Jennifer Pruitt | University of Wisconsin-Madison (original) (raw)

Books by Jennifer Pruitt

This groundbreaking study investigates the early architecture of the Fatimids, an Ismaili Shi‘i M... more This groundbreaking study investigates the early architecture of the Fatimids, an Ismaili Shi‘i Muslim dynasty that dominated the Mediterranean world from the 10th to the 12th century. This period, considered a golden age of multicultural and interfaith tolerance, witnessed the construction of iconic structures, including Cairo’s al-Azhar and al-Hakim mosques and crucial renovations to Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock and Aqsa Mosque. However, it also featured large-scale destruction of churches under the notorious reign of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, most notably the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Jennifer A. Pruitt offers a new interpretation of these and other key moments in the history of Islamic architecture, using newly available medieval primary sources by Ismaili writers and rarely considered Arabic Christian sources. Building the Caliphate contextualizes early Fatimid architecture within the wider Mediterranean and Islamic world and demonstrates how rulers manipulated architectural form and urban topographies to express political legitimacy on a global stage.

Publications by Jennifer Pruitt

Globalism in the COVID Era: Reflections on Expo 2020 Dubai

This essay explores the architectural history of Jerusalem in the Abbasid (751– 970) and Fatimid ... more This essay explores the architectural history of Jerusalem in the Abbasid
(751– 970) and Fatimid (970– 1036) periods. Compared to the time of the Umayyads (661– 750), Abbasid-era Jerusalem was characterized by a caliphal disinterest in the monuments of the holy city. However, it also saw growth in the identification between local populations and their respective religious monuments. This contest over sacred space culminated under the Fatimid dynasty, in the cataclysmic reign of
al- Hakim bi- Amr Allah (r. 985– 1021), who is infamous today because he called for the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre. Indeed, al- Hakim’s incursion into the city was predominantly destructive. Nevertheless, his attention to the city would have productive results for eleventh- century Jerusalem.

His successor, al- Zahir, was deeply invested in renovating the structures of the Haram al- Sharif, ushering in a chapter of architectural patronage and a resurgence of imperial interest in the structure. This essay argues that this patronage was carried out with the goal of undoing the
excesses of al- Hakim’s reign. In al-Zahir’s reimagining of the sacred space, the platform’s architecture emphasized the orthodox Islamic tales of the Prophet’s night journey and ascension to heaven, in direct contrast to the perceived heresies of the later years of al- Hakim’s reign.

In the international coverage of the Egyptian uprisings in 2011, Ganzeer rose to the top of visib... more In the international coverage of the Egyptian uprisings in 2011, Ganzeer rose to the top of visibility among influential Egyptian street artists. This essay focuses on Ganzeer’s role in creating, mobilizing, and promoting Cairene street art after the revolution as a case study in revolutionary artistic practice. My aim in this study is twofold. First, I provide an iconographic and visual analysis of several of Ganzeer’s most influential works, assessing the formal qualities that make them such effective articulations of protest. By engaging in careful formal analysis of the works, I argue that Ganzeer relies on a globally understood visual language – utilizing the aesthetics of advertisements, graphic design, and comic books, to create works that hold universal appeal and impact. Second, I analyse the modes of production, preservation, and circulation of the works. I argue that Ganzeer’s projects upend expectations that street art is a purely local, transient, spontaneous, and covert phenomenon. Instead, the projects marshal more complex networks of production in which physical and virtual collaborations were mutually reinforcing. I argue that this mode of production resulted in slippages between a local and global context, ultimately transforming the nature of the works from ephemeral, spontaneous paintings to monumental, enduring works of art. Ultimately, Ganzeer’s most famous murals function as dynamic, digital palimpsests, whose layers may be peeled back to reveal a history of shifting artistic discontent.

A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, 2017

In the history of Christian-Muslim relations, al-Hakim is infamous for ordering the destruction o... more In the history of Christian-Muslim relations, al-Hakim is infamous for ordering the destruction of all the Christian churches in his realm, most notably that of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem—an act that would later mobilize Latin Crusaders to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim reign. Due to the capricious nature of al-Hakim’s reign, the precise context for these pivotal acts of destruction has been underexplored by scholars of architectural history, in spite of their key contribution to the history of church and mosque construction in the Middle East and their crucial role in the history of multi-confessional relations. This essay takes a closer look at al-Hakim’s program of church demolition, bringing to light broader political, economic, and cultural forces that ultimately marked a change in Fatimid sectarian identity during his reign. An analysis of urban pressures at the time, together with a consideration of Islamic religious law (sharia), removes these acts of widespread church destruction, so iconic to his reign, from the context of psychotic whimsy, and places them within a larger socio-historical framework. This study suggests that al-Hakim’s destruction of churches was consistent with other extreme measures he took specifically tied to questions of faith—such as his persecutions of urban dhimmis (non-Muslim subjects of a Muslim state), the public cursing of the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad and the first three caliphs, and his harsh, religiously-based restrictions against women. Rather than being attributable only to a personal psychological imbalance, al-Hakim’s dramatically negative treatment of churches signaled a general shift from an esoteric form of Ismaili Shiʿism to one more appealing to the broader Islamic umma. In considering this shift, this article draws not only on the frequently discussed Mamluk sources on the Fatimid period, but also on Christian and newly published Ismaili sources.

