1) The material culture of the Islamicate world (part A)

The Islamicate world includes Islamic regimes (i.e. with Muslim rulers and elites) and the different communities under their authority, along with Muslim communities living not necessarily under these regimes. Material culture generally means anything made by humans (architecture and vessels as well as art and literature) but often refers to physical ‘things’. This course combines the two definitions. It introduces features and objects which Muslims and others commonly produced and/or used from the 7^th to the 16^th century CE in the ‘Middle East’ and beyond and which could be found mainly in archaeological studies. The first part of the course will deal with portable artefacts such as plain and glazed ceramic vessels, glass miniatures, stone tools from marble or basalt, accessories made of bone or ivory, and small objects made of copper alloy or shells. An emphasis will be given to the typology of such vessels and to their decoration, to their scientific dating according to excavations, to their worldwide distribution, and to the technologies which allowed their production and decoration.