Project description
Re-shaping our understanding of the Qur'an and Early Islam through the study of visuality
The EU-funded VISIONIS project aims at writing a cultural history of vision in Early Islam (7th-11th century C.E.). It will examine how discourses, practices and artefacts connected to vision, sight and seeing have been conceptualised and calibrated in a variety of Early Muslim environments. It will investigate a diversity of hitherto unstudied visual dimensions of the Qur'anic text and study the ensuing development of visuality in Early Islamic writings and artefacts. This comprehensive research will offer the possibility of reviewing perceptions of Islam in general and of the visual culture of Early Islam in particular by raising awareness of the specificities of Muslim discourses on seeing and their historical anchoring.
Objective
VISIONIS sets out to write a cultural history of vision in Early Islam. It aims to generate a paradigm shift in the understanding of visuality in the transitional period between Late Antiquity and Early Islam. The project argues that the Quran is a key locus for our knowledge of the scope of visual strands in the epistemic space of Late Antiquity and the ways in which these visual strands were adapted and transformed by the emerging new religious community of Muslims. It also assumes that Early Islamic exegetical, theological, legal, literary, and historiographic texts and Early Islamic artistic production attest to the heretofore unstudied adjustment, conceptualization, and calibration of the various Quranic visual elements in combination with local-temporal trends. The project challenges the text-oriented research on the Quran that has prevented scholars from perceiving the works entanglement with the visual cultures of Late Antiquity. It also aims to rectify the comparative research of Islamic artwork and Islamic legal statements that resulted in a lack of comprehensive research into the Quran and Early Islamic texts as sources for the inquiry of Islamic visual concepts and images. VISIONIS will thus reverse the state of the art through two groundbreaking endeavours: 1) study of fundamental but neglected aspects of the Quran and Early Islamic writings, 2) development of a holistic perspective on the use and meaning of the visual, of practices of seeing, and concepts of the sense of sight in Early Islamic textual and material culture. The project will thus dramatically improve our understanding of the cultural dynamics of Late Antiquity and Early Islam, will raise awareness of the specificities of Muslim discourses on seeing, enabling an assessment of their historical anchoring, and challenge prevailing misconceptions of Islamic visual cultures.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history ancient history
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion religions islam
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
- Qur'anic Studies
- Qur'anic exegesis
- Islamic art
- Arabic Poetry
- Islamic Law
- historiographic narrations
- visual culture studies
- sense of sight
- sensory studies
- visionary journeys
- eschatology
- philology
- Late Antiquity
- visual Judaism
- text-image relation
- Christian images
- literary visuality
- visual rhetoric
- postcolonial
- image-text relation
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
91904 JERUSALEM
Israel
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.