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Some Characteristics of Islamic Art

Author(s): Edward H. MaddenSource: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Summer, 1975), pp. 423-430Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The American Society for AestheticsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/429655

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EDWARD H. MADDEN

S o m e Characteristicsf I s la m i c A r t

WESTERN ART HISTORIANS have shownmuch interest in Islamic art, though in gen-eral they have remained content with datingartifacts and ascribing art objects to variousschools and traditions. Such work is surelyimportant, but it gives little or no insight intowhat makes Islamic art Islamic. It leavesopaque the meanings of these artifacts asexpressionsof a community in which religionand art are intimately joined. Titus Burck-hardt is the happy exception who, in additionto historical expertise, has made importantcontributions to the beginnings of an aes-thetics of Islamic art.'Until recently Muslim writers also havebeen of little help to the interested Westerner.Knowing the intimate way that his art ex-presses Islamic commitments, he supposed ithopeless to make anyone outside the Islamiccommunity genuinely understandand appre-ciate the symbolism of Islamic art. In recentyears, however, they have changed their tackand are trying to make clear to anyone withsufficientimagination and sympathythe mainthrust of Islamic art and thereby to open tothe Western mind new avenues of aestheticappreciation.2This paper is an effort towardachieving that same goal.The plan of procedure will be this: 1) toapply briefly the concept of traditional orreligious art-made familiar by the excellentwritings of Ananda Coomaraswamy, RendGuenon, and Titus Burckhardt-specificallyto the Islamic context; 2) to distinguish care-fully and analyze in some detail the constit-uent elements of the classical Sunni IslamicEDWARD MADDEN isprofessorof philosophyat the UJni-vetrsity f Buffalo.

tradition and to contrast them frequentlywith Christianityas an aid to the Westerner'sunderstanding; 3) to investigatc various ele-ments of Islamic decorative art and show howthey express and symbolize the constituentelements of Sunni commitment; and 4) topoint out various pitfalls and mistakes insymbolic interpretationsso that they may beavoided in future discussions.I.Islamic art is the expression of a whole cul-ture, intimately intertwined with religious,theological, and legal commitments. It is away of expressingand celebratingthe definingideology of a community. It is always socialand traditional, never idiosyncraticor whollyself-expressive. The search for new artisticpatterns is never great; the repetition-or,better, improvement and refinement-ofclassic forms is always prized, and skill in itconstitutes the essence of art, whether it beliterary, architectural, or decorative. Thethought that he was expressinghimselfwouldseem idiosyncratic to a Muslim artist. SinceMuslim artistry is communal and traditionalrather than self-expressive,it is never datedor faddish the way contemporaryWesternartis. Novelty for its own sake rather than a newway of expressingold truth is totally foreignto any traditional religious community.Islamic art makes no essential distinctionbetween fine arts and crafts. For the Muslim,art is skill in making things well whether thething be a poem, a painting, a rug, a mihrab,or a mosque. The poet, the painter, theweaver, the carver, the carpenter, the archi-tect, and the mason are all artists and their

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424products works of art; they are good artistsand artifacts depending upon whether therequired skill was forthcoming. In parallelfashion Muslims do not distinguish betweenfine arts and minor arts. The well-propor-tioned and well-carved mihrab isjust as mucha work of art as the whole well-done mosque;the expertly woven rug as much a work of artas the well-designed and executed madrasahor palace. Moreover, in Islamic art there is nodistinction between fine arts and decorativearts. Decoration is fundamental to all art; it isnever something added as a flourish.3Theinfinite pattern, the arabesque, stylized kuficand naksh script, and stylized floral andvegetal patterns all have integral symbolicfunctions wherever they occur, be theywrought in colored tiles on the dome of amosque, cut or molded into the stone orstucco walls of a mosque, carved into the sidesof the mihrab, or woven into a patternedrug.Decoration becomes merely ornament onlywhen its communal symbolism has been lost.To the outsider it becomes peripheral, ormerely ornamental, because the point of itwithin the framework that gives it meaninghas been lost.It is a corollary of these views that thetraditional Muslim artist rejects the Western"museum"' view of art. Art objects are notthings set apart from everyday affairs to becollected together in a special place but arepart and parcel of the everyday life of thecommunity and the individual. Art objectsare found in the ordinary rounds of life: themosque and mihrab, public gardens andfountains, rugson the floor of the mosque andhouse, the drinking glass on the table, theilluminations of the book being read, and soon. To be sure, there is a Museum of IslamicArt in Cairo, but Muslims do not often fre-quent it. It is mainly for the use of Westerntourists and art historians. Why should aMuslim go there to see rugs, fountains, sec-tions of carved ceilings, tile work, mosqueimplements, and accoutrementswhen he seesthese things in his daily round of living? It istrue that if he is interested in historical orperiod pieces, if he wants to see an example ofa Fatamid glass carving, an Abbasid tapestry,or an Omayyad fountain, the Muslim will goto the Museum of Islamic Art. In this case,however, he realizes that he is interested in

