Shii News – « An Early Document of Twelver Shii Visual Culture: The Niebuhr Scroll » (Paris, 12.5.16)

SEMINAIRE ‘SOCIETES, POLITIQUES ET CULTURES DU MONDE IRANIEN’
SEANCE DU 12 MAI 2016, 17h-19h (Attention changement de date)

Ulrich Marzolph, Professeur à l’Université de Göttingen.
« An Early Document of Twelver Shii Visual Culture: The Niebuhr Scroll »

The Niebuhr scroll is a unique historical document for the history of Twelver Shii visual culture. The scroll was acquired in 1765 by Carsten Niebuhr, German traveller in the service of the Danish king, at the sanctuary of Emam Hosein in Karbala. It is today preserved in the Ethnographic Collection of the National Museum of Denmark. About two meters in length, the scroll depicts a visual journey that starts at the common Muslim places of worship in Mecca and Medina, continues to the sanctuaries of the Emams and the martyrs of Karbala in Iraq, and ends at the sanctuary of Emam Reza in the Iranian city of Mashhad. Embedded in the tradition of pilgrimage certificates, the scroll combines the visual documentation of the Twelver Shii sanctuaries with a marginal text that emphasizes the journey’s spiritual dimension. The earliest document of its kind, the Niebuhr scroll is followed by closely similar documents known from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Studied together, these documents shed light on the development of a specific aspect of Twelver Shii visual culture over the past three centuries.

Lieu (Attention changement de lieu et de salle): INALCO, Salle 5.05 (5e étage), 65 Rue des Grands Moulins, 75013, Paris.

Organisateurs: Matteo De Chiara (INaLCO), Denis Hermann (CNRS), Fabrizio Speziale (Paris 3 – CNRS), Julien Thorez (CNRS).

Posted in: Field-specific (academic)