Heritage Studies in the Muslim World – serie

This book documents the changing role of the Islamic Waqf institution in Cyprus and the conservation of Waqf heritage buildings of Ottoman and Western origins.

This volume gives voice to cultural institutions working with collections of Islamic art and material culture globally, including many from outside Western Europe and North America.

Timbuktu Unbound: Islamic Texts, Textual Traditions and Heritage in West Africa is a cutting edge collection offering a reconsideration of manuscripts in Muslim West Africa.

This book offers the first in-depth study of the 1980 restoration of al-Jāmiʿ al-Anwar—also known as the Mosque of al-Ḥākim bi Amr Allāh—by the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community. Long portrayed by experts as having breached international conservation norms, the restoration project is reexamined here through primary sources, interviews, and archival research, and viewed through the lens of the community’s religious values. The book introduces iḥyāʾ—“bringing to life”—as a distinct Islamic philosophy of conservation, showing how sacred architecture is maintained not only as heritage but as living religious space. Challenging dominant narratives in heritage discourse, this book highlights the intersection of faith, identity, and conservation, offering valuable insights for scholars and practitioners working with religious communities and sacred sites.

This book offers a distinctive and compelling examination of artworks as vital historical documents, utilizing a multifaceted lens to delve into the cultural and artistic landscape of a particular era. By analyzing Papal commissions in Rome from the 15th to 17th centuries that notably incorporate Persian motifs, the book reveals the intentions of artists, the motivations of patrons, and the evolving styles and motifs across different cultures. Employs traditional art historical approaches but also extends beyond them, the book considers these artistic creations as significant contributions to the broader cultural heritage of the region. This book is a must read for scholars of Islamic studies and heritage studies.

It examines how the monolithic representation of Islamic heritage (as a singular construct) can be enriched by the true diversity of Islamic heritages and how endangerment and vulnerability in this type of heritage construct can be re-conceptualized.

This pivot sets Muslim shrines within the wider context of Heritage Studies in the Muslim world and considers their role in the articulation of sacred landscapes, their function as sites of cultural memory and their links to different religious traditions.

This pivot sets Muslim shrines within the wider context of Heritage Studies in the Muslim world and considers their role in the articulation of sacred landscapes, their function as sites of cultural memory and their links to different religious traditions.