Inscription as Art in the World of Islam

During April 1996, the Hofstra Cultural Center organized an internationalinterdisciplinary conference that focused upon the role of inscriptionin Islamic art. The conference included diverse areas of inquiry. Forinstance, it accepted a paper that addressed the usage of Arabic script asinscription in different parts of the world and provided an opportunity to listento papers that considered inscription as an icon as well as its context,function, and comparative features. In addition, the coordinators organizedan exhibition of the works of several artists who were invited specificallyto talk about their works. This exhibition started with the opening of theconference and continued into May. On display was a unique blend of traditionaland modem uses of Arabic calligraphy--objects from the seventhcentury as well as those produced via contemporary technology.Habibeh Rahim, who is attached to Hofstra University's department ofphilosophy, and Alexej Ugrinsky of the Cultural Center, were the conferencedirector and coordinator, respectively. The former initiated the ideaand, with a committee of individuals, hosted the conference and exhibiteda selection of Islamic art. This exhibition was supported further by permanentdisplays in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, theBrooklyn Museum, the Pierpont Morgan Library, and the New York PublicLibrary.The conference opened with prayers from each of the major religioustraditions and two brief addresses by Habibeh Rahim and DavidChristman, the dean of New College and current director of HofstraMuseum. The first session, chaired by Sheila Blair (Harvard Univeristy),consisted of the following scholars and presentations: Valerie Gonzalez(Ecole d'Architecture Provence-Mediterrainee Centre Habitat etDeveloppement, Marseille, France), "The Significant Esthetic System ofInscriptions in Muslim Art"; Peter Daniels (University of Chicago),"Graphic-Esthetic Convergence in the Evolution of Scripts: A FirstEssay"; Solange Ory (Universite de Provence at Aix-Marseille, France),"Arabic Inscriptions and Unity of the Decoration"; Sussane Babarie (NewYork University), "The 'Aesthetics' of Safavid Epigraphy: AnInterpretation"; Ali al-Bidah (Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyah), "Aesthetic andPractical Aspects of a Hexagonal Emerald in Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyah";and Howard Federspiel (McGill University, Canada), "Arabic Script on ...