
The Mercantile Effect: Art and Exchange in the Islamicate World during the 17th and 18th Centuries
Tom Verde
Susan Babaie and Melanie Gibson, eds.
2018, The Gingko Library, 978-1-90994-210-3, $59.95 cloth.
This colorfully illustrated volume of essays by art-history scholars examines the intersections of art and trade in the early modern era, when Europe’s taste for goods from the “Islamicate world” (a term coined by historian Marshall Hodgson) impacted art and material culture on both ends of the trade routes. A 17th-century painted fan from Holland depicting the interior of an imaginary Asian merchant’s shop, replete with Indian and Persian customers, “visualises the fluid movement of objects and people” at the time. A “costume album” from Turkey illustrating various members of Ottoman society in typical outfits was among the “popular souvenirs for European travelers,” revealing how Ottomans saw themselves and how they wished to be seen. From decoratively designed porcelain and pocket watches, to the adoption of “themes and motifs from Ottoman art” in eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical textiles, this informative collection of essays explores how the “irresistible quest for new markets” established “connectivity” between the two cultures that “transcend[ed] barriers.”
You may also be interested in...
The Ebb and Flow of History on the Zambezi River
In tracing the past six centuries of history, historian Malyn Hewitt captures the cyclical rise and fall of the river and its people.Omani Author Zahran Alqasmi's Story About Life, Land and Honey
In his third novel, about a beekeeper living in Oman’s mountainous interior, local author Zahran Alqasmi grapples with a changing landscape around him.Celebrate Women's History Month With These Reads on Women Throughout History
To help honor Women’s History Month, AramcoWorld brings you a list of 10 female-focused reads that celebrate women throughout history.