Tag Archives: Islam

(Art Puppets & Middle East History) Cabaret Crusades (Wael Shawky)

Posted on February 17, 2020 by zjb

Puppets from Wael Shawky’s three-part video series Cabaret Crusades are here on view at the Met Breuer. I’m wondering about the relation between visual art and history (it could just as well be about religion and history) in a body … Continue reading →

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Edward Said & Orientalism (Some Bibliographical References)

Posted on February 11, 2020 by zjb

Of course most if not all of my academic friends will recognize this picture and will have read at some point in their lives the text for which it is the cover-image. But from which perspectival perch do we engage … Continue reading →

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Shia Islam & Judaism (Conference)

Posted on March 28, 2019 by zjb

  Muslim-Jewish Encounters: Shia Islam and Judaism Inaugural Conference of the Muslim-Jewish Relations Initiative Florida International University / University of Bamberg Organized by Ezra Tzfadya, M.A. (Bamberg) and Dr. Iqbal Akhtar (FIU) Day 1: April 10th 4:00-6:30: Panel 1: Conceiving … Continue reading →

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Islamic Ornament & The Spiritual in Art (Oleg Grabar)

Posted on February 13, 2019 by zjb

Just finished reading Oleg Grabar’s The Mediation of Ornament for a survey class on Religion and Art. Written by one the great art historians of Islamic art, The Mediation of Ornament is more like a meditation after a career long … Continue reading →

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Design Politics of Racism in Israel (2018)

Posted on October 18, 2018 by zjb

There is the racist content and the fascist friend/enemy crouch. There is evidence as to the way that religion, in this case, the religion of Judaism and the fear of Islam, is used to manipulate the political discourse in Israel, … Continue reading →

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Hasidic-Muslim Relations in Ottoman Palestine (Yitzhak Melamed)

Posted on April 30, 2018 by zjb

Super interesting piece by Yitzhak Melamed with texts on the history of Hasidic-Muslim relations in Ottoman Palestine. The first Hasidic masters settled in Palestine in the eighteenth century, even before the movement developed a consciousness of itself as a new … Continue reading →

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Jew اليهودي

Posted on June 7, 2017 by zjb

I’m going to write up some thoughts on Cynthia Baker’s Jew, but for now want to share this link to Simon Hopkins, “On the Words for “Jew(s) in Arabic,” Israel Oriental Studies XVII (1997), 11-27. I do so in order to push … Continue reading →

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(Levantine) Aesthetic Judaism (Lucette Lagnado)

Posted on May 30, 2017 by zjb

Memoir is an unusually interesting genre for the study of modern religion and modern Judaism. Casting about for material that would expand the contours of my mid-level class last semester (spring 2017) on American Judaism I finally got around to … Continue reading →

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Donald (of Arabia)

Posted on May 22, 2017 by zjb

Without exception colorful, the pictures from the Trump visit to Saudi Arabia were exceptionally exotic. The image was one part arms bazaar, one part catwalk, and one part performance spectacle.

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Trump’s Islam Speech & Religious Studies

Posted on May 17, 2017 by zjb

About Trump’s big speech on Islam to be delivered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, please pass this jewel from columnist Sarah Posner to Department chairs of Religious Studies and to their deans. “[E]xperts I spoke with today warned that this speech is … Continue reading →

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