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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
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“Islam is Large”: Iconoclastic materiality and the dynamics of an Islamic tradition
Iconoclasm has served as a repeated theme in discussions of the relationship which Muslim societies have to the material world. The simple act of smashing idols, however, disguises a much more nuanced set of discourses and practices in which the products of human artifice become understood and evaluated in terms of their ability to serve either as vehicles for the remembrance of God (thikr) or as agents of idolatry, the partnering of God (shirk). This paper examines how such a framework for engaging with material culture extends to the built environment and, in particular, engagements with past landscapes. Using examples from the archaeological remains of the Umayyad dynasty (c. 660-750 CE) in Syria and contestations in contemporary Mecca I trace how iconoclastic practices constitute arguments about, and are often read as markers of, a specifically Islamic materiality. The negotiation of these practices in varied social contexts demonstrates how the material world operates as important site in the formation and operation of a dynamic Islamic tradition.