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IMC 2020: Sessions

Session 1310: Bodily Dimensions: Sensual and Supernatural Borders, IV

Wednesday 8 July 2020, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:Jack Ford, Department of History, University College London
Moderator/Chair:Lauren Rozenberg, Department of History of Art, University College London
Paper 1310-aProphetic and Erotic Bodies: Objects of Arabic Poetic Love in the 15th Century
(Language: English)
Simon Leese, Departement Filosofie en Religiewetenschap Universiteit Utrecht
Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Sexuality
Paper 1310-bOn the Edge of Bodily Health and Sorcery: Discussions of Healing Rituals in Early Islam
(Language: English)
Adam Collins Bursi, Departement Filosofie en Religiewetenschap Universiteit Utrecht
Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Medicine
Paper 1310-cImagined Bodies in Medieval Sufism: Bodily Discipline and Representation in Sufi Dream Manuals
(Language: English)
Eyad Abuali, Departement Filosofie en Religiewetenschap Universiteit Utrecht
Index terms: Islamic and Arabic Studies, Social History
Abstract

In the study of Islamic cultures, bodies and their meanings have remained a relatively marginal avenue of enquiry. This panel will propose new approaches to the body in early and medieval Islam, and ask how bodies constituted both subjects and objects within a range of cultural practices and discourses. Together, the panel will propose possible typologies of bodies within and beyond the bounds of the physical: non-human, imagined, desired, communal, ritualised, and sometimes beyond representation altogether. This panel brings together members and friends of the ERC-funded project 'SENSIS: The senses of Islam', based at the Utrecht University, which seeks to investigate the history of the senses and perception in Muslim cultures.