Domestic Culture of Cities in the Middle East (16th to 19th century)
This article invites the reader to enter and enjoy wealthy urban homes in Turkey, Egypt and Iran between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. This was a period of flourishing traditional culture and also of…
Beyond the exotic – the pleasures of ‘Islamic’ Art
What is it that makes ‘Islamic’ art ‘Islamic’? In this brief essay, the author explores what links art spanning 14 centuries, several continents, varying political regimes, internecine differences and cultural and ethnic boundaries….
Miniature Painting as Muslim Cosmopolitanism
by Iftikhar Dadi Artists in Lahore have creatively reinterpreted Mughal miniature painting and its successors. The artist Chughtai initiated this process when he started to reorient his “Indian” painting towards consciously Islamic styles….
Materials and Mediums – Islamic Art
The decorative arts in Islam are marked by a remarkable degree of stylistic consistency which has been applied to a broad range of materials, each of which had a craft-base of its own,…
Islamic Architecture – Abbasid Period
Under theAbbasid caliphate (750–1258), which succeeded the Umayyads (661–750) in 750, the focal point of Islamic political and cultural life shifted eastward from Syria to Iraq, where, in 762, Baghdad, the circular City of Peace…
Doris Dukes Shangri La – Center for Islamic Arts and Culture
The collection at Shangri La consists of about 3,500 objects, within which are several distinct sub-collections that shed light on Islam, Islamic cultures and Islamic art, among other traditions. Below are links to…
