Displaced Ornaments: Naiza Khan&apos;s Critique of Sexual Difference in Muslim South Asia

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ReOrient

Volume 5, Issue 2

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Displaced Ornaments: Naiza Khan's Critique of Sexual Difference in Muslim South Asia

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Author(s): Ali Altaf Mian

Publication date (Print): 1 April 2020

Journal: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: Naiza Khan, Ashraf 'Alī Thānvī, heavenly ornaments, sexual difference, feminist philosophy, gender, Islam in South Asia, contemporary art

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Abstract

This article brings together a Muslim theologian from colonial India and a contemporary artist from postcolonial Pakistan, namely Ashraf 'Alī Thānvī and Naiza Khan, respectively. In their different yet related ways, Thānvī and Khan both repurpose the idea of “ornamental femininity.” Khan's artworks further problematize some of the key assumptions about sexual difference in Thānvī's body of work, such as “women's ruination,” feminine fragility, and chastity. Khan eschews the reduction of the feminine to the ornamental, but also embraces the transcendental possibilities of the ornamental. She thus welcomes the mediating function of ornaments, which facilitate experiences of transcendence that are essential for becoming an aesthetic subject. Khan is able to achieve this because of an internal contradiction in the logic of ornamental femininity within Thānvī's moral theological tradition. By becoming attuned to her art objects, we are in a better position to analyze how traditionalist theologians construct the idea of sexual difference in Muslim South Asia. The article also comments on Khan's more general theoretical contribution to contemporary art, which consists of highlighting the ongoing tension between our named, sexed bodies and the potentialities of flesh.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50009694

Journal ID (jcode): reorient

Title: ReOrient

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 2055-5601

ISSN: 2055-561X

Publication date (Print): 1 April 2020

Volume: 5

Issue: 2 ( doiID: 10.13169/reorient.5.issue-2 )

Pages: 257-286

Affiliations

University of Florida, USA

Article

Publisher ID: reorient.5.2.0257

DOI: 10.13169/reorient.5.2.0257

SO-VID: 3af4643c-fe78-4c25-a5e4-f8863e63c5d5

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Literary studies,Religious studies & Theology,Social & Behavioral Sciences,History,Philosophy

Keywords: contemporary art,Naiza Khan,Ashraf 'Alī Thānvī,heavenly ornaments,sexual difference,feminist philosophy,gender,Islam in South Asia

