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07855 - Islamic Art and Archaeology

Academic Year 2018/2019

                
                        Docente:
                        Valentina Laviola
                    
                        Credits:
                        6
                    
                        SSD:
                        L-OR/11
                    
                        Language:
                        Italian
                    
                        Teaching Mode:
                        Traditional lectures
                        
                            Campus:
                            Ravenna
                        
                            Corso:
                            Second cycle degree programme (LM) in
                            History, preservation and enhancement of artistic and archaeological heritage and landscape (cod. 9218)

                            Teaching resources on Virtuale

Course contents

The course introduces to the formative period of Islamic art between the 7^th and 9^th century, providing briefly a historical overview about the origin and early spread of Islam. Through the analysis of the main archaeological sites and monuments, it will explain the creation of new buildings and the re-use and transformation of pre-existing ones. With regard to the Umayyad period (661-750), it will encompass the evolution of religious architecture – from Medina to Damascus via Jerusalem – and numerous instances of civil architecture (the so-called “desert castles”). With regard to the Abbasid period (taken into account until the 9^th c.), the focus will be on Iraq, still extending toward Tunisia and Egypt. A general introduction to Islamic material culture will conclude the course.

Readings/Bibliography

Ettinghausen, Richard, Grabar, Oleg, Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250, Mapin Publishing, Ahmedabad, in association with Yale University Press, New Haven-London, 2001, pp. 1-73.

Scerrato, Umberto, Grandi monumenti. Islam, Milano, 1972, pp. 8-38.

Not-attending students are expected to add to the above-mentioned readings Monneret de Villard, Ugo, Introduzione allo studio dell’archeologia islamica. Le origini e il periodo omayyade, Venezia – Roma, 1968, pp. 1-298.

Teaching methods

Lectures

Assessment methods

The examination will consist in individual interviews. Students must be able to put in relation the fundamental Islamic precepts with the architectural development of the early Islamic period. Students must contextualise the main sites and monuments from a geographical and chronological point of view; they also should comprehend the transition from the late Antiquity and ancient Iranian culture to the Islamic one.

Teaching tools

Power point presentations and supplementary readings.

Office hours

See the website of Valentina Laviola