Wonder, image, and cosmos in medieval Islam / Persis Berlekamp.
2011
ND2955 .B47 2011 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
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Details
Title
Wonder, image, and cosmos in medieval Islam / Persis Berlekamp.
Author
Berlekamp, Persis, 1968-
Spine Title
Wonder, image, & cosmos in medieval Islam
ISBN
9780300170603 (alk. paper)
0300170602 (alk. paper)
0300170602 (alk. paper)
Imprint
New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, c2011.
Language
English
Description
xi, 220 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 29 cm.
Call Number
ND2955 .B47 2011
Dewey Decimal Classification
745.6/7091767
Summary
This original book untangles fundamental confusions about historical relationships among Islam, representational images, and philosophy. Closely examining some of the most meaningful and best preserved premodern illustrated manuscripts of Islamic cosmographies, Persis Berlekamp refutes the assertion often made by other historians of medieval Islamic art that, while representational images did exist, they did not serve religious purposes. The author focuses on widely disseminated Islamic images of the wonders of creation, ... This original book untangles fundamental confusions about historical relationships among Islam, representational images, and philosophy. Closely examining some of the most meaningful and best preserved premodern illustrated manuscripts of Islamic cosmographies, Persis Berlekamp refutes the assertion often made by other historians of medieval Islamic art that, while representational images did exist, they did not serve religious purposes. The author focuses on widely disseminated Islamic images of the wonders of creation, ranging from angels to human-snatching birds, and argues that these illustrated manuscripts aimed to induce wonder at God's creation, as was their stated purpose. She tracks the various ways that images advanced that purpose in the genre's formative milieu - the century and a half following the Mongol conquest of the Islamic East in 1258. Delving into social history and into philosophical ideas relevant to manuscript and image production, Berlekamp shows that philosophy occupied an established, if controversial, position within Islam. She thereby radically reframes representational images within the history of Islam.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-209) and index.
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Table of Contents
Iconic images : platonic forms and the awe-inspiring cosmos
Narrative images : astonishing anecdotes and cosmic times
Mirrored visions : penumbral wonders and the position of the viewer
Talismanic images : astrological composites and efficacious symbioses.
Narrative images : astonishing anecdotes and cosmic times
Mirrored visions : penumbral wonders and the position of the viewer
Talismanic images : astrological composites and efficacious symbioses.