Workshop
The Materiality of Ziyāra in the Early Islamic World: Tombs, Shrines, Practices and Politics (ca. 650-1300 CE)
Workshop organized by Aila Santi and Sinem Casale
Supported by the ERC Horizon Starting Grant Project “Embodied Imamate: Mapping the Development of the Early Shi i Community 700-900
CE”, grant n. 101077946 and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut
As Oleg Grabar noted, “one of the most characteristic buildings of Islamic architecture is, without doubt, the monumental tomb.” Marking graves, building tombs, and performing funeral rites are nevertheless disapproved of—or outright forbidden—by certain segments of Islamic law, with the strictest interpretations labelling these practices as anti-Islamic innovations (bidaʿ).
This notwithstanding, a substantial body of material and textual evidence attests that by at least the 10th century CE, the marking, construction, and visitation of tombs had already become firmly established as one of the most distinctive features of Islamic culture and practice, challenging the common notion that a prohibitive Islamic orthodoxy was simply followed by a later deviant innovation.
Commemorative practices and prohibitive stances around ziyāra—the visitation of holy places associated with revered figures and their legends—emerged in fact at an early stage, as coexisting and interdependent phenomena. But how, when, and where did ziyāra originate, and what are the earliest material records of it? Whereas an earlier generation of scholars have associated the origins of ziyāra to the rise of Shīʿism (Grabar 1966), others have highlighted both the inter-communal nature of these visits, and the Sunni patronage and protection of major Imami shrines during the medieval period and beyond (Bernheimer 2013; Taylor 1992). Meanwhile, patronage of and governance over tombs held considerable significance for many rulers, both Sunni or Shīʿi. In fact, interactions with tombs and their material settings played a pivotal role in shaping sectarian identities, fostering communal meaning, promoting group cohesion, and at times inciting unruly behaviours.
This workshop suggests that in addition to sectarian history and politics, the rise of ziyāra practices in the early Islamic period needs to be considered within the broader, cross-religious framework of memorialisation in Late Antique Western Asia and the Mediterranean. Although our knowledge on the topic remains fragmented, new evidence calls for interdisciplinary engagement. In this event—organised jointly by the ERC Horizon Starting Grant Project “Embodied Imamate: Mapping the Development of the Early Shiʿi Community 700-900 CE” at Leiden University and the Kunsthistorische Institut in Florenz—organisers seek to foster dialogue among art and architectural historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, philologists, and historians who engage with the built environment, materiality, space, epigraphy, and ritual to explore the early crystallisation of ziyāra practices and the broader socio-political transformations reflected in evolving topographies of cemeteries and sacred landmarks in early Islam realm.
Monday, 27 October 2025
14:30-14:45 Opening Remarks by Gerhard Wolf (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz), Aila Santi (Leiden University) and Sinem Casale (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz)
Panel 1 – The Materiality of Ziyāra in the Shīʿī World
Chair: Edmund Hayes (Leiden University)
14:45-15:15 Zahra M. Jiwan (Columbia University) The Early Ziyara of Twelfth Imam’s Envoys in Baghdad: A Ritual-Architectural Process of Canonizing Authority
15:15-15:45 Reza Daftarian (Courtauld Institute of Art – University of London) The Radiance of Resilience: Ziyarat and the Shrine of Imam Reza in Mongol-Ilkhanid Iran
16:30-18:30 Visit to Bargello Museum with Giovanni Curatola (for speakers only)
19:00 Reception (for speakers only)
Tuesday, 28 October 2025
Panel 2 – Building Remembrance (I): Concepts, Forms, and Materiality in Islamic Commemorative and Funerary Practice
Chair: Sinem Casale (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz)
10:30-11:00 Amelia Blundo (Sapienza University of Rome) Rules and Models of Commemorative Buildings in the Dar al-Islam in the Early Centuries: A Reflection from the Case Study of the Aswan Necropolis
11:00-11:30 Jahfar Shareef Pokkanali (University of Bonn) Early Islamic Funerary Sites Along the Southern Indian Littorals: Materialities, Forms, and Ornaments
11:30 Coffee Break
Panel 3 – Building Remembrance (II): Epigraphy, Ornaments, and Visuality in Islamic Commemorative and Funerary Practice
Chair: May Shaddel (Cambridge University)
12:00-12:30 Teresa Bernheimer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich) Building Blocks of Memory: Early Islamic Tombstones and the Material Practice of Ziyara
12:30-13:00 Alka Patel (The University of California & Aix-Marseille Université/La3M) Carving Monuments: Funerary Innovations in the Eastern Persianate Worlds, XI-XIII Centuries
13:00 Break
Panel 4 – The Materiality of Death and Commemoration in Islamic Archaeology: Reinterpreted Evidence and New Finds
Chair: Aila Santi (Leiden University)
14:30-15:00 Thomas Leisten (Strata Heritage Consulting) On the Road of Pain and Sorrow: Excavating the Mashhad al-Tirh in Balis, Syria
15:00-15:30 Andrea L. Corsi (Orient Abteilung, DAI Berlin) & Richard P. McClary (University of York) Approaches to Early Islamic Funerary Practices: the Siraf Necropolis and Beyond
15:30-16:00 Amanda Antonelli (Independent) Rediscovering Rasulid Funerary Culture: the Study of the Cemetery of al-Ribat (Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman)
Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Panel 5 – Landscapes of Memory (I): Inherited Sacred Geographies and the Emergence of Islamic Ziyāra
Chair: Leone Pecorini (Leiden University)
10:00-10:30 Kyle Longworth (Leiden University) Caliphs ad Sanctos?: Pre-Islamic Christian Saints and the Gravesites of the Umayyad Caliphs ‘Umar II (d. 101/720) and Hisham (d. 125/743)
10:30-11:00 Simon Pierre (Ifpo Beirut and Orient et Méditerranée, Paris) Before Muslim Saints. Arab Visitation and Almsgiving to Christian Holy Shrines (1st-2nd Century AH)
11:00 Coffee Break
Panel 6 – Landscapes of Memory (II): Spiritual Topography, Place Making and Death in the Early Islamic world
Chair: Adam Ramadhan (Leiden University)
11:30-12:00 Finn Lindo-Dunn (Leiden University) Entombing Identity: Landscape, Memory, and the Tomb of ‘Uqba ibn Nafi in Medieval North Africa
12:00-12:30 Adam Bursi (Cornell University) “Do Not Skip Going to the Tombs of the Martyrs”: Early Pilgrimage to Uhud and Its Discontents
12:30-13:00 Petra Sijpesteijn (Leiden University) Landmarks of Change: Tombs and Ritual in Early Islamic Egyptian Papyri
13:00 Break
Panel 7 – Landscapes of Memory (III): Politics of Burial in the Medieval Islamic West
Chair: Zahra Azhar (Leiden University)
14:30-15:00 Bilal Sarr (University of Granada) Sanctity and Rawdas in Southeastern al-Andalus: Rituals, Visits, and Materiality
15:00-15:30 Peter Tamas Nagy (Qatar Museums Authority) Dynastic Forefathers in Medieval Morocco: Establishing Tombs, Commemoration, and Ziyara
15:30 Coffee Break
16:00-17:00 Closing remarks by Avinoam Shalem (Columbia University) and Hugh Kennedy (SOAS University of London) and Round Table Discussion
Chair: Aila Santi (Leiden University)
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27 – 29 October 2025
Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai
Via dei Servi 51
50122 Firenze
Please register here to attend the event online via Zoom
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