From EIAH
[edit] Book announcement: Art and Material Culture of Iranian Shi'ism: Iconography and ReligiousDevotion in Shi'i Islam
- Author: Pedram Khosronejad
- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: I B Tauris & Co Ltd (Jan 2010)
- ISBN-10: 1848851685
- ISBN-13: 978-1848851689
In the political and religious sphere Shi’ism has been the official religion ofIran since the beginning of the 16th century, and numerous academic studieshave focused on this phenomenon: on the Muharram rituals, the Ta’ziya plays,Shi’ite theology and of course the post-revolutionary politics of Shi’ite Iran.Yet surprisingly little serious study has been carried out to bring thesepolitico-religious and cultural spheres together, to trace the way in whichShi’ite rule and Shi’ite theology have interacted with the architecture, artand material culture of Iran during this period. By and large, the art andmaterial culture of Shi’ite Iran has been discussed within its own limits, andall too little has been written about the relationship of Shi’ism to art or tomore general material culture in Iran. This edited book is one of the firstever interdisciplinary and pluridisciplinary academic studies on the art andmaterial culture of the Islamic periods of Iran, from the Safavids (1501-1732)until the present day. More than ten eminent academics have employed differentmethodologies (history, history of art, anthropology, ethnography, folklore andreligion studies) to explore their experiences of the art and especially thematerial culture of Shi’ism in Iran, and also other countries in which Shi’itecommunities are found. In this edited book our aim, therefore, is to providethe opportunity to share ideas, enable interaction between individuals andabove all to increase our understanding of the nature of the art and materialculture of Shi’ite Iran.
URL Source: http://www.h-net.org/~islamart/