Wonder, Image, and Cosmos in Medieval Islam

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00270

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21558

This original book untangles fundamental confusions about historical relationships among Islam, representational images, and philosophy. Closely examining some of the most meaningful and best preserved premodern illustrated manuscripts of Islamic cosmographies, Persis Berlekamp refutes the assertion often made by other historians of medieval Islamic art that, while representational images did exist, they did not serve religious purposes.

The author focuses on widely disseminated Islamic images of the wonders of creation, ranging from angels to human-snatching birds, and argues that these illustrated manuscripts aimed to induce wonder at God's creation, as was their stated purpose. She tracks the various ways that images advanced that purpose in the genre's formative milieu—the century and a half following the Mongol conquest of the Islamic East in 1258. Delving into social history and into philosophical ideas relevant to manuscript and image production, Berlekamp shows that philosophy occupied an established, if controversial, position within Islam. She thereby radically reframes representational images within the history of Islam.

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Author

PublisherYale University Press

Print publication date May 2011 (in print)

Print ISBN 9780300170603

EISBN 9780300264371

Illustrations 97

Print Status in print

Publisher (in print)

WorldCat

Google Books

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List of illustrations

Map of the Four Khanates of the Mongol Empire
Turko-Mongol dynasties that emerged during the demise of the Ilkhanid dynasty, mid-to late fourteenth century
The Timurid dynasty, 1370–1507
The early modern Islamic empires, c. 1550–1700
The angels of the seventh heaven
Dog-headed men
Dog-headed men
A Muslim traveler to Zanzibar, unable to shed the soft-legged man; below, the saw fish
Traditional marshlands reed architecture, from a floating village near Nasiriyya
Al-Madrasa al-Sharabiyya
Opening rosette, from The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence
Pages from a chapter on planets, from The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence
Pages from the chapter on the seas and their inhabitants, from The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence
Pages from the chapters on trees and plants, from The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence
Pages from the chapters on animals, from The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence
The turtle dove, the phoenix, and the crane
Page from the chapter on strangely formed breeds, from The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existence
The bee
The Angel Michael
The bee and its hive
A camel caravan
The camel
The intellectual heritage of philosophy in thirteenth-century Iraq
Frontispiece, from The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity
Dryopteris and polypodium
Jujube, aloe, service tree, and white poplar; peony, pistachio, and pepper plants (from upper right to lower left of each page)
A large tree called khusraw dār, castor oil plant, willow, and peach; spiny citisus, elm, and plane (from upper right to lower left of each page)
The story of the Isfahani merchant rescued by the rūkh
The story of the Isfahani merchant rescued by the rūkh
The magpie and 'anqā bird
The 'anqā bird steals a bridegroom away from his wedding
The almond tree and the lemon tree
A story about a lemon
The Angel of Death at Solomon's Court
Iblis enthroned
Solomon enthroned
Solomon enthroned
The Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II, flanked by bird-headed genii
The tannīn
The tannīn
Stem cup with dragon pursuing flaming jewel
World map, showing Alexander's Wall against the Gog and Magog in the north-east (bottom left) corner
The fallen angels Harut and Marut in the well at Babylon
Neo-Babylonian ruins
The angel leads Alexander the Great up Mount Qaf
Süleyman I receives the world-showing cup of Alexander the Great
Cup of Khusraw
The people of Saba come out to see their garden, and are startled to find that the ground emits a burnt smell
Shirin gazes at Khusraw's portrait
Alexander the Great visits the sage in his cave
Humay and Humayun in a garden
The rainbow
The ṣannāja
The ṣannāja
Safe Conduct Pass (Paiza) with Inscription in Phakpa Script
Sword guard
The ṣannāja (below)
Abraham and the birds that God revived from the dead
The angel who carries the disc of the sun
A talismanic figure for marble
Scorpio, with its Planetary Lord, Mars
Figures of the daemonic decans
Virgo, as seen on a globe (right), and as seen in the sky (left)
Argo Navis, as seen on a globe (right), and as seen in the sky (left)
Canis Minor and Argo Navis
Chart of zodiacal signs with planetary terms
A nativity image for one born under Taurus, in the third decan under Saturn
Talismanic figures for various stones
Talismanic figure made for marble, detail from a page with talismanic figures of various stones
Venus
Gold ring
Bronze amulet, both sides
Jupiter
The Mediterranean Sea
The Nile
The orange tree, the coconut palm, and the Syrian Christ-thorn
The statement on the Lord of red and his talisman
The wind
The human skeleton
That which holds the world up
A talisman for Mercury
Pisces, shown with its Planetary Lord, Jupiter
The Angel of Death
The Angel of Death
A lute-playing dīv and a dīv with four legs and two heads, one near the shoulders and one near the tail
A Prophet Demonstrating an Act of Prayer
The Angel Gabriel
The grapevine
The Prophet Solomon visits a city of ifrīt
The Prophet Solomon visits a city of ifrīt
The Angel of Death eyes a man at Solomon's court
Birds
Harvesting pepper
Harvesting pepper
Something resembling a bird
The phoenix as the spirit of the spleen
The tannīn

