Author: eknell

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/otto1/hd_otto1.htm

If you’re interested in art history (or just want to get a better idea of what the material culture of some of the groups we’ve talked about!) the Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History has a bunch of great essays that give a quick introduction to the art of a period, as well as giving some examples. The link above goes to their essay on The Art of the Ottomans before 1600, and if you scroll to the bottom of the page there are a bunch more essays for different periods of Islamic history! Additionally, if you want to dig deeper, there’s a section labelled “Further Reading” that will give you some more books or articles to check out!

Gentile Bellini, Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II, 1480, oil on canvas

I read this article last semester in my Italian Renaissance Art class when we were talking about taking a more global approach to early modern art. This painting was painted by Gentile Bellini, a Venetian painter who served as a court painter for Mehmet II.

I was really excited to get to talk briefly about manuscripts in class, and it made me think of this article that I had read a while ago! There has been a lot of debate as to whether or not gold and other expensive decorations should be included in Qur’ans, and over the course of history there have been many different arguments for and against it.

This article is part of a larger series that gives a brief introduction to the basics of Islamic art, so if you’re interested in that you should definitely check it out!

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-islam/beginners-guide-islamic-world-art/beginners-guide-islamic-art/a/gold-in-the-quran?modal=1