ARTH 422
Art, Architecture, and Poetry: Islamic Devotional Culture in South Asia
Last Offered Spring 2019
Division I
Cross-listed COMP 422 / ARTH 422 / REL 422
This course is not offered in the current catalog

How have scholars interpreted and classified terms such as “Islamic art” and “Muslim culture,” and how have these classifications affected the interpretation of the arts in South Asia? There are different points of view regarding what constitutes as “Islamic” art and culture. Is an imperial wine cup with “God is Great” inscribed on it an “Islamic” object? How is an erotic epic narrating the romance of a Hindu prince understood as embodying the principles of Muslim devotion? This interdisciplinary seminar, focusing on South Asian Muslim devotional culture as articulated through the material culture, the arts of the book, architecture, and poetry, will navigate these questions from two perspectives. The first is to understand how Muslim devotional cultural expression in South Asia circumscribes and interprets itself. The second viewpoint is that of scholarship and the various interpretive voices that have framed the field over the last century.