Cooper Union

Islamic Aesthetics

‘Islamic’ is not a unitary concept, neither is ‘aesthetics’. In this course, we will explore the fields of knowledge created by medieval and modern deployments of the Arabic adjective ’ajib (loosely translatable as marvelous, wonderful, astonishing) to describe the nature, production, and performance of texts, objects, events, and places, and their corporeal and spatial affects. Doing so allows us to locate the place of wonder in histories of literature, engineering, and art whilst underlining the permeability between traditions and the radical potential of overcoming expectations of experience and scholarship. Objects we will attend to include the Quran, the Kaaba, luster-painted ceramics, medieval automata and later technologies of enchantment, talismans, flying carpets, and representations of Islam and Muslims in the museum and contemporary American popular culture.

3 credits.

Course Code: HUM 312

Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.
“My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”
From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.
Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.