Workshop: Writing as Intermediary Text-Image Relations in Early Modern Islamic Cultures, Islamic Art and Archaeology
University of Bamberg/Schillerplatz 17, 10th to 12th October, 2019
The importance of writing for Islamic culture is well established, be it only for the reed pen (qalam), which has adopted, in the writings of some Muslim philosophers, the role of the first intellect, and was known among Islamic calligraphers as God’s instrument of creation. Nonetheless, some unsolved research questions are connected with this cultural technique. Of central importance is the relation between text and image, closely interwoven with the problem zone of the so-called prohibition of images in Islam. With regard to calligraphy, hybrid between text and image, and at the same time the most renowned form of Islamic Art, the question is whether it exists to be read or to be looked at?
The workshop will focus on text-image relations in the Ottoman and the Indo-Persian sphere during the 15th to 17th centuries. We are planning to take a wider view and integrate approaches of media theories from the field of Visual Culture Studies as well as interdisciplinary research transcending periods and cultures, which can enhance our discussion of script and writing.
Preliminary Program
18:00 Welcome address and opening remarks
18:15-19:30 Opening Lecture:
Birgit Mersmann:
When Script Becomes Icon(ic): Calligraphic Reconfigurations in East Asian Contemporary Art
19:30 Welcome Reception
Chair: Ulrich Marzolph
09:30-10:00 Nourane Ben Azzouna
Between Poetry and Narration: Text- image relations in a Khamseh manuscript from Turkmen Shiraz (Strasbourg, BNU, MS 4715)
10:00-10:30 Ilse Sturkenboom
Image as Intermediary? The use of ‘Chinese’ painted paper for manuscript production in the Persianate world
10:30-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-11:30 Berenike Metzler
The Islamic ‘Prohibition of Images’ from the Perspective of Mediality
11:30-12:00 Margaret Shortle
Sensory variability in calligraphy and paper in early modern Persian book arts
12:00-14:00 Lunch Break
Chair: Patrick Franke
14:00-14:30 Emine Küçükbay
Hilye-ī Şerīf: The interplay of scripts, text fields and geometric shapes
14:30-15:00 Tobias Heinzelmann
Codex versus Panel: Visualising the prophet's ‘sheen’ (ḥilye) in Ottoman poetry and calligraphy
15:00-15:30 Coffee Break
15:30-16:00 Bilal Badat
Aesthetic, Ritual, Spiritual: Polysemous readings of calligraphy during the Ottoman Period
16:00-16:30 Sabiha Göloğlu
Image and Text Formulae of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem Representations in the Late Ottoman Empire
17:00-18:30 Visit to the University Museum of Islamic Art (“The Bumiller Collection”)
19:00 Dinner
Chair: Lorenz Korn
09:30-10:00 Sophie Schweinfurth
The Equivalence of Script and Image as Conclusion of the Iconophile Doctrine of the Icon in Byzantium
10:00-10:30 Kay Joe Petzold
Masora Figurata. Written Images and Hidden Subjects in Ashkenazi Hebrew Bibles
10:30-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-11:30 Vera Beyer
Vom buchstäblichen Verständnis zum Durchschauen der Schrift. Eine Initiale als Übergang vom Alten zum Neuen Testament
11:30-12:00 Closing remarks and discussion
12:00 Lunch Snack