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Hussein Keshani

University of British Columbia, Creative Studies, Faculty Member

University of British Columbia, Critical Studies, Faculty Member

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York University

Dr. Uday Dokras

Stockholm University

Abdulmamad Iloliev

University of Central Asia

Southern Polytechnic State University

Augustana College at Rock Island

University of Alberta

Carleton University

The University of Sydney

James Madison University

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Journal Articles by Hussein Keshani

Engaging Islamic Views on Human-Animal Relations: Towards an Adab-centred Approach

Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 2010

In the coming years, human-animal relations can be expected to be an increasing concern in the Is... more In the coming years, human-animal relations can be expected to be an increasing concern in the Islamic world and among the Muslim diaspora given the pressures applied by the globalizing network of industrial economies and rapid advancements in the biological sciences. Th e issue of how to eff ectively engage Islamic discourse in global dialogues on human-animal relations can also be expected to become more pressing. Th is paper argues that the current strategies of producing and engaging Islamic discourse do not take into account the complexities of how Islamic discourse is generated and are both limited by a legalistic or sharia focus. Instead an adab-centred approach is proposed as a means of cultivating both a more engageable form of Islamic discourse and a broader global dialogue on human-animal relations.

Towards Digital Islamic Art History

Journal of Art Historiography, Jun 1, 2012

“Epigraphs, Scripture and Architecture in the Early Sultanate of Delhi,” co-authored with Anthony Welch and Alexandra Bain

Muqarnas, 2002

“The Abbasid Palace of Theophilus,” al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, London: Carfax, 2004, vol. 16, No. 1, March 2004, pp. 75-91

The Byzantine emperor Theophilus (829-842) is recorded as having commissioned a palace in the sty... more The Byzantine emperor Theophilus (829-842) is recorded as having commissioned a palace in the style of contemporary 'Abbāsid palaces in Baghdad near Constantinople, making it an important instance in the visual cultural exchange between Byzantium and Islamdom. One widely held explanation suggests that Theophilus had a taste for the arts of Islamdom. This paper argues that the 'Abbāsid-style palace of Theophilus should be placed in the context of contemporary political events and Theophilus's architectural patronage. The palace can then be seen as the product of Byzantine-Muslim political and cultural rivalry mediated by an increasingly shared culture of objects that included architectural concepts.

“Architecture and the Twelver Shi‘a Tradition: The Great Imāmbārā complex of Lucknow,” Muqarnas, vol. 23 (Nov.), Leiden: Brill, 2006, pp. 219-250.

“Reading Visually: Can Art Historical Reading Approaches go Digital?” Scholarly and Research Communication 2012, vol 3, No 4 (2012)

As the field of digital humanities grows, scholars are translating and adapting their investigati... more As the field of digital humanities grows, scholars are translating and adapting their investigative processes to suit the digital environs. Questions about how digital technologies will enhance and transform historical scholarly reading practices have arisen, but they have not been extensively considered from the perspective of visual culture historians and less so from those working on select non-Western cultures. This paper approaches these questions from an Islamic and South Asian art historical perspective, mapping out the particularities of reading historical texts when conducting visual cultural research and considering the implications for the development of future digital research tools.

"Towards Digital Islamic Art History," Journal of Art Historiography: Islamic Art History Issue 2012, eds. Moya Carey and Margaret Graves, University of Glasgow, 6-HK/1

The advent of digital humanities now poses the primary historiographical challenge for contempora... more The advent of digital humanities now poses the primary historiographical challenge for contemporary and future historians of Islamic art. No longer simply tools to archive and exchange information, digital humanities technologies are evolving into analytical instruments often embedded with under-scrutinized theoretical assumptions. Without a critical mass of systematically developed databases of historical texts, translations, images and overlaying analytical tools, the way Islamic art history is written will increasingly diverge from the rest of art history. This paper makes the case that the pressing need to consider and apply new theoretical frameworks in Islamic art history is being superseded by the digital turn in humanities scholarship. The practice of Islamic art history now needs to actively participate in the design and development of databases and analytical instruments specifically geared toward the interests of Islamic art historians. At the same time, the digital shift presents an opportunity to confront the field’s archival legacies.

Book Chapters by Hussein Keshani

“Islamic Art,” The Islamic World, ed. Andrew Rippin, Routledge, London, 2008, pp. 421-443

“Islamic Architecture,” The Islamic World, ed. Andrew Rippin, Routledge, London, 2008, pp. 444-472 (28)

“Theatres of Power and Piety: Architecture and Court Culture in Awadh, India,” Court Cultures in the Muslim World Seventh to Nineteenth Centuries, eds. Albrecht Fuess, Jan-Peter Hartung, Routledge, 2010, pp. 445-471

“Architecture and Community,” in Amyn B. Sajoo, ed., A Companion to Muslim Cultures, London: I.B. Tauris, 2012, 117-136.

