Christian Art under Muslim Rule: Proceedings of a Workshop Held in Istanbul on May 11/12, 2012

In the vast expanse of lands in the Mediterranean and Near East that

came under Muslim sway in and after the seventh century, the spread of

Islam at the expense of Christianity was a more gradual process than is

often acknowledged. While the status of Christians was indeed reduced to

that of a tolerated community, the production of religious art within

such congregations was not brought to a halt (as the silence about it in

traditional art history might suggest). Rather, it simply continued, and

often very productively, under different precepts. While some examples,

such as the art of Mozarabs and Copts, are better known, Christian

artistic production in other Muslim contexts and in the period after the

Mongol invasion is less explored. Moreover, there have been few attempts

to integrate this body of art into mainstream art history.
The

workshop from which most of these papers were collected sought to

explore to what extent this art produced under non-Christian rule, when

collected together, irrespective of period and region, can serve as a

useful frame for analysis. It aimed to do so by bringing together

scholars working on different territories in the Islamic world between

the seventh and nineteenth centuries to present and discuss case studies

with a view to identifying common threads.