[Discussion] Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan

[Gonul]

SYMPOSIUM- Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan, Los Angeles, June 13-15

Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan: An International Symposium
June 13-15, 2003

The exhibition The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in
Western Asia, 1256-1353, organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of
Art
and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the first to explore the
important
artistic developments that occurred in the Iranian world as a result of
the
Mongol conquest of both western and eastern Asia. The Legacy of Genghis
Khan
focuses on the period of Ilkhanid rule-an era that witnessed
extraordinary
achievements within the sphere of Persian art and culture. The Los
Angeles
County Museum of Art, which will present the exhibition from April 13
through July 27, 2003, will host a special international symposium that
will
build upon the exhibition and move beyond the scope of the exhibition
catalogue.

The three-day symposium will provide a forum for discussion and debate
on a
variety of topics, representing multiple disciplines including history
of
art and architecture, archaeology, and history of science. It will be
held
in LACMA's Leo S. Bing Theater and is open to the public, free of
charge.

For further information contact Sarah Sherman at (323) 857-6011 or
<ssherman@lacma.org>.

June 13

9:30 - 1:00 p.m.

Welcome and opening remarks: Linda Komaroff (LACMA)

Culture and Commerce in the Mongol Empire
Chair: Morris Rossabi (Columbia University)
1. "Cultural Transmission and Exchange in the Mongol Empire According to
the
    Biographical Dictionary of Ibn al-Fuwati" (Devin DeWeese, Indiana
University)
2. "The Maritime Trade of Qish during the Mongol Period" (Ralph Kauz,
Munich
    University)
3. "Metalwork of the Golden Horde: Problems of Genesis" (Mark
Kramarovsky,
    State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)
4. "Mongol-Mamluk Embassies and Exchanges of Gifts" (Donald Little,
McGill
    University)
5. "Ilkhanid Political Self-Representation: Residences, Diplomacy,
Coinage
    and Taxation" (Bert Fragner, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna)

2:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Lifestyles at the Courts of the Ruling Elite
Chair: Sheila Blair (Boston College)
1. "The Excavation of the Palaces of Genghis Khan and Ögödei at Avgara,
    Mongolia" (Noriyuki Shiraishi, Niigata University)
2. "The Excavations of the Ilkhanid Palace at Takht-i Sulaiman: A
    Reexamination" (Dietrich Huff, German Archaeological Institute,
Berlin)
3. "Hülegü Moves West: High Living and Heartbreak on the Road to
Baghdad"
    (John Masson Smith Jr., University of California-Berkeley)
4. "An Imperial Mongol Silk Tent" (Louise Mackie, Cleveland Museum of
Art)
5. "The Royal Ilkhanid Household" (Charles Melville, Cambridge
University)

June 14

9:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m.

3) The Arts in Ilkhanid Iran and Neighboring States, Part I
Chair: Robert Hillenbrand (Edinburgh University)
1. "Paper: The Transformative Medium in Ilkhanid Art" (Jonathan Bloom,
    Boston College)
2. "In the Beginning…: Illustrated Frontispieces in Ilkhanid and Injuid
    Manuscripts" (Marianna Shreve Simpson, Baltimore)
3. "Patronage of the Arts of the Book in Early Fourteenth-Century
Shiraz"
    (Elaine Wright, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin)
4. "Old Images in Contemporary Forms: Thoughts on the Great Mongol
Shahnama
    and some of the Injuid Shahnama Manuscripts" (Eleanor Sims, London)

2:00 - 5:00 p.m.

The Arts in Ilkhanid Iran and Neighboring States, Part II
Chair: Stefano Carboni (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
5. "People, Places, Styles: Ceramic Production in Ilkhanid Iran" (Oliver

    Watson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London)
6. "Persian Poetry in Ilkhanid Art and Architecture" (Bernard O'Kane,
    American University, Cairo)
7. "Chinese Motifs in Thirteenth-Century Armenian Art: The Mongol
    Connection" (Dickran Kouymjian, California State University, Fresno)

8. "The Mongols in Retrospect" (Priscilla Soucek, New York University)

June 15

9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

4) State and Religion in Ilkhanid Iran
Chair: Charles Melville (Cambridge University)
1. "Horoscopes and Planetary Theory: Ilkhanid Patronage of Astronomers"
    (George Saliba, Columbia University)
2. "Inflationary Currency under the Ilkhans and their Successors"
(Stephen
    Album, Santa Rosa, CA)
3. "Reflections on a 'Double Rapprochement': Conversion to Islam among
the
    Mongol Elite during the Early Ilkhanate" (Judith Pfeiffer,
University of
    Chicago)
4. "Religious Diversity under Ilkhanid Rule c. 1300 as Reflected in the
    Freer Bal'ami" (Teresa Fitzherbert, Ashmolean Museum)
5. "The Mongol Legacy of Persian Farmans" (Abolala Soudavar, Houston)

3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

5) Concluding Address:
"The Mongol Empire in World History"
David Morgan, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Support for the symposium was provided by the National Endowment for the

Humanities, the Hagop Kevorkian Fund, Amina and Ahmad Adaya, Joan
Palevsky,
Catherine Glynn Benkaim, the Norma Jean Calderwood Professorship of
Islamic
and Asian Art at Boston College, and Mohammed Rezai.