Aniconism

The Levites: their anthropology and its consequences for ancestor worship and the veneration of images. – Recent research discerns two different forms of Yahwism: one based on the idea of Israel’s divine election and typical of northern Israel, and one focused on the notion of Yahweh the creator of all the peoples of the earth, associated with Jerusalem and Judah. As the present paper argues, the election-type of ideology was strongly supported by the Levites in whose milieu the warlike attitude of the nomadic people survives. The god of the Levites reveals himself as an irascible deity (el qanna), intent on separation, isolation, and conquest. Three sections explore as many aspects of Levitical religion: (1) Psalm 16, presented in a new annotated translation, reflects the belief that post-mortem assumption into heaven was reserved for Levitical priests, while normal people would end up Sheol. The celestial privilege of the Levites originally was an esoteric Levitical doctrine. (2) Originally, the festival of Tabernacles was associated with the idea that the ancestors participated in the celebration. As can be seen in Deuteronomy 26 and the Decalogue, the Levites rejected or at least minimized ancestor worship. (3) The ban on images originally meant the rejection of ancestral images, but the Levites extended the ban to include images of the deity. For them, the ideal place of worship consisted of a free standing altar (the only ritual institution presupposed by Deuteronomic law), whereas for the Zadokite priesthood of Jerusalem, an orthodox place of worship would include a temple house, complete with a divine image of the exclusively worshiped deity.  When around 500 BCE, the second temple of Jerusalem was built, the two factions compromised by having the altar accompanied by a temple house that remained without a statue and any other form of pictorial representation of God, as required by the (Levitical) Decalogue.

This thesis explores a specific form of representation from the Syrian Bronze Age: aniconic standing-stones, lacking inscriptions or decorations. These have been mainly studied from the point of view of texts which mention cult activity associated with them, but there has been heretofore no integrated analysis of archaeological finds, analysing architecture and associated material culture in comparison to texts. I will interpret litholatry (the cult of standing-stones) from the point of view of the influence of semi-nomadic pastoralists from the Syrian desert frontier on the culture of urban societies, and of the negotiation of urban/tribal identities of city kings through ritual.

This chapter examines the different aspects that are involved in the notions of “aniconism” and “aniconicity”. Whereas the former signifies a visual program that distances itself from visual, especially anthropomorphic representations of divine beings, the latter merely communicates the fact of a representation or manifestation that has no visual likeness to its divine prototype. However, further distinctions are needed to reach a more precise vocabulary that adequately considers the great variation of such representations. The chapter suggests a number of such distinctions that together constitutes a spectrum or continuum of visual modes whose primary quality is the fluidity by which non-iconic, aniconic and iconic elements are associated with each other.

Aniconism refers to the proscription of religious imagery and representations of the Divine, sacred beings, and holy personages. Due to the influence of the Abrahamic religions, aniconism provides the hermeneutic framework to interpret the absence of religious imagery and the preponderance of symbolic representations of the divine and holy people in religions in general. This paper holds that sacramentality offers a better horizon to address the riddles inherent to the representation of the sacred.

In this paper, I argue that the detailed descriptions of the tabernacle may be a response to Israelite aniconism practices. Comparing the tabernacle descriptions with the use of calligraphy on religious structures in Islam, I argue the detailed descriptions of the deity's dwelling are a means of religious expression and representation, one that observes the prohibition on images of the deity while simultaneously providing a means of visualizing something closely associated with the deity.

The article points to the close connection between the ›prohibition of images‹ and the prohibition of idolatry in ancient Judaism, which had already been established in the Decalogue itself. First, the treatment of the ›prohibition of images‹ in Philo of Alexandria and Flavius Josephus is discussed, followed by a treatment of the archaeological evidence up to the Bar Kokhba revolt. A reluctance to depict animals and humans can be observed here, especially in order to prevent their being worshipped. However, there is no absolute prohibition of images, and the archaeological evidence also yields individual depictions of animals and even humans which points to social and ideological differences in the Judaism of the Hellenistic-Early Roman period. The rabbinic texts refer even more strongly to the aspect of worship: according to Tannaitic sources (above all, Mishnah and Tosefta Avodah zarah), using those images that are ›worshipped‹ is forbidden. The presence of images, even images of gods, in public spaces not designed for their worship is unproblematic, as the famous anecdote about Rabban Gamli’el in Aphrodite’s bath in Akko illustrates, according to which the statue of Aphrodite is considered to be a mere ›ornament‹. The archaeological evidence seems to correspond to this: from the early 3rd century at the latest, one finds animal images preserved on lintels of synagogues, followed soon afterwards by human depictions, e.g. on synagogue mosaic floors, and finally also depictions of Helios and the Quadriga. Only in later witnesses (beginning ith the Babylonian Talmud) do we find prohibitions to depict, for example, the moon even as an ornament, and ›iconoclastic‹ interventions are discernible in the archaeological evidence. – The PDF uploaded is a pre-print version with corrections. I shall be happy to send a PDF of the published version upon request.