References and Bibliography

‘Abd al-Bāqī, M. F. (2001) Al-Mu'jam al-mufahras li-alfāẓ al-Qur‘ān al-karīm. Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth.
'Abd al-Fattāḥ, I. A. (1983) Al-Qāmūs al-qawīm lil-Qur'ān al-karīm. Cairo: Al-Azhar Majma' al-Buḥūth al-Islāmiyyah.
‘Abd al-Muṣṭafā A‘ẓamī (2014) Jannatī zēwar. Karachi: Maktabat al-Madīnah.
Ahmed, L. (1992) Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Alami, MH (2011) Art and Architecture in the Islamic Tradition: Aesthetics, Politics, and Desire in Early Islam. London: I. B. Tauris.
'Alī, M. R. (n.d.) Zēwar Zaib-un-Nisā'. Lahore: Shaykh Barkat 'Ali.
Amin, S. N. (1996) The World of Muslim Women in Colonial Bengal, 1876–1939. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Baer, E. (1998) Islamic Ornament. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Baer, E. (2004) The Human Figure in Islamic Art: Inheritances and Islamic Transformations. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers.
Barēlvī, A. R. K. (2003) Fatāwā Riẓviyyah. 30 vols. Lahore: Riẓā Foundation.
Bhusan, J. B. (1964) Indian Jewellery, Ornaments, and Decorative Designs. Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala and Sons.
Butler, J. (2000) Antigone's Claim: Kinship between Life and Death. New York: Columbia University Press.
Butler, J. (2002) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.
Cheng, A. A. (2019) Ornamentalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Custer, O. (1998) Ornaments' Work: The Efficacy of Kant's “Parerga.” Tijdschrift voor Filosofie 60 (3), 554–71.
Dadi, I. (2008), “Allegories of Encounter.” In Khan, N. H. (ed.) The Skin She Wears. London: Rossi and Rossi.
Dadi, I. (2010) Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Massumi, Brian. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Derrida, J. (1987) The Truth in Painting, trans. Geoff Bennington and Ian McLeod. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Dunning, B. H. (2011) Specters of Paul: Sexual Difference in Early Christian Thought. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Elias, J. J. (2012) Aisha's Cushion: Religious Art, Perception, and Practice in Islam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Erzen, J. N. (2007) Islamic aesthetics: An alternative way of knowledge. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 65 (1), 69–75.
Freud, S. (1953) “Fetishism.” In Strachey, James (trans. and ed.). The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol 21. London: Hogarth Press, 147–57.
Gonzalez, V. (2001) Beauty and Islam: Aesthetics in Islamic Art and Architecture. London: I. B. Tauris.
Grabar, O. (1992) The Mediation of Ornament. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hashmi, S. (2002) Unveiling the Visible: Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan. Islamabad: Actionaid.
Hashmi, S. (2009) Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1977) Phenomenology of Spirit. Trans. Miller, A. V. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hollywood, A. (2002) Sensible Ecstasy: Mysticism, Sexual Difference, and the Demands of History. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Hyde, A. (1997) Bodies of Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Irigaray, L. (1985) Speculum of the Other Woman. Trans. Gill, G. C. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Jahān, R. (1977) Mērā ēk safar. in Vuh aur dūsrē afsānē, drāmē. New Delhi: Rashīd Jahān Yādgār Committee, 79–90.
Kant, I. (1996) The Metaphysics of Morals. Trans. Gregor, Mary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kant, I. (2000) The Critique of Judgment. Trans. Bernard, J. H. Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books. Khan, N. H. (2007) Heavenly Ornaments. Karachi: Canvas Gallery.
Khan, N. H. (2008) The Skin She Wears. London: Rossi and Rossi.
Khan, N. H. (2011) Between the temple and the playground: Explorations of geography and gender. South Asian Popular Culture 9 (1), 89–94.
Khan, N. H. (2013) Works, 1987–2013. East Lansing, MI: The Eli and Edythe Broad Museum at Michigan State University.
Lacan, J. (2006) Écrits. Trans. Bruce Fink. New York: Norton.
Lambert-Hurley, S. (2018) Elusive Lives: Gender, Autobiography, and the Self in Muslim South Asia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Mandhwani, M. D. (2016) Naiza H. Khan. In Hapgood, Susan and Talengala, Shobana (eds.). Mapping Gender: Bodies and Sexualities in Contemporary Art Across the Globe. New Delhi: School of Arts and Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University, 29–32.
Metcalf, B. D. (1990) Perfecting Women: Maulana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi's Bihishti zewar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Mian, A. A. (2015) Surviving modernity: Ashraf 'Alī Thānvī (1863–1943) and the making of Muslim orthodoxy in colonial India. Ph.D. Dissertation, Duke University.
Mian, A. A. (2019) Genres of desire: The erotic in Deobandī Islam. History of Religions 59 (2), 108–145.
Morgan, D. (1992) The idea of abstraction in German theories of the ornament from Kant to Kandinsky. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 50 (3), 231–42.
Qureshi, I. and Khan, N. (2011) Women artists and male artisans in South Asia. South Asian Popular Culture 9 (1), 81–8.
Shamsie, K. (2008) The dreams descend. In Khan, N. H. (ed.) The Skin She Wears. London: Rossi and Rossi.
Spillers, H. J. (1987) “Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book.” Diacritics 17 (2), 64–81.
Tertullian (1959) Disciplinary, Moral and Ascetical Works. Trans. Arbesmann, Rudolph, O.S.A., Daly, Emily Joseph, C.S.J., and Quain, Edwin A., S.J. New York: Fathers of the Church.
Thānvī, A. A. (1981) Bihishtī zēwar. Karachi: Dārul Ishā'at.
Thānvī, A. A. (n.d.) Khuṭubāt-i Ḥakīm al-ummat. 32 vols. Idāra-yi Ta'līfāt-i Ashrafiyya: Multan.
Untracht, O. (1997) Traditional Jewelry of India. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
Wehr, H. (1994) Arabic-English Dictionary. Ed. Cowan, J. M. Urbana, IL: Spoken Language Services.
Zaman, M. Q. (2007) Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi: Islam in Modern South Asia. Oxford: Oneworld.
Z̤iyā'ur-Raḥmān (2009) Khawatīn kī zēb-o-zīnat kē shar'ī aḥkām aur unkī sā'insī ḥikmatein. Lahore: Maktabat al-Ḥaramayn.
Zitzewitz, K. (2015) Life in ruins: Materiality, the city, and the production of critique in the art of Naiza Khan. The Journal of Asian Studies 74 (2), 323–46.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] ‘Abd al-Bāqī, M. F. (2001) Al-Mu'jam al-mufahras li-alfāẓ al-Qur‘ān al-karīm. Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth.

