Christian-Islamic encounters through religious arts, architecture, and material culture in the medieval era
The coexistence of Christianity and Islam in the medieval Mediterranean led to an interchange of knowledge in architecture and material culture that went well beyond religious and geographical boundaries. The use of Islamic objects in Christian contexts, the conversion of churches into mosques, and the mobility of craftsmen are only some manifestations of this process. From crosses found in mosques to European-Christian coins with pseudo-shahada inscriptions, medieval material culture is rich with visual evidence of the two faiths intermingling in both individual objects and monuments.
In this volume, thirteen international scholars explore various aspects of pan-Mediterranean Christian-Islamic encounters in material culture and art, from textiles to precious oils, and from metalwork to ceramics, covering most of the Mediterranean, as well as parts of its extended hinterland, from Spain and Italy to Egypt and Georgia.
Within this frame, one of the most relevant, yet underexplored lines of investigation is that of the "aesthetic space," the notion that aesthetic pleasure transcends boundaries, paving the way to a cross-religious experience and appreciation. "Indeed, God is beautiful, and He loves beauty," as mentioned in a Hadith narration, a universal cry of visual beauty that resonates with all cultures and civilizations.
Contributors:
Paschalis Androudis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Faruk Bilici Inalco, Paris, France
Maria Bormpoudaki Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Piraeus, Greece
Sami Luigi De Giosa University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Hélène Fragaki University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
Hani Hamza Independent scholar, Cairo, Egypt
Ana Cabrera Lafuente Instituto de Turismo de España (Turespaña/Tourspain), Madrid, Spain
Alison Ohta Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London, United Kingdom
Richard Piran McClary University of York, York, United Kingdom
Nino Simonishvili Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Nikolaos Vryzidis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Arielle Winnik Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, United States
"This volume offers an exploration of the Christian-Islamic encounter in a pan-Mediterranean context, through an array of new research papers based on micro-historical case studies of the religious arts, architecture, and material culture. The new Mediterraneanism forged during the last decades has opened the door to approaches that reveal Christian-Islamic interchange in its full complexity, as well as diversity. Within this frame, one of the most relevant, yet underexplored lines of investigation is that of the "aesthetic space": the notion that aesthetic pleasure transcends boundaries, paving the way to a cross-religious experience and appreciation. "Indeed, God is beautiful, and He loves beauty", as mentioned in a Hadith narration, a universal cry of visual beauty that resonates with all cultures and civilizations. This concept finds perfect application in the case of textiles, ceramics, metalware, and other artifacts that traveled across the medieval Mediterranean. Commodities such as the balsam oil further expand this shared space, to also encompass the sensory aspect in its broadest sense. What is more, the appropriation of spolia and symbols bring visual appeal through the meaning they produce and convey, opening up the conceptualization of this space even more"--