EDWARD MADDENsome aspect of the history of art rather thanresponding to the artifacts per se. The Mus-lim, like any person in any traditional society,does not confuse knowledge about art withwhat art is about.4II.Without the foregoing we cannot understandthe nature of Islamic art; it is necessary forany adequate characterization. It is not, how-ever, sufficient for such a characterization.What we have written is true of all traditional,communal, religiousart-of Hindu, Buddhist,Byzantine, and Western Medieval Christianart as well as of Muslim art. What we neednow is a delineation of those beliefs and com-mitments which form the distinctively Islamiccommunal framework and which are re-flected in the dominant artistic motifs ofMuslim art.Islam is at once very straightforward andyet complex. The five pillars of the faith arethese: belief in Allah as the one and only God;five daily communions with, or prayers to,Allah; benevolent care of the needy and dis-advantaged; fasting during the daylighthours of the month of Ramadan; and a pil-grimage, if possible, once in a person's life-time to the holy city of Mecca. Islam is com-plex because from the main, orthodox Sunnitradition, there have splintered off a numberof smaller, competing traditions: Kharijite,Shia, Ismaili, and Druze, to name only themost important. Most of these splintergroupsare to be accounted for on personal andpolitical grounds, at least at their inception,though doctrinal difference also emergedeventually.

Within the Sunni tradition itself complica-tions arose, the main one being a tensionbetween the legal traditionalists, who em-phasized the sufficiencyof the Koran and theHadith (recorded traditions of what theProphet and the Companions said and did),and the Sufimystics-themselves quite diverseand complex. Mystics like Al-Ghazali empha-sized that legalism must be supplementedwith a personal communion with Allah andthat the law must not be followed blindly butfrom proper motives. (Certainly many of thelegalists included these notions from thebeginning.) Many Sufi mystics were more

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SomeCharacteristicsf IslamicArtradical, however, emphasizing, as they did,special mystical avenues to truth, and eventhe heretical pantheisticclaim that true unionwith Allah involves loss of individual being-that Allah, in short, is the only reality. Sufismoften became a popular religion co-existing ina sense along with the Sunni tradition.Messiahism and worship of Sufi Masters assaints became prominent in this popularreligion.The crucial point, then, for anyone dis-cussing "Islamic Art" is to say what theymean by the term "Islamic." By it I mean thesynthesisof legalism and Al-Ghazali's sensible"mysticism," minus all the trappings ofMessiahism and Sainthood of the popularreligions particularly from the fourteenth tothe eighteenth century. It might be called theclassical Sunni tradition and is exemplified asthe "official" view of most of the crucialCaliphates and dynastiesuntil the fourteenthcentury: the original Caliphs, Omayyads,Abbasids, Seljuks, Ayyubids, Almohads,Mamluks, Ottomans, and so on. (There werevarying elements of "popular" religionalready present among lower classes duringthese Caliphates and dynasties.)

What is required now is a characterizationin some detail of this classical,Sunni traditionso that we will be able in the next section tosee how the beliefs and commitments of thistradition are reflected in the artifactsof theseperiods.All Islam is theistic: Allah is all-powerful,omniscient, all-compassionate and merciful,distinct from contingent being and responsiblefor it. In addition, the classical traditionemphasizes the infinity of Allah: as necessarybeing, Allah has no beginning or end and inthis sense is infinite. Moreover, however wecharacterize Allah, as compassionate, merci-ful, powerful, or whatever, we are character-izing him by finite predicatesand the point ofthe added "omnipredicates"is to indicate theinfinite and hence not literallyunderstandabledegree to which Allah exemplifiesthese prop-erties. Also, in characterizingAllah, even byomnipredicates, we are only approachinghim nonessentially. The defining character,the essence of Allah, is never even statable-His essential nature is infinite in the sense ofbeing transcendent,uncharacterizable.The classical tradition is also ruggedly

