The Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World (MCMW) aims to be a reference for field archaeologists, art historians, anthropologists, curators, and scholars and students of the (art) history, archaeology, architecture, anthropology & ethnography of the Muslim world. This readership represents a new broader definition of material culture that includes not only artefacts, architectural structures and monuments, but also crafts. The journal also aims to inform (other) disciplines and historiographies, by including (unreviewed) archaeological field surveys for example. The journal focuses on un(der)explored Muslim regions outside of the Middle East and Nord Africa: sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Ocean, Central Asia, India, South-East Asia and Europe.

This special issue comprises four studies presented at the international conference, Inscribed Objects in the Islamic World: Aesthetics, Adab, Societies, organised in Paris on 24 November 2017 by the above editors and co-financed by the Musée du Louvre and the Collège de France (Hugot Fondation). The conference was conceived as an extension to the documentation project of inscriptions on objects kept in the Department of Islamic Arts, Musée du Louvre (including objects deposited by the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris). This project was initiated in 2013 to gather published and unpublished data related to these inscriptions, describe them in a standardised way, and integrate them into the Musée du Louvre collection database, which has been accessible online since 2020. Among the many institutions holding Islamic art collections worldwide, the documentation of inscriptions on objects remains uneven, and their systematic and standardised online publication in their original alphabet remains problematic. However, the contribution of museum institutions to making portable inscriptions available to both the public and researchers alike is essential.

Déroche, François and Juvin, Carine (editors). From Visual Power to Private Stories: Inscribed Objects from the Medieval Arab World. Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World , Volume 4 (Issue 1). Leiden: Brill, 2023.

Brill