The prevailing opininion considers that Islam is against images. Going back to the Koran and the hadiths, and reviewing the art production in Islamic lands from the beginning to our time, the book tries to give another perspective on this question. The modern period, where a multiplication of images can be observed, is analyzed in details, through fatwas and other positions taken by Islamic scholars.

On the one hand, the book of Deuteronomy strongly condemns the veneration of cult statues and all other embodiments of deities, including the aniconic standing stones (4:1-40; 5:8-10; 9:1-29; 16:21-22, etc). On the other hand, the book reveres cultic objects that record the words of God and Moses, such as the two stone tablets with the Decalogue (4:13; 5:6-22; 9:9-11,15,17-18; 10:1-5), the scroll on which Moses wrote his long speech to the people (31:9-13,24-26), the copy for the king (17:18), the stones on Mount Ebal (27:1-8), and the texts worn on the arms and the forehead or written on doorposts and gates (6:8-9; 11:18-20). It is not coincidental that the recommendation of the tablets with the Decalogue occurs in the same part of the book as the condemnation of the cultic images. The cult statues and standing stones may give the impression that the gods are close, but for the authors of Deuteronomy such lifeless, man-made representations show that the gods are dead and powerless. The ban on making images of YHWH is due to the idea that this God is completely different: powerful, active, close, caring, offended when people reject Him, and compassionate when they need Him. The uniqueness of YHWH and His wish that His people love and fear Him can only be expressed in words. This is the reason why Deuteronomy accompanies the ban on cultic images with the promotion of religious texts.

This paper asks how and why the cross lost out to the icon. The cross used to be the most important symbol of all Christendom, until Byzantium replaced it with the icon as primary attribute of Orthodox Christianity . This happened as a result of Byzantine Iconoclasm, when in the eighth and ninth centuries icons were substituted for crosses and vice versa. Afterwards, the winning party, which favoured the icon, put all the blame on the cross and its adherents who allegedly started the dispute by destroying icons and replacing them with crosses. However, this paper finds that at Constantinople and in Asia Minor – i.e. in the capital and the heartland of the Byzantine Empire – early Christian church decoration had always been focused on the symbol of the cross and excluded the kind of figural image that was at issue during Iconoclasm. This poses the problem how Iconoclasm should have been possible without icons and how the cross could have become associated with the destruction of icons, if there were no such images to destroy and replace. The solution is found through a closer look at the sequence of the Iconoclast controversy, which may be blamed on the icon as much as and more so than on the cross. Thus, Iconoclasm appears to have been less about the destruction of icons and more about the import of image veneration to Constantinople and Asia Minor, where such had not been customary in early Christian times. Ultimately, Iconoclasm and the demise of the cross seem to have been due to the seventh-century collapse of the Eastern Roman empire, when most formerly icon-venerating provinces were lost to Byzantine rule. The remaining Byzantine rump state was apparently too small to accommodate the various early Christian traditions – iconic in some provinces and essentially aniconic in others, notably at Constantinople and in Asia Minor. The ensuing, so-called Iconoclast controversy as to which tradition should prevail was eventually lost by the cross, and this can explain how and why Orthodoxy came to be focused on icon veneration instead.

The article continues the publication, for the first time, of a book left in manuscript by the Romanian orientalist Constantin Daniel. The last chapters of the book, included in the article, expose an exaggeratedly spiritual perspective of the Thracian world. This allegedly high spirituality rests on the ascetic cult of a Solar deity, known as Zalmoxis (whose name is interpreted as „the shinning man”, „the man of light”) and being identical with the Greek god Apollo. Constantin Daniel argues for the Uranian features of Zalmoxis, rejecting a traditional interpretation which ascribes him a chtonic character.
The cult of Zalmoxis prompted a moral and even ascetical life among its adepts and it created a community bound by relations of empathy and even brotherhood. The acceptance of Zalmoxis in the Thracian world led to the rejection of Dionysos and of his hedonistic cult, which was standing in opposition with the elevated spirituality of the worshippers of Zalmoxis.

