• Note from Founder and Director of NYU Center for Dialogues
• Introduction
• Changing impressions: Muslim Voices: Arts and Ideas
• The Arts of Islam in the Eyes of the West: A Historical View
• Cultural exchanges: viewing history through gifts and commerce
• Gift exchanges: Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne
• Gift exchanges: Venice and the Ottoman Empire
• Commerce: coins, jewelry, and other goods
• Commerce: twentieth-century changes
• Creative Lives Under Changing Circumstances
• Early Muslim Society
• The Post-Mongol Muslim World
• The Early Modern Muslim World
• The Muslim World in 1900
• The Muslim World Today
• The Arts of Islam: A Brief History
• A. Poetry and Song
• B. Quranic Chant
• C. Calligraphy
• D. Belles Lettres
• E. Music and Dance
• F. Theater
• G. Painting, Sculpture, and Design
• H. Architecture
• Islamic Art Today
• Conclusion
• Recommended Further Reading
  General
• Poetry and Prose: Arabic
• Poetry and Prose: Persian
• Poetry and Prose: Turkish
• Poetry and Prose: Urdu
• Quranic Chant
• Music and Song
• Calligraphy
• Painting and Design
• Architecture
• Theater and Cinema
• Dance
• Videologue

CULTURAL AWARENESS IN A TIME OF CRISIS

Note by Founder and Director of the NYU Center for Dialogues:
Professor Mustapha Tlili

This introductory essay is a product of the New York University Center for Dialogues. It was conceptualized collectively by an academic advisory team working in consultation with Mustapha Tlili, Founder and Director of the NYU Center for Dialogues, and was drafted by Richard Bulliet, Professor of History, Columbia University. The advisory team included: Jon W. Anderson, Chair, Anthropology Department, Catholic University; Margaret Ayers, President, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation; Rachel Cooper, Director for Cultural Programs and Performing Arts, Asia Society; Dale Eickelman, Professor of Anthropology and Human Relations, Dartmouth College; Bruce Lawrence, Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University; Samina Quraeshi,Harvard University Fellow; Phillip Schuyler, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, University of Washington; Anthony Shay, specialist in traditional dance, Los Angeles; Eleanor Skimin, Humanities Manager, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Andrea L. Stanton, Assistant Director, NYU Center for Dialogues.

The NYU Center for Dialogues is solely responsible for the content of this background paper, which is intended as a survey of the historical developments that shaped the arts of the Muslim world, as well as a presentation of various artistic genres. The purpose of the essay is to serve as a springboard for further discussion on these subjects at the conference on“ Bridging the Divide Through Arts and Ideas: Possibilities and Limitations” organized by the Center as part of the “Muslim Voices: Arts and Ideas” initiative. The essay should not be understood as a comprehensive treatment.

The Center has endeavored to make this essay as objective as possible, with content and analysis grounded in current scholarship.

Please make reference to the New York University Center for Dialogues when quoting from the paper.