Dr. Avinoam Shalem, Riggio Professor of the History of the Arts of Islam of the University of Columbia in the City of New York
This lecture focuses on ancient and especially early medieval writings obsessed with the idea of being the first and especially on the emergence of the medieval Arabic genre of writing in the early days of Islam called al-awa‘il (the plural of al-awwal, namely the first). It draws attention to this type of knowledge, which provides the needed foundations for arranging and systematizing the sequence of events – a branch in history usually called protography. Thus, this lecture aims at detecting and recognizing the earliest notions of searching for the first and the original in Muslim history. It is accepted that awa‘il literature could have functioned as a source of pride among different communities in the newly established Abbasid empire, in which each clan could have taken pride in its own first and developed a sense of belonging and distinct identity. Moreover, it is also likely that this genre enhanced consciousness about times past, awoke the awareness of the concept of temporal duration, and told apart mythical time from historical time. Yet, this lecture challenges how this trend in literature might have its impact on the ways by which monumental architecture was regarded in the early Abbasid period, especially in these specific moments in which awa‘il literature flourished and was enthusiastically studied. Moreover, as I will argue that this craze for the histories of the firsts might contribute to the re-thinking of mythical times and to the novel megalomanic aesthetic of the early Abbasid period, for which the fragmentally surviving architecture of the city of Samarra bears witness.
Rutgers students and Professors, please RSVP: https://rutgers.campuslabs.com/engage/event/11745677