Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online has recently launched its new Glossary, accessible here. This multimedia lexicon features fully captioned short-form videos—each lasting five to seven minutes—on terms relating to Islamic art, architecture and visual culture. The Glossary is conceived as a series of dynamic and informative “flash” talks that explore the etymology, use, and relevant examples of terms that are both central to, and expansive of, the discipline.
Under the direction of Khamseen team member Michelle Al-Ferzly, the Glossary features presentations by experts in the field. These presentations not only discuss sites, monuments, paintings, images, objects, and concepts considered “canonical” in the field, but they also aim to broaden the range of material, geographical, and temporal examples as well. For optimal accessibility, all Glossary term presentations are provided with closed captions.
Khamseen is actively expanding the Glossary and welcomes further contributions from Ph.D. holders who wish to craft multimedia definitions of terms of their selection, or any of the available terms listed here. If you are interested in contributing to Khamseen, please contact them at teamkhamseen@umich.edu.
Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online is a free and open-access online platform of digital resources to aid the teaching of Islamic art, architecture, and visual culture. It has received financial support from the Digital Islamic Studies Curriculum (DISC) at the University of Michigan through a grant by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, see https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/khamseen/about/.
