Term
|
Definition
Xanten Bible, Exodus I
Lower Rhineland (Germany)
1294 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Passover Scenes, The Golden Haggadah
Spain
c. 1320 – 1330 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Prato Haggadah
Spain
13th century |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Six Days of Creation, Sarajevo Haggadah
Spain (Catalonia)
14th century |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Binding of Issac, Bird’s Head Haggadah
S. Germany
13 century |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Blue Qur’an
North Africa, Tunisia
9th or 10th century |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Folio from a Qur’an
Iran
c. 1137 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Miniature Qur’an
India/Kashmir
17th – 20th century |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Majnun Approaches Layla’s Caravan
Persian
1556-65 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The Death of Moses (from Jami-al-Tawarikh)
Iran
c. 1315 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The Seduction of Yusuf by Zulaykha, by Bihzad
Persian
c. 1488 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The Div Akhan throws Rustam into the Sea (from the Shahnameh)
Persian
16th century |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Kings Henry II – Henry III, Matthew Paris
England
c. 1250 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Henry III’s Elephant, Matthew Paris
England
c. 1250 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Pilgrimage Itinerary, Matthew Paris
England
c. 1250 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Compendium, Peter of Poitiers
France
c. 1220 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Life of St. Louis, Grandes Chroniques de France
France
c. 1380 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Baptism of Clovis, Grandes Chroniques de France
France
c. 1380 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Aniconism is the practice or belief in avoiding or shunning images of divine beings, prophets or other respected religious figures, or in different manifestations, any human beings or living creatures. The term aniconic may be used to describe the absence of graphic representations in a particular belief system, regardless of whether an injunction against them exists.
The fundamental cause of aniconism is embedded in the problematic nature of representation itself. There is an unavoidable need to represent the world since this is how our cognition works, but what is the validity of a representation not perceptible to our biological senses of something outside their reach or immaterial (God, time, ultraviolet)? Furthermore, how to present a general model by a specific occurrence (everybody knows what a human looks like, but everyone will draw him or her in a different way). Because these are inherent and not transitory problems, they generate a perpetual search for solutions, making of aniconism a continuously fluctuating phenomenon. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Appropriation is a fundamental aspect in the history of the arts (literary, visual, musical). Appropriation can be understood as "the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work."
In the visual arts, to appropriate means to properly adopt, borrow, recycle or sample aspects (or the entire form) of man-made visual culture. The term appropriation refers to the use of borrowed elements in the creation of a new work (as in 'the artist uses appropriation') or refers to the new work itself (as in 'this is a piece of appropriation art'). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Calligraphy ("beautiful writing") is a type of visual art. Modern calligraphy ranges from functional hand-lettered inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the abstract expression of the handwritten mark may or may not compromise the legibility of the letters. Classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may create all of these; characters are historically disciplined yet fluid and spontaneous, at the moment of writing. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".
The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of people with common roots, particularly movements of an involuntary nature, such as the expulsion of Jews from the Middle East. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan in the Jewish calendar, which is in spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and is celebrated for seven or eight days. It is one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays.
In the narrative of the Exodus, the Bible tells that God helped the Children of Israel escape slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten plagues upon the Egyptians before Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves; the tenth and worst of the plagues was the slaughter of the first-born. The Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb and, upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord passed over these homes (hence the name, "Passover"). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The Torah is the Jewish name for the first five books of the Jewish Bible. According to Jewish tradition, the entire Torah was revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai.
The meaning of the word is "teaching," "doctrine," or "instruction"; the commonly accepted "law" gives a wrong impression. |
|
|
Term
| Haggadah (plural: Haggadot) |
|
Definition
| The Haggadah is a Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. Reading the Haggadah at the Seder table is a fulfillment of the Scriptural commandment to each Jew to "tell your son" of the Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus in the Torah. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Subversion refers to an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy. Subversion can imply the use of insidious, dishonest, monetary, or violent methods to bring about such change. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
1215 (also known as the Fourth Lateran Council, which
required Jews in Europe to wear badges or other pieces of clothing that
identified them as Jews) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Muhammad was the founder of the religion of Islam. He is considered to be a messenger and prophet of God, and the last law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets. Muslims consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets.
Born in 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. Discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic beliefs it was here, at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One" and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God.
Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was met with hostility from some Meccan tribes; he and his followers were treated harshly. To escape persecution, Muhammad and his followers in Mecca migrated to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united some of the tribes, but failed to resolve conflicts with the Jewish tribes of the city. After eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to 10,000, conquered Mecca.
In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from his Farewell pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and he had united the tribes of Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity.
The revelations -- which Muhammad reported receiving until his death —- form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the “Word of God” and around which the religion is based. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The Quran (literally meaning "the recitation"), is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God. It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language.
The Quran is composed of verses (Ayah) that make up 114 chapters (suras) of unequal length. Muslims believe the Quran to be verbally revealed through angel Gabriel from God to Muhammad gradually over a period of approximately 23 years beginning in 610 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death.
Shortly after Muhammad's death the Quran was compiled into a single book by order of the first Caliph Abu Bakr. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings") is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Iran and related societies. Consisting of some 60,000 verses, the Shahnameh tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of (Greater) Iran from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century.
