Patrons, Makers and Traders: People and Art in the Islamic Middle East
27–28 April 2007
Speakers’ Abstracts
Mariam
Rosser-Owen
The Iconography of Amirid Poetry and its ‘Petrification’ on Amirid Art
The art commissioned by a particular set of patrons can sometimes be
matched to literary works commissioned by the same people, and where this
occurs, the literary works can be used to interpret the art, and vice versa.
Where the same imagery was employed in both types of production, it can
help to elucidate the patrons’ intentions – the meanings they wanted evoked
in the minds of their contemporaries. This paper will suggest how this
approach allows us to understand the meanings of a small group of objects
made for a dynasty whose role as patrons has hitherto been neglected in the
art history of Islamic Iberia – the Amirids (AD 976–1010). It will focus on a
group of marble basins made under their patronage, as a case study for how
the poetry which survives from this period – especially the panegyric recited
on ceremonial occasions – provides an important and unexplored means of
explaining the iconography of their art.
Maria Judith
Feliciano
Of Weavers, Traders and Kings: Andalusi Textiles of the 11th and 12th
centuries
A careful cross-disciplinary analysis of the role of sumptuous Andausi textiles
in shaping an Iberian visual vocabulary offers relevant material with which to
explore the paths of inquiry emphasized by the organizers of this conference.
I will focus on the early patterns of use of Andalusi luxury textiles in the
Northern Iberian kingdoms, in the 11th and 12th centuries. These objects
raise significant questions regarding patronage, power relations and state
formation in Northern Iberia after the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in
1031. The study of 11th- and 12th-century textiles suggests that the frontier
was not one, but many, and that Andalusi luxury objects, silks in particular,
were at home in and across any and all of them – showing a shared aesthetic
that facilitated a ‘pan-Iberian’ taste.
Stephennie
Mulder
On Moulds and Markets: What Islamic Moulded Ceramics Say about
Medieval Trade and Taste
In Princeton University’s excavations at medieval Balis in Syria in the
summer of 2000, two beautifully decorated 13th-century ceramic moulds
were discovered, each bearing a rare and illuminating feature: the signature
of their designer. Aside from the rarity of signed works of art from the premodern Islamic world, these moulds are remarkable for being found within a
rich archaeological context: a ceramic workshop for the production of
unglazed moulded or relief-decorated ceramics, along with hundreds of
sherds from moulded vessels and tools for their manufacture. Produced for
local consumption within a thriving medieval domestic economy, these
vessels provide an illuminating window into a little-studied aspect of Islamic
art: the manufacture and distribution of common pottery, perhaps the most
Ruba Kanaan
Maria
Paschali
fundamental and ubiquitous of the objects of daily life from the premodern
Islamic world.
In Search of the Waged ‘Artist’ in Medieval Metalwork: Exploring the Roles of
and Relationships Between ustadh, mu‘allim, tilmidh, ghulam and ajir
The role of ijara, or waged employment, in Islamic metalwork production is
not well-understood. The relationship between the terms ustadh, mu‘allim,
tilmidh, ghulam and ajir in the so-called Mosul school, for example, has at
best been left ambiguous. This paper aims to investigate the relationships
between medieval metalworkers (ownership, employment, partnership,
agency etc.) and the role of the market in forming labels of collective identity
(such as the Maswili group). A study of Muslim legal literature shows that
waged workmen could be ‘private’, employed by one person, or ‘common’,
working for more than one patron. At the same time, they could be free or
owned, Muslim or non-Muslim, the slaves and non-Muslims being subdivided
into groups with different contractual statuses. Re-examining the metalwork
of medieval Syria and Jazira in the light of this evidence provides new ways
of understanding the roles and responsibilities of medieval patrons,
workshops and the ‘artist’.
Christian Figures on Ayyubid Inlaid Metalwork: The Example of the Pyxis
from the Victoria and Albert Museum
Between the late 1230s and the 1250s Christian imagery was incorporated
on Ayyubid inlaid metalwork which was produced in Syria and Egypt.
Eighteen objects of various shapes are known today. Among them are
incense burners, trays, cylindrical boxes, ewers, a basin and a canteen. By
considering these objects I will seek an answer to the intriguing question of
why Christian subject matter became part of the artists’ decorative repertoire
within this particular temporal and geographical setting. This paper considers
the question by examining how the cultural identity of the patron and the
artist manipulated the visual vocabulary of these objects.
The paper, then, focuses on one of these objects, the small pyxis from the
Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A: 320-1866) and co-examines it with the
contemporary artistic production of that area. The casket could well have
been made to please a Christian customer, either one living in this
heterogeneous society of the Levant or a pilgrim. In fact, it was possible for
indigenous Christians to prosper and many became rich enough to
commission luxury objects probably for their own use as its size indicates. On
the other hand, the appetite of the Western Christians for exotic goods is
evident in the archaeological findings from the Crusader settlements.
Tim Stanley
The Production and Repair of Manuscripts in 16th- century Shiraz for the
Ottoman and South Asian Markets
Tracing patterns of exchange in the Middle East is often a wordless
enterprise, due to the lack of documentation. Yet when books were
exchanged, they often carried their documentation with them, in the form of
ownership inscriptions, librarians’ notes and other data. They can therefore
be used to illustrate a network of exchange that stretched from the Balkans to
the Bay of Bengal.
