Introduction
Art and architecture from the areas of the Middle East, North Africa, North India and Spain that belonged to the territory of Islam at different times from the 7th century onwards.
Isfahan's Masjid-i-Sha is a madrasa (school for students of Islam), within which there is also a mosque. It was built between 1612 and 1637. The impressive dome is one of the most delicate examples of tile work in the world.
Origins and Characteristics
Of the dominant traits of Islamic art and architecture, the importance of calligraphic decoration and the spatial composition of the mosque were closely linked to Islamic doctrine and developed in the early times of their religion.
The Prophet Muhammad was a wealthy Meccan merchant who experienced a series of divine revelations at age 40 and began to preach the new faith. His teachings are contained in the Koran, the holy book of Muslims, where the linguistic heritage of Arabic literature is remarkable. The importance of this book in Islamic culture and in the aesthetics of Arabic writing contributed to the development of calligraphic decorative styles in all fields of Islamic art. The written word, especially Qur'anic inscriptions, played an important decorative role in mosques and their liturgical objects.
In the year 622 A.D. Mohammed fled from Mecca towards Yathrib, the future Medina, in the so-called Hijra, from when the Islamic chronology begins. In Medina, Muhammad joined a group of believers to celebrate community prayer. Muhammad's house consisted of a square enclosure of adobe walls open to a courtyard crowned by a portico or canopy on the south side. On the eastern wall, the women's wing of the Prophet was built, facing the courtyard, where the faithful gathered to pray under the direction of Muhammad, who climbed on a dais to address them. This architectural arrangement was preserved in future mosques, which could only have an interior courtyard (sahn) surrounded by porticos (riwaqs) and a covered space (haram), articulated by column naves and delimited by the quibla, the wall that marks the direction of Mecca.
The first followers of Muhammad were the nomadic peoples coming from the Arabian peninsula, with few artistic traditions, unlike the empires they conquered later. As it expanded, Islam assimilated the different cultural and artistic traditions of the conquered peoples, thus establishing its own artistic style, which varies according to the different climatic areas or the materials available. Some motifs adapted from other cultures have become universal themes in the Islamic world.
Islamic art evolved from many sources, such as Roman, Paleo-Christian or Byzantine, which were interwoven into its early architecture, Sasanian Persian art and Central Asian styles, incorporated through Turkish and Mongol incursions. Chinese art was an essential ingredient of painting, ceramics and textile arts.
Architecture
The scarce ritual of Islamic worship gave rise to two types of religious character:the mosque (masjid), a place where the community gathers to pray, and the madrasa or Qur'anic school. In civil architecture, palaces, caravanserai and cities stand out, planned according to the need to channel water and protect the population against the heat. Another important building in Islam is the mausoleum, where rulers were buried as a symbol of their earthly power.
Stucco, brick and tile were used as decorative elements in Islamic buildings. The mural panels were adorned with decorative motifs of geometric lacework on tiles. Carved wooden lattices, often with ivory inlays, also provided a support for architectural decoration in the Islamic world.
decorative arts
The banishment of figurative themes, contained in the hadith, is similar to the iconoclasm developed during the period of the Byzantine Empire.
The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, was opened in 1616 by Sultan Ahmet I and designed by Mehmet Aga, a student of the famous Ottoman architect, Sinan. It is known by the name of the Blue Mosque due to the strange hue of the Iznikazul tiles that decorate its interior walls. The monastery's peaceful courtyard is surrounded by a covered arcade.
These prohibitions or recommendations were strictly followed in the case of religious architecture, particularly in mosques, but civil architecture transgressed them on several occasions, depending in both cases on the orthodoxy of the ruler in power. On the other hand, these limitations encouraged the development of a repertoire based on various motifs and forms, such as epigraphy (calligraphic inscriptions), plaster ornaments or stylized plant decoration (arabesques) and geometric or lacy decoration. One of the artistic manifestations that reached greater splendor within Islamic art was ceramics, in which one can appreciate a degree of innovation and creativity comparable to that of the plastic arts of other cultures. Muslim artists worked with glass, first using techniques employed in Egypt and Sasanian Iran, and later developing new techniques, as in the case of the Fatimids, who produced carved glass, bright painted glass, and patterned glass.
In addition to its decorative use in architecture, wood was used as a material for other applied arts. In Fatimid palaces, there are still exceptional examples of tablets with courtly representations, reminiscent of the style of the Copts. Furniture pieces were also carved, especially the screens.
Carved ivory boxes and elephant tusks abounded at the Fatimid court, a tradition that continued in Muslim Sicily. In them, courtiers, animals and vegetation were represented. Some of the finest Islamic bronze objects were preserved in the treasuries of European churches. At first they adopted Sasanian forms, but the Fatimid period produced animal-shaped bronze vessels, as well as lamps and plates. Among the most important objects are the lamps, cups and sets of vase and basin for washing hands with inlays of silver and gold, inscriptions and abstract and figurative motifs.
The elaborate Kufic script, so suited to being carved in stone, appears in the earliest manuscripts of the Qur'an that were bequeathed to us. In them, some diacritical accents were painted in red, and the golden decorations between the suras (chapters) contrast with the elegant black writing. In the Seldjuk period, Nesita writing appeared, more cursive and fluid. Both styles were used in architecture and the decorative arts.
Leather book bindings are an excellent example of Islamic decorative arts. In the early days, they were carried out in engraved reliefs; later, the covers and spines were stamped and gilded, and finally, in the 16th century, painted with enamels. Leather work was also applied to the harnesses of horses and the objects used in the cetraria.
The mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent was built in Istanbul in 1550. Sinan, the architect, was based on Byzantine churches and, in particular, on Hagia Sophia. The central dome is surrounded by semi-domes. The four narrow minarets with balconies are characteristic of the architectural style of the later Islamic mosques.
Easel painting did not exist in Islamic art, which concentrated on book illustration. The oldest preserved exhibits are miniatures of Greek scientific manuscripts translated from Arabic.
The canvases were considered luxury objects, and the most refined were made in workshops called tiraz, controlled by the caliph. The Tiraz system, comparable to the official institutions of the Byzantine, Coptic, and Sasanian empires, ended with the Mongol conquest. Fabrics from a tiraz (which had the same name and, in general, served as ceremonial gifts) were considered possessions of the highest value and often bore the stamp of the workshop, the date of manufacture and the name of the ruler.
The oldest known Islamic rugs were made in Konya (Turkey) in the 14th century. These rugs, in shades of blue, green and red, follow a scheme based on natural shapes, with an edge containing inscriptions. During the Mamluk rule, rugs had geometric patterns in shades of pale blue, red, and yellow.
Arab Civilization