Survey1 ch09

Copyright © 2018, 2014, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Art History
Sixth Edition
Chapter 9
Islamic Art

Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
9.a Identify the visual hallmarks of Islamic art for formal, technical, and
expressive qualities.
9.b Interpret the meaning of works of Islamic art based on their themes,
subjects, and symbols.
9.c Relate Islamic artists and art to their cultural, economic, and political
contexts.

Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
9.d Apply the vocabulary and concepts relevant to Islamic art, artists, and
art history.
9.e Interpret a work of Islamic art using the art historical methods of
observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
9.f Select visual and textual evidence in various media to support an
argument or an interpretation of a work of Islamic art.

Yahya Ibn al-Wasiti
THE MAQAMAT OF AL-HARIRI
From Baghdad, Iraq. 1237. Ink, pigments, and gold on paper, 13-3/4" × 10-1/4" (35 × 25
cm). Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Arabic MS. 5847, fol. 18v.
Bibliothèque nationale de France [Fig. 09-01]

Islam and Early Islamic Society (1 of 3)
• Islam arose in seventh-century Arabia and with its founder, the Prophet
Muhammad, and his successors Islam spread rapidly.
• Muslims believe that Muhammad received revelations that led him to
found the religion called Islam.

• The Kaaba is the symbolic center of the Islamic world.
• Each year, huge numbers of Muslims from all over the world travel to
Mecca during the month of pilgrimage.
• Figural imagery is frequent in palaces and illustrated manuscripts
including complex geometric designs and scrolling foliate vines
(arabesques).

THE KAABA, MECCA
The Kaaba represents the center of the Islamic world. Its cubelike form is draped with a
black textile that is embroidered with a few Qur'anic verses in gold.
Ayazad/Fotolia. [Fig. 09-02]

• Muslims participate in congregational worship at a mosque.
• Without the architectural focus provided by chancels, altars, naves, or
domes, the space of the mosque reflected the founding spirit of Islam
in which the faithful pray as equals directly to God, led by an imam, but
without the intermediary of a priesthood.

THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Within 200 years after 622 CE, the Islamic world expanded from Mecca to India in the
east, and to Morocco and Spain in the west.
[Map 09-01]

The Five Pillars of Islam
• Islam emphasizes a direct personal relationship with God.
• The Five Pillars are the duties required of Muslims by their faith.
– The Five Pillars are shahadah, salat, zakah, sawm, and hajj.
– The Five Pillars instill faith, a sense of belonging, and a
commitment to Islam in the form of actual practice.

Early Islamic Art and Architecture
(1 of 2)
• In the tenth century, the Islamic world split into separate kingdoms
ruled by independent caliphs.
• The Islamic world did not reunite under the myriad dynasties who
thereafter ruled, but loss in unity was gain to artistic diversity.

Early Islamic Art and Architecture
(2 of 2)
• Inspired by Roman and Byzantine architecture, the early Muslims
became enthusiastic builders of shrines, mosques, and palaces.
• Tombs were discouraged.

The Dome of the Rock
• By assertively appropriating a site holy to Jews and Christians, the
Dome of the Rock manifested Islam's view of itself as completing and
superseding the prophecies of those faiths.
• It imitates the centrally planned form of Early Christian and Byzantine
era.
• It is crowned by a golden dome that dominates the skyline.

EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE DOME OF THE ROCK, JERUSALEM
Israel. Begun 691.
© Zoonar GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo. [Fig. 09-03a]

CUTAWAY DRAWING OF THE DOME OF THE ROCK, JERUSALEM
Israel. Begun 691.
© Dorling Kindersley. [Fig. 09-03b]

INTERIOR, DOME OF THE ROCK
Israel. Begun 691.
© akg-images/Jean-Louis Nou. [Fig. 09-04]

The Great Mosque of Damascus (1 of 2)
• Muslim congregations gather on Fridays for regular worship in a
mosque.
• The Great Mosque of Damascus reflects the early form of the mosque
but is elaborated with later additions.

The Great Mosque of Damascus (2 of 2)
• All are oriented in the direction of Mecca (qibla), which worshipers
face when praying.
• Mihrab niches identify the qibla wall.
– The maqsura is an enclosure in front of the mihrab.
• In the Damascus Mosque survives an exceptionally exquisite, twelfth-
century glass mosaics.