“The Writing on the Walls: Selections from the Twelver Shi`i Epigraphs of Lucknow’s Husseinabad Imambara,” People of the Prophet’s House: Art, Architecture and Shi‘ism in the Islamic World ed. Fahmida Suleman, I.B. Taurus & British Museum, 2015

Encyclopedia Article by Hussein Keshani

“Taj Mahal,” The Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2nd edition [Peer reviewed, encyclopedia article], 2015

Digital Scholarship by Hussein Keshani

Talks by Hussein Keshani

“Digitizing Islamic World Visual Cultural Heritage: Recolonizing or Decolonizing Cultural Memory, or Both?”Patrimoines du Maghreb à l’ère numérique Conference Proceedings, Samia Chergui and Bernadette Saou-Dufrêne eds., 2014

“Strangers, Lovers, and Kin: Gender Roles and Their Interplay with the Architecture of Awadh,” Studies in Architecture, History & Culture: Papers by the 2003-2004 AKPIA@MIT Visiting Fellows. AKPIA MIT, 2004.

In our histories of the art and architecture of the Islamic world, there is barely a trace of the... more In our histories of the art and architecture of the Islamic world, there is barely a trace of the feminist critique of historiography, which has been steadily transforming our historical imagination of the Anglo-European past over the last three decades. The critique can be divided into two broad streams: first, there is a critique of women's absence from the historical gaze, and second, the practice of historiography itself is questioned. The latter critique is highly nuanced. It not only challenges historians to bring the pasts of women into the historical gaze, but in its most incisive form, asks that the very way history is imagined be reconsidered. 1 Simply making women the subject of historical study does not escape a model of history that is inherently androcentric, in which the roles of women and their relations with men are inevitably rendered as peripheral, obscuring their presence in the unfolding of history. The questions that historians are used to asking tend to produce male-centered histories; therefore, a re-examination of the types of questions that are asked and their underlying assumptions is necessary. Gender relations and roles are not to be understood as separate topics of historical inquiry but as areas central to historical inquiry itself, given the universality of gender relations in human

Reviews by Hussein Keshani

“Encounters with Digital Art History.” Ars Orientalis, Vol 44., 2015

Review of THE ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF TWELVER SHI`ISM: IRAQ, IRAN AND THE INDIAN SUB-CONTINENT by JAMES W. ALLAN and THE ART AND MATERIAL CULTURE OF IRANIAN SHI'ISM: ICONOGRAPHY AND RELIGIOUS DEVOTION IN SHI'I ISLAM, PEDRAM KHOSRONEJAD, ED.

Papers by Hussein Keshani

Doctrine and Design: Two Islamic Centres in Burnaby, Canada

3 For a recent examination of the Middle Eastern confluence of state and religious authority expr... more 3 For a recent examination of the Middle Eastern confluence of state and religious authority expressed in transnational mosque design and patronage, including the differing doctrinal agendas of Saudi and Iranian governments, see: Kishwar Rizvi, Transnational Mosque: Architecture and Historical Memory in the Contemporary Middle East, 1st ed. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015).

Engaging Islamic Views on Human-Animal Relations: Towards an Adab-centred Approach

Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 2010

In the coming years, human-animal relations can be expected to be an increasing concern in the Is... more In the coming years, human-animal relations can be expected to be an increasing concern in the Islamic world and among the Muslim diaspora given the pressures applied by the globalizing network of industrial economies and rapid advancements in the biological sciences. Th e issue of how to eff ectively engage Islamic discourse in global dialogues on human-animal relations can also be expected to become more pressing. Th is paper argues that the current strategies of producing and engaging Islamic discourse do not take into account the complexities of how Islamic discourse is generated and are both limited by a legalistic or sharia focus. Instead an adab-centred approach is proposed as a means of cultivating both a more engageable form of Islamic discourse and a broader global dialogue on human-animal relations.

Towards Digital Islamic Art History

Journal of Art Historiography, Jun 1, 2012

“Epigraphs, Scripture and Architecture in the Early Sultanate of Delhi,” co-authored with Anthony Welch and Alexandra Bain

Muqarnas, 2002

“The Abbasid Palace of Theophilus,” al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean, London: Carfax, 2004, vol. 16, No. 1, March 2004, pp. 75-91

The Byzantine emperor Theophilus (829-842) is recorded as having commissioned a palace in the sty... more The Byzantine emperor Theophilus (829-842) is recorded as having commissioned a palace in the style of contemporary 'Abbāsid palaces in Baghdad near Constantinople, making it an important instance in the visual cultural exchange between Byzantium and Islamdom. One widely held explanation suggests that Theophilus had a taste for the arts of Islamdom. This paper argues that the 'Abbāsid-style palace of Theophilus should be placed in the context of contemporary political events and Theophilus's architectural patronage. The palace can then be seen as the product of Byzantine-Muslim political and cultural rivalry mediated by an increasingly shared culture of objects that included architectural concepts.

“Architecture and the Twelver Shi‘a Tradition: The Great Imāmbārā complex of Lucknow,” Muqarnas, vol. 23 (Nov.), Leiden: Brill, 2006, pp. 219-250.

