Heraldry and "Material Culture" during the Mamluk period in Egypt and Syria.

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Bethany J. Walker
• Subject Area: Islamic Studies, Arabian Studies, Semitic Studies
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 320972144

The goal of this project is to produce a critical work on Mamluk heraldic devices in their social setting: as deliberate visual forms of self-representation of the Mamluk elite, their role in the creation of a Mamluk popular visual culture, the institutions behind their production and distribution, and their changing meanings over time. It will be accompanied by a catalogue, which includes representative examples of published and available non-published heraldic symbols from different media, produced throughout the Mamluk era. The Mamluk-era ceramics collection of the Research Unit of Islamic Archaeology at the University of Bonn has been studied in the last months. They consist of both garrison assemblages and household goods. In contrast, the imagery of various museum objects and architectures is largely regarded as elite objects. So there is material from both sites. With this knowledge, this project attempts to investigate the transformation of elite visual culture into popular culture.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: USA
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Stephan Conermann; Professor Dr. Nasser Rabbat
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Oystein LaBianca