2008/12/09 by Mariam Rosser-Owen · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and Historical Studies #Architecture and Cultural Influences #Islamic Studies and History
paper · doi:10.1093/jis/etn081
openalex publication_date 2008/12/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The central conundrum of Fatimid art—the art produced by the Ismaili dynasty which ruled Egypt from 969 to 1171, but whose cultural sphere of influence was chronologically and geographically much broader, as Jonathan Bloom shows us in his new book—is the imbalance, on the one hand, between the wealth of extant religious architecture, versus the tiny fragments of palace architecture; and, on the other, the wealth of surviving secular decorative arts, with their lively and apparently narrative figurativism, versus the utter lack of objects whose decoration appears connected with religion, except for those few which speak to the presence of non-Muslim communities in Fatimid Cairo, or whose simple geometry has been taken to suggest occult (Ismaili) meanings. The expectation that the art and architecture of the Fatimid period must express the religious ideology of the rulers—unusual as it was for one of the three tenth-century caliphates to profess Shiʿism—has also led to the impression that Fatimid art is rife with Ismaili symbolism and hidden meanings, and the consequent attempts by art historians to elucidate these meanings have made it one of the most fascinating subjects within the wider field of Islamic art.