The art of Islam is a type of artistic creation, mainly in countries where Islam became the state religion. In its main features, it was formed during the Middle Ages. It was then that the Arab countries and regions where Islam was brought made a huge contribution to the treasury of world civilization. The special attractiveness of Islamic art, its originality and traditions were able to make it go beyond time and space and become part of the universal heritage.
History
Islamic culture emerged as a phenomenon in the seventh century AD. But the principles of this religion, set forth by its theologians, and mainly based on the interpretation of the Torah, forbade the image of living beings. Even stricter rules concerned the impossibility of embodying in the painting or sculpture of God (Allah). Therefore, when this religion spread from the Arabian deserts to the east, up to India, and came up against local cultures, it was at first hostile to them. Firstly, Islam considered the art of other countries to be pagan, and secondly, images of various deities, people and animals dominated there. But over time, Muslim culture nevertheless absorbed some of the principles of art, reworked them and created its own styles and rules. So the visual art of Islam arose. In addition, just as Muslim theology in each region has its own characteristics, so culture has become dependent on the country and its traditions.
The characteristic features of the fine arts of Islam
First of all, the canon of this culture was developed in architecture and ornament. It was based on the traditions of the Byzantine, Egyptian, and Persian art of the pre-Islamic period. In some countries, the ban on the depiction of people and animals was very ephemeral, as, for example, in Iran. Islamic painting and plastic art forms arose later. Muslim culture is characterized by the construction of buildings with large domes, a lot of attention that was paid to the interior paintings, mosaics and the interior, rather than the appearance, bright and rich colors, symmetry, the presence of arabesques and the so-called mukarnassos. These are arches in the form of honeycombs, with numerous hollows and indentations.
Varieties
Islamic art is most developed in the field of architecture. In this style, not only religious buildings were built, such as mosques or madrassas, but also secular buildings. One of the most important types of this art is calligraphy, which has left us a rich heritage of ornamental compositions. In Iran and Muslim India, such rare forms of the Islamic visual arts as painting and miniature have become widespread. And in almost all countries where this religion was professed, such popular applied types of creativity as carpet weaving and ceramics were developed.
Architecture
It is customary to distinguish such main types of Islamic art in this area - the Egyptian style, Tatar, Moorish and Ottoman. The remaining types of architecture are considered secondary or derived from the main ones. Muslims developed their own rules for the construction and decoration of buildings, when Islam became the state religion in different countries, the number of worshipers increased, and for their meetings it was necessary to build mosques. Initially, architects proceeded from functional needs. That is, for the mosque, a hall was needed where people gather, a mihrab (a niche facing Mecca), a minbar (pulpit), a courtyard with galleries, a reservoir for ritual ablutions, and minarets, from where calls to prayer sound. The first such temples include the Dome of the Rock (Jerusalem, the seventh century AD). Basically, it has an octagon and stands in the middle of the courtyard with galleries. In addition to mosques and religious schools - madrassas - specific social features have different public buildings. These are mainly caravanserais (inns), hammams (baths), covered bazaars.
Countries and Regions
The art of Islam has found its development in the Egyptian style of architecture. An example is the mosque of Ibn Tulun (ninth century) and the Sultan of Hassan (14 century) in Cairo. These temples give the impression of power, have impressive dimensions. They are covered with bizarre mosaic inscriptions, and their walls are decorated with arabesques, that is, stylized geometric and floral elements. Such repeating ornaments, filling all the voids, symbolized the arguments of Islamic theologians about the endless "fabric of the universe." The vaults in mosques are dome-shaped, and they rely on columns in the form of stalactites. A mausoleum of the Samadin dynasty in Bukhara is cited as a typical instance of Iranian and Central Asian architecture. In Muslim Persia, they mainly liked to use tiles in the form of stars and crosses in the construction of buildings, from which various compositions were laid out.
Moorish style
The fine art of Islam, like its architecture, reached its peak during the reign of the Arabs in Spain. Its most striking manifestation can be called the palace of the rulers of the Alhambra in Granada. This luxurious structure with many richly decorated rooms and halls is surrounded by a wall with towers and fortresses. Of particular note is the so-called Myrtle Courtyard with a colonnade. From it you can go into the hall of the Messengers, covered with a dome. According to legend, the rulers of Granada received representatives of other countries there. Another famous courtyard is the Lion. It is named so because the fountain, which is located in the middle, is based on 12 sculptures depicting these animals. There are many other halls in the palace - Two sisters, Judicial - rooms and chambers with balconies and porticoes decorated with magnificent mosaics. The buildings of the Alhambra are located among gardens and flower beds. The Great Mosque in Cordoba (Mesquita) was built in the same style.
