Islamic Art in the 19th Century ─ Tradition, Innovation, and Eclecticism

This collection of essays on Islamic art and architecture in the nineteenth century covers a wide geographical area and draws together different regional elements. The essays devote much attention to social, political, economic and intellectual issues, including the role of tradition and responses to European aesthetics, among them the appropriation of orientalism and the rise of revivalist movements.

Doris Behrens-Abouseif is Professor emerita at SOAS (The School of Oriental and African Studies), University London. Before joining SOAS she taught at the American University in Cairo and at the Universities of Freiburg and Munich in Germany. Among her books are Egypt’s Adjustment to Ottoman Rule (Leiden/ New York/Koln, 1994);Beauty in Arabic Culture (Princeton, 1999); Cairo of the Mamluks (London/Cairo, 2007);Practicing Diplomacy in the Mamluk Sultanate: Gifts and Material Culture in the Medieval Islamic World (London, 2014).Stephen Vernoit, D.Phil. (1990) at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, was research fellow in Islamic art and architecture at St. Antony’s College and has subsequently lectured on Islamic history and art at Al-Akhawayn University in Morocco and at Durham University in England. His publications include Occidentalism: Islamic Art in the 19th Century (1997).