Art and Architecture in the Islamic Tradition: Aesthetics, Politics and Desire in Early Islam

by Mohammed Hamdouni Alami

What is ""art"" in the sense of the Islamic tradition? Mohammed Hamdouni Alami argues that Islamic art has historically been excluded from Western notions of art; that the Western aesthetic tradition's preoccupation with the human body has meant that Islamic and Western art being perceived as inherently at odds. However, the move away from this ""anthropomorphic aesthetic"" in Western art movements, such as modern abstract and constructivist painting, have presented the opportunity for new ways of viewing and evaluating Islamic art and architecture. Drawing upon classical Arabic literature, philosophy, poetry, medicine and theology, along with contemporary Western art theory, the author uncovers a specific Islamic theoretical vision of art and architecture based on poetic practice, politics, desire and the ""gaze."" In so doing, he addresses the lack of recognition given to early Islamic thought and aesthetics in comparison with other historical periods and traditions.

Genres: Islam, Architecture, Art History

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Chiara]

Read this for class! I loved the first part about poetry and early Islamic aesthetics but the last chapter kind of confused me. I would definitely recommend this though, especially if you're tired of the arguments made by most (Western) art historians that Islamic aesthetics are and have always been monolithic across time and space. This book does a good job of disproving that.

[Kevin Wilkerson]

This reads like and undergraduate book report mixed with tweets about horoscopes. It presents nothing interesting beyond direct (sometimes page long) quotes from its sources.

[Scott Forbes]

This book, in which this claim can be found, "...none of the conditions that determined the production of the ‘Islamic cities’ of the past still exists." is one of the only books I've read that treats this subject, architecture in Islamic states, with the extremely fluid and dynamic prose of political and religious neutrality. Or more correctly, this author wrote a book supposing that future books would be a necessary correlation to this book's precedent. Maybe the most interesting feature of the book is the insistence upon scholarly discussion of the issue here raised. Maybe this is one of the few books to do so. It is well worth the read, and for a scholarly book, is very enjoyable to read. I hope you who read this will purchase the book, for, though it has flaws in the text, is still better than anything I've read in magazines and newspapers on Islam. Islam here does not mean the religion, but the culture of that religion, as practiced, and not just by the readership of the Qur'an. This book is not colorful, and is sometimes specific to the point of contention, but it is not vague, and leads the reader in a specific direction with a point to the argument that is valid in the Western Occident, as well as to the Muslim reader.