Summary: Depictions of Mecca and Medina appeared in a variety
of media and served myriad functions in the Ottoman Empire. As textual
evidence and traces of devotional engagement in prayer books and
pilgrimage manuals indicate, printed and painted images of the Islamic
holy cities were used as talismans, among their other functions. This
talk will demonstrate how several Mecca and Medina images catered to
those wishing to secure intercession, blessings,cures, and protection by
focusing on their accompanying texts and signs of physical
intervention. Viewers engaged with manuscript paintings and stamped
images in many ways, for instance by kissing, touching one’s face to the
image, rubbing the image with one’s finger, or simply carrying the
image on the body. These devotional acts often resulted in the removal
and smudging of pigments or, less commonly, excision of easy-to-carry
images.
About: Sabiha Göloğlu is a recipient of the
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (Global) for her research
project at the University of Hamburg and the University of Michigan.
Formerly, she was a postdoctoral university assistant at the University
of Vienna and a CAHIM (Connecting Art Histories in the Museum) fellow of
the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz and the Museum für Islamische
Kunst in Berlin. She holds a PhD in Art History from Koç University in
Istanbul.