Islamic Art and Culture
Culture and Values, Chapter 08
Chapter 8 - Timeline
570
Muhammad born
c. 620
Qur'an develops
622
Muhammad flees Mecca. Marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar
632
Muhammad dies
c. 680 or 690
Great Mosque of Damascus built by al Walid
c. 680 or 690
Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
700-800 The House of Wisdom draws scholars from all over the Muslim world,
translating and preserving many Greek texts
730-843 Muslim belief that God's divinity defies representation leads to intricate
blend of geometric design and sacred texts
780-850 Life of Al-Khwarizmi, inventor of algebra
780/90 Great Mosque in Cordoba begun
1187
Sultan Saladin conquers Jerusalem
1200-1300
Fall of Acre, last Christian stronghold in Holy Land
1200-1300
The Alhambra
1203-1273
Life of Rumi, best-known Sufi mystic-poet
1492
Christians drive Muslims from Spain (Reconquista)
1633-1652
Taj Mahal constructed in India
Chapter 8: Outline
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Muhammad and the Birth of Islam
The Koran
Calligraphy
Islamic Architecture
Sufism
The Culture of Islam and the West
Islam and World Conquest
Muhammad always thought of the new revelation he had received from God as a
new religion which could unify the whole human race under one God and bring with
it amity among nations. Islam regards itself as the final perfection of God's
revelation first announced to the Jews and later to the Christians. For that reason,
Muhammad's religion was an unapologetic missionary faith. Within two hundred
years Islam had spread from the desert world of Arabia throughout present-day
Middle East and along Mediterranean Sea and the Iberian peninsula of present-day
Southern Spain; much of this dispersion came via military conquest.
Islam’s Rise and the Decline of Christianity
Islam's rise coincided with a period of stagnation in what was the Christian West.
The old Roman Empire was in a state of decline having been hammered by
successive waves of Barbarian invasions. The Byzantine Empire with its capital at
Constantinople controlled only the city itself and its adjacent territories. It was an
essentially inward looking, conservative, and noninnovative culture. Islam, by
contrast, was a vigorous young religious culture and at its apex when the Abassids
ruled from its center in Baghdad and later in Damascus and Córdoba was
innovative and forward-looking.
Page from the
Qur’an, 8th c.
Christianity vs. Islam
While Islamic incursions were halted in the West in the generations before
Charlemagne, and Muslims would not take possession of Constantinople until the
fifteenth century, there were constant exchanges between the two cultures
eventhough they warred against each other with ferocity (i.e., the Crusades). This
hostility shows up clearly in the West. The Muslims, in Christian eyes, were simply
the "Infidel" and their wickedness is a theme in The Song of Roland where their
beliefs and their practices were criticized and twisted into parody. The Christian
Crusades had the express aim to wrest the Christian holy places from these
"Infidels." It should not surprise us that Dante comes to describe the walls of the city
of hell as crenellated walls with domes of "fiery mosques."
Map of the Crusades,
1000 – 1200 a.d
The Complexity of Islam
The antagonism between the Christian West and the world of Islam has a long and
bitter history. It is an antagonism that reflects itself today in the stereotyping of
Muslims as backward, fundamentalist, terrorists out to ruin the world. The irony is,
of course, that we read such things on paper–an innovation that the House of
Wisdom in Baghdad gave to the West in the medieval period. The real truth is that
Islam is a highly complex and deeply rich culture in which religion is so central that it
cannot be disentangled from political and social culture. Islam has a long tradition of
learning and the arts with a worldview that attempts to explain the place of people in
the social order under the watchful eye of an all-powerful God who is adored under
the name of Allah.
Islamic Art develops around
And then reacts to existing notions
of beauty and decorum
In Arabic, islam means submission
and a muslim is one who submits
to Allah's will.
Islam as submission to the will of Allah
Qur’an = Koran: Holy Book
Hadith: traditions about Mohammed
a. The Koran is explicit about
repercussions if one indulges
in representational art.
b. Icons are considered idolatrous
The idolatry of icons
Damascus Mosque
Even though trees and houses are clearly depicted, the absence of
human figures is striking. This reflects the restriction against depicting
the human form in early Islamic art.
Calligraphy and Arabesque Design
•Follows Islamic conquests of Christian territory
a. Script of Koran the visual artifact of God’s
communiqué to world.
•Calligraphy-art of drawing language-Islam’s
greatest visual expression.
Calligraphy:
a.linear, elegant handwriting with flowing
rhythmic strokes
b. Mohammed becomes linked with the
script to the logical extension of God’s
gift to the world
Arabesque: abstract designs of Islamic
Artists
•Combines calligraphy with mathematical
compositions
•Uses vegetal design
•Also uses geometric design inspired by
mathematics
Islamic Architecture
1.Mosque format-”masgid/masjid”=
Place of worship
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simple overall geometry
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faces direction of Mecca
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has four sections
a. Atrium or courtyard
b. Minaret-covered sanctuary and
tower where muezzin calls people
to worship
c. Quibla-wall of prayers faces East
d. Mihrab-sacred niche in center of
quibla
The Dome of the Rock
The Dome of the Rock,
Jerusalem, late 7th c.
And at right:
Mosaic tile from the The Dome of the Rock
Mosque of Cordoba
The Great Mosque , Cordoba,Spain
(784-6 , 961-6 , 987-90 , et.al.)
The double horseshoe arcades
of the prayer-hall
Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal, Agra, India, 1631 - 1647