VIEW FROM ABOVE OF THE GREAT MOSQUE, DAMASCUS
Syria. 706.
© akg-images/Gerard Degeorge. [Fig. 09-05]

MOSAICS ON THE COURTYARD ARCADE OF THE GREAT MOSQUE, DAMASCUS
Syria. 706–715.
© age fotostock/Mondadori Portfolio/Luca Mozzati. [Fig. 09-06]

The Great Mosque of Cordoba
• One of the finest surviving examples of Umayyad architecture is the
Great Mosque of Cordoba.
• The mosque's interior incorporates spolia (reused) columns of slightly
varying heights.
• Cordoba emerged as a major commercial and intellectual hub and a
flourishing center for the arts.

PRAYER HALL, GREAT MOSQUE, CORDOBA
Spain. Begun 785/786.
© Raffaello Bencini/Archivi Alinari, Firenze. [Fig. 09-07]

PLAN OF THE GREAT MOSQUE, CORDOBA
Begun 785/786. [Fig. 09-08]

DOME IN FRONT OF THE MIHRAB, GREAT MOSQUE
965.
© Raffaello Bencini/Archivi Alinari, Firenze. [Fig. 09-09]

Elements of Architecture
Arches (1 of 2)
• The semicircular arch has a single center point that is level with the
points from which the arch springs.
• The horseshoe arch's center point is above the level of the arch's
springing point, so that it pinches inward above the capital.

Elements of Architecture
Arches (2 of 2)
• The pointed arch has two (sometimes four) center points, the points
generating different circles that overlap.
• A keel arch has flat sides, slopes where other arches are curved, and
culminates at a pointed apex.

ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE: Arches

Art and Its Contexts: Ornament
• Islamic art delights in complex ornament that sheathes surfaces,
distracting the eye from the underlying structure or physical form.
– These include ablaq masonry, cut tile, muqarna, wooden
strapwork, mosaic, water, and chini khana.

Ablaq masonry
© akg-images/François Guénet

Muqarnas
© VLADJ55/Shutterstock

Wooden strapwork
© akg Images/Erich Lessing

Mosaic
© B.O'Kane/Alamy Stock Photo.

Minbar from the Kutubiya Mosque in
Marrakesh
• A wooden minbar in the Kutubiya Mosque consists of a staircase
completely covered in ornamentation.
– Sides are paneled in a pattern of eight-pointed stars and
elongated hexagons.

MINBAR
From the Kutubiya Mosque, Marrakesh, Morocco. 1125–1130.
Wood and ivory, 12'8" × 11'4" × 2'10" (3.86 × 3.46 × 0.87 m).
Badi Palace Museum, Marrakesh. © akg-images/Erich Lessing. [Fig. 09-10]

Calligraphy (1 of 2)
• Reverence for the Qur'an as the word of God extend by association to
the act of writing itself.
• The earliest formal script, Kufic, was used in a ninth-century Syrian
Qur'an.
– Fat-bodied, blocky letters are emphasized.
– This Qur'an is written on vellum, as paper had not yet replaced
parchment.

PAGE FROM THE QUR'AN
Surah 2:286 and title of surah 3 in Kufic script. Syria. 9th century.
Black ink, pigments, and gold on vellum, 8-3/8" × 11-1/8" (21.8 × 29.2 cm). Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. Rogers Fund, 1937. (37.99.2). © 2016. Image copyright The
Metropolitan Museum/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 09-11]

Calligraphy (2 of 2)
• A type of white pottery from Nishapur and Samarkand in the tenth
century was decorated only with Kufic.
– Its saying translates to "Knowledge, the beginning of it is bitter to
taste, but the end is sweeter than honey."

PLATE WITH KUFIC BORDER
From Khurasan. 10th–12th century. Earthenware with white and black slip, and lead
glaze, diameter 14-1/2" (33.8 cm).
Musée du Louvre, Paris. Photo © RMN/Thierry Ollivier. [Fig. 09-12]

Developments in Ceramics (1 of 2)
• Islamic potters developed a means of producing a lustrous metallic
surface on their ceramics.
– The finished lusterware resembled precious metal.
– Early potters covered the entire surface with luster, but soon they
began to use luster to paint patterns using geometric design,
foliate motifs, animals, and human figures.

LUSTERWARE JAR
Iraq. 10th century. Glazed earthenware with luster, 11-1/8" × 9-1/8" (28.2 × 23.2 cm).
Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Bridgeman Images.
[Fig. 09-13]

Developments in Ceramics (2 of 2)
• Mina'i Ware
– Persian potters developed a technique of multicolor ceramic
overglaze painting known as mina'i (enamel) ware.

