Dr. I. Flaskerud, University of Bergen, Norway Abstract

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Dr. I. Flaskerud, University of Bergen, Norway
The Dramaturgy of Portraits in Shia Saint Veneration: Saints, Martyrs, Headof-state and Kinfolk
Abstract
In Iran, imaginary portraits of Shia saints, such as Imam Ali, Imam Husayn and alAbbas, are often presented in local shrines, Imamzadeh, in which is buried a
relative of one of the Imams. Portraits of saints are part of decorative programmes
in temporary ritual assembly halls, such as Husayniyyeh and Zaynabiyyeh, in
which the saints are venerated. Such ritual settings can also present portraits of
religious and political leaders, as well as deceased members of the local
community. A third ritual context in which saints, political leaders and deceased
local male citizens are visually represented is mourning processions on Ashura. In
this paper, I compare the ‘dramaturgy of portraits’ at these ritual settings. Drawing
on the power of portraits to represent the portrayed and communicate values and
sentiments, I explore the convergence of holy, political and private personages in
these settings. Key questions are how the display of portraits relates to religious,
political and personal issues? Is this played out differently in different ritual
settings, and why?
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Dr. C. Gruber, Indiana University, Bloomington, U.S.A
Prophetic Portraits: Muhammad in Modern Iranian Visual Culture
Abstract
The year 2006 witnessed momentous events on a global scale in the aftermath of
the publication of a dozen defamatory cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the
Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Attention to Muslim reactions to the cartoons
focused primarily on demonstrations that at times turned violent, as well as the
Iranian cartoon competition mocking the Holocaust. More muted but indubitably
more significant within the perdurable realms of Iranian public life and culture,
however, was Ayatollah Khamenei’s declaration of the year 1385 (2006) as ‘The
Year of the Noble Prophet’ (sal-e peyghamber-e azam). The Ayatollah’s Norwuz
declaration, itself a retort intended to reclaim Muhammad as a prophetic
exemplum for the Islamic faith, launched endeavors in multiple domains of Iranian
creative expression, including publishing and painting.
A number of materials that appeared during and after ‘The Year of the Noble
Prophet’ reveal that depictions of Prophet Muhammad have played a critical role
in constructing Iranian definitions of self over the past five years. From illustrated
children’s books— such as the series of fourteen books on the life of the Prophet
published by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young
Adults (Kanun-e Parvaresh-e Fekri-e Kudakan va Nojavanan)— to translated
scholarly works and a large-scale mural of the Prophet in Tehran, depictions of
Muhammad have appeared in multiple media in the Iranian public sphere in order
to create and project a sense of identity by harnessing the prophetic paradigm
through its various visual iterations.
This study aims to examine these many images of Prophet Muhammad, their
indebtedness to and alterations of pre-modern Persian painting, and their roles in
Iranian and global political and religious contexts. Particular attention will be paid
to how depictions of the Prophet are used to promote particular venerative
practices and to forward Shii concerns, as well as why such images are abstracted
and thus what they owe to today’s overarching (and oftentimes oversimplified)
discourses about the figural arts in Islam. By exploring the intersection of Iran’s
official patronage of prophetic portraiture and its engagement with audiences both
at home and abroad in the immediate post-cartoon years, it becomes clear that the
world of visual culture provides fertile ground for articulating notions of identity
within religio-cultural contestations that have unfolded in the arena of international
politics.
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Ms. H. Uludag, Turkey
Survey of the Ottoman Dervish Lodge Calligraphic Panels as a Cult Object in
the Framework of Veneration of the Saints In Islamic Mysticism
Abstract
The vastness of the Islamic geography bring along the multi layered structure that
geographical cultures generate by old religions and traditions and existence of the
cult and the rituals of the Saints living in the society. Convergence of the holy
places remaining from the pre Islam period into Saint Tombs and cults, legends,
myths coming from the previous religious layers are conducted to Islam is a fact.
The cult of Saint is an organic structure living from past to present and in which
new things are added. This situation brings about different approaches and patterns
of behaviour in diverse geographies. However the liquidity of the knowledge and
culture brings forth the formation of common behaviour. The most important of all
these behaviours appear at the point of the veneration shown to the Saints.