“Reading Visually: Can Art Historical Reading Approaches go Digital?” Scholarly and Research Communication 2012, vol 3, No 4 (2012)

As the field of digital humanities grows, scholars are translating and adapting their investigati... more As the field of digital humanities grows, scholars are translating and adapting their investigative processes to suit the digital environs. Questions about how digital technologies will enhance and transform historical scholarly reading practices have arisen, but they have not been extensively considered from the perspective of visual culture historians and less so from those working on select non-Western cultures. This paper approaches these questions from an Islamic and South Asian art historical perspective, mapping out the particularities of reading historical texts when conducting visual cultural research and considering the implications for the development of future digital research tools.

"Towards Digital Islamic Art History," Journal of Art Historiography: Islamic Art History Issue 2012, eds. Moya Carey and Margaret Graves, University of Glasgow, 6-HK/1

The advent of digital humanities now poses the primary historiographical challenge for contempora... more The advent of digital humanities now poses the primary historiographical challenge for contemporary and future historians of Islamic art. No longer simply tools to archive and exchange information, digital humanities technologies are evolving into analytical instruments often embedded with under-scrutinized theoretical assumptions. Without a critical mass of systematically developed databases of historical texts, translations, images and overlaying analytical tools, the way Islamic art history is written will increasingly diverge from the rest of art history. This paper makes the case that the pressing need to consider and apply new theoretical frameworks in Islamic art history is being superseded by the digital turn in humanities scholarship. The practice of Islamic art history now needs to actively participate in the design and development of databases and analytical instruments specifically geared toward the interests of Islamic art historians. At the same time, the digital shift presents an opportunity to confront the field’s archival legacies.

“Islamic Art,” The Islamic World, ed. Andrew Rippin, Routledge, London, 2008, pp. 421-443

“Islamic Architecture,” The Islamic World, ed. Andrew Rippin, Routledge, London, 2008, pp. 444-472 (28)

“Theatres of Power and Piety: Architecture and Court Culture in Awadh, India,” Court Cultures in the Muslim World Seventh to Nineteenth Centuries, eds. Albrecht Fuess, Jan-Peter Hartung, Routledge, 2010, pp. 445-471

“Architecture and Community,” in Amyn B. Sajoo, ed., A Companion to Muslim Cultures, London: I.B. Tauris, 2012, 117-136.

“The Writing on the Walls: Selections from the Twelver Shi`i Epigraphs of Lucknow’s Husseinabad Imambara,” People of the Prophet’s House: Art, Architecture and Shi‘ism in the Islamic World ed. Fahmida Suleman, I.B. Taurus & British Museum, 2015

“Taj Mahal,” The Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2nd edition [Peer reviewed, encyclopedia article], 2015

“Digitizing Islamic World Visual Cultural Heritage: Recolonizing or Decolonizing Cultural Memory, or Both?”Patrimoines du Maghreb à l’ère numérique Conference Proceedings, Samia Chergui and Bernadette Saou-Dufrêne eds., 2014

“Strangers, Lovers, and Kin: Gender Roles and Their Interplay with the Architecture of Awadh,” Studies in Architecture, History & Culture: Papers by the 2003-2004 AKPIA@MIT Visiting Fellows. AKPIA MIT, 2004.

In our histories of the art and architecture of the Islamic world, there is barely a trace of the... more In our histories of the art and architecture of the Islamic world, there is barely a trace of the feminist critique of historiography, which has been steadily transforming our historical imagination of the Anglo-European past over the last three decades. The critique can be divided into two broad streams: first, there is a critique of women's absence from the historical gaze, and second, the practice of historiography itself is questioned. The latter critique is highly nuanced. It not only challenges historians to bring the pasts of women into the historical gaze, but in its most incisive form, asks that the very way history is imagined be reconsidered. 1 Simply making women the subject of historical study does not escape a model of history that is inherently androcentric, in which the roles of women and their relations with men are inevitably rendered as peripheral, obscuring their presence in the unfolding of history. The questions that historians are used to asking tend to produce male-centered histories; therefore, a re-examination of the types of questions that are asked and their underlying assumptions is necessary. Gender relations and roles are not to be understood as separate topics of historical inquiry but as areas central to historical inquiry itself, given the universality of gender relations in human

“Encounters with Digital Art History.” Ars Orientalis, Vol 44., 2015

Review of THE ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF TWELVER SHI`ISM: IRAQ, IRAN AND THE INDIAN SUB-CONTINENT by JAMES W. ALLAN and THE ART AND MATERIAL CULTURE OF IRANIAN SHI'ISM: ICONOGRAPHY AND RELIGIOUS DEVOTION IN SHI'I ISLAM, PEDRAM KHOSRONEJAD, ED.

Doctrine and Design: Two Islamic Centres in Burnaby, Canada

3 For a recent examination of the Middle Eastern confluence of state and religious authority expr... more 3 For a recent examination of the Middle Eastern confluence of state and religious authority expressed in transnational mosque design and patronage, including the differing doctrinal agendas of Saudi and Iranian governments, see: Kishwar Rizvi, Transnational Mosque: Architecture and Historical Memory in the Contemporary Middle East, 1st ed. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015).