Medieval Eurabia: Religious Crosspollinations in Architecture, Art and Material Culture during the High and Late Middle Ages (1000-1600), 2018 Annual Conference of the Association for Art History, King’s College London, April 6, 2018, 9:20 am–5:55 pm

The coexistence of Christianity and Islam in the Medieval Mediterranean led to a transfer of knowledge in architecture and material culture which went well beyond religious and geographical boundaries. The use of Islamic objects in Christian contexts, the conversion of churches into mosques and the mobility of craftsmen are manifestations of this process. Although studies beginning with Avinoam Shalem’s Islam Christianized (1996), have dealt extensively with Islamic influence in the West and European influence in the Islamic Mediterranean, sacred objects, and material culture more generally, have been relatively neglected. From crosses found in Mosques, to European-Christian coins with pseudo/-shahada inscriptions, medieval material culture is rife with visual evidence of the two faiths co-existing in both individual objects and monuments.

Session Speakers
Maeve O’Donnell-Morales, The Courtauld Institute of Art
Islamic Objects on Castilian Altars: Luxurious Building Blocks for a New Identity

Francesco Lovino, Center for Early Medieval Studies, Brno
Arabs, Christians and the Gospel Marc. gr. Z. 539

Vera-Simone Schulz, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
Beyond the Church Treasury: Laying Islamic Artifacts to Rest in Medieval Europe: The Geopoetics of Graves and Gravestones

Hani Hamz, Independent Scholar
Balsam Oil: Mamluk Contribution to Medieval Christian Liturgy

Arielle Winnik, Bryn Mawr College
Tiraz Textiles with Coptic Language Inscriptions in Medieval Islamic Egypt

Miriam Ali-de-Unzaga, The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Exploring Muslim-Christian Coexistence Materialised on Fatimid and Andalusi Textiles

Nikolaos Vryzidis, Independent Scholar
Empires of Silk: Greek Ecclesiastical Use of Islamic Textiles, 11th to 17th centuries-The Traits of an ever Shifting Pattern

Gunseli Gürel, Oxford University
The Ottoman Representations of the Hagia Sophia in the Mid-Sixteenth Century: A Case Study in the Ottoman Approaches to the Graeco-Roman Heritage of Constantinople/Istanbul

Discussant
Mariam Rosser-Owen, Victoria and Albert Museum

Organizers
Sami De Giosa, Oxford University
Nikolaos Vryzidis, Independent Scholar