Research: From Delhi to the Deccan, 14th century Islamic imperialism and the conquest mosques of Dhār, Daulatābād and Warangal.
Lidia Corna, Curriculum Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia, XXXVII Cycle
Abstract: The definition of "conquest mosques" refers to the monuments of Islamic worship built after a Muslim conquest employing spoils of the desecrated Hindu temples. They first appeared in India in the 12th century, following the Islamic conquest of the Indo-Gangetic plain. A second brief flowering occurred in the early 14th century, when Muslim forces invaded the Deccan territory.
From a historiographical point of view, the conquest mosques became the emblem of the Muslim iconoclast reaction, not only because they made use of spolia from desecrated temples, but also because the same material, dense of figures, was deturpated for religious reasons.
Through a direct observation of what material testimonies offer of tangible it is possible to resize this interpretation: instead of those religious motives often proclaimed in an instrumental way, is the passage between two distinct political powers which seems to be the strongest motivation behind those phenomena of desecration and reuse discussed.
It is above all a complete investigation of the second flowering of the phenomenon, precisely at a time when in the north an architectural aesthetic that made use of material ex novo had been configured, which would reinforce the thesis of a deliberate and symbolic reuse from the political point of view, since it is closely linked to strategic and expansionist logics.
Research interests: Archaeology and art history of India, Hindu-Muslim cultural dialectics and Indo-Islamic architecture in the Indian subcontinent.
11/2021-Today: PhD student at the Italian Institute of Oriental Studies (ISO), University of Rome La Sapienza.
Project title: The desecration of Hindu temples and the reuse of spoils for building "conquest mosques" during the Islamic expansion in the Indian Subcontinent. Tutor: Prof. Ciro Lo Muzio.
Co-tutor: Prof. Mattia Guidetti
09/2018-03/2021: Master’s Degree in History and Orientale Studies, Alma Mater Studiorum, Bologna.
Thesis title: The Islamic reuse of Hindu temples and spoils. Case studies in the Deccan of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Supervisor: Prof. Mattia Guidetti. Co-supervisor: Prof. Nicoletta Celli.
09/2014-04/2018: Bachelor’s degree in Studies in Cultural Heritage, University of Milan.
Thesis title: Elements of Islamic aesthetics and Mughal art. Supervisor: Prof. Cinzia Pieruccini.