Description
Book SynopsisNaẓar, 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.
Table of ContentsPreface 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
