Does 'Islamic Art' exist? This course takes a critical approach to the concept of 'Islamic art' that is rooted in two interconnected modes of conceptualization: colonial imagination and collection practices. By exploring real and virtual art exhibitions that were (re)installed after 9/11 and selected readings on 'Islamic Art' students engage with the topics of orientalism, the colonial gaze, art collecting practices, islamophobia, and current debates on decolonizing the museum. They also gain an understanding of the role of museums in shaping and constructing cultural narratives.

The course discusses different aspects of the mosque including its physicality and urban context, its place in the geographical imagination, and its role as a vehicle to articulate power, enforce authority, and establish community and belonging. It explores the mosque in relationship to a variety of texts from Sunni, Shi'a, and Ibadi traditions (in translation) including architectural inscriptions, dynastic and city histories, legal texts on prayer and endowments, topographical texts, political texts on governance and authority, travelogues, and literary works.

This course will use ceramics to study the material culture of the medieval Middle East and the central Islamic lands. As such, they will be running narrative, to which other materials will be referred, or in turn used to refer to other materials. The same motifs found on ceramics may be found in the contemporaneous buildings, textiles or woodwork; the same forms are found in metalwork and glass; illustrations on ceramics will survive better than manuscript paintings, and there are more illustrations of, for instance, medieval swords to be found on pottery than there are actual swords. The course will rely heavily on the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum, and provide a thorough grounding on the technical production and typological variability of the various types of materials attested within their archaeological and cultural context. This course offers an excellent opportunity to study this important period of ceramic production, the period of occupation which covers most early sites in the Middle East. It provides essential understanding of the ceramic corpus for anyone seriously considering archaeological research in the Middle East and Mediterranean.