425monotheistic: There is no god but God; He isa unityamidst all diversity and all senses ofinfinity. However many ways he may appearhe is essentially, as necessary being, one andindivisible. The notion of God Incarnate is,for the Muslim, either an inconsistencyor theabandonment of monotheism. This notion ofat-tawhid-the unity of Allah-is not only anegative one of denying Incarnation butexpresses a deep credal and emotional com-mitment to God's true being.5From thesecommitmentscertaincorollariesfollow that are crucial for understanding thenature of Islamic art. I shall put them nega-tively because it is easiest to do so linguisti-cally. That fact is itself instructive, becausethe Western way of talking is geared toChristianity and has no good words forputting the Muslim point of view positively.The classical Sunni tradition, unlike Chris-tianity, is nonhistorical, nondirectional, non-developmental, nondramatic, and non-personal. What does all this mean?There is a certain sense in which bothIslam and Christianityare historicalreligions.The Revelation in each case is dated; theChristian Revelation is scattered throughtime, and the Islamic Revelation occurredwithin the compass of a few years. However,there is also a sense in which the former ishistorical and the latter not: dated "facts"and propositionsabout them form part of theChristian Revelation but not the Islamie.That Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, lived anddied at a given time and that he sacrificedhimself then for the atonement of the sins ofmankind are propositions that form part ofthe corpus of Christian belief and commit-ment. There is nothing comparable to this inclassical Sunni Islam. Dated facts and propo-sitions about them form no part of its corpusof belief and commitment. Allah is "every-where" but does not appear in any specialguise at a given time or place.Islam is nondirectional and nondevelop-mental. Christ'sIncarnation is the focal pointof Christianity. All history looks forward tohis advent; all that follows afterwardmust beunderstoodby looking back to this focal point.The Prophet Muhammad plays no similarrole. He was the vehicle of the IslamicRevela-tion, but he is not an essential part of it. Theseventh century is crucial to the Muslim

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426because his Revelation occurred then, butthere is nothing crucial about that point intime that figures as part of the Revelation.Hence what came before the seventh centuryA.D. does not simply anticipate it, and whathappened since is not explained by whathappened then. The whole of time is con-ceived seriatim and any part of it is to beexplained and understood by the universal,infinite, transcendent, and unified Allah.To be sure, the Islamic world has its owncalendar, and an event in the seventhcentury-namely, the move of the Prophet and theCompanions from Mecca to Medina-is thepoint for "before" and "after." This fact,however, does not run counter to my claims.The Hejira was causally crucial in the ulti-mate triumph of Islam and hence was takenas a focal point for the calendar, but theHejira itself forms no part of the IslamicRevelation and plays no role in the ultimateMuslim belief and commitment.Islam is also nondramatic and nonper-sonal. The advent of Christ is the denouementof Christianhistory. Previous centuries set thestage and introduced various players in theChristiandrama; what happened after Christis the unwinding of all that is implied in hisIncarnation. There is, however, no climax inthe Muslim view of life or history; everythingis seen symmetrically,linearly, and cyclically.It is no accident that drama, or theatre art,is not only not a prominent Muslim art but ispractically nonexistent.6To be sure, skits andsketches were given at tea houses, but theyscarcely constituted drama in the Westernsense. In poetry the Islamic genius is in-variably lyrical, in a broad sense, rather thanepic or dramatic.

The classical Sunni tradition,finally, lackedthe personalelement of Christianityand otherIslamic traditions. There is no savior ormessiah concept as there is in Christianity,in Shia Islam, and many of the Sufi brother-hoods, and no intermediary saints that canbe appealed to as surrogatesof an infinite andtranscendentGod. This classical Sunni tradi-tion was too austere for many of the faithfulthemselves and hence it was that popularreligion, via Sufism, introduced messiahs andturned the Sufi masters into saints. In lateryears the classical Sunni traditionand Sufism,in its degenerate, superstitiousform, formed

