Book: Rediscovering Objects from Islamic Lands in Enlightenment Europe

This book argues that the provenance of early modern and medieval objects from Islamic lands was largely forgotten until the “long” eighteenth century, when the first efforts were made to reconnect them with the historical contexts in which they were produced.

For the first time, these Islamicate objects were read, studied and classified – and given a new place in history. Freed by scientific interest, they were used in new ways and found new homes, including in museums. More generally, the process of “rediscovery” opened up the prehistory of the discipline of Islamic art history and had a significant impact on conceptions of cultural boundaries, differences and identity.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in the history of art, the art of the Islamic world, early modern history and art historiography.

About the Editor(s)

Isabelle Dolezalek is Junior Professor of History of Art at the University of Greifswald, Germany.

Mattia Guidetti is Senior Assistant Professor of History of Islamic Art at the University of Bologna, Italy.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Isabelle Dolezalek and Mattia Guidetti　

Part I: Changing Perceptions

1. Changing Perceptions of Middle Eastern Objects and Cultures in Eighteenth-Century Europe

Anna Contadini　

2. Reading Ottoman Banners in the State of the Church

Mattia Guidetti　

Part II: Protagonists

3. Oluf Gerhard Tychsen: Orientalist and Object Interpreter in Rostock

Isabelle Dolezalek　

4. Beyond Manuscripts: Maronite Christians as Object Interpreters in Early Modern Europe

Tobias Mörike

Part III: Whose Heritage?

5. The “Baptistère de Saint Louis”: The Making of a “Historical Monument”

Carine Juvin

6. “Nuestros árabes”? The Rediscovery of Spanish Islamic Architecture from an Enlightened Gaze

Miriam Cera Brea

Bibliographic Information

Title: Rediscovering Objects from Islamic Lands in Enlightenment Europe

Editor(s): Isabelle Dolezalek & Mattia Guidetti

Translator(s): Said Madeh Khaksar

Publisher: Routledge

Language: English

Length: 208 pages

ISBN: 978-0367609474

Pub. Date: December 31, 2021

Rediscovering Objects from Islamic Lands in Enlightenment Europe