borders of China, united different Late Antique cultural and artistic centers, and historically their rule can be seen as an an age of transition between antiquity and the Middle Ages. Their visual culture mirrors this diversity: the Umayyads appropriated motifs from different iconographic traditions present in the caliphate – especially from the former Byzantine territories and the Sasanian realm – and merged them into new images. The geographical focus of the course will be on the empire's heartland in modern Syria, Jordan, and Palestine, where representative mosques and the so-called 'desert castles', large multi-functional residential buildings, all lavishly decorated with mosaics, wall painting, and architectural ornaments made of stucco and stone, were erected by the caliphs and ruling elite. The course will cover the archaeology of the Islamic conquest and Umayyad rule of the Near East and introduce the most important architectures of this period, such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, as well as the 'desert castles' of Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, Qusayr Amra, Mshatta, and others. We will discuss, among other questions, diversity in Umayyad visual culture, the use of spolia, the appropriation of pre-Islamic iconographies, and possible cross-cultural modes of transfer to place Umayyad art within the context of Late Antiquity's visual koiné.
Learning outcomes
The course will be concentrated in one week from 9th to 13th April 2018
Literature
  • H. C. Evans – B. Ratliff (ed.), Byzantium and Islam. Age of Transition 7 th -9 th Century, Catalogue New York (New York 2012).
  • G. W. Bowersock – P. Brown – O. Grabar (ed.), Late Antiquity. A Guide to the Postclassical World (Cambridge, Mass. – London 1999).
  • P. Brown, The World of Late Antiquity AD 150-750 (London 1971).
  • R. Ettinghausen – O. Grabar – M. Jenkins-Madina, Islamic Art and Architecture. 650-1250 (New Haven – London 2001).
  • G. W. Bowersock, Hellenism in Late Antiquity (Cambridge – New York – Port Chester – Melbourne – Sydney 1990).
  • A. Shboul – A. Walmsley, Identity and Self-Image in Syria-Palestine in the Transition from Byzantine to Early Islamic Rule. Arab Christians and Muslims, MedA 11, 1998, 255–287.
  • A. George – A. Marsham (ed.), Power, Patronage and Memory in Early Islam (Oxford, due to be published 2018).
  • A. Walmsley, Early Islamic Syria. An Archaeological Assessment (London 2007).
  • O. Grabar, The Formation of Islamic Art (New Haven – London 1973).
Teaching methods
Interactive presentation
Assessment methods
Short redaction
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught: in blocks.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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