The major religious groups (followed by their approximate portion of the total population) are Hindus (83 percent), Muslims (11 percent), Christians (2 percent), Sikhs (2 percent), Buddhists (0.7 percent), and Jains (0.5 percent).
The
art and architecture of those territories-the Middle East, North Africa,
northern India, and Spain-that fell under Muslim domination beginning in
the 7th century AD.
ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS
Two dominant features of Islamic art and architecture, the importance of calligraphic ornamentation and the form of the mosque, are intimately related to the Islamic faith and were developed in the early days of the religion.
The Prophet Muhammad was a wealthy merchant of Mecca who underwent a profound series of revelations when he was about 40 years of age and began to preach a new faith. His teachings, or the revelations, are contained in the Koran, one of the great books of religious inspiration. The rich linguistic and poetic heritage of the Arabs (see Arabic Language; Arabic Literature) contributed to the feeling of deep respect given to the Koran. Its centrality in Islamic culture and the particular gracefulness of the Arabic writing system led to the use of the written word, especially Koranic passages, as inscriptions on mosques and to the development of calligraphic styles and ornament in all branches of Islamic art.
In AD 622, the year that established the Islamic calendar, Muhammad made his flight (hijra) to the city of Yathrib (later Medina). There, a community of believers developed who worshiped in Muhammad's house compound. The common prayers of the new community in this simple setting-an enclosed oblong courtyard with huts (the houses of Muhammad's wives) along one side wall and a rough portico (the zulla, originally for shade) at one end for the poorer followers-established the mosque form. Almost all mosques, therefore, repeat the plan of Muhammad's house, being composed essentially of an enclosed courtyard (sahn), a building at one end for prayer, and arcades (riwaqs) on the sides.
The first followers of Muhammad, coming from the Arabian Peninsula, had no native artistic traditions comparable to those of the empires they subsequently conquered, which they then took as their starting point. As Islam spread, its art forms developed, modified by the different climatic conditions and available materials in the lands of Islamic conquest, and absorbing and adapting indigenous art styles. Motifs from one area soon became universal in the vast Islamic world.
Islamic art thus developed from many sources. Roman, Early Christian, and Byzantine styles were taken over in early Islamic architecture; the influence of Sassanian art-the architecture and decorative art of pre-Islamic Persia under the Sassanids-was of paramount significance; Central Asian styles were brought in with Turkic and Mongol incursions; and Chinese influences had a formative effect on Islamic painting, pottery, and textiles.
Historical Sequence
The sequence of the development of Islamic art-from the 7th to the 18th century-may be classified in three periods. The formative period of Islamic art was roughly coexistent with the rule of the early leaders of Islam, the Umayyad caliphs (661-750), who extended Islam from Damascus, in Syria, to Spain. The middle period spans the time of the Abbasid caliphs (750-1258), who ruled Islam from Baghdad, in Iraq, until the time of the Mongol conquest. This caliphate, famed for its promotion of learning and culture, was the most illustrious in Islamic history. It was in this middle period that the influence of Iranian art forms became significant. The period from the Mongol conquest to the 18th century may, for convenience, be termed the late period of Islamic art.
Within this sequence, distinctive art styles can be defined in different parts of the Islamic world, associated with various dynasties of rulers. Styles mentioned in this article-besides Umayyad and Abbasid art-include those of the Seljuk Turks, who ruled Iran from the mid-11th century to 1157; the Il-Khanids, a Mongol people who controlled eastern Iran from 1256 to 1349; the Timurids, the greatest patrons of Iranian culture, who ruled western Iran from 1378 to 1502; and the Safavids, rulers of all Iran from 1502 to 1736. Art also flourished under the Ottoman Turks, rulers of Turkey from 1299 to 1922, who extended their empire to Egypt and Syria in the 16th century. Earlier in Egypt (and Syria), distinctive styles were associated with the Fatimid reign (909-1171) and that of the Mamelukes, who established control in 1250.
The few and relatively simple rituals of the Islamic faith gave rise to a unique religious architecture, comprising the mosque (masjid), a place of community gathering and prayer, and the madresah, or religious school. Important among the various characteristic forms of Islamic secular architecture are palaces, caravansaries, and cities, the elaborate planning of which shows concern for the all-important access to water and for provision of shelter from heat. A third type of building important in the Islamic world is the mausoleum, serving both as an actual tomb for a ruler or holy man and as a symbol of political power. All these structures, religious and secular, share many organic and decorative features.
