“‘Antiquarianism’ is the term of art used to describe the investigation of the European past through its material remains before art history and archaeology emerged in the nineteenth century as the disciplines devoted to its study.”

This symposium is on the study of how the Islamic world studied the past.

Titles of ~30-45 minute talks include: -The Wisdom in Ruins: Veneration of the Material Past in the Medieval Islamic World —The Notion of Ruins in the Medieval Islamic World -Appreciating, Collecting, and the Meaning of Ancient Objects in the Early and Middle Islamic Period -Negotiating Cultural Continuity in Early Islam: The Future of Ancient Knowledge –The Near Past, the Distant Past, and the Political Legitimacy of the Fatimids and Buyids -Antiquarianism and Encyclopedism in the Fourteenth Century -Artefacts as Evidence in Muslim Historical-Legal Scholarship -Philology, Forgery, and Superstition: The Fierce Debate over the Shrine of Sayyida Zaynab in Early Twentieth-Century Egypt

(“Bard Graduate Center is devoted to the study of decorative arts, design history, and material culture through research, advanced degrees, exhibitions, publications, and events.”)