Making Sense of the Arts of Islam: An Introduction

This four-day course offers an engaging introduction to the art and architecture of the Islamic world, one of the most dynamic and rapidly expanding fields of art history. Bringing together insights from scholarship, museums, galleries, and private collections, it explores the remarkable artistic traditions that developed across a vast geographical region stretching from Spain to India.

From iconic monuments such as the Dome of the Rock and the Taj Mahal to exquisite ceramics, metalwork, glass, textiles, manuscripts, and paintings, each session focuses on a key aspect of Islamic artistic production. Alongside close study of individual objects and buildings, we will consider the cultural, political, and religious contexts in which they were created, collected, and interpreted.

Tracing more than thirteen centuries of artistic production, from the emergence of Islam in the seventh century to the early modern period and the contemporary world, the course challenges common assumptions about what “Islamic art” is and how it has been defined. Rather than treating Islamic art as a single, uniform tradition, we will explore the diversity of artistic practices, materials, patrons, and cultures that have shaped its rich visual history.

Morning lectures are complemented by exclusive afternoon visits to some of London’s outstanding collections and specialist institutions. Participants will have the opportunity to encounter manuscripts, ceramics, architecture, and works of art first-hand through visits to the Royal Asiatic Society, leading commercial galleries specialising in Islamic art, and the spectacular Leighton House, offering unique perspectives on collecting, connoisseurship, and the continuing relevance of Islamic art today.