"If you could but see" : Qurʾanic Concepts on Display in Umayyad Arts, talk by Dr. Hannelies Koloska 

on Friday 14th of January 2021, 10.30 a.m.-12.00 a.m., Forum for the Study of Pre-Modern Islam.

The desert palace Qusayr 'Amra with its extraordinarily rich mural paintings has drawn a multitude of publications and instigated an ongoing debate dedicated to the complex meaning and significance of the displayed iconography and inscriptions. Especially religious elements and their connection to more mundane pictorial content have not been satisfactorily linked up to now. That is in part triggered by the prevailing image of the building’s owner Walīd b. Yazīd. In the majority of sources and thus also in major research he is represented as a scandalous character with an irrepressible passion for women and wine. Hence, Qusayr 'Amra was interpreted as a ”playboy’s mansion”. However, recent scholarship started to reevaluate the role, which Walīd played in the formation of Umayyad religious doctrine. By examining texts ascribed to him, Crone and Judd stress the importance of the doctrine of khalīfat Allāh among Umayyad rulers and Walīd’s partake in consolidating the religiously indebted claim to power. Combining the field of art history and archeology, history and Qur’anic Studies I would like to argue that Qusayr 'Amra deliberately displays Walīd’s claim to power based on Qur’anic concepts of afterlife and prophetic mission.

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85741797577?pwd=RngybHFLQ2hTem84Y081NWE1ZHVvQT09