Creative geographies of Islam: the case of Islamic and traditional visual arts scene in Istanbul

While research on geographies of creativity have proliferated in the last few years, there has been scant attention to religious cultural and artistic practices, particularly context Middle East. This seeks address such gap with a focus Islamic traditional visual arts scene which flourished Istanbul past decade half along rise political Islam Turkey. Rendered obsolete through Western-oriented secular politics since early republican era, art forms as Arabic calligraphy ( hat), miniature minyatür), illumination tezhip) now found currency ‘authentically Turkish Islamic’ an that emerged alongside Islamist politics. paper examines trajectory lens creative industries starting from urban governance 1990s 2000s, emergence Islamist-nationalist authoritarianism decade. In doing so, it aims situate map studies creativity, Eastern context, where limited paid practices. With ethnographic reflections field, highlights internal dynamics potential bears unsettling core concepts nationalism within.