In her postdoctoral project, Ziba Hashemi investigates the relationship between Islamic art and philosophy through the intellectual framework of the Traditionalist School. Her aim is to provide a systematic analysis of the School’s understanding of art, aesthetics, and symbolism by examining both its philosophical foundations and its interpretation of the Islamic artistic tradition. She argues that, although the Traditionalist School emerged as a critique of modernity, it simultaneously sought to revive the principles of philosophia perennis and the classical conception of being, knowledge, and beauty. Building on these premises, she explores how leading Traditionalist thinkers conceived of art as a means of manifesting metaphysical truths and cultivating human perfection. She pays particular attention to the roles of symbolism, representation, and visual language in expressing the hierarchical structure of reality. By combining philosophical inquiry with the study of Islamic artistic and intellectual traditions, she aims to contribute to contemporary scholarship on Islamic aesthetics, the philosophy of art, and the intellectual history of the modern Islamic world.

Ziba Hashemi received a BA in Philosophy and Islamic Wisdom from the University of Zanjan and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Tabriz. She recently completed a PhD in Philosophy at Istanbul University with a dissertation entitled Philosophy of Art from the Perspective of the Traditionalist School. Her research focuses on Islamic art, Traditionalist thought, the history of philosophy, and the intellectual history of Islam. Her publications and conference papers examine topics such as Islamic aesthetics, calligraphy, symbolism, manuscript culture, and the philosophy of art. She has also translated several classical works from Arabic and Persian into Turkish, with particular emphasis on Islamic intellectual history.