Funding Source: Getty Research Institute – My project uses the visual culture of hunting to highlight the ways that mobility and migration shaped art and architecture during the formative decades when Muslims first became a major imperial power in the late seventh and early eighth centuries CE. In particular, I focus on works of art produced throughout the Umayyad caliphate, which was ruled from Syria and stretched from Spain to Tajikistan at its height.

Expanded image description: Alexander Brey at the early Islamic bathhouse of Qusayr ‘Amra in eastern Jordan. The interior is decorated with murals depicting scenes of hunting alongside mythological and religious subjects. Inscriptions name the patron of the murals as the crown prince al-Walid ibn Yazid, who ascended to the throne in 743 CE.