Muslim Matter

This book brings together photographs, objects, and essays as a way to present the overlooked and sometimes under-represented aspects of everyday life across various Muslim communities and societies. In doing so, it recognises and reflects upon the importance of material and visual cultures. Our selection comprises of material gathered at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies: photographs that researchers have recorded during fieldwork, objects and artefacts that they have brought back from the field and accompanying essays that feature multi-disciplinary perspectives on the subject. Muslim Matter underscores the complexity and heterogeneity of Muslim lifeworlds: places where prayer goes hand in hand with ideas of amusement and simple pleasures offset the harshness of conflict-ridden environments; also communities which are in conversation with non-Muslim majorities; and occasions where the human-ness of the subject takes precedence over its Muslim-ness.