The Influence of Religion on Islamic Art - Literature review Example

Topic: The influence of religion on Islamic Art Introduction The century after prophet Muhammad died (AD 632), his followers of Arabic descent continued spreading his teachings through Egypt and other parts of North Africa, in the western direction towards Spain as well as the eastern direction towards Sassanid Persia (Rowell, 2014). As a consequence of the rapid expansion as well as the rarity of previous artistic heritage in the Arabian Peninsula, the Muslims derived their exceptional style from synthesizing arts from Sassanids, Romans, Copts as well as Byzantines. The abundant strength of Islamic art in general is inherent in its ability to blend native designs aspects with those that have been imported. In all the works of Islamic art and architecture, abstract decorations on the surfaces are a significant aspect regardless of the size of the work (Ali, 1999). Typically, curving is intertwined with lines, for instance in arabesque, while the utilization of brilliant colors characterizes most of the finest products which are created in greatly varying styles. Further, Islamic art avoids the actual representation of human beings and animals while its floral designs remain particularly distant from the original actual models. Even though the Quran does not prohibit the depiction of living forms, it is broadly perceived that the non-representational aspect seen in Islamic ornaments originated in the traditional theological proscription against the imitation of the work of God. Definition and meaning The term Islamic Art is a general term that describes visual arts created after the seventh century by Muslims as well as non-Muslim artists who resided in the territories that had been occupied cultures and people who were Muslim (Burckhardt, Nasr & Michon, 2009). It entails art forms like architecture and architectural decorations, faience mosaics, relief sculptures, paintings, drawings, illumination of manuscripts as well as carving into wood and ivory among others. Throughout history, Islamic art has developed from a broad array of differing sources as it is comprised of aspects from Greek and early Christian art that it blends with cultures from the Middle East as well as some from far east such as Indian and Chinese. Key elements and design characteristics Islamic art cannot be associated with a specific nation or specific people as it is art linked to a civilization that was developed by a blend of historical occurrences. These occurrences include the conquering of the world by the Arabs and the union of huge territories under Islam, however, these territory later experienced invasion by various groups of foreign people. From the beginning, the course of Islamic art was predominantly influenced by political structures that cut across sociological and geographical boundaries. The complicated nature of Islamic Art founded on Pre-Islamic traditions in the various nations conquered and carefully incorporated combination of Persian, Arabic and Turkish traditions brought together in also components of the new Muslim Empire (Kogman-Appel, 2004). Restrictions on making images resulted in the creation of one of the most exceptional features as far as Islamic Art is concerned as artists greatly avoided the depiction of lifelike forms through coming up with a special form of decoration known as arabesque. Arabesques are extremely complex designs that may consist of meandering patterns of vines, flowers and leaves. It may also be made of geometric patterns and shapes, or curving lines, which twist and turn all over each other. In some instances, animal shapes were also incorporated into these designs but they were greatly stylized in order to ensure that they were not lifelike. Another significant aspect of Islamic art is use of calligraphy, which is a form of beautiful handwriting. Most of the Islamic texts are written in the Arabic language, which can be beautifully written in various forms of script including straight, rounded, geometric Kufic as well as flowing Naskhi. The Islamic artists utilized the Arabic scripts that are read from the right towards the left as components of their designs, which they incorporated into their religions books, artistic objects as well as wall decorations. Particularly beautiful calligraphy and decoration were utilized for copies of the holy book of Islam, the Koran (Falola, Oyeniyi & Morgan, 2012). The influence of religion on Islamic Art Islamic art is perceived to be among the most complicated and beautiful art in the entire globe while originating from spiritual teachings associated with the Islamic faith. Islamic Art differs from arts associated with other religions, since its spiritual art demonstrates great innovation as a consequence of the constraints on figural representations which led to exceptional development of mosaic, calligraphic art geometrical art between the seventh and eighth century that was refined through time (Levy, 2007). The best examples associated with time can be seen in the Great Mosque of Damascus, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem as well as the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina. The three mosques have decorative aspects that include vegetal arabesque along with geometric fractal-like mosaics, representations of Paradise and verses from the Islamic sacred book, Quran that has been written in calligraphy. The Islamic faith is extremely monotheistic, and therefore, to avoid temptations on the viewer towards worship of other divinities including Prophet Mohammad, images of animals and humans were proscribed. As a result of this restrictions, Islamic artists embraced approaches to ornamentation that were extremely innovative. Even though animal and human representations are prohibited as far as Islamic art is concerned, vegetal arabesque patterns that feature trailing and twisting plants are extremely common. The arabesque, which is an abstract line-art work usually curved into stones and wood usually represents vines and leaves even though non-vegetal arabesques are also commonplace on screens and windows like those in the Great Mosque of Damascus (Canby, 2005). The Window arabesque in this case allowed the mind to drift as it contemplates the complicated patterning but also diffused light to create light and cool atmospheres inside the mosque that can be compared to paradise. Additionally, Arabesques, were also utilized to delicately bring focus to the areas that are most important in the most especially the mirhab, which is the metaphysical centre that marks the direction of prayer while the exists rarely had any form of ornamentation. The use of delicate means as a diverting attention instead of obvious architectural cues was important in order to avoid interrupting the sense of serenity and balance felt by the viewer. In order to aide mediation further, depictions of paradise were plentiful in the Great Mosque of Damascus assisting worshippers to envisage the after-life that affected them. Mosaics the represented Paradise were especially