India
Features of the art of Islam are perfectly embodied in such a masterpiece of Muslim architecture as the Taj Mahal. This is a work of late times. It dates back to the seventeenth century and was built by order of the ruler of the Islamic Mughal dynasty in India, Shah Jihan I. In terms of this structure has a cut square with a dome at the top, standing on an artificial platform of marble. At the corners of the building are minarets. The mausoleum is built of white marble and pink sandstone and decorated with precious stones. The building is also ornamented with gold inscriptions on a black background. Therefore, it stands out spectacularly in the middle of the sky and greenery. Inside, it has a rich interior, decorated with ornaments of gold, silver and a mosaic of jewelry.
Turkey
The art of Islamic countries is adequately represented in this country. At first, the Turks built their mosques in the same way as the Arabs. But from the fifteenth century, after the conquest of Byzantium, their art was greatly influenced by the architecture of the empire they had captured. By the type of local temples, they began to build mosques of rectangular shape, with many domes and adjacent buildings, as well as an inner courtyard - aivan. Turkish architecture reached its peak in the Ottoman era, especially in the work of Sinan. This architect designed and built a huge number of mosques, but he personally singled out three: two in Istanbul (Shah-Zade and Suleimaniye), and one in Edirne (Selimiye). These buildings are distinguished by sophisticated minarets, huge domes and lancet arches.
Calligraphy
The visual arts of Islam have such an important industry as Muslim applied painting. It evolved from an artistic copy of the Koran - the Holy Book. Then it began to be used to design mosques. This letter was called Arabic script or "Kufic", because it was believed that it comes from this Iraqi city. In various Islamic countries, calligraphy has been brought to the highest degree of perfection. The master of this letter was both a stylist, mathematician and artist. Types of calligraphy in Muslim countries have even been canonized. In the XV-XVII centuries, a new type of writing appeared - the so-called whale, where the whole picture was created in the authorized handwriting of one or more species. The artist’s tool was a cane feather (kalam), the very method of eyewear which determined the style. The calligrapher had to demonstrate his exquisite taste not only with the ability to gracefully draw the Arabic script, but also with knowledge of spatial geometry, as well as his mastery of the art of ornament - geometric, floral, zoo- or anthropomorphic.
Miniature
The peculiarities of the fine arts of Islam also consist in the fact that in this religion God is not anthropomorphic. Therefore, artistic creativity was excluded from the sacred area and remained only in secular culture. But its distribution depended on different countries. In the Qur'an there is no direct prohibition on the depiction of people and animals, but in the hadiths - Islamic traditions - there are such censures. Basically, the painting was distributed as a decoration of luxury goods and book illustrations - miniatures. Basically, it reached its peak in Iran, Central Asia and the Indian Mughal Empire. The Persian miniature is based on wall paintings of this country of the pre-Islamic period. It developed from book illustrations, but Iranian artists quickly made an independent genre out of it. They developed an excellent painting system in which color, form, composition and expression were combined to create one. Persian artists deliberately used a planar type of image, rather than a three-dimensional one. The heroes of this painting, as a rule, are idealized and live in a beautiful world. Shah libraries, or kitabhana, most often served as workshops of miniatures. From the eighteenth century, European technology and traditions began to exert a strong influence on Iranian painting.
Applied Arts: Ceramics and Weaving
These industries have developed in Iran, Azerbaijan, Central Asia, Turkey. Architectural ceramics was especially famous. It could be patterned brickwork or carved terracotta. But the most famous was the cladding of buildings with the help of multi-colored painted majolica. It is she who gives such chic and brilliance to the eastern palaces. As for the painting of dishes, here bans on the use of silver and gold for household needs played a role. However, Islamic masters tried to give clay vessels shine and shine. To do this, they began to produce lead glaze, and also tried to create something similar to Chinese porcelain. So was invented white enamel for coating dishes, as well as the effects of gold and silver in watering. The most ancient carpets were found in Egypt. They belong to the ninth century. Carpet weaving was born from the manufacture of litter for prayer. There were two types of this art - ornamental, where patterns and geometric figures intertwined, and graphic, with scenes of hunting, battles and landscapes. The latter species is less common. The brightest and fluffy Persian carpets, and the special technique of Turkish masters won the greatest fame.
The meaning of the art of Islam
Despite the fact that we are talking about the cultural characteristics of a particular religion, the meaning of this term extends to secular life. In the Muslim world, painting, architecture, and other forms of art reflect people's perceptions of spirituality, values, and what surrounds them. The main feature of this culture is the desire for beauty, which is a sign of divinity. Geometric shapes and ornaments seem to reveal the ciphers of the language of the universe, and repeating patterns indicate its infinity. Applied art is trying to make everyday things beautiful. The culture of Islam has had a huge impact on the development of Western Europe since the Middle Ages.