#  Seminar: "The Prophet as a ‘Sacred Spring’: Late Ottoman Hilye Bottles" by Christiane Gruber 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **October 22, 2020** 

 04:00PM - 05:30PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **via Zoom**  



 

 



 

 [RSVP for Zoom link](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1MOLY9wxtpCEeLf8f05MmJemfezNLaE3yTIncPpfjx6spng/viewform?usp=sf_link)

 **Christiane Gruber**, Professor and Chair in the History of Art, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor

 **Abstract**: Along with the Prophet’s relics, verbal icons of Muhammad known as *hilye*s count among the most popular forms of devotional art during the late Ottoman period. While manuscript paintings and compositions mounted on wooden boards have been the subject of scholarly inquiry, an relatively unknown type of *hilye* production involves the insertion of verbal icons into glass bottles. Today, three such “*hilye* bottles” are held in the Topkapı Palace Library. This talk aims to present these newly uncovered artworks and explore their possible meanings and functions, among them their acting as a new kind of prophetic pharmacon during the late nineteenth century, at which time Muhammad was concretized and ‘imbibed’ as the ultimate *elixir vitae*.

   ![Hilye bottle](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/aisp/files/gruber_hilye_bottle_low_res_image_002.png?itok=7hMj2yjo) 

 



 

 



 

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