Overview

Naẓar, literally ‘vision’, is a unique Arabic-Islamic term/concept that offers an analytical framework for exploring the ways in which Islamic visual culture and aesthetic sensibility have been shaped by common conceptual tools and moral parameters. It intertwines the act of ‘seeing’ with the act of ‘reflecting’, thereby bringing the visual and cognitive functions into a complex relationship. Within the folds of this multifaceted relationship lies an entangled web of religious ideas, moral values, aesthetic preferences, scientific precepts, and socio-cultural understandings that underlie the intricacy of one’s personal belief. Peering through the lens of naẓar, the studies presented in this volume unravel aspects of these entanglements to provide new understandings of how vision, belief, and perception shape the rich Islamic visual culture. Contributors: Samer Akkach, James Bennett, Sushma Griffin, Stephen Hirtenstein, Virginia Hooker, Sakina Nomanbhoy, Shaha Parpia, Ellen Philpott-Teo, Wendy M.K. Shaw.

Full Product Details

Author:   Samer Akkach
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   191
Weight:   0.692kg
ISBN:  

9789004499478

ISBN 10:   9004499474
Pages:   318
Publication Date:   09 December 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

Preface Notes to the Reader List of Figures Notes on Contributors Aperture: Terms, Concepts, and Discourse  Samer Akkach 1 Naẓar: The Seen, the Unseen, and the Unseeable  Samer Akkach 2 Naẓar, Subjectivity, and ‘The Gaze’  Wendy M.K. Shaw part 1: The Eye of the Heart 3 Human Looking, Divine Gaze: Naẓar in Islamic Spirituality  Stephen Hirtenstein 4 Seeing with ‘The Eyes of the Heart’: dhikr and fikr as Sources of Insight in Indonesian Islamic Art  Virginia Hooker part 2: The Eye of the Mind 5 Transparency: Ibn Al-Haytham’s Manāẓir and Visual Perception of Beauty  Ellen Philpott-Teo 6 Veiling: Ibn Al-Qaṭṭān’s Aḥkām and the Rules Concerning Seeing  Samer Akkach part 3: Evil Eye, Talismanic Seeing 7 May the Envier’s Eye be Blind  Sakina Nomanbhoy 8 Talismanic Seeing: The Induction of Power in Indonesian Zoomorphic Art  James Bennett part 4: Gazing Eye, Imaginative Seeing 9 The Artist’s Gaze: Visual Representations of the Mughal Hunting Landscape  Shaha Parpia 10 Vernacular Subjectivity as a Way of Seeing: Visualising Bijapur in Nujūm al-ʿUlūm and Kitāb-i-Nauras  Sushma Griffin Index

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Author Information

Samer Akkach, Ph.D (1992), FAHA, is Professor of architectural history and theory and Founding Director of the Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern Architecture (CAMEA) at the University of Adelaide. His many works on Islamic intellectual history include ʿIlm: Science, Religion, and Art in Islam (UAP 2019).

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