Islamic Art Spotsfor the NEH/ALA Muslim Bookshelf

D. Fairchild RugglesUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

dfr1@illinois.edu

7 Islamic Art Spots, each approximately 8 minutes long• Calligraphy• Mosques and Religious Architecture• The Arts of Trade and Travel• Islamic Gardens• Islamic Textiles• Geometry• The Arts of the Book and Miniature Painting

How will Art Spots be useful in programming for reading/learning communities?

Produced by Twin Cities Public Television for the National Endowment for the Humanities in collaboration with the American Library Association

10th-c. Quran manuscriptangular Kufic script with gold chapter heading

Muslim Bookshelf: Pathways of Faith

■ Greg Barker, Koran By Heart: One Chance to Remember (film)■ Ingrid Mattson, The Story of the Quran■ F.E. Peters, The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam■ Jonathan Brown, Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction

Great Mosque of Cordoba (Spain)

Muslim Bookshelf: Pathways of Faith

Great Mosque of Cordoba (Spain)

Muslim Bookshelf: Pathways of Faith

TRAVEL

Islamic Art Spot “The Arts of Trade and Travel”

■ Venetia Porter, The Art of Hajj■ Amin Maalouf, Leo Africanus■ Stewart Gordon, When Asia Was the World:

Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks 

■ Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land

Muslim Bookshelf: Connected Histories

Astrolabe for determining direction

Pilgrim caravan Travel by boat

Muslim Bookshelf: Connected Histories

Muslim Bookshelf: Connected Histories

Caravanserai for visiting merchants in Granada

PilgrimageTrade in people (slaves) and goodsIntellectual curiosity

Muslim Bookshelf: Connected Histories

Champaign, ILMosque

Muslim Bookshelf: American Stories

FAITHIslamic Art Spots “The Mosque” and “Calligraphy”

Muslim Bookshelf: Pathways of Faith & Connected Histories

Cordoba Mosque (Spain)mihrab (prayer niche)

Mosque of Djenné (Mali)

Different types of mosques

Muslim Bookshelf: Pathways of Faith & Connected Histories

Istanbul (Turkey) Yogyakarta (Indonesia)

Different types of mosques

Muslim Bookshelf: Points of View

Leila Ahmed, A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s ResurgenceWillow Wilson, Butterfly MosqueFatima Mernissi, Dreams of Trespass

Muslim Bookshelf: Pathways of Faith

The Quran and the Beauty of Calligraphy

■ Greg Barker, Koran By Heart (film)

■ Ingrid Mattson, The Story of the Quran

Ottoman sultan’s

signature

Persian calligraphy pageP

ersi

an ti

le

Muslim Bookshelf: Pathways of Faith

Islamic Art Spot: “The Arts of the Book and Miniature Painting”

Gold-stamped Quran manuscript

SCIENCEIslamic Art Spot “Geometry”

Muslim Bookshelf: Connected Histories

Muslim Bookshelf: Connected Histories

11th-c. Arabian astrolabeMosque clocks in Sri Lanka

Muslim Bookshelf: Connected Histories

■ Jim al-Khalili, The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance

■ Maria Menocal, Ornament of the World

Muslim Bookshelf: Pathways of Faith

The Quran on qibla (orientation):

“Wherever you come fromturn towards the Holy Mosque:This in truth is from your Lord.God is not negligent of all you do.Whichever place you come fromturn towards the Holy Mosque,and wherever you are, turn your faces towards it….”

 

Muslim Bookshelf: Connected Histories

Ibn Battuta – world traveler in the 14th century

A longer excerpt from Ibn Battuta is included in Stewart Gordon, When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks 

Muslim Bookshelf: Connected Histories

Ibn Battuta’s account of traveling from the Indian coast to China:

“Their custom when travelling on that river is to disembark in the evening and pass the night in the villages on its banks, returning to the boat in the morning. We used to do this too. There was no Muslim on the boat except the man I had hired, and he used to drink wine with the infidels when we went ashore and annoy me with his brawling, which made things all the worse for me.”

Muslim Bookshelf: Pathways of Faith

Islamic Art Spots: “Textiles” & “Calligraphy”

Mecca: Textile-wrapped Kaaba, toward which prayer is oriented

Islamic Art Spot: “Gardens”

Islamic Art Spot: “Gardens”■ Robert Gardner, Islamic Art: Mirror of the

Invisible World (film)

■ S. Blair and J. Bloom, Islamic Arts

■ Venetia Porter, Art of Hajj

How will Art Spots be useful in programming for reading & learning communities?