Institute For Middle East Studies

This lecture analyzes varied iconic visions of the Haram (the sacred sanctuary) of Mecca. A gaze at the late medieval and early modern images of Mecca suggests a crucial change and shift in the mode of the depiction of the holy sanctuary. Moreover, the earlier flattened and two-dimensional images of the sanctuary contributed to the hierophany of the sacred and were replaced by perspectival images that evoked veracity and authenticity and fixed the sacred space within its larger geographic setting.Whereas sacred space appears as totally autonomous and linked to the eternal, the profane seems to exist as bound to historical time. This supposition results in assigning terms such as “common,” “habitual,” and “ephemeral to historic times, as opposed to “pure” and “intact” designating the “Holy” as linked to everlasting time.