These slides will give you information about the islamic art.

2. Assignment#2
• Topic:
Islamic Art
• Group Members:
Usama Tariq SP16-BCS-120
Umar Waqar SP16-BCS-
• Teacher:
Hafiz M. Zubair

3. Introduction:
The term Islamic art not only describes the art created specifically in
the service of the Muslim faith (for example, a mosque and its
furnishings) but also characterizes the art and architecture historically
produced in the lands ruled by Muslims, produced for Muslim patrons,
or created by Muslim artists. As it is not only a religion but a way of life,
Islam fostered the development of a distinctive culture with its own
unique artistic language that is reflected in art and architecture
throughout the Muslim world.

5. History of Islamic Art:
Islamic Art is not a monolithic style or
movement; it spans 1,300 years of history
and has incredible geographic diversity—
Islamic empires and dynasties controlled
territory from Spain to western China at
various points in history. However, few if any
of these various countries or Muslim empires
would have referred to their art as Islamic. An
artisan in Damascus thought of his work as
Syrian or Damascene—not as Islamic.

6. Umayyad dynasty (661-750)
Religious and civic art were developed under
the Umayyad dynasty, when new concepts
and new plans were put into practice. As
with the arts, the Umayyad period was also
critical in the development of Islamic
architecture. While earlier architectural
traditions continued, the requirements of
the new religion and customs of the new
Arab rulers necessitated a different usage of
space. In the case of religious buildings, the
Umayyad often constructed their
monuments on sites of historical or symbolic
significance. The Dome of the Rock in
Jerusalem (691), the first major Umayyad
architectural undertaking.

7. Abbasid dynasty (750 - 1258)
During this period, a distinctive style emerged and
new techniques were developed that spread
throughout the Muslim realm and greatly
influenced Islamic art and architecture. Baghdad and
Samarra became associated with the new artistic and
architectural trend. As virtually nothing remains from
Abbasid Baghdad today, the site of Samarra is
particularly significant for understanding the art and
architecture of the Abbasid period. In Samarra, a new
way of carving surfaces, the so-called beveled style, as
well as a repetition of abstract geometric forms, later
to be known in the West as “arabesque,” were widely
used as wall decoration and became popular in other
media such as wood, metalwork, and pottery.

8. Medieval period (9th–15th centuries)
The Muslim world in the medieval period means
the crusades. While this era was marked, in
part, by military struggle, it is also
overwhelmingly a period of peaceable
exchanges of goods and ideas between West
and East. Both the Christian and Islamic
civilizations underwent great transformations
and internal struggles during these years. In the
Islamic world, dynasties fractured and began to
develop distinctive styles of art. For the first
time, disparate Islamic states existed at the
same time. And although the Abbasid caliphate
did not fully dissolve until 1258, other dynasties
began to form, even before its end.

10. Ottoman Empire
The architecture of the Ottomans, especially
after the early formative period, is primarily built
of stone. Ottoman architecture in fact is known
for the very high quality of its masonry. Still,
combinations of brick and stone are very
common, and brick is used for arches, domes and
vaults. Lead is used to cover domes and minaret
caps, especially from the 10th / 16th century
onwards. Polychrome glazed ceramic tiles, such
as the renowned Iznik tiles in which white and
blue dominate, are used extensively as wall
coverings, and by the 10th / 16th century often
replace marble as a sheathing material. Wood is
used both as a structural and as a decorative
material, and it is the predominant material for
the houses of the Ottoman capital, Istanbul.

11. Mughal Empire
Mughal art and architecture, a characteristic
Indo-Islamic-Persian style that flourished on the
Indian subcontinent during the Mughal empire.
This new style combined elements of Islamic art
and architecture, which had been introduced to
India during the Delhi Sultanate and had
produced great monuments such as the Qutb
Minar, with features of Persian art and
architecture. Mughal monuments are found
chiefly in N India, but there are also many
remains in Pakistan. This article discusses these
distinctive forms of art and architecture as they
developed under a succession of Mughal
emperors.