MINA'I BOWL WITH BAHRAM GUR AND AZADA
Iran. 12th–13th century. Mina'i ware (stoneware with polychrome in-glaze and overglaze),
diameter 8-1/2" (21.6 cm).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. © 2016 Image copyright The Metropolitan
Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 09-14]

Regional Dynasties (1 of 2)
• Power in the Islamic world of the eleventh century fell into the hands of
independent regional rulers.
– The Saljuqs established a dynasty in Persia in 1040 that would
last until 1157.
• In the west, Umayyad Spain engaged in constant warfare with
Christian armies that would end only in 1492.

Regional Dynasties (2 of 2)
• The new dynasties built on a grand scale, now including tombs,
madrasas (colleges for religious and legal studies), public fountains,
and urban hostels.
– The Saljuqs perfected a mosque/madrasa plan consisting of four
iwans around an internal courtyard.

The Mamluks in Egypt (1 of 3)
• Muslim rulers and wealthy individuals endowed hundreds of charitable
complexes that displayed piety as well as personal wealth and status.
– The combined madrasa-mausoleum-mosque complex established
in mid-fourteenth-century Cairo by the Mamluk Sultan Hasan is an
example.

PLAN OF THE SULTAN HASAN MADRASA-MAUSOLEUM-MOSQUE COMPLEX,
CAIRO
1356–1363. Robert Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning, 1994,
Edinburgh University Press, p.195. [Fig. 09-15a]

DRAWING OF EXTERIOR OF THE SULTAN HASAN MADRASA-MAUSOLEUM-
MOSQUE COMPLEX, CAIRO
1356–1363. Robert Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning, 1994,
Edinburgh University Press, p.195. [Fig. 09-15b]

QIBLA WALL WITH MIHRAB AND MINBAR
Sultan Hasan Madrasa-Mausoleum-Mosque Complex, Cairo. 1356–1363.
© B.O'Kane/Alamy Stock Photo. [Fig. 09-16]

• Glass, Metalwork, and Book Arts
– Luxury arts brought particular pleasure and status to wealthy
owners and were visible signs of cultural refinement.
– Calligraphy was prominently displayed on objects made of
ceramics, ivory, glass, metal, and textiles.

• Glass, Metalwork, and Book Arts
– Islamic metalsmiths enlivened the surface of vessels with scrolls,
interlacing designs, human and animal figures, and calligraphic
inscriptions.
– A shortage of silver in the mid twelfth century prompted the
development of inlaid brasswork.

Muhammad Ibn al-Zain
BAPTISTERY OF ST. LOUIS
Syria or Egypt. c. 1300. Brass inlaid with silver and gold, 8-3/4" × 19-3/4" (22.2 × 50.2
cm). Musée du Louvre, Paris. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée du Louvre)/Franck
Raux. [Fig. 09-17]

A CLOSER LOOK: 'Ali ibn Muhammad al-Barmaki.
GLASS OIL LAMP
Cairo, Egypt. c. 1329–1335. Blown glass, polychrome enamel, and gold. Diameter 9-3/8"
(23.89 cm), height 14" (35.56 cm). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. © 2016.
Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence.
[Fig. 09-18]

QUR'AN FRONTISPIECE
Cairo. c. 1368. Ink, pigments, and gold on paper, 24" × 18" (61 × 45.7 cm).
National Library, Cairo. MS. 7. From: 'Qur'ans of the Mamluks by David James, fig. 132,
p. 132. Courtesy of Alexandria Press. [Fig. 09-19]

COURT OF THE LIONS, ALHAMBRA
Granada, Spain. 1354–1391.
Rafael Ramirez/Fotolia. [Fig. 09-20]

The Nasrids in Spain (1 of 3)
• Muslim patrons also spent lavishly on luxurious palaces set in gardens.
• The Alhambra in Granada is an example.
– It offered dramatic views to the settled valley, snowcapped
mountains around it, with enclosed gardens in the courtyard.

– One of these is the Court of the Lions, which is is divided into
quadrants by cross-axial walkways—a garden form called a
chahar bagh.

– It is encircled by an arcade of stucco arches embellished with
muqarnas, nichelike components stacked in tiers.
– Second-floor miradors—windows that frame intentional views—
look over the courtyard.

MUQARNAS DOME, HALL OF THE ABENCERRAJES, PALACE OF THE LIONS,
ALHAMBRA
Granada, Spain. 1354–1391.
© Roberto Tetsuo Okamura/Shutterstock. [Fig. 09-21]

The Timurids in Iran, Uzbekistan, and
Afghanistan (1 of 5)
• One of the empires to emerge after the Mongols was the vast Timurid
empire.
– Timurid art could integrate Chinese, Persian, Turkic, and
Mediterranean artistic ideas into a Mongol base.
– Its architecture is characterized by axial symmetry, tall double-
shelled domes, modular planning with rhythmically repeated
elements, and cobalt blue, turquoise, and white glazed ceramics.

