Superior

Prior to enrolling in courses at this language level, students must have completed or tested out of a minimum of 2 upper-division college-level Spanish courses at their home university in the U.S.

The goal of this course is to provide a brief panorama of Classic Islamic Art with an emphasis given to the spiritual and visionary values of the art. The course begins with an introduction into the doctrine and characteristics of the Islamic faith, the major characteristics of Muslim art: writings, inscriptions, calligraphy, and the different types of cursive writing. The course then is divided into key periods of Islamic art including: 1) The Caliphates: architecture and mosaics, the construction of mosques, civil buildings, baths, palaces, sculptures, 2) The disintegration of the Caliphates: the development of a new civilization of textiles and materials, ceramics of Iran and Afghanistan, the ceramic of Egypt 3) Islam of the 10th to 13th Centuries: metals in Mesopotamia and Syria, Syria and Iraq: text illustration 4) The disintegration of Islam 14th to 16th Centuries: metals from Syria and Egypt, Turkey: architecture, silks brocades, and velvets from the 16th-18th Centuries.