Attraverso lo specchio: ipotesi di lettura sociopolitica degli ornamenti nelle società islamiche

Without pretensions of exhaustiveness, and avoiding overly simplistic generalizations, this contribution attempts to trace a macroevolutionary line capable of reconstructing, in broad terms, the evolution and fate of ornaments in Islamic civilizations. Above all, this article seeks to account for the political-social, communal, and everyday implications of the relationship that these civilizations maintain with ornamentation. Conceived as a possible opening and encouragement for further research paths, the contribution begins with a brief analysis of the methodological pitfalls involved in addressing such a corpus, before proceeding through a bird’s- eye argumentation of the subject under consideration. The fundamental conclusion is essentially an observation of the evolutionary-dynamic asymmetry of ornamentation compared to its Western fate, although it does not fail to note pockets of ornamentation imbued with symbolic outcomes.