significant in the late seventh century CE since there were increased forecasts of the resurrection and the end of times in Islam as well as Judaism and Christianity. There are many examples all over the interior of the Great Mosque of Damascus of particularly impressive and exhibiting features of paradise that has been described by the Quran such as lofty dwellings as well as gardens that are adorned with smooth streams (Canby, 2005). Furthermore, early Islamic mosaic tiles had been intended to reflect light in a better way compared to later centuries making the light reflected from the golden tiles superficial. This was important in giving the image of paradise more splendor and magnificence, while emphasizing that God was the light of the heavens and the earth, this emphasis may have also predisposed the creation of the eight-pointed motif that is synonymous with Islamic ornamentation. Islam accords exceptional importance to the number eight since it makes reference to the eight angels in the Quran and is seen in the star as well as the octagonal shapes that exist in the Dome of the Rock as well as the Great Mosque of Damascus. There is repeated use of multiples of eight as evident in the Dome of the Rock where the innermost golden bands are comprised of eight red circles and the next one is comprised of sixteen while being encircled by thirty-two red wavy shapes that are followed by sixty-four red lines that form an additional golden band. These form of fractal patterns that undergo improvements in later centuries demonstrate the manner in which Islamic artists who were seen as masters as far as geometrical art was concerned sought to reproduce the natural world using mathematical patterns. The imaginative power of nature that is observed in shells, flowers and formations that look like snowflakes all of which constitute fractural patterning can be perceived in Islamic spirituality as creative emanations of God since God continuously creates and recreated the world. Nonetheless, the best method for sharing the word of God is without any doubt the use of calligraphy and since representations of human and other lifelike figures is not allowed, the artists preferred to incorporate words from the Quran in the architecture of the mosques. Through beautiful reworking of the words of the Quran, the calligraphy artists believed that a place would be reserved for them in paradise (Burckhardt, Nasr & Michon, 2009). Additionally, calligraphy was extremely pervasive in the ornamentation of the mosque that it was considered that religious messages were declared through epigraphy to the point that some buildings could be perceived as holy books. The Dome of the Rock can be considered as an example of this as contained almost two hundred and forty meters of calligraphy that contained words from the Quran. An elegant Arabic script referred to as Kufic was created for calligraphic purposes and it continued to be popular up to the late thirteen century. The Kufic script that was utilized in the decoration of mosques is long and slender, and merges meticulously with other ornamentation since it is abstract. Its straight lines and gentle terminating waves of the script are composed abstractly in the middle in order to match the vegetal arabesque that is evident in the surrounding ring as well as its geometrical background. As demonstrated by this discussion, when artists do not have any pressure to represent religious icons, both the viewers and the artists are given more personal ways of experiencing spirituality. Even though proscribing lifelike depictions in Islam can be seen as limiting artistic progression, examples from seventh and eighth century Islamic art demonstrates that this lack of figural depiction has actually resulted in exceptionally innovative Islamic ornamentation. For instance, this is evident in the delicate exciting rhythms seen in the fractal geometries, verses written in abstract calligraphy and scrolls created in vegetal arabesque, which inspire and lengthen meditation (Burckhardt, Nasr & Michon, 2009). Instead of considering unmoving representations of deities and saints, viewers are provided with mosques that are full on inspiring scenes of paradise. Therefore, Islamic architecture provides a way of spiritual self-exploration that can be enjoyed by both Muslims as well as other members of the society while putting emphasis on universal union of all spiritual faiths through the common aspect of worshipping God. Conclusion In the Middle Ages, Christians and Muslims were engaged in wars that were referred to as Crusades. The Islamic nations were united through religion and the common wars the fought against the Europeans who were predominantly Christians (Lassieur, 2010). In the process of these occurrences, Islamic art was also unified, and from Spain all the way to India, the art associated with the Islamic nations was almost the same. By the 1400s, not much could bring together the Islamic world since numerous people in Islamic nations worship other religions, the crusades had ended and in some instances, Muslim countries were fighting against each other. Islamic art’s prolonged history as well as its geographic spread made it inescapably subject to a broad array of regional and countrywide styles and influences along with changes in various periods as it develops. This then makes it more noteworthy that, even in these circumstances, Islamic art continued to retain its inherent dynamics and exceptional identity. In the same manner that the Islamic religion embodies a way of living and acts as a cohesive force among the culturally and ethnically different people, the art that is created by and for the Muslims has fundamental unifying and identifying aspects, possibly , the most noticeable of these remains the preference for surface decoration. Artistic activities in Islamic styles continue to be embellished as mosques are continually built with objects of metal, leather, clay remaining as ornaments within arabesques while books are lightened with miniatures and rugs woven in the traditional manner. Nonetheless, subsequent to 1500, some of the Islamic artists started adding elements of European art to the work they did. Presently, the art that originates from most of the Islamic nations have international characteristics, even though the scenes may be related to only one Islamic nation. . References Ali, W. (1999). The Arab contribution to Islamic art. Jordan: Royal Society of Fine Arts. Burckhardt, T., Nasr, S., & Michon, J. (2009). Art of Islam. Bloomington, Ind.: World Wisdom. Canby, S. (2005). Islamic art in detail. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Falola, T., Oyeniyi, B., & Morgan, J. (2012). Culture and customs of Libya. Santa Barbara [Calif.]: Greenwood. Kogman-Appel, K. (2004). Jewish book art between Islam and Christianity. Leiden: Brill. Lassieur, A. (2010). The Middle Ages. Mankato, Minn: Capstone Press. Levy, J. (2007). Islamic art. New York: Rosen Pub. Group. Rowell, R. (2014). Malala Yousafzai. Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Pub. Read More