Table Of ContentMaking
ISLAMIC STUDIES, ART & ARCHITECTURE
G
r
a
v
e
s
a
n
d
S
e
The Islamic world’s artistic “With a geographic diversity reaching from the g
g
e
traditions experienced profound Ottoman capital across North Africa, the essays r Modernity
m
in this book address a rich range of themes, from
transformation in the 19th century a
n
emergent forms of modern historicism to original
as rapidly developing technologies
readings of objects and images that trouble
and globalizing markets ushered in entrenched assumptions about aesthetic value. M
drastic changes in technique, style, . . . The collective enterprise of this anthology a
IN THE ISLAMIC
transforms our understanding of what it meant to k
and content.
i
be modern across the Islamic Mediterranean.”
n
g
MEDITERRANEAN
Despite the importance and ingenuity of —MARY ROBERTS,
M
these developments, the 19th century author of Istanbul Exchanges: Ottomans,
o
remains a gap in the history of Islamic Orientalists and Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture d
art. To fi ll this opening in art historical e
r
scholarship, Making Modernity in the Islamic
n
Mediterranean charts transformations
i
in image-making, architecture, and craft t
y
production in the Islamic world from Fez to
Margaret S. Graves
is Associate Professor I
Istanbul. Contributors focus on the shifting N
of Art History and Adjunct Associate Professor
methods of production, reproduction,
T
in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at
circulation, and exchange artists faced as H
Indiana University. She is author of Arts of Allusion:
E
they worked in fi elds such as photography,
Object, Ornament, and Architecture in Medieval
I
weaving, design, metalwork, ceramics, and Islam (winner of the 2019 Annual Book Prize, S
even transportation. L
International Center of Medieval Art, and the 2021
A
Karen Gould Prize, Medieval Academy of America).
M
Covering a range of media and a wide I
C
geographical spread, Making Modernity in
Alex Dika Seggerman
is Assistant Professor of M
the Islamic Mediterranean reveals how 19th-
Islamic Art History at Rutgers University–Newark. E
century artists in the Middle East and North D
She is author of Modernism on the Nile: Art in
Africa reckoned with new tools, materials, I
Egypt between the Islamic and the Contemporary. T
and tastes from local perspectives. E
R
R
A
N
Cover image: Collection Idéale P.S. postcard E
of pupil at Madame Delfau’s Carpet-Making A
School, Algiers, Algeria. Public domain. iupress.org N
ISBN 9780253060341
90000 >
Margaret S. Graves Alex Dika Seggerman
Edited by and
Printed in Korea 9 780253 060341 PRESS
Making
Modernity
IN THE ISLAMIC
MEDITERRANEAN
MMaakkiinngg MMooddeerrnniittyy iinn tthhee IIssllaammiicc MMeeddiitteerrrraanneeaann..iinndddd 11 1111//2299//2211 1111::2222 AAMM
MMaakkiinngg MMooddeerrnniittyy iinn tthhee IIssllaammiicc MMeeddiitteerrrraanneeaann..iinndddd 22 1111//2299//2211 1111::2222 AAMM
Making
Modernity
IN THE ISLAMIC
MEDITERRANEAN
Margaret S. Graves
Edited by
Alex Dika Seggerman
and
Indiana University Press
MMaakkiinngg MMooddeerrnniittyy iinn tthhee IIssllaammiicc MMeeddiitteerrrraanneeaann..iinndddd 33 1111//2299//2211 1111::2222 AAMM
This book is a publication of Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Indiana University Press Names: Graves, Margaret S., editor. |
Office of Scholarly Publishing Seggerman, Alex Dika, editor.
Herman B. Wells Library 350 Title: Making modernity in the Islamic Mediterranean /
1320 East 10th Street edited by Margaret S. Graves and Alex Dika Seggerman.
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press,
[2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
iupress.org Identifiers: LCCN 2021041042 (print) | LCCN 2021041043
(ebook) | ISBN 9780253060334 (hardback) | ISBN
© 2022 by Indiana University Press 9780253060341 (paperback) | ISBN 9780253060358 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Art and society—Islamic
All rights reserved countries—History—19th century. | Modernism
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in (Aesthetics)—Islamic countries—History—19th
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, century. | Art and society—Mediterranean Region—
including photocopying and recording, or by any History—19th century. | Modernism (Aesthetics)—
information storage and retrieval system, without Mediterranean Region—History—19th century.
permission in writing from the publisher. Classification: LCC N72.S6 M28 2022 (print) |
LCC N72.S6 (ebook) | DDC 701/.03—dc23
This book is printed on acid-free paper. LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021041042
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021041043
Manufactured in Korea
First printing 2022
Publication of this book has been aided by grants from the
Millard Meiss Publication Fund of CAA, the College Arts
and Humanities Institute of Indiana University, and Ideas
and Futures: A Collaborative for Just and Vibrant Societies.
