A List of Gifts as a Critical Source for Early Modern Islamic Art

Departing from a single Venetian document that details gifts exchanged between the Safavid and Ottoman rulers, in this seminar we will consider definitions of Muslim court culture in the early modern period.

Further details and preparatory reading will be distributed in advance of the seminar.

The seminar will be followed by a light lunch kindly offered by CREMS.

To participate, please email the Department of History of Art.

About the speaker:

Sinem Arcak Casale is an Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture in the Department of Art History at the University of Minnesota and Academic Assistant to Gerhard Wolf at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. Her research and teaching focus on the history and visual culture of the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals. Her next project explores banquets, food cultures and entertainment at early modern Muslim courts.  Her book Gifts in the Age of Empire Ottoman-Safavid Cultural Exchange, 1500–1639 is forthcoming with the University of Chicago Press (August 2023).