The 2024 Hassan Lecture - Dr. Fahmida Suleman, "Globalization in the Medieval World"

Globalization in the Medieval World: Chinese and Central Asian Artistic Inspirations in the Islamic Mediterranean

The annual Hanny & Najet Hassan Lecture in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities

This richly illustrated talk by Dr Fahmida Suleman, Senior Curator of the Islamic World collections at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), challenges the assumption that globalization is unique to modernity, focusing on art and visual culture from medieval Islamic Egypt. Egypt’s political and economic stability at the time attracted artisans and performers from various parts of the Islamic world to the capital at Cairo, resulting in works of art that fused many aesthetic traditions.

This was the context in which a Central Asian dance, described as ‘sleeve-dancing,’ burst into popularity in medieval Cairo. The iconography of the Central Asian sleeve-dancer appears in both courtly and urban contexts in this period, from palace decoration and ivory carvings (as in the image for this event), to the more widely distributed ceramics painted with lustre pigments. Literary and material evidence on the origin and spread of sleeve-dancing in the medieval Islamic world brings to light aspects of Central Asian and Chinese inspiration, showing that global connections existed long before European long-distance maritime expeditions. Studying medieval art and material culture can offer critical reflections on existing global histories.