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Islamic Art and Spirituality

Islamic Art and Spirituality. Islamic Art and Spirituality. What makes art ‘Islamic’?/Is there such thing as ‘Islamic’ art?. Essentially Islamic theme/s? Ideological Imagery (ex. Quranic imagery of Paradise) Inherent in Quran or in reaction to NE? Question of intention

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Islamic Art and Spirituality

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  1. Islamic Art and Spirituality Islamic Art and Spirituality

  2. What makes art ‘Islamic’?/Is there such thing as ‘Islamic’ art? • Essentially Islamic theme/s? • Ideological • Imagery (ex. Quranic imagery of Paradise) • Inherent in Quran or in reaction to NE? • Question of intention • Is it any art produced by Muslims? • A reference to the artistic styles that ended up predominating in Islamicate civilization?

  3. 1- Tawhid permeates and drives Islamic art • Designed to orient viewer towards God’s unicity and transcendence • Not mimetic, rather symbolic of what lies behind nature  hiding matter & nature • Abstract: stylization, geometry, non-individuation, repetition, boundlessness • No focal point or dramatic evolution (Quran)

  4. 2 - ‘Traditional’ Islamic Cosmology • Notion of emanation and return drives artistic representation • Geometry/Math as links to Reality • Sura and Ma’na: form and content as inseparable, irrepressible • Mosque as recreation of cosmos • Crafts as expression of traditional worldview

  5. 3: Islamic art is merely attempt at beautification in Islamicate World • Hadith: God is beautiful and loves beauty. • Focus on Word of Quran  calligraphy in mosques • Adoption of some aspects of Byzantine & Persian art, rejection of others • Sinization of art after Mongols • Persianate style of Timurids  Safavids, Ottomans and Mughals

  6. Going overboard: Arguing from results… • ‘Muhammad’looks like person bowing in prayer • لا إله إلا أللهis made of vertical characters bridging the divine and temporal worlds • Islamic art has a “fear of empty space” because 1) urban life of the NE was crowded 2) the deserts were the wastelands that the Muslims had left

  7. Common Artistic/Architectural Elements • Calligraphy: form and content • Arabesque (tawriq) • Courtyard, dome, riwaq (arcade), iwan (portal niche in courtyard), mihrab, muqarnas (squinch adornment)

  8. Representation of Living Things? • Original or acquired? Why? • Early representational art (Umayyad mosques, palaces and coins)  reaction to Christian and NE representational traditions? • Miskawayh (d. 1030): aesthetic enjoyment is dangerous  stylization of nature • Aversion/prohibition merely one factor • Hadiths: • on the Day of Judgment those who have represented living things will have to breathe life into them or face damnation • Angels do not enter houses where there are images • Islamic law

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