Holley Ledbetter, a faculty member in the Departments of Communication, Rhetoric and the Literary Arts (CRLA), and History, Religion and Society, has had her research published in a book called The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art, published by Yale University Press. Ledbetter wrote chapter three of the volume, entitled “Reuse and Alteration, The Viking Afterlives of Samanid Silver.” 

According to the publisher, The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art traces the currents of change that unite the visual and material culture of the Islamic world across space and time. The book brings together an international group of scholars and curators whose contributions explore the ways the seas have had a profound effect on Islamic art. Their case studies range across the globe and span a period from Islam’s 1^st century to today.

Ledbetter’s chapter brings into focus a forgotten example of cross-cultural contact along the Volga River in the medieval period between the Samanids of Central Asia and the Vikings. Her article is the first to explore at length the contact and exchange between the Samanids, a Muslim dynasty situated on the eastern frontier of the Islamic world, and the Vikings, a seafaring people hailing from Northern Europe. In particular, the chapter traces how Samanid silver objects were reused and altered for their new Viking owners.

Ledbetter is currently a Ph.D. candidate specializing in the art and architecture of the medieval Islamic world. In 2019, she was invited to present her research at the eighth biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art in Doha, one of the premiere venues for scholars of Islamic art, after which she was invited to contribute her research to the book in the form of a chapter. Last year, at King’s Academy, she also taught a two-week online course entitled The Lost History of Image-Making in Islam.