"What does Islamic Art Mean for Islam?" Thesis by Hannah Lise Simonson (BA Religion, Reed College)

Abstract This thesis examines calligraphy, taken for now as an inclusive term, as an object of religious meaning and inquiry. It is premised that definitions of religion, and in this case Islam, have shaped the course and terminology of the study of what is known as “Islamic art.” This thesis challenges previous art historical conceptions of both Islam and Islamic art. Rather than asking questions such as, ‘what is Islamic about Islamic art?’ which assume a structure or essence of Islam that is represented in Islamic art, this thesis asks the question, ‘what does Islamic art mean for Islam?’

By taking seriously the religious work of art and material culture, this thesis aims to understand how individuals and religious communities utilize material objects as ways of negotiating identity and working through problems. Art, in this case calligraphy, as much as religion can be a medium of creative expression, which is to say that the materials and styles of calligraphy and the beliefs and practices of religion can be understood, reformulated and reiterated by individuals and communities to address their historical moment.

In particular, this thesis examines the early development of the relation of word and image by looking at the Qur’an and genres of calligraphy such as the basmalah and the hilye. The following is a close examination of the calligraphic works of Nja Mahdaoui, Mohamed Zakariya, and Kamal Boullata, three living artists, representing the diversity of the Islamic and Arab calligraphic tradition. Nja Mahdaoui is a Tunisian Muslim who studied in Europe. Mohamed Zakariya is a Californian convert to Islam who has studied in Morocco and Turkey. Kamal Boullata is a Christian Arab from Palestine who has studied in Europe. Although contemporary art discourse seems to find “contemporary Islamic art” to be an oxymoron, this thesis finds that Mahdaoui, Zakariya and Boullata use calligraphy to engage in conversation with Islamic tradition and to understand their position in a modernized world. Themes of religion, mediated through calligraphy, are a means of negotiating the universal and particular, humanity and culture.

Islam is a religion that could be characterized as a process of negotiation of the relationships between human-God-community and characterized as a religion existing in a heterogenous society. Visual culture, and calligraphy as particularly explored in this thesis, is a space in which Muslims can negotiate relations with God, other Muslims and nonMuslims. The medium of calligraphy allows for a unique type of negotiation by straddling a tension between word and image; the calligraphic medium recognizes that although core tenets of Islam distinguish it from other religious traditions, there is space for practical, everyday negotiation of Muslim and non-Muslim identity where these contentions need not be primary.