“Reading Between Word and Image” Lecture Series: “Medium and Message: Decoding the Mosaic Message in ‘Abd al-Malik’s Dome of the Rock” with Marcus Milwright

The Program in Scripture and the Arts is proud to present the first speaker in its 2015-2016 speaker series, Marcus Milwright, from the University of Victoria Department of Art History and Visual Studies. Professor Milwright is an authority on the art and architecture of the Islamic Middle East, cross-cultural interaction in the Medieval and early Modern Mediterranean, and craft practices in Late Ottoman Syria. In this lecture, he will examine the golden mosaic inscriptions on the seventh-century Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. These inscriptions contain professions of faith, verses drawn from the Qur’an, and other statements of a religious nature. Professor Milwright will consider this mosaic writing in the context of late antique craft practices and early Arabic epigraphy in order to suggest new ways of understanding the messages conveyed by the mosaic inscriptions and their role in the ideological program of the early Islamic state.

Co-Sponsored by the BU History of Art and Architecture Department, The BU Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations, and the Boston University Center for the Humanities

Free and Open to the Public

When: Monday, November 9 2015 at 5:30 pm, lecture with reception to follow

Location: Boston University Photonics Center Colloquium Room (8 Saint Mary’s Street, Boston, MA)

Transportation: Closest T stop is the B Line on the Green Line at BU Central; closest public parking lot is at 665 Commonwealth Ave, at the corner of Granby St. and Commonwealth.

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