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All Outputs (22)

Mecca and other Cosmological Centres in the Sufi Universe (2023)
Book Chapter
O'Meara, S. (2023). Mecca and other Cosmological Centres in the Sufi Universe. In C. Lange, & A. D. Knysh (Eds.), Handbook of Sufi Studies. Vol. 2: Sufi Cosmology (205-233). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004392618_012

Cosmological centres are places where different levels of cosmic reality are said to converge and become accessible to the human being. In the Sufi universe, Mecca is the principal place of convergence, but others exist, too, including Medina and Jer... Read More about Mecca and other Cosmological Centres in the Sufi Universe.

Sacred Space (2022)
Book Chapter
O'Meara, S. (2022). Sacred Space. In O. Leaman (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Islamic Ritual and Practice. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003044659-30

This exploratory chapter proposes that the term sacred space is a misnomer in the Islamic context, since the binary concept of sacred and profane does not exist in premodern and earlier Islamic culture. Instead, the chapter argues, one should talk of... Read More about Sacred Space.

Once More Cosmophilia: Facing the Truth, Later (2021)
Book Chapter
O'Meara, S. (2021). Once More Cosmophilia: Facing the Truth, Later. In R. Hillenbrand (Ed.), The Making of Islamic Art : Studies in Honour of Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom. Edinburgh University Press

Out of Sight in Morocco, or How to See the Jinn in the Modern-day Museum (2021)
Book Chapter
O'Meara, S. (2021). Out of Sight in Morocco, or How to See the Jinn in the Modern-day Museum. In A. Fromherz, & N. Samin (Eds.), Knowledge, Authority and Change in Islamic Societies: Studies in Honor of Dale F. Eickelman (76-98). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004443341_006

This chapter explores Dale Eickelman’s counter-intuitive insight that seeing in the modern-day museum is something that needs teaching. Exploring this pedagogical desideratum in the cultural context to which it pertains, namely, Islamic culture, the... Read More about Out of Sight in Morocco, or How to See the Jinn in the Modern-day Museum.

The Kaʿba Orientations: Readings in Islam's Ancient House (2020)
Book
O'Meara, S. (2020). The Kaʿba Orientations: Readings in Islam's Ancient House. Edinburgh University Press

Explores the Kaʿba as it has been conceptualised, represented and used by Muslims from the earliest period of Islam onwards. The first book-length exploration of the Kaʿba in a Western language
Explains what the Kaʿba is by examining how it func... Read More about The Kaʿba Orientations: Readings in Islam's Ancient House.

Haptic Vision: Making Surface Sense of Islamic Material Culture (2019)
Book Chapter
O'Meara, S. (2019). Haptic Vision: Making Surface Sense of Islamic Material Culture. In R. Skeates, & J. Day (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology (467-480). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315560175-27

This chapter argues that in Sunni Islam, vision is normatively configured as a sense more haptic than optical. Sight touches, glances. It does not see through; that is the prerogative of God, rulers, and mystics, and one of the joys of Paradise. In s... Read More about Haptic Vision: Making Surface Sense of Islamic Material Culture.

The Space Between Here and There: The Prophet's Night Journey as an Allegory of Islamic Ritual Prayer (2012)
Journal Article
O'Meara, S. (2012). The Space Between Here and There: The Prophet's Night Journey as an Allegory of Islamic Ritual Prayer. Middle Eastern Literatures, 15(3), 232-239. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475262X.2012.726573

This paper commences with an analysis of Qur'an 17:1, the Prophet's alleged night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, which it interprets as an allegory of Islamic ritual prayer. By way of this interpretation, the paper subsequently reviews Islam as a p... Read More about The Space Between Here and There: The Prophet's Night Journey as an Allegory of Islamic Ritual Prayer.

Review of: God Is Beautiful; He Loves Beauty’: The Object in Islamic Art and Culture,” Fourth Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art, organized by Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar, October 29-31, 2011 (2012)
Other
O'Meara, S. (2012). Review of: God Is Beautiful; He Loves Beauty’: The Object in Islamic Art and Culture,” Fourth Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art, organized by Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar, October 29-31, 2011

Vision in Fes at the Space between faʾ and sīn (2011)
Book Chapter
O'Meara, S. (2011). Vision in Fes at the Space between faʾ and sīn. In S. Ennahid, & D. Maghraoui (Eds.), Fez in World History : Selected Essays from the Proceedings of Fez in World History : an Interdisciplinary Conference. Al Akhawayn University Press

Space and Muslim Urban Life: At the Limits of the Labyrinth of Fez (2007)
Book
O'Meara, S. (2007). Space and Muslim Urban Life: At the Limits of the Labyrinth of Fez. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203947074

This book develops academic understanding of Muslim urban space by pursuing the structural logic of the premodern Arab-Muslim city, or medina. With particular reference to The Book of Walls, an historical discourse of Islamic law whose primary subjec... Read More about Space and Muslim Urban Life: At the Limits of the Labyrinth of Fez.