The work is of central importance in Persian culture, regarded as a literary masterpiece, and definitive of ethno-national cultural identity of Iran. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Layla and Majnun, also known as The Madman and Layla, is a classical Arab story, popularized by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi's masterpiece, Layli o Majnun. It is based on the real story of a young man called Majnun during the Umayyad era in the 7th century when Arabs defeated the Byzantines and Persians, and Syria and Iraq were conquered. In one version, he spent his youth together with Layla, tending their flocks. In another version, upon seeing Layla he fell passionately in love with her. In both versions, however, he went mad when her father prevented him from marrying her; for that reason he came to be called Majnun meaning "madman."
Majnun, was a Bedouin poet. He fell in love with Layla from the same tribe. He soon began composing poems about his love for her, mentioning her name often. When he asked for her hand in marriage, her father refused as this would mean a scandal for Layla according to local traditions. Soon after, Layla married another man.
When Qays heard of her marriage, he fled the tribe camp and began wandering the surrounding desert. His family eventually gave up hope for his return and left food for him in the wilderness. He could sometimes be seen reciting poetry to himself or writing in the sand with a stick.
Layla moved to present-day Iraq with her husband, where she became ill and eventually died. Most of his recorded poetry was composed before his descent into madness.
It is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet. This type of love is known as "Virgin Love", because the lovers never married or made love. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Diwan is a collection of poems. These poems were often composed and collected in the imperial courts of various sultanates and were very well known for their ability to inspire. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Bihzad is the most famous of Persian miniature painters, though he is more accurately understood as the director of a workshop producing manuscript illuminations in a style he conceived. Persian painting of the period frequently uses an arrangement of geometric architectural elements as the structural or compositional context in which the figures are arranged. Bihzad is equally skilled with the organic areas of landscape, but where he uses the traditional geometric style Bihzad stretches that compositional device in a couple ways. One is that he often uses open, unpatterned empty areas around which action moves. Also he pins his compositions to a mastery at moving the eye of the observer around the picture plane in a quirky organic flow. The gestures of figures and objects are not only uniquely natural, expressive and active, they are arranged to keep moving the eye throughout the picture plane. He uses value (dark-light contrast) more emphatically, and skillfully than other medieval miniaturists. He introduced greater naturalism to Persian painting, particularly in the depiction of more individualized figures and the use of realistic gestures and expressions.
Bihzad's most famous works include "The Seduction of Yusuf" from Sa'di's Bustan of 1488, and paintings from the British Library's Nizami manuscript of 1494-95 - particularly scenes from Layla and Majnun and the Haft Paykar.
He is also mentioned in Orhan Pamuk's famous novel "My Name is Red" as one of the greatest Persian miniature painters. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Mongols are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. Ethnic Mongols are bound together by a common language and culture. They speak languages belonging to the Mongolic languages. The contiguous territories inhabited by ethnic Mongols is also known as Greater Mongolia. Owing to wars and migrations, the Mongols are also found throughout Central Asia. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler. This is in contrast to a narrative or history, which sets selected events in a meaningful interpretive context and excludes those the author does not see as important.
The term often refers to a book written by a chronicler in the Middle Ages describing historical events in a country, or the lives of a nobleman or a clergyman, although it is also applied to a record of public events.
Chronicles are the predecessors of modern "time lines" rather than analytical histories. Unlike the modern historian, most chroniclers tended to take their information as they found it, and made little attempt to separate fact from legend. The point-of-view of most chroniclers is highly localized, to the extent that many anonymous chroniclers can be sited in individual abbeys. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Matthew Paris was a Benedictine monk, English chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, based at St Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire. He wrote a number of works, mostly historical, which he scribed and illuminated himself, typically in drawings partly colored with watercolor washes, sometimes called "tinted drawings". Some were written in Latin, some in Anglo-Norman or French verse. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians. The sparse historical background of Arthur is gleaned from various sources, including the Annales Cambriae, the Historia Brittonum, and the writings of Gildas.
The legendary Arthur developed as a figure of international interest largely through the popularity of Geoffrey of Monmouth's fanciful and imaginative 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain). Some Welsh and Breton tales and poems relating the story of Arthur date from earlier than this work; in these works, Arthur appears either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatural enemies or as a magical figure of folklore. How much of Geoffrey's Historia (completed in 1138) was adapted from such earlier sources, rather than invented by Geoffrey himself, is unknown.
Although the themes, events and characters of the Arthurian legend varied widely from text to text, and there is no one canonical version, Geoffrey's version of events often served as the starting point for later stories. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul. Many elements and incidents that are now an integral part of the Arthurian story appear in Geoffrey's Historia, including Arthur's father Uther Pendragon, the wizard Merlin, Arthur's wife Guinevere, the sword Excalibur, Arthur's conception at Tintagel, his final battle against Mordred at Camlann and final rest in Avalon. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot and the Holy Grail to the story, began the genre of Arthurian romance that became a significant strand of medieval literature. In these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table. Arthurian literature thrived during the Middle Ages but waned in the centuries that followed until it experienced a major resurgence in the 19th century. |
|
|
