Introduction

Extract

The study of the visual culture of the Middle East covers a wealth of topics from the birth of Islam to the present day and has long been marked by rigorous theoretical and methodological inquiries. Nevertheless, it has remained largely at the margins of Middle East studies, as measured by the limited space it occupies in interdisciplinary publications and conferences. This may perhaps be explained by a misconception that its reliance on “pictures” makes it a lighter, albeit pleasurable, complement to the more “serious” disciplines. Yet, due in part to the blurring of disciplinary boundaries and in part to the new wave of technological innovations, visual references now appear more frequently in the work of social and political historians, anthropologists, and even political scientists. In the process, some methodological tools for using visual material as primary documents risk being lost, as images are relegated to “decorative” backgrounds.