- Name:
- Dr. Christiane Gruber
- Position:
- Assistant Professor of Islamic Art, Indiana University at Bloomington
- TIMA Role:
- Individual Member
- Address:
- 1201 E. Seventh Avenue, Office 132
Bloomington IN 47405
United States - Tel:
- +1 812 855 6714
- Fax:
- Email:
- chgruber@indiana.edu
- Website:
- www.indiana.edu/~arthist/
- Expertise:
- Research Interests
Texts and images of the Prophet Muhammad’s ascension; illustrated
manuscripts of the Turco-Persian world; Islamic codicology and
paleography; post-revolutionary Iranian art; and modern Islamic visual
culture.
Personal Statement
My primary field of interest revolves around bio-apocalyptical texts
and images of the Prophet Muhammad in the Persian and Turkic worlds. My
first book entitled “The Timurid Book of Ascension: A Study of Text and
Image in a Pan-Asian Context,” provides an overview of Islamic
ascension (mi’raj) texts and images, as well as a careful analysis of a
Turco-Persian illustrated “Book of Ascension” produced in Herat ca.
1436. My second book entitled “The Ilkhanid Book of Ascension: A
Persian-Sunni Prayer Manual” analyzes texts and images of Muhammad’s
ascension in the medieval Persian world, underscoring how the theme and
paintings of the mi’raj could be used for procedures of conversion to
Sunni Islam during the Ilkhanid period.
I also am interested in Islamic book arts, in particular the study of
manuscripts (codicology) and penmanship (paleography). I authored the
online catalogue of the Islamic calligraphies in the Library of
Congress (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/intldl/apochtml/apochome.html), and am
currently organizing an exhibition and publication on the Islamic book
arts in Indiana University collections.
Selected Books:
* The Ilkhanid Book of Ascension: A Persian-Sunni Prayer Manual
(London: I.B. Tauris and British Institute for Persian Studies,
forthcoming, Spring 2009).
* The Timurid Book of Ascension: A Study of Text and Image in a
Pan-Asian Context (Valencia, Spain: Patrimonio Ediciones in
collaboration with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2008).
* Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy: an online
catalogue of 355 calligraphic specimens in the Library of Congress
(Washington D.C., 2006). URL:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/intldl/apochtml/apochome.html
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