Visual Cultures in the Islamic World

4.0 credits

This is an introductory course in Islamic art and architectural history. The course explores dynastic art and monumental architecture across vast lands between Spain and India and the seventh to the thirteenth centuries. One of the main goals of this course is to practice how to see things, make relevant questions to those things, and find possible answers. To accomplish this objective, this course situates significant works of visual, material culture, and built environment within the relevant historical and geographical contexts to which they belonged. Students are expected to both see the world of Islamic art from an interpretive perspective and gain general knowledge of cultural contexts outside of America and Europe.