Keywords : Zalmoxis, solar, cult of mysteries, Pitagora, ascetism, sensorial deprivation, immortality

Set forth is a revised version of my PhD thesis, presented in February 2012 and initially completed under the supervision of professor Antoine Cavigneaux of the University of Geneva and professor Karl Reber of the University of Lausanne.

The purpose of this treatise is to shed new light on the aniconic cults of the Ancient Near East, where previously the standing stone cults of the Semitic and Anatolian populations in Emar and Hittite Anatolia were invariably studied separately. The study offers a synthetic view of all the information currently available and then proceeds to a renewed interpretation of cultic standing stones in Late Bronze Age Emar.

At the end of the fourteenth century BCE, Aštata and Emar entered the Hittite sphere of influence. While matters of Hittite administration in Emar have been previously discussed, the religious question has been little studied owing to the fact that Hittites were usually considered to be very tolerant.

The analysis of different Emar rites will indicate what type of ritual the standing stones represented and how they were attested in the Emar corpus. This analysis obliges us to acknowledge that the Hittite conquest of Aštata had repercussions on local religious life.

It is necessary to begin by clarifying the meaning of certain terms such as « standing stone » and « aniconism » and proceed with an investigation into how the word for a standing stone appears in the relevant cultures and languages cited: Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite and Luwian.

An introduction to the so-called « house of the diviner » and the scribal traditions is followed by an analysis of the Emar rites, and in particular the Zukrum feast. A comparison of certain elements with practice at Ebla and Mari appears to place Emar in a cultural and religious continuity within the whole of Ancient Syria. Some examples of this are the existence of a Yaminite Zukrum and the occurrence of the word pirikku in both Mari and Emar.
The practise of how standing stones were worshipped, and how frequently they were worshipped in Emar - not only in the well-known Zukrum feast but also in the enthronisations of priestesses and during monthly rituals  - is discussed.

A detailed presentation of the role of the great Diviner of Emar underlines the relations between the diviners of Emar and the Hittite Empire - in particular the Hittite representatives in Carchemish – and helps us appreciate how these diviners were involved in the important reorganization of cults initiated by king Tudhaliya IV. Equally, taking into account the texts presented demonstrates the mechanism of and the political reasons for such a reorganization.

A comparison between Emar and Hittite aniconic rites highlights the way the Hittite Empire imposed Hittite traditions on the local cults of Emar, and in what way the powerful Emar diviners were responsible for adapting local traditions.

In comparing the Zukrum with Hittite cults we can determine that both traditions have in common a popular feast offering food and drink to all participants as the divine statue is taken out of the temple to an open air sanctuary beyond the city walls, to a sacred place called « Door of the Standing Stones » (in Emar and Šarišša-Kuşaklı), after which the stones are rubbed with oil and blood and the offerings are burnt in an ambaššu form.

In addition this chapter also underlines why the Anatolian rituals should be considered as translations of Hittite originals and how the local population practiced these rituals.

A very important letter, Emar 271, describes how a local boy is to feed Hittite deities in Emar. One subsequently understands that all the deities are to be worshipped in a Hittite way. This is a normal thing since the Hittites considered Emar as part of their Empire.

The impact of the Hittite conquest on local religious life is also underscored by more indirect proof outside of the religious texts. The administrative documents depict the Hittites as being involved in Hittite cults in Emar, and some cults’ inventories written in Akkadian tell of how some activities of the diviners were similar to those of the Bel Madgalti.

This second part of the book allows the reader to see Emar in an unfamiliar way, not only as part of religious continuity in a Semitic world, but as part of the Hittite empire with Hittite and Hurrian religious practices.

King Tudhaliya introduced new Hurrian elements in the Hittite religion that we find in the same period in Emar, Šarišša, Nerik and Zippalanda - an indication that religious practices of Late Bronze Age Emar were part of the Hittite world.

To broaden our understanding of the subject, an overview of aniconic cults in the Greek and Roman periods is presented.

This is a chapter of a textbook co-written with Erna Fiorentini, called Visual Worlds. It's about the history and theory of how people have worshipped and destroyed images. We focus in particular on five concepts: iconoclasm, idolatry, iconophilia, iconophobia, and iconoclash.

