{"id":35659,"date":"2026-02-11T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/videos\/gha%e1%b8%8d%e1%b8%8d-al-ba%e1%b9%a3ar-as-the-paradigm-of-an-islamic-aesthetics-interpretations-and-perspectives\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T08:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:11:10","slug":"gha%e1%b8%8d%e1%b8%8d-al-ba%e1%b9%a3ar-as-the-paradigm-of-an-islamic-aesthetics-interpretations-and-perspectives","status":"publish","type":"videos","link":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/gha%e1%b8%8d%e1%b8%8d-al-ba%e1%b9%a3ar-as-the-paradigm-of-an-islamic-aesthetics-interpretations-and-perspectives\/","title":{"rendered":"Gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar as the paradigm of an Islamic aesthetics: interpretations and perspectives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel)<\/a>, held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme “Ethics and Aesthetics in Islam”. Wael Tahhan<\/strong> (Paris 1 Panth\u00e9on-Sorbonne University) spoke as part of Theme 1 \u2014 Ethics and aesthetics in Islamic heritage.<\/em><\/p>\n

Summary of the paper<\/h3>\n

The mastery of the gaze (gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar<\/em>), a fundamental principle of Islamic ethics, has rarely been approached from an aesthetic angle. Nourished by the interdisciplinary perspective on the Islamic sciences proposed by Taha \u02bfAbd al-Rahman and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, this paper explores how a moral value could constitute a conceptual ground favourable to the emergence of an Islamic aesthetics \u2014 one in which sensible experience, taste, self-discipline, pleasure and spirituality intertwine. It thus interrogates an aesthetics that does not approach the adjective “Islamic” as a geo-historical or stylistic category (Grabar, Papadopoulo, Naef), but rethinks it as an epistemological marker, examining in this light the concept of gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar<\/em> as a demonstrative paradigm.<\/p>\n

The study begins with a semantic analysis of the term ba\u1e63ar<\/em>, distinguishing it from other forms of visual perception (na\u1e93ar<\/em>, mush\u0101hada<\/em>, ru’ya<\/em>, la\u1e25\u1e93<\/em>, ta\u1e25d\u012bq<\/em>), before examining its conceptual evolution in the writings of three Sufi thinkers: al-Mu\u1e25\u0101sib\u012b, al-Qushayr\u012b and al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b. This analysis brings to light the way in which, in Sufi interpretations, gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar<\/em> transcends a mere moral injunction tied to chastity or sexual desire to become an active operator of the refinement of taste (tadhawwuq<\/em>, tazkiya<\/em>, \u02bfiffa<\/em>), applying to the perception of the various forms of beauty (\u0101y\u0101t<\/em>). This theoretical approach is then related to phenomena in Islamic art and architecture, in which certain elements were conceived not to captivate the gaze but to guide it towards a lateral beauty, thus acting as mediators (w\u0101si\u1e6da<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The originality of this approach lies in the inversion of ontologies: whereas conventional aesthetics places sensory attention as the sine qua non<\/em> of sensible experience and of the judgement of taste, gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar<\/em> proposes an inverted epistemology, opening the way to other perceptual modalities and to other paths towards the beautiful.<\/p>\n

\nRead the panel synthesis by Chadia Gueddara<\/summary>\n
\n

This synthesis was written in the aftermath of the congress by Chadia Gueddara<\/strong> (EHESS), under the Pluriel student-fellowship programme. It covers all three papers of the panel.<\/em><\/p>\n

Aesthetics and Sufism: gazes, listenings and spiritual knowledge<\/h4>\n

Held on Wednesday 11 February 2026 in Hall 2 and chaired by Guy-Ramond Sarkis, this panel gathered three papers in French and Arabic that share a single central question: how does classical Sufi thought articulate sensible experience and spiritual elevation? Three axes structure the whole.<\/p>\n

