Iḥsān wa/ve Tzelem: Aesthetic Vision and Ethical Task
University of Virginia, February 26–28, 2024
The Arabic Iḥsān and the Hebrew Tzelem are not mere translations of each other. They mean different things and are used in different ways. But they also share certain conceptual and theological affinities that can both complement and illuminate each other. Famously defined in the hadith of Gabriel as "worshipping God as if you see Him, for if you do not see Him, He sees you," iḥsān (excellence, perfection, beauty) has been and continues to be a central term in Islamic discourses of beauty, ethics, and justice across several domains. From the same root come the Qur'anic concepts of the Most Beautiful Names of God (al-asma' al-ḥusnā'), the "beautiful example" of the Prophet Muhammad, the "most beautiful of forms" in which humankind was created, and the beautiful-doers (muḥsinīn), the Qur'anic paragons of ethico-spiritual excellence. The Hebrew term tzelem is usually rendered as “image.” A crucial passage in the Book of Genesis speaks of the creation of the human “in God’s image.” But tzelem does not merely denote an image in the common sense of the word. In his Guide of the Perplexed, Maimonides famously distinguished between images composed of figural shape (toar) and an image representing spiritual qualities.
The word tzelem, for Maimonides, signified the “essence of the thing,” a likeness shaped by intellect and soul, that bestowed not only a special dignity to its holder and beholder but also a sense of freedom and, by extension, an ethical imperative. In later literature, tzelem would become the image of humanity itself. In this workshop, we seek contributions exploring what have been, what are and what could be the relationships amongst the various concepts and practices of iḥsān and tzelem across domains often regarded as separate (the spiritual, the political, the literary, the intellectual, the ethical, the social, and the artistic, etc.). What can centering iḥsān (and its related terms of ḥusn, muḥsīn, etc.) help us understand about the role and power of ḥusn (beauty) in various Islamic traditions? How does and can the term tzelem and its related terms (including its plural form meaning “idols”) help us understand the idea of creation and the countenance of created beings in different Jewish traditions? How can both terms speak to each other and contribute to a constructive thinking with our senses? Instead of starting with exogenous terms such as "aesthetics" and "ethics," our workshop seeks to put in conversation ihsan and tzelem as complementary terms transcending the aesthetic and ethical as often conflicted claims. Following the model of our Forum on Jewish-Muslim Thought and Theology, we hope to think together about traditional and contemporary interpretations of these two concepts and to make them relevant to the urgent questions of our time.
Conference Organizers:
Ufuk Topkara (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
Asher Biemann (University of Virginia)
Ogunnaike Oludamini (University of Virginia)