13. Contents of Islamic Art:
Calligraphy:
Calligraphy is the most highly regarded and
most fundamental element of Islamic art. One
should always keep in mind, however, that
calligraphy is principally a means to transmit a
text, albeit in a decorative form. Objects from
different periods and regions vary in the use
of calligraphy in their overall design,
demonstrating the creative possibilities of
calligraphy as ornament. In some cases,
calligraphy is the dominant element in the
decoration. An entire word can give the
impression of random brushstrokes, or a
single letter can develop into a decorative
knot.

14. Painting:
Although there has been a tradition of wall-
paintings, especially in the Persianate world,
the best-surviving and highest developed form
of painting in the Islamic world is
the miniature in illuminated manuscripts, or
later as a single page for inclusion in bound
album of miniatures and calligraphy. Portraits
of rulers developed in the 16th century, and
later in Persia, then becoming very popular.
Mughal portraits, normally in profile, are very
finely drawn in a realist style, while the best
Ottoman ones are vigorously stylized. Album
miniatures typically featured picnic scenes,
portraits of individuals.

15. Rugs and Carpets:
No Islamic artistic product has become better
known outside the Islamic world than the pile
carpet, more commonly referred to as
the Oriental carpet(oriental rug). Their versatility
is utilized in everyday Islamic and Muslim life,
from floor coverings to architectural enrichment,
from cushions to bolsters to bags and sacks of all
shapes and sizes, and to religious objects (such
as a prayer rug, which would provide a clean
place to pray). They have been a major export to
other areas since the late Middle Ages, used to
cover not only floors but tables also. Carpet
weaving is a rich and deeply embedded tradition
in Islamic societies

16. Ceramics:
Islamic art has very notable achievements in
ceramics, both in pottery and tiles for walls,
which in the absence of wall-paintings were
taken to heights unmatched by other cultures.
Early pottery is often unglazed, but glazing was
one of the earliest new technologies developed
by the Islamic potters. The first Islamic opaque
glazes can be found as blue-painted ware
in Basra, dating to around the 8th century.
Another significant contribution was the
development of stone paste ceramics, originating
from 9th century Iraq.The first industrial complex
for glass and pottery production was built
in Syria, in the 8th century.

17. Glass:
For most of the Middle Ages Islamic glass was the most
sophisticated in Eurasia, exported to both Europe and
China. Islam took over much of the traditional glass-
producing territory and since figurative decoration played
a small part in pre-Islamic glass, the change in style is not
abrupt, except that the whole area initially formed a
political whole, and, for example, Persian innovations
were now almost immediately taken up in Egypt. For this
reason it is often impossible to distinguish between the
various centers of production, of which Egypt, Syria and
Persia were the most important, except by scientific
analysis of the material, which itself has difficulties. From
various documentary references glassmaking and glass
trading seems to have been a specialty of the Jewish
minority in several centers.

18. Metalwork:
Medieval Islamic metalwork offers a complete
contrast to its European equivalent, which is
dominated by modelled figures and brightly colored
decoration in enamel, some pieces entirely in
precious metals. In contrast surviving Islamic
metalwork consists of practical objects mostly
in brass, bronze, and steel, with simple, but often
monumental, shapes, and surfaces highly decorated
with dense decoration in a variety of techniques, but
color mostly restricted to inlays of gold, silver, copper
or black. The most abundant survivals from medieval
periods are fine brass objects, handsome enough to
preserve, but not valuable enough to be melted
down. The abundant local sources of zinc compared
to tin explains the rarity of bronze.

19. Well said by someone:
“In Islam, the love of beauty compensates for
the tendency to austere simplicity. It lends
elegant form to simplicity and partially clothes
it in a profusion of precious and abstract
lacework. ”God is Beautiful,” said the Prophet,
”and He loves beauty.”