Symposium — Objects and Power (Timothy Insoll)

April 11, 2014 | Symposium—Objects and Power: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Medieval Islamic Material Culture

In the medieval Islamic world, as elsewhere, objects could both reflect and help constitute leaders’ conceptions of power. Yet Islamic material culture and its political implications have traditionally been studied in distinct ways in different fields, and are rarely discussed in comparative ways. This symposium will bring together several of the leading scholars of Islamic material culture from around the world for a series of interdisciplinary conversations about the relationships between people in power and the objects they produced, commissioned or collected. These objects, ranging from coins to textiles to portable luxury goods and religious relics, presented rulers’ visions of righteous authority to their courts, subjects and rivals. Objects could link rulers to past dynasties or to other contemporary figures. As they moved through time and space, often by diplomatic exchange or by diffusion into other segments of society, objects accrued new meanings and powers. This symposium will bring together art historians, archaeologists, historians and scholars of Islamic studies to historicize objects that played important roles in the construction of power in medieval Islam.

Peter N. Miller (Bard Graduate Center), Welcome

Abigail Krasner Balbale (Bard Graduate Center), Introduction

Mariam Rosser-Owen (Victoria & Albert Museum), "Artistic Patronage and Political Legitimacy: The Case of the ‘Āmirid Regents of al-Andalus, c. 970-1010"

Jochen Sokoly (Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar), "The Blessed Robe: Caliphal Benevolence at the Fatimid Court" [no video]

Stefan Heidemann (Universität Hamburg), "Images of Power: Currency of Fame and Currency of Daily Use"

Timothy Insoll (University of Manchester), "Objects and Power in the Archaeology of Sub-Saharan African Islam"