ReSIA – Samer Akkach – Naẓar: The Question of Vision in Islamic Art and Architecture
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 2022-02-01

(20th January 2022) Naẓar, literally ‘vision’, is a unique Arabic-Islamic term/concept that offers an analytical framework for exploring the ways in which Islamic visual culture and aesthetic sensibility have been shaped by common conceptual tools and moral parameters. It intertwines the act of ‘seeing’ with the act of ‘reflecting’, thereby bringing the visual and cognitive functions into a complex relationship. Within the folds of this multifaceted relationship lies an entangled web of religious ideas, moral values, aesthetic preferences, scientific precepts, and socio-cultural understandings that underlie the intricacy of one’s personal belief. Peering through the lens of naẓar, this seminar sheds light on aspects of these entanglements to provide insights into how vision, belief, and perception shape the rich Islamic visual culture and underlie the production of Islamic art and architecture.