We will spend most of the semester discussing various details of the concrete/material characteristics of Islamic art (and when I write Islamic art, that always includes architecture), and watch many videos that address nearly every aspect of the surface of Islamic art, but to begin the semester, I wanted to show you, to the best of my ability, what lies underneath Islamic art: why was it made, and what does it mean?
These three videos by some of the most respected scholars on Islam and Islamic art provide a great deal of insight, that hopefully will provide you with the necessary understanding to “frame out” the art you encounter for the rest of the semester in this course. I hope you get something from them!
For this assignment, please briefly share with the class three things you learned or were surprised by in these videos, or expound upon one thing (or more) in-depth.
As always, I am looking for your original thought and your authentic responses, not regurgitation of facts. Whatever your responses are, as long as they are authentic, should be enough to earn you full points. We are going for thinking to develop learning and understanding in this class!
REQUIRED VIEWING: 26 minute video: The Silent Theology of Islamic Art (lecture by Oludamini Ogunnaike) https://youtu.be/iA7Z31n0AagThis video is of a lecture by Dr. Oludamini Ogunnaike, a professor at William and Mary College, presented at Zaytuna College, with an article with the same title published in the Muslim Journal called Renovatio, published out of Zaytuna College.
This lecture is a fantastically philosophical lecture about beauty, truth, and love, as the essence of Islam, which is expressed in Islamic art and architecture. Other videos describe the external well, and the historical well, but this is one of only four videos we are including in this course that gets deep about the metaphysics of Islamic art, articulating ideas about the essence of Islamic art, beauty, as an expression of God. (The other three videos we’re including are the lectures by Sayyed Hossein Nasr, and Hamza Yusuf.)
REQUIRED VIEWING: 7 minute video: Shaykh Hamza Yusuf: Islamic Architecture is a window to a Spiritual World (lecture by Hamza Yusuf) This video is footage of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf teaching about the inherent sensitivity in humans to beauty and aesthetics, how Islamic architecture reflects the beauty of the divine, in its different iterations in various geographic areas. He discusses how beauty and ugliness in our world reflect our inner, spiritual health. Hamza Yusuf is one of the most respected and influential Muslim spiritual teachers in the Western world. He is a co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, the first Muslim Liberal Arts college in the U.S..