Islamic Art
650 CE - present day
Main Ideas
• Highest art form is calligraphy
• Textiles are especially valued
• Most works lack figural representations, with the exception of
artwork heavily influenced by the Chinese
• Mosque is the primary religious building, often with minarets (for
muezzins), always with a mihrab marking the qiblah (niche that
orients one towards Mecca). Mosque follows either hypostyle or
open design
• Arabesques and tessellations incorporated
• Patronage – rulers and social elite
• Islamic belief that there is unity in multiplicity
• Great mathematic thinkers!
• Art is intellectual, refined and DECORATIVE
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
arabesques
Tessellations
(repeating geometric patterns)
Frieze from Mshatta, Jordan, c. 750, State Museum, Berlin.
From 16’ high palace wall; carved stone with vegetal designs – animals on secular side
of palace, none on the other; triangle pattern with rosettes
Islamic Textiles
Dome of the Rock, c. 690, Jerusalem, Israel
Wooden dome on octagonal building; columns are from Roman buildings; influenced
by Byzantine architecture; central ly placed on the temple mount; built for pilgrims
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Adam’s burial place
Where Abraham
nearly sacrificed Isaac
Location of the
Temple of Jerusalem
Location of the first
Christian church built
for the mother of
Constantine
Site of Mohammed’s
ascension to heaven
Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
Interior, Dome of the Rock
Great Mosque of Cordoba, Spain, 8th-10th Centuries
Hypostyle mosque not meant for congregational meetings; horseshow double-arched columns
(recycled from Roman buildings); light interior; original ceiling was wooden, but now vaulted
Sinan, Mosque of Selim II, 1570, Edirne, Turkey
Very tall and thin minarets; lots of light inside from windows; decorative tile and
mosaics; dome on square, then octagon
Interior of Sinan, Mosque of Selim II
Court of the Lions, Palace of the Lions, Alhambra, Granada, Spain,
1354-91. Sumptuous palace and gardens like paradise on Earth;
Muqarnas dome, Hall of the Abenacerrajes, Palace of the Lions
Illuminated tugra of Sultan Suleyman,
Istanbul, 1555, ink , paint and gold on
paper
Page from Koran
Persian Manuscript
Tabriz School, Pandj Gandj,
Amir Dehlavi
• Heavily influenced by
Chinese via the Mongols
invasions
• Doll-like figures in brilliant
colors
• Figural representation was
accepted in Persia
• Shadowless
• Sumptuous dress
• Flat planes
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