For centuries, objects from Islamic lands were unquestioned parts of the material and visual culture of pre-modern Latinate Europe. A textile from Fatimid Egypt, for instance, the so-called “Veil of Sainte Anne”, was kept in the cathedral treasury of Apt and venerated as a Christian relic. Its provenance was forgotten.

The workshop “Heritage Revisited. Rediscovering Objects from Islamic Lands in Enlightenment Europe” is dedicated to the long eighteenth century, a period in which, so we believe, an important shift in the perception of such objects took place. Islamic provenances were rediscovered, objects were studied, drawn and discussed. Finally, they were subjected to the classificatory scheme of European modernity, which leaves little space for conceptions of a historically entangled heritage.

Object case-studies shed light on the networks of scholars and institutions involved in these rediscoveries and will be framed in the workshop within broader discourses on (European) cultural heritage. Ultimately, we wish to not only cast a new light on the history of scholarship, notably Islamic art history, but also on the history of the perception of cultural belonging, of “Europeanness” and “Otherness”, which deeply resonates with current societal concerns.