A World of Beasts: A Thirteenth-Century Illustrated Arabic Book on Animals (the Kitāb Na't Al-Ḥayawān) in the Ibn Bakhtīshū' Tradition

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-73340-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, 266 Seiten, Format (B × H): 215 mm x 289 mm, Gewicht: 882 g

The Kitab Na't al-Hayawan is the earliest of a group of illustrated manuscripts dealing with the characteristics of animals and their medicinal uses. The present study considers both the confluence of textual traditions within this work and the stylistic and iconographic relationships of its illustrations, which make it a key witness to early thirteenth-century Arab painting. After a re-evaluation of previous approaches, emphasis is placed on relating image to text, on stylistic affiliations, and on the modalities of production, supported by technical analyses undertaken for the first time. In elucidating the particular context of this unique manuscript, the study contributes to our understanding of a critical period in the development of Middle Eastern painting and art.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Contadini, Anna

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Enzyklopädien, Nachschlagewerke, Wörterbücher
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam & Islamische Studien

Über Autor(innen)

Anna Contadini is Professor of the History of Islamic Art at SOAS University of London. Her main areas of research are illustrated book culture of the Islamic world; object studies; translocation and transculturation; and artistic and cultural contacts between Europe and the Islamic world. She is a member of the editorial board of Brill’s Open Access Journal of Material Cultures of the Muslim World and a series editor of the Brill book series Islamic Art in Resonance. Her latest publications stem from long-standing projects, and include: The Pisa Griffin and the Mari-Cha Lion. Metalwork, Art, and Technology in the Medieval Islamicate Mediterranean (concept, author, and editor), Pisa: Pacini Editore, 2018; “The Middle Eastern Intellectual and Artistic Context at the Time of Ariosto”, in Mario Casari et al. (eds), Ariosto and the Arabs, I Tatti Research Series 4, 2022; “Intertextual Animals: Illustrated Kalila wa-Dimna Manuscripts in Context”, in Éloïse Brac de la Perrière et al. (eds), Les périples de Kalila et Dimna, Brill, 2022; (editor and author) Conoscenza e Libertà. Arte Islamica al Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna (bilingual), Genova: SAGEP Editori, 2024—an exhibition catalogue thematically related to the first volume of the series.