Islam, Art, and Society

Catalog description

Explores the historic interweaving of theology, spirituality, art, architecture, mathematics, & astronomy in the beautification of everyday objects & lived spaces. It examines how underlying principles of beauty and geometry shaped places such as hospitals, palaces, gardens, colleges, mosques, inns, and Sufi lodges as well as their historical functions in Muslim societies. Students also study and reconstruct historic examples of artistic patterns. A rotating variety of case studies across Afro-Eurasia may include sites and cultural artifacts from Bukhara, Cairo, Cordoba, Damascus, Delhi, Fes, Granada, Guangzhou, Hyderabad, Istanbul, Isfahan, Jerusalem, Malacca, Samarqand, Timbuktu & more.