Muslims call the direction in which they pray the qibla, and for his first two years at Medina, the Prophet prayed facing toward Jerusalem. He then received a revelation that the true qibla lay in Mecca, and this has been the qibla for prayer ever since, determining the orientation and spatial organization of all mosques throughout the world. The qibla is marked by a decorative mihrab, or niche, within the mosque.
Mihrab
When the Muslims conquered Syria in 636, they took over for use as mosques many of the basilican churches that abounded there. These basilicas were long, triple-arched buildings with pitched roofs and with the altar at the eastern end (see Basilica). The new worshipers placed the mihrab on the southern wall and made new entrances in the northern wall. Thus, the congregation prayed across the aisles.
Courtyard
When such an adapted basilica was combined with an enclosed courtyard having arcades at the side, it contained all the basic features of the Prophet's house at Medina. The first Mosque of Al Aqsa at Jerusalem (before 670) was adapted in this way from the Royal Stoa of Herod, a ruined basilica. In later examples, more long aisles were added to the end of the courtyard-as in the great 8th- to 10th-century Mosque of Córdoba, Spain-and any resemblance to churches with their focus at the narrow end disappeared. Such additions were made in response to population growth, but the process of adding on is analogous to a feature characteristic of all Islamic art: the infinite repetition of patterns.
Minaret
During the lifetime of the Prophet, the call to prayer at Medina was made from a rooftop, in imitation of the Jewish practice of blowing the shofar (ram's horn) or the early Christian use of a clapper to summon worshipers. It seems likely that a Syrian tradition of marking the corners of a building by four short towers was the origin of the minaret-a tower at the corner of the mosque courtyard (or, as at Samarra, Iraq, freestanding)-from which, after Muhammad's lifetime, the call to prayer was customarily sounded. The Umayyad Mosque, or Great Mosque, at Damascus (705-15), built around an earlier basilican church, is the best-preserved example of an early courtyard mosque with a minaret. A dome, of later construction, in the sanctuary, or prayer hall, marks the main one of the four mihrabs on the qibla wall.
Dome
Domes, a great feature of all Islamic architecture, developed both from Sassanian and Early Christian architectural sources. The earliest surviving mosque is the Dome of the Rock (late 7th century) at Jerusalem, one of the great religious structures of the world; it marks the spot where, according to tradition, Muhammad ascended to heaven. This mosque has a dome set on a high drum and a centralized or annular (ringlike) plan with two ambulatories or corridors; the design is derived from Roman architecture, possibly in emulation of the 4th-century Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also in Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock, therefore, does not conform to the basic mosque plan. Its dome is gilded, and all its other surfaces are covered inside and out by colorful tile mosaic.
Influences from Turkic peoples were increasingly felt as Islam spread and developed. Thus, the mausoleum built at the beginning of the 10th century for the ruler of Bukhoro, in Central Asia (the place of origin of the Seljuk dynasty), was of great architectural significance. This square brick building had a dome resting on squinches (small arches that span the corners of the square) instead of on pendentives (spherical triangles, or rounded triangular sections of vaults) as used in the Byzantine world. Squinches ultimately were derived from Sassanian Iran; they are more easily built than pendentives, and the device thus led to the spread of domed mosques, mausoleums, and other types of buildings throughout the Islamic world.
Under the Ottomans, mosques were built reflecting the Byzantine heritage of Turkey. Thus, the magnificent Selimiye Cami Mosque (1569-1574) built by the great Turkish architect Sinan at Edirne, Turkey, has a colossal dome ringed with smaller ones and with half domes, the same arrangement as Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey-a Byzantine church later converted to a mosque. Although also similar to Hagia Sophia in breadth, the Edirne mosque has many windows, providing much more light. This form-which Sinan also employed in two famous Istanbul mosques-influenced the design of mosques throughout Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and North Africa.
Eyvan
In the Abbasid mosques of Iraq, an eyvan, an open, vaulted, two-story passageway or hall, was introduced into each side of the arcades surrounding the mosque courtyard. The eyvan had its roots in the architecture of Sassanian Iran.
Pointed Arch
Although the horseshoe arch is more typical of Islamic architecture, especially earlier examples, the pointed arch was also known. Probably of Syrian origin, adapted by the Umayyads, it was also characteristic of Abbasid mosques, and from Iraq it was carried to Egypt in the 9th and 10th centuries. In later Egyptian mosques, built under the Mamelukes (from the 13th century), the pointed arches have a Gothic profile, showing the influence of European architectural motifs transported by the Crusaders.