We come across with the veneration shown to the Saints in every step of the
mystic life. The understanding which is penetrated into the slightest details of daily
life through the design and ornamentation of the location of the religious
ceremonies, clothes and the instruments used is expressed by the language of
symbols most of the time. Our core subject “Calligraphic panels of Ottoman
dervish lodges” is one of the most effective ways to express this veneration. The
calligraphic panels of dervish lodges which were produced from the end of 18th
century up until 1925 when the dervish lodges were closed give us a clue about the
understanding of mysticism and the heterodox tendencies of the dervish lodge
where they were generated, the relationship and interaction between the Sufi
orders and dervish lodges, the relationship of the politics with the dervish lodge
and the reflections of the influential sense of fashion in the West besides reflecting
the images belonging to the mystic symbolism comprising with the Ottoman
culture through centuries. In addition calligraphic panels of dervish lodge is a
unique example in the sense of turning into a cult object in a short time by
included in the organic structure of the sainthood cult.
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Prof. U. Marzolf, University of Gottingen, Germany
The Representation of Saints and Holy Figures in Persian Lithographic
Illustration
Abstract
Lithographic printing, introduced to Iran in the first decades of the nineteenthn
century, became the predominant mode of printing for about a century. Printing
books by way of lithography rather than by way of movable type had several
advantages -- the technique was fairly simple and involved moderate costs, since it
amounted more or less to multiplying a manuscript text, and scribes were easily
available, since lithographic printing immediately followed and to a certain extent
overlapped with the period of manuscript production. Much as lithographic
printing amounts to mulitplying a manuscript text, the illuminations and
illustrations included in lithographed books stand in the tradition of illumination
and illustration in manuscript texts. One should, however, be careful not to
overstress a presumed unbroken continuity of tradition, neither in the production
of the texts nor of the illustrations. For instance, the lithographed texts soon gave
rise to new developments that set them apart from previous manuscript production,
such as the developing title page -- a phenomenon that is totally unknown in
manuscripts. Similarly, one will have to study whether lillustrations in
lithographed texts are simply reproductions of earlier models in terms of topics
and stylistic features. Here again, the new technique of black and white line
drawings produced with an unfamiliarly viscuous ink might have given rise to new
features unknown in previous manuscript production.
In Persian lithographed illustrations, saints and holy figures mainly appear in two
contexts: (a) stories of the prophets (qesas al-anbeya) and similar topics; (b) the
books of marsiye dealing with what in a Shiite context is known as ‘the tragedy of
Karbala’, namely the history of early Islam and the events surrounding the violent
death of the early Shiite caliphs.
My presentation is to discuss this topic by drawing on a comprehensive archive of
illustrations in Persian lithographed books.
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Prof. T. Zarcone, GSRL/CNRS, Paris, France
Iconology of the Seven Sleepers (Ashâb al-Kahf) in Turkey and Central Asia
Abstract
This presentation will deal with the legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus who
fall asleep and were walled up in the cave where they had hidden in order to
escape the persecution of the pagan king Decius (3th c.). Then, at the time of the
Christian emperor Theodosius II (5th c.), the sleepers return to life to confirm the
doctrine of the resurrection of the body and the victory of monotheism upon
idolatry. Christian by origin, this legend has strongly inspired the Prophet of Islam
and many Muslim writers. It plays nowadays a prominent place in saint veneration
in the Muslim world since the Seven Sleepers are considered saintly persons to
whom many pilgrimage sanctuaries are dedicated from Northern Africa to Chinese
Turkestan. The Muslim hagiographies about these holy sleepers are based on
several Christian legends and on the Quran (sura “al-kahf”, 18:8-26) where the
Sleepers are called the “Companions of the Cave” (Ashab al-Kahf). The legend has
also inspire Christian, especially Byzantine, and Muslim painters. This lecture will
examine especially the main characteristics of the representation of the Ashab alKahf’s sanctity in some Turkish and Persian miniatures and point to some
anthropological and historical aspects of these images: i.e. the role played by the
Christian-Byzantine iconographical models; the fidelity of the Muslim artist to the
legend; the prophylactic virtues of these images and their relation with the art of
the talisman.