MAG-Renew project

Project description

The project "Spiritual renewal and artistic expression in 19th-century Morocco. Islamological, literary and aesthetic approaches." is a winner of the French Institute of Islamology's projects of excellence. It aims to apply advances in the field of adab studies to the history of Maghrebian Sufism in the 19th century. Combining Islamological study and a literary approach applied to texts drawn from a variety of corpora (manuscripts, recent editions, private collections), the project focuses on one particular issue: self-representation. More specifically, the following questions are addressed: how and why does hagiographic writing present an increasingly strong affirmation of the self in premodern times? The second question, which involves extending the textual corpus to include calligraphic and iconographic sources, concerns the study of the aesthetic conceptions by which the textual becomes, in calligraphy, visual, and in documents of private use testimony to the self. In a collective undertaking, this project aims to study the material manifestations of the discourse of sanctity in Moroccan religion. These "Islamological materialities" may come from quite diverse corpora (letters, annotations, colophons, monumental paintings, chant/kunnāsh notebooks, embroidered and calligraphed fabrics).

Project sponsor:

• Dr Francesco Chiabotti, University Professor of Islamic Studies, Inalco, Department of Arabic Studies CERMOM

In collaboration with:

• Dr Umberto Bongianino, Departmental lecturer in Islamic art and architecture, The Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford

• Post-doctoral researcher: Dr Sophie Tyser (CERMOM)

• Dr Eloïse Brac de la Perrière, University Professor at Sorbonne University, Scientific Advisor at INHA.