Nazar, literally 'vision', is a unique Arabic-Islamic term/concept that offers an analytical framework for exploring the ways in which Islamic visual culture and aesthetic sensibility have been shaped by common conceptual tools and moral parameters. It intertwines the act of 'seeing' with the act of 'reflecting', thereby bringing the visual and cognitive functions into a complex relationship. Within the folds of this multifaceted relationship lies an entangled web of religious ideas, moral values, aesthetic preferences, scientific precepts, and socio-cultural understandings that underlie the intricacy of one's personal belief. Peering through the lens of nazar, the studies presented in this volume unravel aspects of these entanglements to provide new understandings of how vision, belief, and perception shape the rich Islamic visual culture. Contributors: Samer Akkach, James Bennett, Sushma Griffin, Stephen Hirtenstein, Virginia Hooker, Sakina Nomanbhoy, Shaha Parpia, Ellen Philpott-Teo, Wendy M.K. Shaw.

Despite the growing interest in the intellectual history of early modern Arabs and Ottomans, many key figures of the period remain unknown. In this unique biographical account, edited and published here for the first time, Muhammad Kamal al-Din al-Ghazzi (1760-1799), the chief Shafi'i jurisconcult of Damascus, introduces us to one of the leading figures of early modernity, 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (1641-1731). Being al-Nabulusi's great grandson, al-Ghazzi had direct access to the family's collective memory through his parents and grandparents, as well as to his great grandfather's scattered memoirs. Written about fifty years after al-Nabulusi's death, al-Ghazzi's biography, al-Wird al-Unsi, remains the authoritative account of the great master's distinguished career, covering many aspects of his life and work in breadth, depth, and sophistication unmatched by any of the competing biographies.

In this unique look at a key figure in the Islamic enlightenment, Samer Akkach examines the life and works of 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (1641-1731) of Damascus: a contemporary of many major thinkers, scientists, poets, and philosophers of the European Enlightenment. Often characterized solely as a Sufi saint, his thought and teachings were of a much wider remit. Through a fresh reading of his unpublished biographical sources and large body of mostly unpublished works, Akkach examines early expressions of rationalism among Arab and Turkish scholars, and argues that 'Abd al-Ghani helped herald the beginning of modernity in the Arab world.