EDWARD MADDENan uneasy allegiance, the two elements ofwhich were in a constant state of tension. Fora while, the tradition would accept informallythe popular accretions and then would reactnegatively against them in a reform move-ment, and then back again. The Wahhabimovement is a particularly striking instancein pre-modernist times of an especiallyfundamentalist purging of superstitious Sufitendencies.7If I were asked to choose a per-son who representedthe classical Sunni tradi-tion at its best I would certainly choose theman who is to many Muslims, and to anincreasing number of outsiders, "al-batalal-khalid"-Salah-al-Din.8III.We are now clear about the classical Sunnitradition and are ready to see how the com-mitments that constitute this tradition arereflected in the art objects produced in thepreviously mentioned great caliphates anddynasties. The way that brings the quickestresult is to concentrate on decoration. It willbe recalled that in any traditional societydecoration is not simply ornament, a periph-eral flourish,but is symbolicof the communalcommitments which provide the frameworkof that society. What, then, are the specificdecorative motifs of our carefully delineatedMuslim community?First, there is the "infinite pattern" whichconsists of an interlaced line passingover andunder itself forming intricate geometricalpatterns. The line is continuous, it has nobeginning or end, and it also exhibits unityin its simplicity. It is at once symbolic both ofAllah's infinity and his unity and at once ex-pressive both of His transcendence and theconcept of at-tawhid. The infinite patterndraws attention away from the local andparochial to the universal, from the limitedhistorical point in time to continuous Neces-sary Being.The infinite pattern appears either inseparate decorative plaques as in the GreatMosque of Cordoba or in overall wall decora-tions, either internal or external, as on thelintel of one of the entrances of the GreatMosque of Damascus. The infinite pattern isdoubly expressive when it is spread aroundthe inside or outside of a mosque dome or

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SomeCharacteristicsf IslamicArtcupola, for in this case the infinity of thepattern is seconded by the circular renditionthat again, in another dimension, has nobeginning or end. It is interestingly paradoxi-cal that the infinite pattern was apparentlyintroduced into Islamic art by the Fatimiddynasty in Egypt where in general there wasmore genuinely secular art than in almostany other epoch of Islamic history.9Second, geometrical figures are fitted to-gether in one pattern or another and repeatednumerous times; stylized floral and vegetaldesigns are likewise fitted together in onepattern or another and repeated many times.These repeated geometrical, floral, and vege-tal patternsform the famous arabesqueswhichare rightly closely associated-though thereason is little known-with the Islamic cul-ture. The arabesques, having either geometri-cal figures or stylized flowers and plants aselements, are aggressively nonrepresenta-tional. Why?The answerusually given is thatthe Koran and Hadith prohibit any repre-sentational art because of its use in paganreligions. This negative answer is part of thetruth, but it is often exaggerated. There isrepresentationalart of a secular sort in Mus-lim societies even though it is not wide-spread.10In non-Sunni traditions there areeven occasional figures of the Prophet. Apositive answer is more significant. Thegeneral preference for abstract art in allMuslim societies, and its virtual universalpreference in traditional Sunni societies, isthat only by abstractions can one hope tosymbolize the universal, transcendent, unityin multiplicity, and necessary Being.1l Or,making this point in a different way, we cansee that it would be impossibleto draw atten-tion away from the limited, the historical,and the parochial by using pictorial icons. Inaddition to suggesting the transcendent ornonhistorical by being abstract, the ara-besque also achieves this purpose in therepetition of the basic design. It is as if anygiven arabesque were simply an arbitrarypart of an infinite series of such repetitions.It is also crucial to see that in an arabesquethere is absolutely no emphasis on any givenfigureorany given pattern.No individual partof an arabesque is ever accentuated or em-phasized; every part is subordinated to thepattern which exhibits unity in multiplicity.

427In this way the Muslim artist both expressesthe fact that his religion is independentof anyhistorical happening or occasion and exhibitsthe universal character of the God he wor-ships.It has been suggested that the infinite pat-tern and the arabesqueshould be interpretedas symbolizingAllah's infinity and transcend-ence in an absolute sense.'2On this view, anyascriptionof characteristicsof Allah is anthro-pomorphic and to be avoided. God's natureis beyond man's power to know or portray;it is inexpressible. In his use of the infinitepattern and arabesque, the Muslin artistmust be interpretedas makingthis very point;the nature of Allah is inexpressible and allone can do is to worship him rather thancharacterize him. While there is an elementof truth in this view, it may well be exag-gerated. In the first place, this claim is asophisticatedtheological one, as distinct froma religious one, and is not likely therefore tobe one expressed by artists in a consistentfashion throughout the various Sunni caliph-ates and dynasties. Second, it is a specifictheological claim that is most characteristicof the Mutazalite theology that was dominantduring only a part of one of the Sunni caliph-ates.l3Third, this claim does not distinguishbetween the propertiesof Allah which can, ina fashion, most theologians thought, be ex-pressed, and the defining characteristics ofthe nature of Allah which cannot, which areforever beyond the comprehension of man.Surely Allah is all-powerful, all-compas-sionate, and unified in his infinity-surelythese properties apply to him whatever hisdefining characteristics, always beyond theken of men, might be.Third, Arabic calligraphy is an omni-present decoration in all Islamic art.'4Twoscriptsare particularly prominent in symbolicdecoration, the angular and older Kufic andthe later, curvilinear naksh. Excerpts fromthe Koran in either script adorn the walls ofmosques, the domes of mosques-both innerand outer surfaces-the sides of minbars, etc.,and the writingis stylizedand often repetitive.When wrappedaroundthe dome of a mosque,either inside or outside, it is especially pre-sentable in a unitary or continuous fashion.Calligraphy thus functions effectively in twoways: it both states the will of Allah and

