Suchergebnisse

It is the geometric and vegetal ornamental motifs that dominate in the works of traditional arts and crafts of the Bashkir people. The Bashkirs are Muslims. Therefore, the popularity of abstract ornamental forms in their artistic creativity is often associated with the religious prohibition against images of human beings, animals and birds. However, a comparative historical study of the Bashkir ornaments shows that basic types of geometric and vegetal motifs and also their compositions were formed long before the adoption of Islam by the ancestors of the Bashkirs. Anthropomorphic, ornitomorphic and zoomorphic images were still preserved in the Bashkir art and had very stylized geometric shapes in accordance with the general structure of the composition, type and graphics of the ornament. The preservation of these images in the art was favoured probably not only by a high degree of stylization, but also by the fact that for a long time the Bashkirs, despite the Islamization, remained committed to many remnants of the pre-Islamic worldview with its totemic cults. It can be stated that the adoption of Islam could not 'edit' the traditional decorative art of the Bashkirs and exclude archaic motifs and compositions. Old compositions were revised in terms of the new religion. Thus, the fl oral and foliate ornament became associated with the Garden of Eden. New motifs, such as the images of mosques, qumgan (a special jug) and the Crescent, found their way into the Bashkir ornaments together with the new worldview and rituals. Traditional embroidery could be supplemented with embroidered texts in Arabic script. The decorated objects included those directly associated with the Muslim traditions (scullcaps, prayer rugs 'namaslyk', calligraphy pictures 'shama'il').

Includes discussion of factors in the politicization of the national movements.

Abstract
This article explores the origins of the foundation in Christian Europe. When in 1264 Walter de Merton founded Merton College in Oxford, he broke with established tradition in that he did not entrust his gift to an existing religious order but instead created with Merton College a new legal body that was endowed with self-management and self-government. Up until the creation of Merton College, Christian donors customarily gave their gifts to the Catholic Church or an institution of the Church (monastery or religious order) thereby creating endowments that were administered by the Church. Merton decided against this tradition. Since there was no model within Christian Europe for this new kind of institution (foundation), scholars have long suggested that Merton took inspiration from the Islamic waqf in the creation of his foundation. This article will deepen this explanation by exploring the transition from creating endowments to creating foundations in medieval Europe.

More than any other building in Venice, the Basilica di San Marco (figure 1) incorporates many Byzantine and Islamic architectural, artistic, and design elements. These stylistic elements were not only intended to glorify God but to promote the Venetian Republic's political and religious ideologies. The Venetian Republic held the belief that it was divinely ordained to be the rulers of the Adriatic. It was no coincidence that the founding of Venice is said to have occurred on March 25th, the feast day of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. While there are no surviving records of this, Venice claims this date in 421 A.D. as the date of its "birth," meritoriously uniting the city metaphorically with the announcement of the Immaculate Conception by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. This belief, along with the arrival of the body of St. Mark from Alexandria in 829, formed the basis of what would become known as the "Myth of Venice." The "Myth of Venice" is the self-aggrandizing creation myth of the city "going back to the fourteenth century and celebrates its providential destiny, constitutional excellence, and political wisdom of the city-state." The significance of the Basilica di San Marco (the Basilica of St. Mark) as a religious symbol for the Venetian Republic cannot be understated, and neither can its political connotations. It is vital to understand the origins of Venice to understand the intended meaning of the art and architecture of the basilica and how Byzantine and Islamic influences helped promulgate Venetian ideologies.

AbstractThe wooden painted ceiling of the Sala Magna of the Palazzo Chiaromonte-Steri in Palermo is an outstanding monument for its structure as well as for its articulated visual programme. In the present study, I aim to analyze three specially debated aspects of it. Firstly, I will question the appropriateness of using the Spanish term "Mudéjar" for describing its structure and decoration. Secondly, I will highlight existing analogies between Norman ceilings in Sicily and the one of the Sala Magna in Palermo. Finally, I will explore the political meaning of the masterpiece by following the clues of some inscriptions.

"Europe and the Islamic World sheds much-needed light on the shared roots of Islamic and Western cultures and on the richness of their inextricably intertwined histories, refuting once and for all the misguided notion of a "clash of civilizations" between the Muslim world and Europe. In this landmark book, three eminent historians bring to life the complex and tumultuous relations between Genoans and Tunisians, Alexandrians and the people of Constantinople, Catalans and Maghrebis--the myriad groups and individuals whose stories reflect the common cultural, intellectual, and religious heritage of Europe and Islam. Since the seventh century, when the armies of Constantinople and Medina fought for control of Syria and Palestine, there has been ongoing contact between the Muslim world and the West. This sweeping history vividly recounts the wars and the crusades, the alliances and diplomacy, commerce and the slave trade, technology transfers, and the intellectual and artistic exchanges. Here readers are given an unparalleled introduction to key periods and events, including the Muslim conquests, the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, the commercial revolution of the medieval Mediterranean, the intellectual and cultural achievements of Muslim Spain, the crusades and Spanish reconquest, the rise of the Ottomans and their conquest of a third of Europe, European colonization and decolonization, and the challenges and promise of this entwined legacy today. As provocative as it is groundbreaking, this book describes this shared history in all its richness and diversity, revealing how ongoing encounters between Europe and Islam have profoundly shaped both"--Publisher description