Islamic Art and Architecture
Description: The Islamic world and its history are vast,
encompassing over a millennium of presence in all of the world’s
continents. This course concentrates on the arts of the central
Islamic lands and the Mediterranean basin through the exploration
of selected monuments and works of minor arts from both the
religious and secular spheres of the Islamic world. The period
covered is the 7th century until the period of the Mongol invasions
in the 13th century. Issues of Islamic aesthetics and urbanism
in Islamic cities, and historiographical problems arising from
excavations, collections and marketing of Islamic art in the
modern period are also examined. Also featured are discussions
on the methodology and approaches of some of the most representative
scholars of Islamic art with the aim of fomenting critical approaches
to seeing, reading, and writing. The Web site includes some
300 images of Islamic art and architecture arranged in instructive
pages. A large number of downloadable texts files discussing
major monuments and types or art and architecture are also available
to the students online.
Grants and Funding: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Contributing Faculty or Academic Program: Heather Ecker,
Mellon Fellow in the Society of Fellows and the Humanities
Staff: James Conlon
Media: HTML and Database
URL: http://www.learn.columbia.edu/islamic
Access: Columbia University, password protected
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| Spain, Great Mosque
of Cordoba, interior view of the dome, Umayyad
Period, ca. 784–6, 961–6, 987–90
and later restorations. |
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