• The fourteenth-century mosaic mihrab from a madrasa in Isfahan
presented glorious tile work.
– Each piece of tile, including the pieces of calligraphy, was cut
individually and assembled in mortar.
– The white against turquoise and cobalt blue with accents of green
and dark yellow are characteristic of Persian tile work.

TILE MOSAIC MIHRAB
From the Madrasa Imami, Isfahan, Iran. Founded 1354.
Glazed and cut tiles, 11'3" × 9'5-11/16" (3.43 × 2.89 m).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund. (39.20). © 2016.
Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence.
[Fig. 09-22]

• The preexisting Shah-i Zinda ("Living King") Funerary Complex was
adopted for the tombs of Timurid family members, especially
princesses.
• The tombs reflect a range of individual taste and artistic
experimentation that was possible precisely because they were private
commissions.

SHAH-I ZINDA FUNERARY COMPLEX
Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Late 14th–15th century.
© Evgeniy Agarkov/Shutterstock. [Fig. 09-23]

• Book Arts
– Book production had flourished because an emphasis on the
study of the Qur'an promoted a high level of literacy among both
men and women.
– Libraries were endowed by members of the educated elite.
– Scribes copied and recopied famous secular texts and painters
supplied illustrations for the books.

• Book Arts
– Workshop leader Kamal al-Din Bihzad was considered to be the
greatest painter of manuscripts.
 His key works appear in Persian poet Sa'di's Bustan
("Orchard").
– A depiction of Joseph fleeing from Zulayhka presents
intricate detail and jewel-like color.

Kamal al-Din Bihzad
YUSUF FLEEING ZULAYHKA
From a copy of the Bustan of Sa'di. Herat, Afghanistan. 1488. Ink and pigments on paper,
approx. 12" × 8-1/2" (30.5 × 21.5 cm). Cairo, National Library. (MS Adab Farsi 908, f.
52v). © Roland and Sabrina Michaud/akg-images. [Fig. 09-24]

Art and Architecture of Later Empires
• Three great powers emerged in the Islamic world.
– To the west was the Ottoman Empire; to the east of the Ottomans,
Iran was ruled by the Safavid dynasty, and the Mughals were in
South Asia.

The Ottomans (1 of 3)
• In 1453, Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople and turned the
church of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
• Inspired by this Byzantine architecture, Ottomans built even more
ambitious domed mosques.
• Sultan Suleyman I sponsored a building program that rivaled that of
the Roman Empire.

• Sinan
– Architect Sinan completed a mosque in 1575 for Suleyman's son,
Selim II.
 The complex housed a madrasa, cemetery, hospital, and
charity kitchens.

PLAN OF THE MOSQUE OF SULTAN SELIM, EDIRNE
Western Turkey. 1568–1575.
Necipoglu Gülru, The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire, 2005,
London: Reaktion Books, p.239. [Fig. 09-25a]

EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE MOSQUE OF SULTAN SELIM, EDIRNE
Western Turkey. 1568–1575.
© Mehmet Cetin/Shutterstock. [Fig. 09-25b]

• Topkapi Palace
– A kiosk in Baghdad consists of a low dome with four alcoves, each
containing a low sofa.
– Blue-and-turquoise tiles contain an inscription of the Throne Verse
of the Qur'an.

The Ottoman Empire (1 of 3)
• Calligraphy and Ceramics
– Calligraphy became prominent in imperial ciphers known as
tugras, which were used to political ends.
– A ruler's name and title was combined with the motto "Eternally
Victorious."

– They were drawn in blue or black ink with three long, vertical
strokes to the right of two concentric, horizontal teardrops; floral
interlace enclosed the body.

ILLUMINATED TUGRA OF SULTAN SULEYMAN
From Istanbul, Turkey. c. 1555–1560. Ink, paint, and gold on paper, removed from a
firman and trimmed to 20-1/2" × 25-3/8" (52 × 64.5 cm).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Rogers Fund, 1938. (38.149.1). © 2016. Image
copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 09-28]

– Iznik potters specialized in polychrome underglaze painting.
 A three-color palette is a representative example; nightingales
amidst a floral spray might be allegorical imagery from
Ottoman love poetry.

