Islamic Period archaeology, as a field of inquiry, has continually confronted methodological and identity-related challenges in defining its epistemic boundaries in relation to adjacent disciplines—most notably, Islamic art history. A review of the critical literature indicates that previous studies have predominantly focused on practical, fieldwork-related, or curricular dimensions, while paying comparatively little attention to the historical rules governing the formation of the statements and concepts that constitute this field. Addressing this gap, the present study employs Michel Foucault’s archaeology of knowledge to investigate the discursive formation of Islamic archaeology within an archive of selected texts, including classical reference works, historical reports, and educational curricula.

Focusing on four archaeological components—the formation of objects, enunciative modalities, the formation of concepts, and discursive strategies—the study examines how material evidence from the Islamic period has been constituted and represented. The findings demonstrate that, in its historical development, the field has been profoundly shaped by descriptive conventions, terminological frameworks, and classificatory systems derived from Orientalist discourse, museum practices, and the historical-stylistic approaches of Islamic art history, as represented in the works of scholars such as Grabar, Ettinghausen, and Petersen. This conceptual and institutional overlap has often framed research objects primarily as “aesthetic and decorative elements,” privileging monumental architecture and isolated museum objects, while relegating analyses of socio-economic contexts and cultural processes to a secondary position.

Furthermore, an examination of university curriculum documents reveals the continuing presence of these hybrid and conventional patterns within institutional structures. Without presupposing a lack of disciplinary autonomy, this study concludes that, in order to move beyond such discursive entanglements and attain greater methodological distinctiveness, Islamic archaeology must redefine its research problems on the basis of specifically archaeological questions and strengthen its interdisciplinary and laboratory-based approaches.