Medieval Islamic Art Between Cosmic Frame and Agency

The lecture considers astrological and talismanic arts at the court of the Rum Seljuks and their rivals during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Talismans offer a chance to pursue the question of what art does in a manner that continues to engage with the discipline’s abiding concern with how art looks. Within this emerging conversation, medieval Islamic talismans deserve particular attention because they are historically foundational to modern understandings of the term “talisman.”