The book is available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199390916

La portada occidental de la catedral de Jaca es analizada a la luz del debate sobre la imagen sagrada y sus límites en el arte medieval occidental. La presencia del crismón en el tímpano supone una solución desde presupuestos anicónicos al problema de la representación de la Trinidad, enlazando con una tradición exegética que tiene como principal figura a San Agustín. Asimismo, se sugieren nuevas claves de lectura para los capiteles de la portada en relación con la problemática de la imagen, procurando una lectura integradora del conjunto escultórico.

This article deals with the interpretation of a British Museum coin (TC 242.5, due to its reverse also known as YHW-coin) and what it tells about Persian period Yehud. Many realities meet each other in this coin. The article touches on issues of the minting authority, the relation of this authority to the Persian government, the role of religious authorities, the significance of the obverse, the choice of the script and the iconography of the coin.
NOTE: this paper was published September 2009 at our Early Jewish Monotheisms project website (http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/122432.htmlresources/dehulster_tc242.pdf). Being unavailable there, it can now be read here.

In most Muslim societies today, artists practice figurative art. However, figurative prohibition in artistic representations has been also debated. Personal choices will differ based on understandings of Koran, Hadiths and Tafsirs. However, some religious scholars argue that figurative representations are prohibited not only in Islamic way of life but also in art based on Hadiths, although there is no direct reference in Koran itself. This view suggested that taking a perspective based on only Koran, and permitting the use of figurative representations is not appropriate in Islamic tradition. Because for a normative Muslim, there are multiple sources, such as Hadiths, Sunnah and Tafsir; one has to follow when taking action based on Islamic belief system. This article investigates conflicted views regarding art especially figurative prohibition based on primary and secondary sources of Islam. The purpose of this paper is neither defending nor refuting figure-prohibition observed in Islamic belief, but articulating various and sometimes conflicting views of the phenomenon in its context.

The present article examines the aniconic polemics of the Hebrew Bible in an attempt to appreciate better their role in defining Israelite cultural boundaries and belief. The first part of the article deals with early sources in the aniconic tradition on which Deuteronomy 4 builds, particularly the idol prohibition of the Decalogue and the altar law of Exodus 20. The second part seeks to eluci date the creative appropriation of these traditions in Deuteronomy 4 and the historical circumstances that inspired this chapter's rhetoric. Drawing on the conclusions of the previous sections, particularly the strikingly divergent cri tiques of idolatry as motivated by different historical contexts, the final section will attempt to draw some broader conclusions regarding the role of polemical strategies in establishing a distinctive cultural discourse.

The stylishly dressed birds disporting themselves on the cover of this book are not fashion icons. They form part of the aniconic mural decoration of an eighth- century Byzantine church on the Greek island of Naxos.

What is aniconic decoration, and what is its function in a religious space where one expects to find depictions of sacred images? The question applies not only to Christian worship, but even more so to the other monotheistic religions, Judaism and Islam, which regard the visual representation of invisible holiness as basically problematic.
Various approaches to these issues are provided by the eighteen authors of this volume, which publishes the papers of a colloquium held in 2009, at the Museum of History and Art and the University of Geneva.

Review of the book here:

https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/bz/article/view/11041

This chapter focuses on the Thracians. The Thracians did not have a written tradition. This detail may be considered either normal, as most ethnic groups of antiquity did not use writing as means of communication; or it may be considered somewhat unexpected, given the proximity of the Thracians to the Greeks and later the Romans of the Empire. Nevertheless, one can work out a quite comprehensive list of Thracian words. The Thracian forms are gleaned from various sources, often with approximate spellings and therefore with a high probability of being misread or misinterpreted. The chapter then looks at Thracian religion, one of the striking features of which is aniconism. Also striking is the peculiar representation of the supreme god, Zalmoxis, also spelled Zamolxis. There is no visual representation of this god or other Thracian gods of ‘classical’ Thracian society. Some Thracian groups adopted Roman ways of life and others resisted into the fourth century. This may have some bearing on the two dialects in modern Albanian—Romanian, Bulgarian, and Albanian being the main heirs of the Thracians—but this is a matter of debate.
The study is a chapter of a collective work published in the series Oxford Handbooks Online, and is available as full text for the registered users of the site.

Questo studio si propone di comporre un quadro di carattere teorico, filosofico e giuridico che rintracci, nei testi della tradizione medievale araba, la possibilità di esistenza e legittimità delle opere d'arte, e che recuperi nella normativa contemporanea i divieti imposti per legge o consuetudine nel tempo.

