Page - 67 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 01/01

Mediality and Materialityin the History of Religions | 67www.jrfm.eu 2015, 1/1, 65–71 seems more and more to be a stereotype – be it as a classical islamic ideal or a 19th century scientific topos.4 And here we find the interesting parallels to Lövheim’s observations. It must be asked, not only for contemporary but for historical research as well, how strict the separation of official and individual religion, or of a public sphere for men and a pri- vate sphere for women, ever was.5 My studies have looked at the agency to finance buildings and modes of perception of written signs on architecture, as well as respon- sibilities in authorship and access to texts. In doing so, we find no female author, but women appeared in public – in person or via their donations. BUilDiNGs as ParT Of MaTerial CUlTUre6 Even if I can provide only some superficial insights here, women appear as sponsors of buildings in a broader multi-religious context. This contradicts every stereotype we know: women as passive members of families, as ruled by men, as living in the back- ground in their harems, as not leaving their home and as not taking part in official af- fairs in public. in fact, the opposite was the case, especially among the wealthier and politically active families in all three religions. Jonathan Bloom has examined Cairo’s graveyards – which are a most important field when we look at the spheres of male and female from antiquity to islam – and found that women always played an impor- tant role in burial ceremonies as mourners and also as ritual specialists for remember- ing the deceased in their regular visits to the graveyards. Bloom’s article “The Mosque of the Qarafa in Cairo” (1987)7 deals with an important mosque complex at a central place in a huge cemetery. from around the year 1000, the women of the ruler’s family acted there as patrons of buildings such as family tombs. stephan humphreys then widened the scope in his article “Women as Patrons of religious architecture in ayy- ubid Damascus” (1994)8: When in the 13th century it became popular for the wealthy to act as patrons religious infrastructure in the Near east, women were well repre- sented as sponsors of public buildings. even if the gender aspect was not part of her study, with Writing Signs. The Fa- timid Public Text (1998) irene Bierman opened our eyes to inscriptions on public build- ings. she followed the signs of male politicians, califs, sultans and viziers who marked their terrain within the city.9 in these cases, the media are connected: One could and 4 Cortese/Calderini 2006, 41, 232–233. see also 64, 187–188 on interconfessional and interreligious mar- riages. 5 lövheim 2013, 153–154. 6 Material culture found entry into the work of history and history of religions much later than texts. The material culture of the fatimids is therefore well known mainly to art historians. There exist examples of tableware showing pictorial representations of humans and animals. Here we find female musicians, although the sex of many figures can hardly be identified with any certainty. Seipel 1998, 106. 7 Bloom 1987, 7–18. 8 humphreys 1994, 35–54. 9 Bierman 1998.