Picturing Royal Charisma: Kings and Rulers in the Near East from 3000 BCE to 1700 CE

Arlette David trained as a lawyer (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and as an Egyptologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she is now Professor of Egyptology. She has published studies on ancient Egyptian legal languages, scriptural categorization, art and material culture, and especially on the iconography of the Amarna Period (recently Renewing Royal Imagery: Akhenaten and Family in the Amarna Tombs, 2021). Rachel Milstein studied Islamic art and culture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where, until her retirement, she taught Islamic art. Her research focuses on illustrative painting, mainly in Persian manuscripts, and her principal publications concentrate on religious iconography (Miniature Painting in Ottoman Baghdad, Costa Mesa, 1990, and La Bible dans l’art islamique, 2005). Tallay Ornan is Professor emerita in the Departments of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations and of Art History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She specializes in the art of the ancient Near East, focusing on the Bronze and Iron Ages, c. 3000—500 BCE. Her publications combine studies dealing with Mesopotamian, Syrian, and Levantine art to shed light on the transfer of ideas within the Near Eastern Bronze and Iron Ages and processes of cultural borrowing and reception.

Introduction : Picturing Royal Charisma: The Image of Kings in the Eastern Mediterranean from the Late Fourth Millennium to the Islamic Period (c. 3250 BCE to 1600 CE) – Arlette David, Rachel Milstein, Tallay Ornan ;



Chapter 1: In the Beginning: The First 1200 Years in Mesopotamia – Claudia E. Suter ;



Chapter 2: The Defeat of the Lion: A Visual Trope Promoting Ancient Near Eastern Kings – Tallay Ornan ;



Chapter 3: Hybridism as a Visual Mark of Divinity: The Case of Akhenaten – Arlette David ;



Chapter 4: The Architectural Presence of the Assyrian King in His Palaces – David Kertai ;



Chapter 5: The King’s Faithful Servants: The Eunuch’s Role as Sovereign Attribute with an Emphasis on Assyria – Irit Ziffer ;



Chapter 6: The Arch of Titus: Jerusalem in Rome – Galit Noga-Banai ;



Chapter 7: Basileus basileion: Weberian Approaches to Authority in the roman Near East – Michael Sommer ;



Chapter 8: Royal Sovereignty in Frankish Jerusalem: Davidic Legacy and the Transformation of Jerusalem’s Cityscape in the 12th Century – Anna Gutgarts ;



Chapter 9: Sacred Space and the Royal Seat: Islamic Imagery of Kingship – Rachel Milstein