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 Materiality in Islam Research Initiative (MIRI) 

Copenhagen University’s Materiality in Islam Research Initiative (MIRI) is a research-oriented focus group comprising Danish-based and international scholars who, through a modern appreciation of Islamic art and archaeology, seek to forge cultural and social understanding with the contemporary Muslim world. MIRI is based in the Department of Cross Cultural and Regional Studies (ToRS, the Danish acronym), the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

The MIRI Concept

Manifestations of human thought and values in the material world (the human landscape) present unfettered insights into the belief systems of past peoples, as they continue to do today. Innovation, continued appreciation, borrowing, reinterpretation, and rejection of form and style in material culture reflect conscious choices by producers, consumers and viewers alike. Collectively, these developments reveal changing and divergent views on faith, politics, economic systems, and human relations at the community level. The study into the materiality of the Islamic World strives to offer new and increasingly refined understanding on the formation, development, and consolidation of Islamic society. It especially seeks to comprehend the inner workings of communities in Islamic lands at the everyday level rarely preserved in other sources and, as a consequence, often unappreciated and commonly underutilized in historical studies. The time period under evaluation spans some 1,400 years, from beginnings of Islam until the early twentieth century. Also to be assessed is the influence, interpretation, and perception of the material past in modern societies, both within and outside the Islamic world, and the contribution of the past in understanding contemporary beliefs and behaviour.