[2] 'Abd al-Fattāḥ, I. A. (1983) Al-Qāmūs al-qawīm lil-Qur'ān al-karīm. Cairo: Al-Azhar Majma' al-Buḥūth al-Islāmiyyah.

[3] ‘Abd al-Muṣṭafā A‘ẓamī (2014) Jannatī zēwar. Karachi: Maktabat al-Madīnah.

[4] Ahmed, L. (1992) Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press.

[5] Alami, MH (2011) Art and Architecture in the Islamic Tradition: Aesthetics, Politics, and Desire in Early Islam. London: I. B. Tauris.

[6] 'Alī, M. R. (n.d.) Zēwar Zaib-un-Nisā'. Lahore: Shaykh Barkat 'Ali.

[7] Amin, S. N. (1996) The World of Muslim Women in Colonial Bengal, 1876–1939. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

[8] Baer, E. (1998) Islamic Ornament. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

[9] Baer, E. (2004) The Human Figure in Islamic Art: Inheritances and Islamic Transformations. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers.

[10] Barēlvī, A. R. K. (2003) Fatāwā Riẓviyyah. 30 vols. Lahore: Riẓā Foundation.

[11] Bhusan, J. B. (1964) Indian Jewellery, Ornaments, and Decorative Designs. Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala and Sons.

[12] Butler, J. (2000) Antigone's Claim: Kinship between Life and Death. New York: Columbia University Press.

[13] Butler, J. (2002) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge.

[14] Cheng, A. A. (2019) Ornamentalism. New York: Oxford University Press.

[15] Custer, O. (1998) Ornaments' Work: The Efficacy of Kant's “Parerga.” Tijdschrift voor Filosofie 60 (3), 554–71.

[16] Dadi, I. (2008), “Allegories of Encounter.” In Khan, N. H. (ed.) The Skin She Wears. London: Rossi and Rossi.

[17] Dadi, I. (2010) Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

[18] Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans. Massumi, Brian. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

[19] Derrida, J. (1987) The Truth in Painting, trans. Geoff Bennington and Ian McLeod. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

[20] Dunning, B. H. (2011) Specters of Paul: Sexual Difference in Early Christian Thought. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

[21] Elias, J. J. (2012) Aisha's Cushion: Religious Art, Perception, and Practice in Islam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[22] Erzen, J. N. (2007) Islamic aesthetics: An alternative way of knowledge. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 65 (1), 69–75.

[23] Freud, S. (1953) “Fetishism.” In Strachey, James (trans. and ed.). The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol 21. London: Hogarth Press, 147–57.

[24] Gonzalez, V. (2001) Beauty and Islam: Aesthetics in Islamic Art and Architecture. London: I. B. Tauris.

[25] Grabar, O. (1992) The Mediation of Ornament. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

[26] Hashmi, S. (2002) Unveiling the Visible: Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan. Islamabad: Actionaid.