E laborate nel quadro della teoria dell'immagine, le nozioni di "iconico" e "aniconico" determinano attitudini di pensiero riscontrabili anche in ambiti disciplinari diversi: in generale, l'iconico persegue un ideale di conciliazione e di equilibrio, mentre l'aniconico è votato allo squilibrio e alla rottura di ogni regolarità. Questo volume propone un percorso che estende la portata teorica del binomio iconico/aniconico al di là del suo contesto originario, per applicarlo, come chiave di lettura, all'estetica e alla teoria dell'arte. Ne emerge infine uno scenario caratterizzato da una profonda vena aniconica. B eniamino Fortis, dottore di ricerca in Filosofia, ha studiato a Venezia, Firenze e Berlino. Si occupa di estetica, filosofia dell'arte, teoria dell'immagine e pensiero ebraico contemporaneo.

Did the Phoenicians avoid representing their deities in anthropomorphic form for ideological or religious reasons? The question of whether Phoenicians employed aniconic (as opposed to iconic) representational techniques has significance not only for the many under-explored aspects of Phoenician religion generally, but also for the question of whether aniconism can be considered a broader trend among the Semitic populations of the ancient Near East. Indeed, past research on aniconic phenomena is often motivated by a desire to understand the larger context of the Hebrew Bible’s proscription of divine images. Does this most famous of image-prohibitions represent a kind of religious or intellectual parthenogenesis, or is it one vigorous form of a broader West Semitic trend toward aniconic cultic expressions? In this book, which focuses on Iron Age and Achaemenid period materials from mainland Phoenicia and the Mediterranean colonies, I argue that that the Phoenicians did participate in an iconographic program that moved toward divine symbols, abstract forms, and even purely aniconic expressions. However, I argue that previous treatments of Phoenician iconography have inappropriately downplayed many examples of native Phoenician anthropomorphic depiction, and a careful examination of the material record shows hitherto unappreciated nuances of Phoenician divine imagery. As pioneering colonizers and traders, the Phoenicians exerted influence in a wide range of contexts, beginning in Egypt and the Near East and extending to Greece, Italy, and the far Western Mediterranean worlds of Spain and Northwest Africa. This monograph is the first of its kind to explore the important question of Phoenician aniconism as a significant topic in its own right, and elevates the complexity of Phoenician divine representation to its proper place alongside other iconographic movements in the ancient world.

In this article I examine whether there is a relationship between aniconism and the name type on Iron II stamp seals. Specifically, I investigate whether Hebrew and non-Hebrew stamped seals with a theophoric name are more often aniconic than those with a non-theophoric name. I also analyse whether Hebrew stamped seals with a Yahwistic name are more often aniconic than those with a non-Yahwistic name. The study reveals that there is a link between aniconism and stamp seals: approximately half of all seals are aniconic, while almost all bullae and stamp seals on jars are aniconic. Seals with a Yahwistic name are significantly more often aniconic than those with a non-Yahwistic name. Thus, notwithstanding the contribution of literacy to aniconism, I suggest that image prohibition played a role in the evolution toward aniconism in Hebrew seals.

The small single-nave church of St Paul near Akamatra
in Ikaria is known for its non-figurative painted decoration.
The re-examination of the three written inscriptions
of the church leads to the conclusion that it does
not date to 1103/4, as was hitherto believed, but to 1612,
since their first letter is not ς΄ but α΄. The particular
form of the letter ‘α’ also appears in Ikarian documents
of the 17th century. The architecture of the church indicates
a similar date. Therefore, the non-figurative decoration
of the church of St Paul is interpreted as the
result of the inability to invite a painter, due to the conditions
of extreme poverty that prevailed in early 17th
century Ikaria.

A revisitation of the Yeb archives with an eye to the question of cult statuary. The present article inventories the state of the question and makes several constructive suggestions. Its primary contributions are: to address the Yeb evidence, even preliminarily, to the debate over Yhwh statuary in the Jerusalem temple; to make a fresh interpretation of TAD A4.7/8; and to reread other key textual data for information about statuary.

