Dr. Ariel Fein earned her PhD in the History of Art from Yale University, where she wrote her dissertation on the Martorana Church and the Arab-Christian built environment of Norman Sicily. Her scholarship explores the intersection of Christian and Islamic visual cultures, in particular the circulation of objects, peoples, and ideas across the frontier zones of the Mediterranean. Other research interests include: the arts of medieval Arab-Christians, identity negotiation and cultural memory in the post-Byzantine diaspora, and Jewish ceremonial art and architecture, with a particular focus on the Jewish communities of the 19th- and 20th-century Middle East.
With two figures representing the Church and the Synagogue, this work demonstrates how Carolingians were negotiating the relationship between Christianity and Judaism
This illuminated manuscript of the Ardashirnama reveals how 17th-century Iranian Jews visually and poetically emphasized their identities as both Iranian and Jewish.
Much like modern souvenirs, these mementos of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish pilgrimage perpetuated pilgrims’ spiritual encounters, stimulating the reliving of the pilgrimage experience and their engagement with their faith.
Much like modern souvenirs, these mementos of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish pilgrimage perpetuated pilgrims’ spiritual encounters, stimulating the reliving of the pilgrimage experience and their engagement with their faith.