Instrumental Jawārī

Female domestic slaves designated as jawārī (sing. jāriya) featured in a range of medieval Arabic sources, including treatises on the mechanical arts. They appeared, for example, as liquid-serving devices and timekeepers. Scholarship on automated jawārī, however, has been scant; little, in fact, has been written on gender, slavery, and technology in the medieval Middle East. Generally, figurative machines have been framed as either practical, proto-robotic forms or wondrous, elite contrivances. Though seemingly innocuous, these approaches are at risk of reinscribing modern biases. In particular, the utilitarian discourse that sees machines as neutral, useful objects has been shown to manifest a position of mastery, reinforcing a slippage between worker and tool. Yet the hypothesis that the automata were objectifying, framing the jāriya as the object of a patron’s viewpoint, might also partake in the binaries of subject and object, master and slave. To attend to the gendered and class-based politics of automated jawārī requires that we forgo common assumptions about both technology and objectification. The notion of instrumentality—here defined as the quality of serving as an instrument (āla) in a process of carrying and transmitting—may prove helpful in this regard. Jawārī, it turns out, were portrayed as instrumental figures in various other domains, including in domestic and spiritual contexts. Ṣūfī saints’ encounters with inspired jawārī, for example, foregrounded the female servant as a vector of divine wisdom. Like the engineer’s prototypes, these narratives were the product of a male, patriarchal viewpoint, oscillating between demeaning and valorizing effects; as such, they fortified some of the norms that made jawārī representable, notably as hypervisible, mediating agents. At the same time, these representations expose the limits of utilitarian, apolitical approaches to technology while positing jawārī as vehicles—more than objects—of instrumentality

Ligne, sensation et métaphore dans la peinture persane du XVe siècle

This article explores the tension between sensation and representation in Persian painting, and the role of the line in expressing and embodying the metaphorical possibilities of the medium. Persian painting from the fifteenth century has most often been approached as illustrative, a grid of figures and motifs representing fixed meanings. This paper argues that Persian painting’s system of representation, although seemingly articulated into differentiated signs, cannot be reduced to a pre-given text. Using primary sources that illuminate the terms in which Persian painting and drawing could be described by their historical audiences, I reveal that contemporary viewers were also attentive to the sensory work of the artist, especially visible in the line’s materiality. Examining the lyrical verve of each motif’s contour, the period eye uncovered the artists’ sensation, as well as a series of images linking the line to the artist’s bodily movements, the face of the beloved, and the pursuit of mystical desire

Saracen or Pisan ? The Use and Meaning of the Pisa Griffin on the Duomo

International audienc

Objects of performance : The paintings of the Bustân of Sa'di signed "Behzâd" (ca. 894/1488)

Cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude des peintures d'un des manuscrits les plus importants de la tradition persane : une copie du Bustân de Sa‘di réalisée à la cour timouride de Herât vers 894 H./1488. Elle démontre que ces peintures incarnent un changement de fonction de la peinture, d'un dispositif de représentation à un objet de performance. Les peintures présentent plusieurs aspects inédits, qui contredisent la fonction illustrative généralement associée à la peinture persane de manuscrit. La surface de la peinture se couvre de formes qui n'ont aucun rapport avec le texte qu'elle est censée illustrer (chapitre I). Le peintre a également inséré des vers poétiques dans les peintures, qui évoquent le spectateur et constituent un panégyrique de l'image (chapitre II). On note aussi une miniaturisation des formes, visible en particulier à travers la prolifération de motifs linéaires infimes. La finesse de la ligne s'accompagne de la présence, dissimulée dans les détails de la composition, de la signature du peintre Behzâd (chapitre III). Ces aspects donnent à la peinture une dimension réflexive, qui détourne le spectateur du contenu de l'œuvre au profit d'un questionnement sur le statut de l'image et le talent du peintre. Ce changement de fonction s'explique par le rôle croissant du majlis, une assemblée où artistes, poètes et patrons se réunissent pour discuter des œuvres. Dans ce contexte qui annonce l'émergence des écrits historiographiques sur l'art, la peinture est conçue comme un objet de performance, où le peintre dissémine des éléments qui indiquent son talent, et que le spectateur peut utiliser en retour pour créer des discours et des fictions sur l'artiste.This dissertation examines the paintings of one of the most important manuscripts of the Persianate book tradition: a copy of the Bustân of Sa‘di, executed in the Timurid court of Herât, ca. 894 H./1488. It argues that these paintings embody a shift in the understanding of painting from a device of representation to an object of performance. In the three chapters of the dissertation, I analyze several new characteristics that appear in the paintings of the Bustân. First, the painting becomes filled with elements that are not related to the text copied in the book (chapter I). Second, the monuments depicted are inscribed with poetic verses emphasizing the admiration of the viewer towards the paintings (chapter II). Lastly, the visual information becomes extremely miniaturized. The most meticulous details appear to be minute linear motifs. This emphasis on the line accords with the presence of the signature of the painter Behzâd, embedded in each composition (chapter III).All of these elements shift the attention of the viewer from the content represented in the paintings to the artistic process that led to their creation. By contrasting the paintings with the historical scenarios of their reception, this dissertation sheds light on a hitherto unnoticed aspect of late 9th/15th century Persian painting, one which foreshadows the development of art historiographical writings: the paintings signed “Behzâd” are conceived not only as representational devices, but also as objects of performance, that the painter uses to inscribe his gesture, and whose contemplation causes the viewer to elaborate discourses and fictions on the artist

Ligne, sensation et métaphore dans la peinture persane du XV siècle

This article explores the tension between sensation and representation in Persian painting, and the role of the line in expressing and embodying the metaphorical possibilities of the medium. Persian painting from the fifteenth century has most often been approached as illustrative, a grid of figures and motifs representing fixed meanings. This paper argues that Persian painting’s system of representation, although seemingly articulated into differentiated signs, cannot be reduced to a pre-given text. Using primary sources that illuminate the terms in which Persian painting and drawing could be described by their historical audiences, I reveal that contemporary viewers were also attentive to the sensory work of the artist, especially visible in the line’s materiality. Examining the lyrical verve of each motif’s contour, the period eye uncovered the artists’ sensation, as well as a series of images linking the line to the artist’s bodily movements, the face of the beloved, and the pursuit of mystical desire