The Social Use of Inscriptions and Epigraphy in the Islamic World (winter term 2016/2017)
Communication in Public and Domestic Spaces: The Social Use of Inscriptions and Epigraphy in the Islamic World
Webinar Lecture Series of five lectures
First lecture: October 27, 2016
Last lecture: January 19, 2017
Why Inscriptions and Epigraphy?
Seemingly more than the preceding Roman and Sasanian Empire, calligraphy, inscriptions, and epigraphy played a dominant role in public and domestic sphere. All inscriptions, even the iconic illegible have a message to be received: inscriptions glorifying rulers and their victories, about endowments and privileges, about taxes and market regulations, and to the memory of the deceased. We see even an emblemization of script in the public; from the legible message to the pseudo-inscription. What purpose do they serve? This use of epigraphy and inscriptions will also to be discussed in relation to other visual elements and architecture. Communications on a daily basis functions also within the domestic sphere, graffiti, ostraca, and paper notes, which are formulaic and grant privileges and permission. The lecture series is meant to introduce in the various forms of inscriptions and epigraphy and their social use.
Program
1) Stefan Heidemann – "The Public Message"
Blair, Sheila, “Chapter 1: Why Read Inscriptions?” In Sheila Blair, Islamic Inscriptions, New York: New York University Press, 1998, pp. 3-17.
Eastmond, Antony: “Introduction: Viewing Inscriptions”, in Antony Eastmond (ed.): Viewing Inscriptions in the Late Antique and Medieval World, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 3-9.
Ettinghausen, R.: “Arabic Epigraphy. Communication or Symbolic Affirmation”, Dickran K. Kouymjian (ed.): Near Eastern Numismatics, Iconography, Epigraphy, and History. Studies in Honor of George C. Miles, Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1974, pp. 297-317.
Hoyland, R.G.: “The Content and Context of Early Arabic Inscriptions”, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 21 (1997), pp. 77-102.
2) Scott Redford – "Problems of Rum Seljuk Inscriptions"
Redford, Scott: Legends of Authority: The 1215 Seljuk Inscriptions of Sinop Citadel, Turkey İstanbul: Koç University Press, 2014.
Redford, Scott and Gary Leiser: Victory Inscribed: The Seljuk Fetihname on the Citadel Walls of Antalya, Turkey Istanbul: AKMED (Adalya Supplements No. 7), 2008.
Redford, Scott: “ Mamālik and Mamālīk: Anatolian Seljuk Citadels and their Decorative and Inscriptional Programs”, S. Redford and N. Ergin, eds., Cities and Citadels in Turkey: From the Iron Age to the Seljuks Leuven: Peeters, 2013, pp. 305-346.
Redford, Scott: “The Inscription of the Kırkgöz Hanı and the Problem of Textual Transmission in Seljuk Anatolia”, Adalya 12, 2009, pp. 347-59.
3) Sheila Blair – "The Epigraphic Program(s) on Uljaytu’s Tomb at Sultaniyya: What Epigraphy Tells Us"
Blair, Sheila: "The Epigraphic program of Uljaytu’s tomb at Sultaniyya: Meaning in Mongol architecture", Islamic Art 2 (1987): 43-96, and sultaniyya.org.
4) Bethany Walker – "Graffiti in / as Social Practice"
as-Salameen, Zeyad and Hani al-Falahat,“Jabal Haroun During the Islamic Period: a Study in the Light of Newly Discovered Inscriptions,” Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 18.2 (2007), pp. 258–64.
as-Salameen, Zeyad, Hani Falahat, Salameh Naimat, and Fawzi Abudanh, “New ArabicChristian Inscriptions from Udhruḥ, Southern Jordan,” Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 22.2 (2011), pp. 232–42.
Walker, Bethany: "Mobility and Migration in Mamluk Syria: The Dynamism of Villagers 'on the Move'", in: Conermann, Stephan (ed.): Everything is on the Move. The Mamluk Empire as a Node in (Trans-) Regional Networks, 2014.
5) Abigail Balbale – "Epigraphy in Architectural Context - From a Message to an Emblem"
Aanavi, Don, "Devotional Writing: 'Pseudoinscriptions' in Islamic Art", The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, 26.9 (1968), pp. 353-358.
Ettinghausen, Richard, "Arabic Epigraphy: Communication or Symbolic Affirmation", In Dickran K. Kouymjian (ed.), Near Eastern Numismatics, Iconography, Epigraphy and History: Studies in Honor of George C. Miles, 1974, pp. 297-317.
Grabar, Oleg, "Chapter II: The Intermediary of Writing", In Oleg Grabar, The Mediation of Ornament (The A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1989), 1992, pp. 47-118.