Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam

Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam

Hardback (03 May 2011)

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Publisher's Synopsis

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.

Book information

ISBN: 9780300170603
Publisher: Yale University Press
Imprint: Yale University Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 745.67091767
DEWEY edition: 22
Language: English
Number of pages: 220
Weight: 1238g
Height: 285mm
Width: 229mm
Spine width: 22mm