In late-antique theological discourse, copying portraits of the saints – painting icons from icons, as Basil of Caesarea describes – proves a consistent metaphor for the spiritual perfection of the soul. Christians followed the saintly exemplars, endeavoring to trace the life of the spiritually accomplished in their own lives, to paint their souls with all the colors of virtue, indeed, to become icons of icons. We may dismiss this as mere rhetorical flourish. Yet there were underlying notions about the ability of portraiture to reveal spiritual transformation that influenced this theological trend. This paper examines the idea of saints as icons and
looks at the role actual painted portraiture may have had in shaping conceptions about both metaphorical and real icons.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT
This study is conducted through the form of a triptych. In the first part, we evoke the unprecedented situation in which the three monotheisms stand before the images, due, among other factors, to the Internet. We also aim to specify the meaning of every term used, in order to avoid simplifications in regard to their respective connections with the images. The second part, that is, the central panel of the triptych, intends to recall how each of the three religions, especially in its beginnings, dealt with images in general, and images of religious inspiration in particular. The third part examines the possible link between the hostility of nascent Islam towards the images and the well-known Controversy in Byzantium, also advocating the creation, within each of the three religions, of competent instances to designate those images that represent them properly.
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RESUMEN ESPAÑOL
Este trabajo está construido en forma de tríptico. En una primera parte, evocamos la situación inédita en la que se encuentran los tres monoteísmos ante las imágenes, debido, entre otras cosas, a Internet. Precisamos asimismo el sentido de los términos empleados, a fin de evitar simplificaciones en lo que se refiere a sus respectivas relaciones con las imágenes. La segunda parte, panel central del tríptico, se propone recordar cómo se condujo cada una de las tres religiones, especialmente en sus inicios, respecto a las imágenes en general, y a las imágenes de inspiración religiosa en particular. La tercera parte examina el posible vínculo entre la hostilidad del islam naciente hacia las imágenes y la famosa Controversia de las imágenes en Bizancio, abogando asimismo por la creación, en el seno de cada una de las tres religiones, de instancias competentes para designar aquellas imágenes que las representan de forma adecuada.

This thesis examines 43 images of Minoan tree cult as depicted in sphragistic jewellery, portable objects and wall paintings from Late Bronze Age Crete, mainland Greece and the Cyclades. The study also compares the Aegean images with evidence for sacred trees in the Middle and Late Bronze Age Levant, Egypt and Cyprus. The purpose of this research is the production of new interpretations of Minoan images of tree cult. Each of the chapters of the thesis looks at both archaeological and iconographic evidence for tree cult. The Aegean material is, in addition, examined more deeply through the lenses of modified Lacanian psychoanalytic modelling, “new” animism, ethnographic analogy, and a Neo-Marxist hermeneutics of suspicion. It is determined that Minoan images of tree cult depict elite figures performing their intimate association with the numinous landscape through the communicative method of envisioned and enacted epiphanic ritual. The tree in such images is a physiomorphic representation of a goddess type known in the wider eastern Mediterranean associated with effective rulership and with the additional qualities of fertility, nurturance, protection, regeneration, order and stability. The representation of this deity by elite human females in ritual performance functioned to enhance their self-representation as divinities and thus legitimise and concretise the position of elites within the hegemonic structure of Neopalatial Crete. These ideological visual messages were circulated to a wider audience through the reproduction and dispersal characteristic of the sphragistic process, resulting in Minoan elites literally stamping their authority on to the Cretan landscape and hence society.

While researching my grandmother’s grandfather, the venerable poet Amir Minai, I came across the writings of the Harvard professor Annemarie Schimmel mentioning this last of the Urdu formalists as “the high-sounding Amir Minai (1828-1900) who continued the Lucknow tradition.” I got curious and soon was reading more Annemarie than Amir. She had co authored a monograph on Islamic Calligraphy that I encountered at the same time as another scholar had included me among the contemporary artists that she was planning to present at this conference. As indeed it is a rare experience to both present and be presented, I decided to propose a paper at the same conference. An unidentified image in Annemarie's monograph on Islamic Calligraphy was conveniently at hand and thus:

The paper examines an unnamed image on an unnumbered page in a 56 page article by Annemarie Schimmel and Barbar Rivolta titled “Islamic Calligraphy”copiously illustrated with 67 images in The MOMA Bulletin, 50: 1, (Summer, 1992). More accurately the article has “1+3-56” pages and equally 1+3-67 images, as it is bookended with two pairs of unnumbered leaves, each consisting of a large image that remains unnamed, un-cited and un-referred to in the main text; the paradoxical logic of the parergon: neither work nor outside the work. The paper proposes to read one of the four images: a word inscribed four times in rotation, drawing our attention to its wordless centre.