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428symbolically expressescertain of his properties.Again, expressively Allah is a unity in hismultiplicity, infinite, and transcendent, andIslam is universal, unlimited, nonparochial,and a-historical.The symbolic function of Islamic art isapparent in numerous other ways in additionto decorative motifs, of which the followinginstances are particularly instructive. Theoriginal mosque structure, which was re-tained in many of the later caliphates anddynasties, was on a rectangular plan witheither the short or long side roofed over as asanctuary, and the remaining part a court-yard surrounded on three sides by arcadesand one side by the facade of the sanctuary.The sanctuary contained the minbar, orpulpit, from which the imam spoke duringservices on Fridays, and the mihrab, a prayerniche in the kibla wall which the Muslimfaced when praying and thereby faced towardMecca. The mihrab, however, unlike theChristian altar, is no focal point in a mosque.'5It is often not in the center of the kibla walland there are frequently more than onemihrab. The minbar is often movable and,in any case, placed where the imam can bemost effectively heard during Friday services.This lack of a focal point again symbolizesthat Allah is unlocatable in any fashion atany given historical point of time, but is, onthe contrary, present everywhere and at alltimes. It emphasizes the unimportance of anygiven historical event to the essence of Islam,just as it emphasizes the nondirectional, non-dramatic, and nonpersonal dimensions of theMuslim's faith. Not only is there no counter-part of the altar and the Eucharist, but thereis also no counterpart of the cross or crucifix.

The horizontal design of mosques in theearlier years suggests similar points.'6 Theyhad no upward thrust; they imparted nofeeling of motion in any direction. The effectof the great mosques of Cordoba, Qayrawan,and Damascus rather is that of timelessness,eternity, and infinity which excludes allthings temporal and historical-even thatlittle bit of temporality necessary for motion.Later Mamluk and Ottoman style mosques,it is true, might be said to have an upwardthrust, though the use of enormous domes andthe dissolving effects of dazzling light mini-mize the thrust. Never is there the feeling of

E D W A R D M A D D E Nliterally reaching upward that is the effect ofmost Christian cathedrals.

The lack of directionality, dramatic de-nouement, and epoch and emphasis on uni-versality, eternality, and transcendence issymbolized most strikingly perhaps in theorganization-or lack of it-of the Koranitself, the ultimate in Islamic art.'7 It makes nodifference to the Islamic Revelation in whatorder the surahs are arranged, since theRevelation of the Unity, Infinity, and Com-passion of Allah is present throughout. Thereis no dramatic development, no denouement,so any arbitrary order of presentation will do.The one in fact chosen was length: the surahsare arranged in order of length, the longestgenerally coming first and the shortest last.Putting the longest ones first might be takenas the ultimate rejection of a cumulative viewof the cosmos.

IV.There are certain mistakes in the symbolicinterpretation of traditional, communal artwhich must be made clear in order that theymay be avoided. First, there is no point intrying to find symbolism everywhere;

suchinterpretations become vacuous. We are told,for example, that the mosque courtyard whichis inward looking and upward looking, andshuts out the immediate surroundings, issymbolic of renunciation of this world andturning attention to Allah and to the state ofone's own heart. A much better interpreta-tion of the courtyard is that it cuts off noise,provides a place for a fountain for ablutions,and insures fresh air. Again we are told thatthe pillars of the arcades represent Allah'sfoundational wisdom and the arches thesupplicating arms of the faithful.'8 A muchbetter interpretation would be that theysymbolized nothing but were simply holdingup the roof.