The first is the hierarchisation of pleasures and modes of perception. Ridouane Bisdaoune (Ibn Zohr University, Morocco), through Fakhr al-D\u012bn al-R\u0101z\u012b’s Ris\u0101lat Dhamm Ladhdh\u0101t al-Duny\u0101<\/em>, proposes a taxonomy of enjoyments \u2014 sensible, imaginative, intellectual \u2014 whose ascending logic leads to a redefinition of beauty as inner reality, with wisdom constituting its summit. Yesmine Karray (ENS Lyon) identifies, in al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b, an analogous gradation of the experience of sam\u0101\u02bf<\/em> according to the degree of spiritual maturity of the listener, while Wael Tahhan (Paris 1) shows how gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar<\/em> \u2014 the lowering of the gaze \u2014 establishes a perceptual hierarchy between the ordinary look (na\u1e93ar<\/em>) and the higher forms of vision (ba\u1e63\u012bra<\/em>, mush\u0101hada<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The second axis is that of inner conversion as the condition of aesthetic experience. All three papers thematise the necessity of a transformation of the soul in order to reach an authentic perception of the beautiful: the polishing of the mirror of the heart in al-R\u0101z\u012b; understanding (fahm<\/em>) as a prerequisite to the shock of ecstasy (wajd<\/em>) in al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b; refinement of taste (tadhawwuq<\/em>, tazkiyya<\/em>) through the mastery of the gaze in Tahhan. The third axis concerns normativity and the legitimation of aesthetic practices. Al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b emerges as the central figure of legitimation: he integrates sam\u0101\u02bf<\/em> into orthodoxy by conditioning its licitness upon the nature of the poetry, the music and the spiritual state of the listener. Tahhan extends this reflection by proposing to read gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar<\/em> not as a mere moral injunction but as the foundation of an Islamic aesthetics whose adjective “Islamic” is rethought as an epistemological marker rather than a geo-historical category.<\/p>\n

The papers mobilise a conceptual network anchored in the classical Islamic sciences: ladhdh\u0101t<\/em> (enjoyments) and their hierarchisation in al-R\u0101z\u012b; sam\u0101\u02bf<\/em> and its operators \u2014 tanz\u012bl<\/em> (embodiment of the poetic image) and ta’w\u012bl<\/em> (return to the first meaning) \u2014 in al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b; gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar<\/em> in its double moral and aesthetic register, articulated with the notions of ba\u1e63\u012bra<\/em>, tazkiya<\/em>, tadhawwuq<\/em>, \u1e25al\u0101wa<\/em> and baraka<\/em> in Tahhan. On the theoretical plane, Bisdaoune articulates the “sciences of the Ancients” (falsafa<\/em>, medicine) and the “sciences of the Later ones” (kal\u0101m<\/em>, ta\u1e63awwuf<\/em>); Karray adopts a hermeneutics of the Kit\u0101b \u0100d\u0101b al-sam\u0101\u02bf wa-l-wajd<\/em>; Tahhan draws on the philosophers Taha \u02bfAbd al-Rahman and Seyyed Hossein Nasr.<\/p>\n

The centrality of al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b in all three papers raised the question of the risk of uniformisation: to what extent does this figure crush the diversity of Sufi positions on the licitness of sam\u0101\u02bf<\/em> or on the theory of the gaze? The main contribution of this panel is to lay the foundations of an Islamic aesthetics built from within the Islamic sciences themselves, articulating ethics, epistemology and sensible experience. It also enriches al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b studies by highlighting dimensions that are often relegated to the background: the poetics of sam\u0101\u02bf<\/em>, the medicine of the soul, the refinement of the gaze. Conversely, the focus on the great classical texts leaves late Sufi traditions and concrete practices in the shadow. Finally, a more explicit dialogue with contemporary comparative aesthetics would allow the epistemological singularity of the proposed approach to be better situated.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/details>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"date_tournage":"","lieu":"","nature_evenement":"","vt_type":"Conf\u00e9rence","vt_yt_views":98},"video_collection":[854],"class_list":["post-35659","videos","type-videos","status-publish","hentry","video_collection-congres-de-cordoue-2026"],"date_tournage":"","yoast_head":"\nGha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar as the paradigm of an Islamic aesthetics: interpretations and perspectives - Pluriel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/videos\/gha\u1e0d\u1e0d-al-ba\u1e63ar-as-the-paradigm-of-an-islamic-aesthetics-interpretations-and-perspectives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gha\u1e0d\u1e0d al-ba\u1e63ar as the paradigm of an Islamic aesthetics: interpretations and perspectives - Pluriel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Paper presented at the fifth international congress of the University Platform for Research on Islam (Pluriel), held in Cordoba from 10 to 14 February 2026 on the theme “Ethics and Aesthetics in Islam”. 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