PAINTED CERAMIC DISH WITH BIRDS AND FLOWERS
From Iznik, Turkey. c. 1575–1590. Stonepaste and polychrome painting under
transparent glaze, diameter 11-1⁄8″ (28.4 cm).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of James J. Rorimer in appreciation of
Maurice Dimand's curatorship, 1933–1959. (59.69.1). © 2016. Image copyright The
Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 09-29]

The Safavid Dynasty (1 of 5)
• The Safavid rulers who displaced the Timurids moved their capital and
the royal manuscript workshop to Tabriz.
• Sultan Muhammad
– A rendering of The Court of Gaumars was commissioned for Shah
Tahmasp and painted by Sultan Muhammad.
 The brilliant colors of the landscape are balanced by
naturalism of the figures' individualized features.

Sultan Muhammad
THE "COURT OF GAYUMARS"
From the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp (fol. 20v). Tabriz, Iran. c. 1525–1535.
Ink, pigments, and gold on paper, page size 18-1/2" × 12-1/2" (47 × 31.8 cm).
Aga Khan Museum, Toronto. (AKM165) [Fig. 09-30]

• Carpets
– Types produced were medallion carpets, centered around a sun or
star, and garden carpets, representing Paradise as a shady
garden with four rivers.
– Rugs have long been used for Muslim prayer, which involves
repeatedly kneeling and touching the forehead to the floor before
God.

• Carpets
– Carpets fall into two basic types: flat-weave carpets and pile, or
knotted, carpets.
 The best-known flat-weaves today are kilims, which are
typically woven in wool with bold, geometric patterns and
sometimes with brocaded details.

• Carpets
– Carpets fall into two basic types: flat-weave carpets and pile, or
knotted, carpets.
 In knotted carpets, the pile is made by tying colored strands of
yarn onto the vertical elements of a yarn grid.

ARDABIL CARPET
Produced in the Safavid royal workshops, probably for the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din in
Ardabil, Iran. 1539–1540. Dyed wool pile, undyed silk warp and weft, 34′6″ × 17′6″ (10.51
× 5.34 m). Victoria and Albert Museum, London. V&A Images/Victoria and Albert
Museum. [Fig 09-31]

• Architecture
– The Safavids looked to Timurid architecture with its tall, double-
shell domes, sheathed in blue tiles.
– With Isfahan's Masjid-I Shah or Royal Mosque, the four-iwan
mosque plan reached its apogee.

PLAN OF THE MASJID-I SHAH, ISFAHAN
Iran. 1611–1638.
Drawing by Keith Turner after Henri Stierlin © MIT Libraries. Aga Khan Documentation
Center. [Fig. 09-32a]

EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE MASJID-I SHAH, ISFAHAN
Iran. 1611–1638.
Klange76/Fotolia. [Fig. 09-32b]

Into the Modern Era (1 of 2)
• Muslim artists and architects began participating in international
movements that swept away many of the visible signs that expressed
their cultural character and difference.

Into the Modern Era (2 of 2)
• Iraqi architect Sami Mousawi designed the Islamic Mosque and
Cultural Center in 1992 with Italian Portoghesi-Gigliotti.
– Clean lines expose the structure and ornament the space.
– References to interlacing Islamic patterns are found in columns
that rise up to meet an eight-pointed star on the dome of
concentric circles.

Paolo Portoghesi, Vittorio Gigliotti, and Sami Mousawi
ISLAMIC MOSQUE AND CULTURAL CENTER, ROME.
1984–1992. The prayer hall, 197' × 131' (60 × 40 m), which has an ablution area on the
floor below, can accommodate a congregation of 2,500 on its main floor and balconies.
The large central dome (65-1/2'; 20 m in diameter), is surrounded by 16 smaller domes,
all similarly articulated with concrete ribs.
© Gari Wyn Williams/Alamy Stock Photo. [Fig. 09-33]

Think About It (1 of 2)
• Explain how the design of the mosque varies across the Islamic world
with reference to three examples. Despite the differences, what
features do mosques typically have in common?
• Images of people are not allowed in Islamic religious contexts, but
mosques and other religious buildings are lavishly decorated. What
artistic motifs and techniques are used and why?

Think About It (2 of 2)
• Compare the painted pages from sumptuous manuscripts in Figs. 9–
24 and 9–30. How does the comparison reveal the distinctive
aspirations of religious and secular art in Islamic society? How are they
different, and what features do they share?
• Select an Islamic structure that is influenced by Roman or Byzantine
architecture. Which forms are borrowed? Why and how, in their new
Islamic context, are they transformed?

Survey1 ch09

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