This course introduces students to the vitality and diversity of Islamic art and architecture, with a careful examination of how the faith of Islam and its interpretations shape the material as well as the spiritual world.  This course ranges from the late antique Mediterranean to China and Indonesia and back to the Middle East at the dawn of the 20^th century. We will explore iconoclasm, calligraphy, funerary practices and monuments, courtly culture, Mediterranean and Oceanic trade, and the urge to ornament, among other major themes. During class, we will look at gorgeous precious objects such as rock-crystal ewers, fine silks, and ivories, and contrast them with modest goods such as calligraphic plaques and decorative earthenware made explicitly for Muslim middle classes. Architecture will also play a main role; the mosque and its dependencies have many forms, determined in part by historic, geographic, and cultural contexts.