Bamberger Symposium: Rezeption in der islamischen Kunst vom 26.6-28.6.1992.

• Author: Bloom, Jonathan M.
• Position: Book Review

Bamberger Symposium: Rezeption in der islamischen Kunst vom 26.6-28.6.1992. Edited by BARBARA FINSTER, CHRISTA FRAGNER, and HERTA HAFENRICHTER. Beiruter Texte und Studien, vol. 61. Beirut: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG, 1999. Pp. 338, plates. DM 148.

Dedicated to the memory of Michael Meinecke, the director of Berlin's Islamic Museum, who died suddenly in early 1994, this handsome and well-printed volume contains the text of twenty-three papers presented ten years ago at a conference organized by Prof. Barbara Finster at the Otto-Friedrich Universitat in Bamberg, Germany. The focus of the gathering was the concept of Rezeption, or "influence," and was inspired by the three themes--transfer, adaptation, and integration--that Richard Ettinghausen, the great American scholar of Islamic art, who had been born and educated in Germany before World War II, had discussed in his classic book, From Byzantium to Sasanian Iran and the Islamic World (Leiden, 1972). As is usual in such publications, the final work is somewhat of a hodgepodge of contributions and languages. There are fifteen papers in German, seven in English, and one in French. Few of the papers, which deal with everything from Islamic rock crystals to the role of water at the Alhambra, actually addres s Ettinghausen's thesis except in the most general way. Although the forty-six black and white plates at the end of the volume range from small to minuscule (many measure barely 1 x 2 inches), all are remarkably clear.

As it is impossible here to epitomize each of the contributions to the volume, and it is equally unlikely that many readers will read the volume through from cover to cover, it seems best to summarize the broad categories of articles presented. The largest group deals with the concept of influence in architecture and its decoration, especially the persistence of pre-Islamic motifs in Islamic architecture. For example, Christian Ewert writes on the influence of pre- and early Islamic forms in the design of Almohad column-capitals; Dietrich Huff on the traditions of pre-Islamic and Islamic palace architecture; as does Geoffrey King, who writes on the pre-Islamic antecedents of the Saudi Arabian tower house, Jens Kroger on Sasanian motifs in Islamic art, while Klaus Parlasca writes on the influence of Palmyra in Arabic culture. Philipp Speiser brings it up to modern times with his contribution on historical restoration in the architecture of the Cairo citadel. Five papers deal with the...