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Contents

Contents

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PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21559

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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...

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PublisherYale University Press

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

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Preface

It is widely believed that Islamic art consists exclusively of ornament and calligraphy, and has never included representational imagery...

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PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21561

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Introduction

Illustrated medieval and early modern Islamic wonders-of-creation manuscripts were made for the explicitly stated purpose of inducing wonder at God’s creation...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.1-35

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00270.001

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21562

Chapter subject tags:Islamic Empire--HistoryIslamic illumination of books and manuscriptsQazwīnī, Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad, approximately 1203-1283Curiosities and wondersCreation (Islam)

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1. Iconic Images: Platonic Forms and the Awe-Inspiring Cosmos

As testimony to the great beauty of the silks and brocades of the Mughal emperor Akbar, the sixteenth-century court historian Qandahari evoked the image of Mani biting his fingers in astonishment...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.37-57

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00270.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21563

Chapter subject tags:Qazwīnī, Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad, approximately 1203-1283Islamic illumination of books and manuscriptsIslamic education--PhilosophyCreation (Islam)Natural history illustration

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2. Narrative Images: Astonishing Anecdotes and Cosmic Time

The earliest Islamic illustrated encyclopedias of the wonders of creation emphasize familiar and known created wonders. The iconic images in which these are often portrayed tend to present them in an abstracted state of timelessness. But from the start, the manuscripts also include those few rare...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.59-87

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00270.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21564

Chapter subject tags:Qazwīnī, Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad, approximately 1203-1283Islamic illumination of books and manuscriptsFolklore in artSolomon, King of Israel--In the QurʼanDragons in art

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3. Mirrored Visions: Penumbral Wonders and the Position of the Viewer

In the 1388 Tusi manuscript made for the Jalayirid Sultan Ahmad, the image accompanying the entry for a mountain known as Mount Qaf, shows Alexander the Great in a pale blue tunic and small golden crown. He follows a resplendent angel, who lays his hands on the mountain as he turns back toward...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.89-117

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00270.004

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21565

Chapter subject tags:Qazwīnī, Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad, approximately 1203-1283Islamic illumination of books and manuscriptsMirrors--Religious aspects--IslamPerspectiveAnimals, Mythical, in art

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4. Talismanic Images: Astrological Composites and Efficacious Symbioses

In Sultan Ahmad’s 1388 Tusi manuscript, the entry for marble includes an image of an angel with a crown holding a jug (fig. 59). The text explains that it can be used to make a marble talismanic ring. Several...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.119-149

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00270.005

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21566

Chapter subject tags:Islamic astrologyIslamic illumination of books and manuscriptsTalismansṢūfī, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʻUmar, 903-986Ibn Khaldūn, 1332-1405

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Epilogue

In both form and purpose, the composite images which constituted visual ingredients for talismans in Sultan Ahmad’s 1388 Tusi manuscript differed significantly from those suggestive of Platonic Forms in Qazwini’s 1280 manuscript...

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PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.151-178

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21567

Chapter subject tags:Qazwīnī, Zakarīyā ibn Muḥammad, approximately 1203-1283Islamic illumination of books and manuscriptsLiterature, Medieval--TranslationsChinese influencesCuriosities and wonders in art

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