ABSTRACT

This edited scholarly volume offers a perspective on the history of the genre of the nude in the Middle East and includes contributions written by scholars from several disciplines (art history, history, anthropology). Each chapter provides a distinct perspective on the early days of the fine arts genre of the nude, as its author studies a particular aspect through analysis of artworks and historical documents from the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries. The volume examines a rich body of reproductions of both primary documents and of works of art made by Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian artists or of anonymous book illustrations from the nineteenth century Ottoman erotic literature.

chapter 1|16 pages

Introduction: The ‘Arab Nude’

chapter 2|27 pages

Necessary Nudes

Hadatha and Mu‘asara in the Lives of Modern Lebanese 1

chapter 3|25 pages

Early Representations of Nudity in the Ottoman Press

A Look at Nineteenth-Century Ottoman and Arabic Erotic Literature

chapter 7|16 pages

Bare Language

chapter 8|10 pages

Msalkha, or the Anti-Nude