What is Islamic Art?

Carl W. Ernst

Introduction to Islamic Civilization

What is Islamic Art?

Problems of Definition

The case of calligraphy

Problems of Definition

Where does the term “Islamic art” come from?

Possible meanings based on use and interpretation:

Beautiful objects used for sacred purposes (Qur’ans, mosques) – “sacred art”

Forms of design (“arabesque” floral designs, geometry, calligraphy) that some people consider symbolic of religious themes

Islamic art and the museum

Major collections (Smithsonian/Sackler, Metropolitan) include everything made or used by Muslims

Why would Europeans/Americans consider religion as the basis for everything among Muslims?

The challenge of the specific meaning of geometry

Unusual example of Sura 106 on the divine unity, inscribed over geometric tile (Granada, Tower of the Captive): “He, God is One; God is eternal, neither born nor begotten…”

Calligraphic meditations on the Prophet

“We only sent you [Muhammad] as a mercy for creation” (Qur'an 21:107)

A double hilya (Rasheed Butt, Pakistan)

Religious subjects in coffee table books

Created for elite patrons by skilled craftsmen

Used as diplomatic gifts

Social meanings of Islamic art?

Art created for Muslim patrons (often by non-Muslim artisans): Dome of the Rock

Art created by Muslim artisans (frequently for non-Muslim patrons: Mudejar art in Spain

19th-century European Orientalist Art depicting an imaginary Middle East (based on 1001 Nights, etc.)

International modern art created by Muslims

Orientalist painting

harem fantasies and romantic depictions of heroic Arab horsemen

Comparable to nostalgic art of the American West

International modern art created by Muslims

Shirin Neshat, 1996 (text on hand is from a Persian poem)

“Islamicate” (M. Hodgson)

“Islamic” related to central religious texts and authorities

“Islamicate” [double adjective like “Italianate”] larger cultural framework related to society where Islam is a major factor; participated in by Muslims and non-Muslims (includes literature, art, etc.)

Iconoclasm in modern Islam

The Jannat al-Baqi` cemetery, before 1925 destruction

As it looks today

More iconoclasm

Bamiyan, Afghanistan: Buddhas destroyed by Taliban

Calligraphy

The Qur’an and the word of God

An aesthetic of inner knowledge

Geometric reform of the Arabic script on the basis of the dot produced by the reed pen

Multiple scripts for secular and religious purposes

The work of Sultan `Ali, master of nasta`liq calligraphy (Safavid Iran)

"His alifs (ا) were like the tall sapling-figures that give peace to the soul, and the eye of his

sad (ص) was like the eye of the youthful

sweethearts. His dal (د) and lam (ل) were like the tresses of heart-ravishing beloveds,

and the circles of the nun (ن) were like the eyebrows of devastating beauties. Every one of his dots was like the pupil of the dark-eyed, and every one of his strokes was like the water of life in the darkness of running ink.”

--Baba Shah Isfahani

Baba Shah on the highest stage of calligraphy

"Authority" is that condition in which the scribe becomes enraptured from its display when it is found in writing, and he has done with egotism. When the scribe's pen possesses "authority," heedless of the pleasures of the world, he turns his heart toward practice (mashq), and the luminous sparks of the real beloved's beauty appear in his vision. (Verse:) Everywhere the sparks of the beloved's face are found.

And it is fitting, when such a scribe sets his hand to a white page and writes a letter on it in his practice, that he reddens that paper with bloody tears from the extremity of his love for that letter. This characteristic, with the aid of the praiseworthy attributes, becomes the face (`ariz) of the human soul (nafs), and by the power of the pen its form is drawn on the paper page. Not everyone can comprehend this quality in writing, although he may be looking at it. Likewise, even if everyone saw Layla, Majnun saw something that others did not see.

The word as the image of God

“The word of your face is gazing at the sacred mosque”

God in the heart

“Do not disfigure the face, for God created man [Adam, humanity] in His image” (hadith)