Acknowledgments

Berlekamp, Persis

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Acknowledgments

Persis Berlekamp

Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam

Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam has taken shape over a period of many years. Much of it was drafted at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, in 2007–8 while I was on leave from the University of Chicago. The leave gave me a rare chance to fundamentally rethink research initially undertaken for a doctoral dissertation, and to pursue new lines of inquiry. I am grateful...

Author

Persis Berlekamp

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21560

Acknowledgments

Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam has taken shape over a period of many years. Much of it was drafted at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, in 2007–8 while I was on leave from the University of Chicago. The leave gave me a rare chance to fundamentally rethink research initially undertaken for a doctoral dissertation, and to pursue new lines of inquiry. I am grateful to both the Institute of Advanced Study and the University of Chicago for that time. I thank Joel Snyder and Martha Ward, current and recent chairs of the Art History department at the University of Chicago respectively, for their stalwart support of faculty research; and Yve-Alain Bois for his commitment to fostering a productive research environment for art historians in residence at IAS.

This book has required research in and photography from collections around the world. I thank colleagues currently or formerly at those collections who have made this book possible. In Turkey, at the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul, I thank Nevzat Kaya, former director; Emir Eş, current director; and Ahmet Özekmekçi. At the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, I thank Filiz Cağman, former director; Ayşe Erdogdu, current director; as well as Gülendam Nakipoğlu and Zeynep Çelik Atbaş. In Germany, I thank Brigitte Gullath at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich; Hans Stein at the Forschungs- und Landesbibliothek, Gotha; and Gisela Helmecke at the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin. In Britain, I thank Colin Baker at the British Library; Colin Wakefield and Doris Nicholson at the Bodleian Library; Michael Pollack and Kathy Lazenbatt at the Royal Asiatic Society; Jill Butterworth at Cambridge University Library; Nahla Nassar at the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art; and Richard de Unger at the Keir Collection. In France, I thank Francis Richard and Monique Cohen at the Bibliothèque national de France; and Pierre-Jacques Lamblin at the Bibliothèque de Douai. At the National Library of Egypt I thank Laila Rizk. In St. Petersburg, I thank Irina Popova at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences. At the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar, I thank Oliver Watson, Aisha al-Khater, and Franak Hilloowala. In Poland, I thank Andrzej Obrębski of the Biblioteka Jagielloński. I thank Mary Suzor at the Cleveland Museum of Art; Ben Primer at Princeton University Library; and Roy Davis and Cecily Langdale in New York. For their generous permission to reproduce their own photographs, I thank Yasser Tabbaa, Mehmet-Ali Ataç, and Nik Wheeler. I am grateful for the assistance of Megan Macken, Amanda Rybin, and Whitney Gaylord of the Visual Resources Center at the University of Chicago; and of Andras Riedlmayer, Jeff Spurr, and Sharon Smith at Harvard University’s Fine Arts Library.

The earliest stages of this project were financially supported by the Sultan Postdoctoral Fellowship in Arab Studies, UC Berkeley; the American Research Institute in Turkey; the Social Science Research Council; the American Research Center in Egypt; and the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University.

Exchanges with colleagues, mentors, and students have greatly enriched this book. I particularly thank Gülru Necipoğlu and David Roxburgh, for the inestimable gift of their mentorship, and Cornell Fleischer and Rebecca Zorach not only for their careful readings of early drafts, but also for the constructive specificity of their comments and suggestions. Tragically, Aditya Behl, whose attentive comments on an early draft made this a better book, can only be acknowledged in memoriam; we should have had many more decades to appreciate his wit, wisdom, generosity, and lyrical precision. Katharine Park’s influence at a formative stage in my thinking about wonder and wonders has remained foundational in this book, even as the project has evolved in new directions. At various points, my thinking has been stimulated by pivotal exchanges with Hanaa Adly, Asad Ahmed, Manduhai Buyandelgeriyn, Caroline Bynum, Stefano Carboni, Anna Contadini, Sinem Eryilmaz, Emine Fetvaci, Dimitri Gutas, Eva Hoffman, Sooyoung Kim, Aden Kumler, Richard Neer, Oya Pancaroğlu, Glenn Peers, Christine Philliou, Karin Rührdanz, Abdelhamid I. Sabra, Zeren Tanindi, Kevin van Bladel, Syrinx von Hees, and Alicia Walker. I thank the students of University of Chicago graduate seminars on “Talismans,” “Art, Science, and Magic in Pre-Modern Islam,” and “Art and Neoplatonism, East and West” (this last co-taught with Rebecca Zorach), particularly Christopher Markiewicz, Iva Olah, Austin O’Malley, and Matthew Saba. As my primary research assistant for this book, Matthew Saba prepared the maps and managed much of the correspondence concerning images and permissions. Specific permissions requests reached successful conclusions through the generous assistance of Inna Habelski, Ulug Kuzuoğlu, Lec Maj, and Cynthia Young.

At Yale University Press, I thank Gillian Malpass for believing in this book. Sarah Faulks’s intelligent sense of design greatly enhanced this book, even as she shepherded it through a tight production schedule with formidable discipline and exceptional grace. I thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

For laughter that is inseparable from intellectual companionship, I thank Orit Bashkin and Christine Philliou. For their love and support, I thank my parents Elwyn and Jennifer Berlekamp, and my siblings Bronwen Berlekamp O’Wril and David Berlekamp. And finally, I thank my husband Randolph Bradley . . . simply for being Randolph.

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