Visual Encounters between Europe and the Islamic World *Online* *NEW*

The Islamic world has been entangled with northern and western Europe since the inception of Islam in the 7th century CE. Commerce, pilgrimage, diplomacy, and war all contributed to the flow of people and goods between Venice and Cairo, Paris and Damascus. Focusing primarily on the medieval and early modern periods, this course explores how materials, objects, ideas, and aesthetic preferences were passed back and forth between Islamic and Christian kingdoms, as exemplified in art and architecture. We will look closely at selected works of art and architecture and discuss what these cross-cultural exchanges can tell us about how people in the past understood and represented the wider world they lived in.

Instructor: Maggie Freeman