MMaakkiinngg MMooddeerrnniittyy iinn tthhee IIssllaammiicc MMeeddiitteerrrraanneeaann..iinndddd 44 1111//2299//2211 1111::2222 AAMM
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Note on Transliteration ix
Introduction Making Modernity in the Islamic Mediterranean | Margaret S. Graves
and Alex Dika Seggerman 1
Part One
Picturing Knowledge 19
1 Well-Worn Fashions: Repetition and Authenticity in Late Ottoman
Costume Books | Ünver Rüstem 21
2 Osman Hamdi Bey and the Long Duration of History | Gülru Çakmak 50
3 Picturing Knowledge: Visual Literacy in Nineteenth-Century Arabic Periodicals | Hala Auji 72
4 The Muybridge Albums in Istanbul: Photography as Diplomacy in the
Ottoman Empire | Emily Neumeier 94
Part Two
Conceptualizing Craft 115
5 The Double Bind of Craft Fidelity: Moroccan Ceramics on the Eve of the
French Protectorate | Margaret S. Graves 117
6 The Manual Crafts and the Challenge of Modernity in Late Nineteenth-Century
Damascus | Marcus Milwright 139
7 The Turn to Tapestry: Islamic Textiles and Women Artists in Tunis | Jessica Gerschultz 155
Part Three
Aesthetics of Infrastructure 173
8 Alabaster and Albumen: Photographs of the Muhammad ‘Ali Mosque
and the Making of a Modern Icon | Alex Dika Seggerman 175
9 Tents and Trains: Mobilizing Modernity in the Late Ottoman Empire | Ashley Dimmig 195
10 Precious Metal: The I-Beam in the Late Ottoman Empire | Peter H. Christensen 214
11 November 1869: The Suez Canal Inauguration | David J. Roxburgh 234
Timeline 257
Glossary 261
Index 265
MMaakkiinngg MMooddeerrnniittyy iinn tthhee IIssllaammiicc MMeeddiitteerrrraanneeaann..iinndddd 55 1111//2299//2211 1111::2222 AAMM
MMaakkiinngg MMooddeerrnniittyy iinn tthhee IIssllaammiicc MMeeddiitteerrrraanneeaann..iinndddd 66 1111//2299//2211 1111::2222 AAMM
Acknowledgments
This book has its origins in an email exchange that took and the Art History Department’s Robert E. and Avis
place in 2015, when Yael Rice put us in touch with each Tarrant Burke Fund.
other as possible collaborators on a panel proposal for The guidance and support of our editors at Indiana
the upcoming Historians of Islamic Art Association University Press, Jennika Baines and Sophia Hebert,
Symposium at the Courtauld Institute in London. We have been invaluable in bringing this project to fruition.
would like to express our gratitude to Sussan Babaie and Two anonymous reviewers who delivered thoughtful
the HIAA 2016 committee for selecting our panel and to and constructive feedback made this a much better book.
Holly Shaffer for presenting with us in London. At that Generous subvention funding from the College Art Asso-
conference Ashley Dimmig first suggested we expand ciation’s Millard Meiss Publication Fund, CAHI, and Ideas
the panel into an edited volume on nineteenth-century and Futures: A Collaborative for Just and Vibrant Societies
Islamic art, and we are very grateful to her for planting has ensured this volume is a full-color pleasure to read.
the idea that became this book. We also thank Ünver Alex thanks her colleagues in the Department of
Rüstem and Barry Flood for important conversations in Arts, Culture and Media at Rutgers University and the
the first stages of the project. staff at the American Research Center in Egypt and at
In March 2018, we assembled the contributors to this Yale University’s Center for Middle East Studies for
volume at Indiana University for a workshop to explore providing the time, space, and funding for this project.
the themes emerging between individual research Margaret is grateful to her colleagues in the Department
projects. We express our thanks to Ashley Dimmig for of Art History at Indiana University for their collegiality
co-organizing that event and to Yasemin Gencer, Faye and support while she worked on this volume, especially
Gleisser, Cordula Grewe, Paul Losensky, and Nancy during a 2018–19 sabbatical leave. Most of all, we thank
Micklewright for their participation in our discussions. the contributors for their energetic and enthusiastic
Having all those brains in one place was critical to the participation in shaping the book, not only through the
development of this book, and it would have been impos- individual chapters they contributed but also through
sible without the generous funding we received from collective discussion and debate about the strands
the following organizations at Indiana University: New making up nineteenth-century modernity in the Islamic
Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities, the College Arts Mediterranean.
and Humanities Institute (CAHI), the Center for the We dedicate this book to our daughters, Adelina,
Study of the Middle East, the Islamic Studies Program, Lucy, and Adela. Their brilliance, curiosity, and exuber-
the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs, ance inspire us every day.
vii
MMaakkiinngg MMooddeerrnniittyy iinn tthhee IIssllaammiicc MMeeddiitteerrrraanneeaann..iinndddd 77 1111//2299//2211 1111::2222 AAMM
MMaakkiinngg MMooddeerrnniittyy iinn tthhee IIssllaammiicc MMeeddiitteerrrraanneeaann..iinndddd 88 1111//2299//2211 1111::2222 AAMM
Note on Transliteration
This book uses a modified version of the International Journal of Middle East
Studies (IJMES) transliteration system to render Arabic and Ottoman Turk-
ish words into English. We have not used diacritics with the exception of ῾ for
῾ayn and ᾿ for hamza. Words from foreign languages have been italicized
unless they are proper nouns or appear in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
For foreign words that appear in the Merriam-Webster—for example, ulema,
waqf, and kiswa—we have used the spellings given in that dictionary. Dates
are given in the Common Era calendar (CE) unless otherwise stated.
ix
MMaakkiinngg MMooddeerrnniittyy iinn tthhee IIssllaammiicc MMeeddiitteerrrraanneeaann..iinndddd 99 1111//2299//2211 1111::2222 AAMM
