ALOHA
This issue is dedicated to the Islamic arts. We are fortunate that Oahu hosts a beautiful center for Islamic arts and cultures - Shangri La - that is framed by the expansive Pacific Ocean and the distinctive profile of Diamond Head.
Mahalo,
Program Coordinators
Muslim Societies in Asia and the Pacific Program
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Doris Duke
Foundation for Islamic Art
 The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art (DDFIA) aims to promote the study and understanding of Islamic arts and cultures. The DDFIA plays a unique role in the growing dialogue among scholars, artists and the public about how to help cultivate mutual understanding. DDFIA pursues its mission through Shangri La in Honolulu, which is owned and supported by DDFIA and undertakes a range of activities as a center for learning about Islamic arts and cultures; and by through the Building Bridges Program, which is based in New York and awards grants to promote the use of arts and media to improve Americans' understanding of Muslim societies.
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Bukhara's Gold Embroidery
 Goldwork was originally developed in Asia, and has been used for at least 2000 years. Its use reached a remarkable level of skill in the Middle Ages, when a style called Opus Anglicanum was developed in England and used extensively in church vestments and hangings. In Bukhara the art of gold embroidery had reached its blossom in the 19th century. The magnificent articles of the Emir's court and the custom of presenting robes of great value - led to orders being placed on large scale. In the 19th and early 20th centuries gold embroidery in Bukhara was mainly done on velvet, chamois leather and wool, seldom on silk. Unlike simple embroidery, gold-embroidery was performed solely by men.  Today, brilliant samples of gold embroidered dresses dating back to the 19th century can be seen in expositions of the State Museum of History of Uzbekistan, the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, the Museum of Applied Arts of Uzbekistan, the State Museum of History of the Temurids.
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The Birth of Islamic Art: the Umayyads
by Robert Hillenbrand The genesis of Islamic art is customarily linked with, indeed often attributed to, the whirlwind military conquests of the Arabs following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in AD 632. Such an idea is plausible enough. The creation of a world empire, the proclamation of a new faith, the formation of an art that bears its name -- all seem to belong together. But do they? Is there a causal connection, and -- if so -- what is the exact chronological sequence? Dazzling and exciting as the spectacle of the Arab conquests is, it in fact has relatively little to do with the early years of Islamic art. Yet the formative nature of those early years is plain. What, then, is the precise connection between the seismic political events of the seventh century and the earliest Islamic art? Full Article available hereThe Mirage of Islamic Art: Reflections on the Study of an Unwieldy Field by Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom This article explores questions such as What exactly is Islamic art? How well does this category serve the understanding of the material? Does a religiously based classification serve us better than geographic or linguistic ones, like those used for much of European art? To begin to answer these questions, the authors review how the subject is defined, how it got to be that way, and how it has been studied. Full article available at here Decagonal and Quasi-Crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic Architecture by Peter J. Lu and Paul J. Steinhardt
The conventional view holds that girih (geometric star-and-polygon, or strapwork) patterns in medieval Islamic architecture were conceived by their designers as a network of zigzagging lines, where the lines were drafted directly with a straightedge and a compass. We show that by 1200 C.E. a conceptual breakthrough occurred in which girih patterns were reconceived as tessellations of a special set of equilateral polygons ("girih tiles") decorated with lines. These tiles enabled the creation of increasingly complex periodic girih patterns, and by the 15th century, the tessellation approach was combined with self-similar transformations to construct nearly perfect quasi-crystalline Penrose patterns, five centuries before their discovery in the West. Full article available at here
Ethics, Iconoclasm, and Qur'anic Art in Indonesia
by Kenneth M. George
What predicaments and crises are posed, whose interests are served, and what discourses are advanced when artists use the Qur'an for aesthetic projects? This essay throws light on some of the ethical and ideological energies that have animated today's Muslim art publics by looking at the anxiety and outcry in Indonesia's art world over the use of Qur'anic script in fashion and in painting. The author argues that moments of panic or outrage may afford a special glimpse of ethicopolitical claims as to what is or is not Islamically significant in the field of visual culture, and simultaneously reveal some of the power relations that shape national and global Muslim art publics. Full article available at Wiley Online Library
Dynastic Imagery In
Early Timurid Wall Painting
by Thomas W. Lentz It has become abundantly clear that Persian painting and drawing can no longer comfortably be seen as a monolithic visual or even intellectual entity. Recent studies have widened research well beyond the traditional confines of the "miniature" and encouraged a closer examination of the nature and purpose of Persian painting in its various forms. Earlier investigations focused on pre-Mongol or later Safavid examples, but what is less known is the evidence from those centuries when a variety of Turco-Mongol military dynasties held sway over the medieval Iranian cultural area, a period of accelerated activity for development of Persian painting. This work provides a more complete record of 14 and 15th century Persian painting, and the Timurid period (ca.1370-1506).
