Islamic Art and Architecture in Europe

Dear Colleagues, 

Since the Middle Ages, Islamic art has been a subject of admiration. Both the great constructions built by governors and social elites and the rich sumptuary objects elaborated in specialised workshops were symbols of luxury and legitimacy. In this context, the artistic forms, as well as wealthy objects, spread across the Mediterranean basin, not only in Islamic territories but also in Christian ones.

Taking this framework into account, the aim of the present Special Issue is to focus on Islamic artistic manifestations from Al-Andalus towards Eastern Europe in a broad sense and from multiple perspectives, from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Thus, the Special Issue explores, on one hand, Islamic art and architecture developed in medieval and modern Europe by different dynasties of Al-Andalus (from the Umayyads of Cordoba to the Nasrids of Granada), Fatimids in Sicily and Ottoman governors in the Balkans and Eastern Europe; and, on the other hand, the reception, assimilation, transformation and/or reinterpretation of these works in contemporary and later Christian societies.

In this last sense, the reuse, imitation and reinterpretation of Islamic objects and textiles from different backgrounds (such as Andalusi, Fatimid, Mamluk or Ottoman, among others) in Christian lands will be included, as well as the use of Islamic constructive and decorative traditions, which led to hybrid solutions, such as Mudejar art in the case of the Iberian Peninsula or Norman art in the Sicilian context. Furthermore, the phenomenon of the reinterpretation of Islamic art developed in the nineteenth century in Europe linked to the rise of nationalism (as in the case of Neomudejar art) or to the trend of the Orientalism will be also considered. Moreover, the analysis of historical phenomena of transfer and exchange between Islamic and Christian societies related to the cultural sphere, as well as the aesthetic underlying these artistic manifestations will be taken into consideration.

Therefore, the present Special Issue becomes an open forum for specialists in diverse fields, such as Art History, Aesthetics, History, Archaeology, Architecture, and so on, of different periods and from a wide range of research traditions, whose purpose is to gather a collection of works to present the state-of-the-art in their respective fields of knowledge and to delve into the complexity of Islamic art and architecture and their relations with Europe.

Dr. María Marcos Cobaleda
Guest Editor

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