[27] Hashmi, S. (2009) Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

[28] Hegel, G. W. F. (1977) Phenomenology of Spirit. Trans. Miller, A. V. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[29] Hollywood, A. (2002) Sensible Ecstasy: Mysticism, Sexual Difference, and the Demands of History. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

[30] Hyde, A. (1997) Bodies of Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

[31] Irigaray, L. (1985) Speculum of the Other Woman. Trans. Gill, G. C. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

[32] Jahān, R. (1977) Mērā ēk safar. in Vuh aur dūsrē afsānē, drāmē. New Delhi: Rashīd Jahān Yādgār Committee, 79–90.

[33] Kant, I. (1996) The Metaphysics of Morals. Trans. Gregor, Mary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[34] Kant, I. (2000) The Critique of Judgment. Trans. Bernard, J. H. Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books. Khan, N. H. (2007) Heavenly Ornaments. Karachi: Canvas Gallery.

[35] Khan, N. H. (2008) The Skin She Wears. London: Rossi and Rossi.

[36] Khan, N. H. (2011) Between the temple and the playground: Explorations of geography and gender. South Asian Popular Culture 9 (1), 89–94.

[37] Khan, N. H. (2013) Works, 1987–2013. East Lansing, MI: The Eli and Edythe Broad Museum at Michigan State University.

[38] Lacan, J. (2006) Écrits. Trans. Bruce Fink. New York: Norton.

[39] Lambert-Hurley, S. (2018) Elusive Lives: Gender, Autobiography, and the Self in Muslim South Asia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

[40] Mandhwani, M. D. (2016) Naiza H. Khan. In Hapgood, Susan and Talengala, Shobana (eds.). Mapping Gender: Bodies and Sexualities in Contemporary Art Across the Globe. New Delhi: School of Arts and Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University, 29–32.

[41] Metcalf, B. D. (1990) Perfecting Women: Maulana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi's Bihishti zewar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

[42] Mian, A. A. (2015) Surviving modernity: Ashraf 'Alī Thānvī (1863–1943) and the making of Muslim orthodoxy in colonial India. Ph.D. Dissertation, Duke University.

[43] Mian, A. A. (2019) Genres of desire: The erotic in Deobandī Islam. History of Religions 59 (2), 108–145.

[44] Morgan, D. (1992) The idea of abstraction in German theories of the ornament from Kant to Kandinsky. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 50 (3), 231–42.

[45] Qureshi, I. and Khan, N. (2011) Women artists and male artisans in South Asia. South Asian Popular Culture 9 (1), 81–8.

[46] Shamsie, K. (2008) The dreams descend. In Khan, N. H. (ed.) The Skin She Wears. London: Rossi and Rossi.

[47] Spillers, H. J. (1987) “Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book.” Diacritics 17 (2), 64–81.

[48] Tertullian (1959) Disciplinary, Moral and Ascetical Works. Trans. Arbesmann, Rudolph, O.S.A., Daly, Emily Joseph, C.S.J., and Quain, Edwin A., S.J. New York: Fathers of the Church.

[49] Thānvī, A. A. (1981) Bihishtī zēwar. Karachi: Dārul Ishā'at.

[50] Thānvī, A. A. (n.d.) Khuṭubāt-i Ḥakīm al-ummat. 32 vols. Idāra-yi Ta'līfāt-i Ashrafiyya: Multan.

[51] Untracht, O. (1997) Traditional Jewelry of India. New York: Harry N. Abrams.

[52] Wehr, H. (1994) Arabic-English Dictionary. Ed. Cowan, J. M. Urbana, IL: Spoken Language Services.

[53] Zaman, M. Q. (2007) Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi: Islam in Modern South Asia. Oxford: Oneworld.

[54] Z̤iyā'ur-Raḥmān (2009) Khawatīn kī zēb-o-zīnat kē shar'ī aḥkām aur unkī sā'insī ḥikmatein. Lahore: Maktabat al-Ḥaramayn.

[55] Zitzewitz, K. (2015) Life in ruins: Materiality, the city, and the production of critique in the art of Naiza Khan. The Journal of Asian Studies 74 (2), 323–46.