In the 16th century, the greatest centre for the commercial production of
luxury manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Chaghatay Turkish was Shiraz in
south-west Iran. An outstanding Shirazi scribe of the period was Abd al-Qadir
al-Husayni, who produced large-format Qur’an manuscripts graced by
unusually extensive and brilliant illumination. Annotations show his work
being donated to a religious institution in Algiers and exchanged as gifts at
the Mughal court.
Less obvious is the Shirazi tradition of repairing manuscripts. In this case, the
annotations are often later additions, and the buyer has to beware!
Elvan Anmaç
and Filiz
Adıgüzel
Toprak
Yolande
Crowe
Amy Landau
Marianna
Shreve
Simpson
An Instigative Attitude: ‘Conspicuous Consumption’ at the Ottoman Court by
the Patrons during Suleyman I’s Reign
The public display of wealth in the form of material possessions – the
‘conspicuous consumption’ of the American sociologist Veblen – was an
important way of projecting royal power at the court of the Ottoman sultan
Suleyman I (1520–1566). Yet artistic commissions made in his name were
usually put into effect by the grand vizier or the chief treasurer, with the result
that the Sultan did not necessarily play an active role in determining taste.
The ideal of magnificence as an indispensable attribute of sovereignty was
promoted by Ibrahim Pasha during his period as grand vizier (1523–1536),
but his preoccupation with conspicuous consumption eventually led to his
execution in 1536. The policy of his successors, Ayas Pasha (1536–1539),
Lütfi Pasha(1539–41) and Rüstem Pasha (1544–53 and 1555–61), was
dramatically different: their periods in office were characterized by a
consistent avoidance of conspicuous consumption.
Kütahya Designs and Asian Trade
According to documentary sources, Kütahya, 115km south-east of Bursa,
has produced ceramics since the 15th century, and there are well-known
examples in the British Museum dated 1510 and 1529. These wares are
made of soft paste, also known as ‘stone paste’ and ‘fritware’, which
Europeans in later times sometimes mistook for porcelain, as in the case of
the French merchant Paul Lucas, writing from Istanbul in 1715. Little has
been written about the decoration of Kütahya wares, but it is possible to
explain some motifs in the context of international trade. The cone pattern,
for example, appears on Mughal textiles, in particular on painted cottons. It
was a favourite design on early Xing export wares and was promptly taken
up by potters in Iran in the late Safavid period. The cone is popular on a
number of Kütahya shapes, which often reflect European models created for
international trade.
Patron and Painter: Shah Sulayman (1666–1694), Muhammad Zaman and
the Introduction of the Farangi-sazi Style
In the last third of the 17th century, Safavid artists integrated aspects of
European art into their work and formulated a novel style for manuscript and
single-page painting, called Farangi-sazi in Persian. The comprehensive
character of the assimilation of foreign techniques and iconography at this
time differentiate Farangi-sazi from earlier, more limited adaptations of
European artistic ideas. Muhammad Zaman ibn-i Haji Yusuf (fl. c. 1670-1700)
is now recognised as the key artistic personality in the development of
Farangi-sazi, and his works on paper executed between the 1670s and
1690s demonstrate considerable technical and interpretational virtuosity. This
period coincides with the reign and patronage of Shah Sulayman (1666–
1694) and his able grand vizier, Shaykh ‘Ali Khan Zangana. This paper will
explore how certain social and economic factors supported the cultural and
artistic achievements of Shah Sulayman’s reign, when the enthusiastic
sponsoring of an Occidental style at court led to the successful interweaving
of two distinct traditions of visual representation, the Persian and the
European.
The Making and Giving of Gifts within Intercultural Relations during the Later
Safavid Period
In 1603 a Safavid courtier named Fathi Beg presented the doge of Venice,
Marino Grimani, with a series of deluxe gifts from Shah Abbas I, including a
silk carpet and a length of velvet cloth woven with the figures of Mary and
Jesus. These two items, still preserved today in Venice, exemplify the steady
Sheila
Canby
stream of gifts that flowed between Iran and Europe during the early modern
period. While it is well-known that gifts formed part of the standard
interchange between rulers of both east and west, little attention has been
given to the dynamics of specific exchanges, and to the place of objects in
the conduct of European–Iranian relations and the formulation of each
culture’s perception of the other. This paper will focus on works of art sent to
and from the courts of the Safavid monarch Abbas and his Hapsburg
counterpart, Philip III, as part of an inquiry into gift-giving between Muslim
Iran and Christian Europe in the 14th–17th centuries, a history that in turn
forms part of the larger account of Islamic art in a global context.
Safavid Royal Gifts to the Shi‘a Shrines
In the Safavid period, 1501–1722, the shahs and their families lavished
attention on several key Shi‘a shrines: Ardabil, Mashhad and, later, Qum.
They improved existing structures and built new ones and presented valuable
gifts to the shrines as acts of piety. This paper will investigate the nature of
these gifts and to what extent they differ or resemble one another at each
shrine. The paper will set the perceived role of each shrine – Ardabil as the
dynastic shrine of the Safavids, Mashhad as the shrine of pilgrimage, and
Qum as the centre of Shi‘a learning – against the physical evidence of the
gifts, to see whether they reflect these characterisations. Additionally, the
paper will differentiate between objects made expressly for the shrines and
those which came from the royal collections. Although the paper will
concentrate on Shah Tahmasp (1524–1576) and Shah Abbas I (1587–1629),
significant gifts from other shahs will also be considered.