Throughout the centuries, the lion has generally been acknowledged as a symbol of power in numerous cultures. It exercises magic and talismanic functions as a sign of the zodiac. The lion as the king of the beasts has long fascinated and challenged man. It plays a large part in the decorative arts and mythologies of many cultures and Islam is no exception. The aim of this thesis is to determine the range of meaning attributed to the lion as a motif in Islamic art, through its use in the decorative arts, miniature painting and textiles. A catalogue of some four hundred and sixty examples of the lion as an iconographic symbol on carpets, ceramics, metalwork, stone, textiles and other media has been drawn up. Within each category pieces have been arranged in chronological sequence and their motifs have been identified. The aim has been to assemble a reasonable sample of works upon which to base an investigation of the role of the lion in Islamic art. The text analyses the themes found in the catalogue. Each motif is placed in its historical context with reference to the antecedents of the decorative design and the likely meaning in an Islamic context, supported where possible by writings of the period. Chapter One addresses briefly the description and illustration of the lion in Muslim scientific texts. Chapter Two analyses the lion-bull combat theme. Chapter Three opens with a discussion of images showing man hunting the lion and concludes with a discussion of the lion in association with other animals. Chapter Four discusses two literary works often illustrated with miniatures depicting lions - namely the Kalila wa Dimna tales and the Shahnama. It closely analyses the texts for descriptions of the lion and what it may symbolise in a given context. Chapter Five embraces a diversity of motifs including the image of the lion as found on Islamic coins, lion-masks, lion and throne imagery, the lion-tree motif in textiles and the lion as a single image. Chapter Six discusses the zodiac and the lion as an astrological symbol. Conclusions are drawn in Chapter Seven. The thesis aims to assess the art-historical evidence for the use of the lion in Islamic art. It endeavours to provide a firm basis from which to study the significance of the lion in medieval Muslim culture. Literary and historical evidence is brought in where appropriate in order to elucidate the meaning of the visual imagery. Much work still remains to be done, but the collecting together of a range of pieces bearing a variety of iconographical interpretations of the lion is a vital step in determining the role of this animal in Islamic art and culture.

This thesis attempts to examine and define the degree of influence which the Turks exerted on Islamic art of the Seljuqid period (1040--1194 AD) specifically, and on Islamic art of the medieval period generally. As this thesis represents a first investigation of the topic, it was necessary to retrace Turkish history from its beginnings to fully understand its dynamic, but also to analyze the art historical and cultural past of the Turkish peoples in order to assess the degree of probability of Turkish influence on Islamic art as well as the means of its penetration. The vaster arena of this research is the field of Central Asian history and the growing awareness of the important cultural ramifications of its widespread Indo-Buddhist culture. / Due to the complexity of the thesis topic, a simple method has been followed to present the material. The thesis is divided into three chapters, each addressing a major issue. The first chapter introduces the four major Turkish steppe dynasties and their art in so far as archaeology permits. The second chapter deals with the process of Islamicization of the Turks, while the third chapter broaches the issue of Turkish influence on Islamic art of the Seljuqid period under four headings: architecture, architectural decoration, animal imagery, and figurative iconography. The basic premise of this paper is the assumption that, if the Turks played such a major role in the political developments of medieval dar al-islam, they must have also contributed, consciously or not, to the formation of medieval Islamic art.

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This dissertation covers the emergence of a tradition of the fine arts in Egypt during the first half of the twentieth century and its relationship to discourses of nationalism. Taking as a starting point the canon of the ‘pioneer’ generation as it is defined in the historiography, I follow the careers of the sculptor Mahmud Mukhtar and the painters Ragheb ‘Ayyad, Muhammad Nagi, and Mahmud Sa‘id, each of whom is treated in a full chapter. Narratives surrounding the life and work of these artists have tended to emphasize the ways in which the images they created participated in the definition of a single cohesive nation – through the use of Pharaonic imagery, which anchors the nation in a distant past, through rural symbolism, which ties the nation to the land and the Nile, and through a female iconography that links the nation to ideas of virtue and purity – what I term here, following Timothy Mitchell and Homi Bhabha, a pedagogical narrative of the nation. However, I suggest that the process of imagining the nation as a unified whole necessarily involves a negotiation of difference, sometimes that of the peasant or the woman who pose a challenge to the assumption of an unproblematic national collectivity, sometimes that of the artists themselves, who, for reasons of foreign education, religion, or social identity, are unable to fully identify with definitions of the nation that were themselves constantly contested. This negotiation of difference – what Mitchell has termed the performative - and how it appears within works of visual art, constitutes the main subject of this dissertation.

The dissertation explores the work of two African artists: Lamidi O. Fakeye a Yoruba wood carver, and Ahmed M. Shibrain a Sudanese painter, as an exemplary development within African art during the second half of the 20th century. It examines their works through the sense of "tradition" as it is seen within the context of their cultures and their histories. It considers their works to be a reflection of their time, a hybrid art and a new tradition emerging within their respective cultures as a result of change in their societies. It argues against the notion that separates their art from their traditions and their histories based on the artificial barriers of "authenticity" in the literature on African art and the various categories that are related to it. It ponders on the contradictions and complexity that this situation has created and demonstrated that these categories negate historical realities. The dissertation is in two parts. The first part describes and analyses some of Lamidi's Christian and secular carvings. His work is placed in its appropriate historical perspective by revealing its close relationship to the carvings of his predecessors in terms of themes, design, content and clients. Innovation and change in his work through time and space is revealed. In the second part, the dissertation defines the connectivity of Shibrain's work to his tradition and its history, and that of his fellow artists who contributed to the development of a new trend in Sudanese art. It discusses their work on the basis of the 'idea' of art in Islam, their training and their heritage of decorative art and Arabic calligraphy. It argues that innovation, influence, borrowing and adaptation, are part of progress in art through the ages.

Islamic ritual bowls are one of the most overlooked phenomena of Islamic metalwork. Their design is comprised of a mixture of textual, geometric and mystical patterns and symbols. The main goal of this thesis is to examine, describe and interpret these elements to the highest extent possible. This work is based on the collection of National Museum - Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures that is the owner of a collection of fourteen bowls whose origin is ranging from 13th to 20th century. Thirteen of them are being examined in this thesis.