Beginning in the 1970s, a series of massive cave churches were carved into the limestone cliffs o... more Beginning in the 1970s, a series of massive cave churches were carved into the limestone cliffs of the Muqattam Mountain in Cairo. These churches marked the site of the tenth century, Fatimid-era ‘Miracle of Muqattam.’ The story of the miracle has different versions, but, as described in the Coptic tradition, a Fatimid caliph of Egypt became enraged by a Christian Biblical passage stating that mountains could be moved by faith alone (Matthew 17:20). In response, he demanded that a Coptic patriarch visibly demonstrate this claim of the Christian faith by making the Muqattam Mountain rise from the ground through prayer. After arrangements were made, an amazed Muslim ruler witnessed the mountain rise from the ground no less than three times before his own eyes. As a result of witnessing this miracle, the Fatimid ruler allowed the medieval Christian population of Cairo to restore two dilapidated churches in Cairo, the complex of St Mercurius (Abu Sayfayn) and the Hanging Church (Al-Muʿallaqah).

Today, the modern mega-churches of Muqattam accommodate tens of thousands of visitors, catering especially to the Christian gar- bage collectors of the neighboring Muqattam slums. These cave churches offer a fascinating view into the modern Coptic faith and the continuing significance of the Fatimid-era miracle to modern Copts. A consideration of the tenth-century foundational tale to which they are linked contributes to a more nuanced view of the richly textured nature of Muslim–Christian life and interfaith relations in early Fatimid Egypt. Modern scholars often dismiss medieval Egyptian Christian claims from sources such as The History of the Patriarchs of the Egyptian Church, which weaves together hagiography, miracles, and historical events. Yet a closer analysis of tales like the Miracle of Muqattam can help illustrate the complex alliances and power struggles between Christians, Muslims, and Jews at the Fatimid court in tenth-century Egypt. We learn, for example, about how each group had the capacity to vie for power from the Fatimid caliph. While the historical details embodied in this legendary tale are difficult to unravel, it nevertheless suggests that, although the Fatimid period may have been a relatively peaceful time for the Christian minority, obstacles to church construction and restoration were still extremely significant. Ultimately, this tale suggests that even in this time of tolerance, the Coptic community had to ‘move mountains’ to gain the necessary permissions to restore their churches.

Ink, Silk and Gold: Islamic Art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ink, Silk and Gold: Islamic Art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Jun 23, 2015

"Ink, Silk, and Gold "presents nearly one hundred works of Islamic art spanning the eighth to the... more "Ink, Silk, and Gold "presents nearly one hundred works of Islamic art spanning the eighth to the twenty-first centuries from the impressive collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This exhibition offers a chronological and regional story of the dynamic and complex artistic traditions originating from across the vast expanse of the Islamic world—Spain to Indonesia—and represents almost all forms of media, including silver inlaid metalwork, Qur’an pages inscribed with gold, brocaded velvets and luster-painted ceramics. More than 130 years after the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston began collecting Islamic art, this exhibition marks the first time these objects have been comprehensively studied, restored and presented to the public.

Review of "In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art"

Talks by Jennifer Pruitt

“The Medieval Present: Representing the Past in Contemporary Arabian Gulf,” in the symposium Intersections: Visual Cultures of Islamic Cosmopolitan at the University of Texas – Dallas, Spring 2018.

“Making a Case for Classical Islamic Globalism: The Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai” at the Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, Fall 2018

“Productive Destruction: The Rebuilding of Fatimid Jerusalem” in the panel Then and Now: Medieval Border Crossings and the Contemporary Moment at the Historians of Islamic Art symposium, Yale University, Fall 2018

“Ephemeral Monuments: Street Art in the Middle East” at the panel discussion Monuments and Meanings: UW-Madison and Beyond, hosted by Continuing Studies at UW-Madison, Fall 2018

Discussant, Early Mediterranean Art History panel, in the symposium Intersections: Visual Cultures of Islamic Cosmopolitan at the University of Texas – Dallas, Spring 2018.

“Destruction, Construction, and Concealment under Cairo’s “Mad Caliph” (ca. 1007–1013)” in the Offit Symposium on Art and Architecture of the premodern Islamic world, Johns Hopkins University, Spring 2018.

Conflict as Catalyst in the the Architecture of Fatimid Jerusalem, Art History Colloquium, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Fall 2017

"A Model for the Global, Islamic City: The Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai," Society of Architectural Historians Meeting, Summer 2017

Architecture as Borderland in Fatimid Jerusalem (1010-1031), Sewanee Medieval Studies Colloquium, Spring, 2017