Ivories from Islamic Spain

Categorized as Topics
Casket Carved ivory casket with silver mounts, Spain (Córdoba or Cuenca), 1000-25. Spain; Or Cordoba; Cuenca 1000-1025; 17th century-18th century Carved ivory, with silver mounts

Ivories from Islamic Spain

Mariam Rosser-Owen

Synopsis:

This presentation focuses on carved ivories made in al-Andalus from the mid-10th to the mid-11th centuries. These objects were made for members of the ruling dynasties of Islamic Spain and are some of the most spectacular works of medieval Islamic art to survive. In order to shed light on their manufactures and motifs, this talk uses the particularly strong collection of such ivories in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as a way into the subject. It includes a lecture followed by a short handling session.

Object Handling Session at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London:

Worksheet:

A worksheet for this video is available here.

Also visit the Khamseen Worksheets page here.

References:

Glaire D. Anderson and Mariam Rosser-Owen, “Great Ladies and Noble Daughters: Ivories and Women in the Umayyad court at Córdoba”, in Pearls on a String: Artists, Patrons, and Poets at the Great Islamic Courts, ed. Amy S. Landau (Baltimore and Seattle: The Walters Art Museum and University of Washington Press, 2015), pp. 28-51.

Glaire D. Anderson, “A Mother’s Gift? Astrology and the Pyxis of al-Mughira”, in Journal of Medieval History 42, no. 1 (January 2016), pp. 107-30.

Doron Bauer, “Dissimulation et sensualité sur une pyxide d’Al-Andalus,” Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 55, no. 4 (2012), pp. 405–15.

Anthony Cutler, “Ivory working in Umayyad Córdoba: Techniques and Implications”, Journal of the David Collection 2, no. 1 (2005), pp. 37-47.

Mariam Rosser-Owen, “The Metal Mounts on Andalusi Ivories: Initial Observations”, in Metalwork and Material Culture in the Islamic World: Art, Craft and Text. Essays presented to James W. Allan, eds. Venetia Porter and Mariam Rosser-Owen (London: IB Tauris, 2012), pp. 301-16.

Mariam Rosser-Owen, Articulating the Hijaba: Cultural Patronage and Political Legitimacy in al-Andalus. The ‘Amirid Regency, c.970-1010 AD (Leiden: Brill, Handbook of Oriental Studies, 2021).

Avinoam Shalem, “From Royal Caskets to Relic Containers: two ivory caskets from Burgos and Madrid”, Muqarnas 12 (1995), pp. 24-38.

Noelia Silva Santa-Cruz, La eboraria andalusí: del califato omeya a la Granada nazarí, BAR International Series 2522 (Oxford: British Archeological Reports, 2013).

Citation:

Mariam Rosser-Owen, “Ivories from Islamic Spain,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 28 September 2023.

Mariam Rosser-Owen has been a curator in the Middle Eastern Section at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, since 2002. She specializes in the arts of the Arab world, in particular the Islamic Mediterranean and North Africa. She has a D.Phil. in Islamic Art and Archaeology from the University of Oxford, and is the author of Islamic Arts from Spain (V&A, 2010). She has written widely on ivory, and her book Articulating the Ḥijāba: Cultural Patronage and Political Legitimacy in al-Andalus. The ʿĀmirid Regency c.970-1010 AD was published in Brill’s Handbook of Oriental Studies series in 2021.