Full article available here
The Status of Islamic Art In The Twentieth Century
by Wijdan Ali
The phrase "Islamic art" tends to conjure up images of ornate metalwork, intricately woven textiles and rugs, ceramics with calligraphic decoration and stylized floral designs, delicately trimmed glassware, colorful Iranian miniatures illustrating poetic verses, and animated Turkish albums testifying to the feats of illustrious sultans. The creation of this kind of classical Islamic art falls between the Umayyad dynasty in the 7th century and the end of Ottoman Empire in 1924. Since the beginning of the 20th century, learning and creating art according to Western aesthetics caused an irreparable rupture between the fine arts and crafts that had never existed before in Islamic culture. The new attitude distinguished between art for art's sake and utilitarian art.
Full article available here
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Events
 Featured the Shangri La tour coordinated by the MSAP at UH Manoa. This is a 1.5 hour tour of the center for Islamic arts and cultures. Free with limited seating to first 23 respondents. 20 January 2011, 9:30am - 12:30pm Honolulu Academy of Arts Brown Bag Lecture Sulaiman Mappiasse, a doctoral student at the UHM Sociology Department will talk about his experience at Al-Azhar University in Cairo 27 January 2011, 12:00 - 1:00pm Tokioka Room, Moore Hall 319 International Islamic Expo 20114 to 6 February 2011 Jakarta Convention Center, Jakarta - Indonesia Three Faiths Exhibition22 November 2010 to 28 February 2011 Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library Halal & Islamic Products 3D Expo15 to 17 February 2011 Worldwide on Internet One World 2011Beginning June 2011 Seattle, WA
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Employment Opportunities
Academic
Assistant Professor, South Asian Religions
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Last day to apply: 19 January 2011
Adjunct Professor, Religion & Spirituality in Asia
University of San Francisco
Last day to apply: 21 January 2011
Assistant Professor, Religions of East Asia
Western Kentucky University
Last day to apply: 21 February 2011
Assistant Professor, South Asian Studies
University of Utah
Last day to apply: 1 March 2011
Two Faculty Positions, Sociology of Religion/ Cultural Sociology and Sociology of Language/ Sociology of Emotions
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Last day to apply: 24 March 2011
Assistant Professor, Islamic or Buddhist or Confucian Religious Thought/Philosophy
Syracuse University, New York
Last day to apply: 1 May 2011
Community
Program Coordinator
Project Nur, American Islamic Congress
Washington, District of Columbia
Last day to apply: 14 January 2011
Executive Director
Washington Federation of Independent Schools
Dupont, Washington
Last day to apply: 31 January 2011
Corporate Gifts Officer
Islamic Relief USA
Alexandria, Virginia
Last day to apply: 7 March 2011
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Conferences
28th Annual Spring Symposium "Media, Culture and Democracy in South Asia"
6 to 8 April 2011
University of Hawaii - Center for South Asian Studies
Abstract Deadline: 15 January 2011
European Conference for Academic Disciplines
10 to 15 April 2011
Gottenheim near Freiburg, Germany
Abstract Deadline: 1 March 2011
American Canadian Conference for Academic Disciplines
23 to 26 May 2011
Toronto, Canada
Abstract Deadline: 18 March 2011
2nd International Congress on Islamic Archeology
21 to 25 January 2011
Islamabad, Pakistan
Center for Islamic Studies National Conference
17 to 19 February 2011
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
11th annual East Asian Studies Graduate Conference
5 March 2011
University of Toronto
Islamic Civilization - Potentials and Challenges
9 to 10 March 2011
Lahore, Pakistan
In the Mix: Asian Popular Music Conference
25 to 26 March 2011
Princeton University
10th East-West Philosophers' Conference
16 to 24 May 2011
University of Hawaii - East West Center
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