Second, there is no point in trying to givea religious interpretation to every symbol.Entranceways in earlier mosques were oftenlovely indeed, as they are in the Great Mosqueof Cordoba, without being large or grand.The portals of the Mamluk Mosques of Cairo,on the other hand, are impressively grand;the portal of the Sultan Hassan Mosque,Mausoleum, and Madrasah is, in fact, breath-

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SomeCharacteristicsf IslamicArttaking in its immensity. We are told that theenormousportalsare to suggestthe immensityand power of Allah, but the far more likelyinterpretationis that they portray the wealthand power of the Mamluk emperorswho hadthem built and whose palaces already con-tained the prototypes of such portals. Thereare no doubt many aspectsof traditionalart-be it Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, or what-ever-which must be interpreted in terms ofsocial, political, and economic rather thanreligious or ideological symbols.l9Third, there is some symbolism which isperfectly legitimate but not very helpful,since it does not reveal anything unique aboutthe Islamic Revelation. It is often said that afundamental principle of Islamic style is theuse of various techniques to achieve "thedissolutionof matter." 20 Solid walls are madeto appear ephemeral by the use of plasterandtile decoration, while vaults and arches havetheir functions masked by floral and calli-graphic ornament and the use of Mukkarnasniches. Lustre painting helps also to create athorough-going illusion of insubstantiality.The Alhambra is often used as a good ex-ample of these points: it creates the illusion ofa building "floating above the ground," thearchitecture is as "insubstantial as a cloud,"woven out of "vibrant rays of light," with aninteriorof "light gaiety." It is true, no doubt,that mosque decoration is intended to lightenthe heaviness of stones and plaster and tocarry one's thought to the realm of spiritualvalues, but such efforts are scarcelyunique toIslamic art but occur in much religious art.That such efforts were carried over to secularbuildings may show that Islamic spirituality,more than in most religious communities,carried over into the everyday business ofliving, but on the other hand the carry overmay simply show that as a matter of tastemost people in any society prefer a lightsomeeffect to a pile-of-stoneseffect.Finally, religious symbolism is not neces-sarily unique. The arabesque and Arabiccalligraphy are, but the infinite pattern, forexample, is not. There are numerous interest-ing uses of the infinite pattern in paganWestern art, as we have come to realize as aresult of the discovery of the "Sutton HooShip Burial." 21 There are also crucial uses ofthe infinite pattern in Celtic Christian art.

429In the portrait of John in the Book of Kells(before 814 A.D.) there are elegant examplesof the infinite pattern inside the four Greekcrosses that form part of the border.22 n the"Crowning of Mary" painted by a FlorentineMaster (latterpart of the fourteenth century),which hangs in the Oskar Reinhart "AmRomerholz" Collection, one figure holds aBible with an infinite pattern on its cover.The infinite pattern is useful Christian sym-bolism also, since the Christian God is alsoconceived as infinite and transcendent. How-ever, the symbolism is domesticated differ-ently in the Christiantradition. The Incarna-tion, an historical occasion, is the centralthrust of this tradition, and hence the symbolsof infinity must be inscribed within he crossesand contained withinthe borders f the Bible.There could be no better or more revealingsymbolism of Christianitythan that providedby the artist in the Book of Kells and theFlorentine Master.The multi-usefulness of the infinite patternfor religioussymbolismtakes on added interestif one considers its use in MonophysiticChristian traditions, of which the Armenian,Coptic, and Syrian Orthodox Churches areexamples. In senses upon which there is nospace to elaborate at the present time theMonophysitic Christian Churches are inter-mediate in their conceptionsof Deity betweenthe main stream of Christianity and SunniIslam. In the Monophysitic tradition the dualperfect nature of Jesus as man and God com-bined in one personis rejected,and the divinenature of Christ, one and undivided, isemphasized. It is fascinating to see this viewreflected in the symbolism of innumerableArmenian stone crosses where the cross isinscribed inside the borders and interiorlacework of the infinite pattern.23Here theIncarnation takeson a differentmeaning andis subordinate to the Infinite and Omni-present Deity.Indeed the symbolismwithin Islam itself isnot wholly unique either, since Sufi, Shia,and Ismaili monuments, as well as Sunni,exhibit the infinite pattern, arabesques, andcalligraphic decoration. The question iswhether the symbols in these contexts havethe same or different meanings as in Sunnicontexts. Certainly there would be nothing toprevent, say, even the pantheisticallyinclined

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