Naẓar : vision, belief, and perception in Islamic cultures / edited by Samer Akkach.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Akkach, Samer, editor.

Series:

Islamic History and Civilization ; 191.

Islamic History and Civilization ; 191

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art and society.

Islamic art--Themes, motives.

Islamic art.

Visual perception--Cross-cultural studies.

Visual perception.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (339 pages)

Place of Publication:

Leiden, Netherlands ; Boston, Massachusetts : Brill, [2022]

Summary:

Naẓar , literally 'vision', is a unique Arabic-Islamic term/concept that offers an analytical framework for exploring the ways in which Islamic visual culture and aesthetic sensibility have been shaped by common conceptual tools and moral parameters. It intertwines the act of 'seeing' with the act of 'reflecting', thereby bringing the visual and cognitive functions into a complex relationship. Within the folds of this multifaceted relationship lies an entangled web of religious ideas, moral values, aesthetic preferences, scientific precepts, and socio-cultural understandings that underlie the intricacy of one's personal belief. Peering through the lens of naẓar , the studies presented in this volume unravel aspects of these entanglements to provide new understandings of how vision, belief, and perception shape the rich Islamic visual culture. Contributors: Samer Akkach, James Bennett, Sushma Griffin, Stephen Hirtenstein, Virginia Hooker, Sakina Nomanbhoy, Shaha Parpia, Ellen Philpott-Teo, Wendy M.K. Shaw.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Notes to the Reader

Figures

Notes on Contributors

Aperture: Terms, Concepts, and Discourse

Chapter 1 Naẓar: The Seen, the Unseen, and the Unseeable

Chapter 2 Naẓar, Subjectivity, and 'The Gaze'

Part 1 The Eye of the Heart

Chapter 3 Human Looking, Divine Gaze: Naẓar in Islamic Spirituality

Chapter 4 Seeing with 'The Eyes of the Heart': dhikr and fikr as Sources of Insight in Indonesian Islamic Art

Part 2 The Eye of the Mind

Chapter 5 Transparency: Ibn al-Haytham's Manāẓir and Visual Perception of Beauty

Chapter 6 Veiling: Ibn al-Qaṭṭān's Aḥkām and the Rules Concerning Seeing

Part 3 Evil Eye, Talismanic Seeing

Chapter 7 May the Envier's Eye be Blind

Chapter 8 Talismanic Seeing: The Induction of Power in Indonesian Zoomorphic Art

Part 4 Gazing Eye, Imaginative Seeing

Chapter 9 The Artist's Gaze: Visual Representations of the Mughal Hunting Landscape

Chapter 10 Vernacular Subjectivity as a Way of Seeing: Visualising Bijapur in Nujūm al-ʿUlūm and Kitāb-i-Nauras

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Akkach, Samer Naẓar:Vision, Belief, and Perception in Islamic Cultures

ISBN:

90-04-49948-2

OCLC:

1289371488

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004499485 DOI