Mimbar and Maqqsura
The first known use of a mimbar, or pulpit, was in the mosque of Medina; originally used as a seat, it soon became a true pulpit for preaching. Another structural detail typical of some but not all mosques is the maqqsura, a screen or enclosure placed around the mihrab to protect the leaders of the community during services; this structure was developed after three early caliphs were murdered.
Tombs and Mausoleums
Despite Islamic strictures against the building of elaborate tombs, mausoleums, erected as symbols of the power of departed leaders, became the most important structures of Islam, after mosques and palaces. Examples include the necropolis of domed tombs built outside Cairo by the Mameluke rulers of Egypt in the 15th century. In Samarqand (now in Uzbekistan), the Timurids constructed a necropolis, the Sah-i-Zindeh (15th-16th cent.), an impressive group of buildings with elegantly patterned brickwork and high tiled domes on drums. In Iran, under the Mongol conquerors, a special kind of tomb was developed. The large 14th-century mausoleum at Sultaniyah has a dome of double construction, giving greater height without added weight, on an octagonal base (originally with a tower at each corner). The most outstanding example of this form, it is the predecessor of one of the most famous of all Islamic mausoleums, the Taj Mahal (mid-17th cent.), in Agra, India, built by two Iranian architects.
Architectural Decoration
Plaster, patterned brickwork, and tile were used as decorative media in and on Islamic buildings; to this repertoire the Seljuks added glazed brick and tiles-the latter often luster painted like their pottery (see Pottery below). The city of Kashan, Iran, specialized in this production. Whole molded mihrab facings, composed of columnar bands of Koranic inscriptions, were made in luster faience, one of the earthenware styles used for tile. Tiles in various shapes, such as stars, were fitted together into wall panels. Timurid architecture featured mihrab coverings of brilliant tile mosaic, in which the individual colors were fired separately to achieve their fullest intensity. In the 15th century, tile ceramicists from Iran, which was still an important center, established tile production in Turkey. With the development of workshops at Iznik, the Turks had their own superb source of tiles. In Safavid Iran, most new public buildings received splendid tile sheathings, and many older buildings were redecorated in the same way. These tiles included ones in gold and green, colors not previously used; the different colors were applied and fired together in patterns, rather than separately as before. The effect was different, and the individual colors were less brilliant.
Other Islamic architectural decoration included wood carving, occasionally inlaid with ivory-used on maqqsuras, mimbars, windows and doors, and various structural elements. Stone reliefs and marble inlays are found in buildings in Spain, Turkey, and Egypt (from the Mameluke period). Although not part of the building itself, mosque lamps and colorful prayer carpets may also be considered architectural decorations that veil and transform the building by introducing light and color.
Islamic dicta on the permissible in art, collected in the Hadith, were similar to those of the iconoclastic movement (see Iconoclasm) during the time of the Byzantine Empire. The idea behind the condemnation of making images of prophets and saints, and of adoring these images and tombs, was that such practices materialized worship, which belongs to God alone. Likewise, the creation of representational images by artists was condemned because only God is able to give life to creation. These prohibitions were always observed in religious contexts-in mosques, on mosque carpets, in the decoration of Korans and Koran boxes-but irregularly in the secular decorative arts, depending on the degree of orthodoxy usual under a particular ruler. At one Syrian Desert palace, Mshatta (early 8th cent.), which has richly carved stone reliefs on its walls, there is a sharp distinction between the reliefs on the mosque part of the complex, which are completely ornamental, and those on the other areas, which are figural representations of both fantastic and real animals. The effect of these prohibitions, even when figures of human beings and animals were represented, was to keep such figures within a decorative framework; unlike European artists, therefore, Muslim artists did not develop an understanding of anatomy, musculature, and perspective. On the other hand, instead of depriving artists of their ability to express their talents, these limitations on what was generally acceptable channeled their energies into the development of decorative patterns; based on geometric forms, Arabic script, and foliate shapes (later stylized as arabesques), this repertoire embodies the unique decorative genius of Islamic art.
The other main proscription from the Hadith that profoundly affected the development of the Islamic decorative arts was the condemnation of luxurious and precious materials. Thus, where the decorative art of other cultures may make lavish use of gold, silver, or precious gems, Islamic art is focused on ceramics, decorated bronze vessels, and wood carvings. Another reason for the attention given to unpretentious materials and fundamentally utilitarian objects was the rise of a large urban middle class whose developing connoisseurship yet practical needs were to be considered.
