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What You Didn’t Know About Islamic Art Episode 9? [transcript]

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Welcome back to For All Humans. Today we’re going to be talking about Islamic art.
To begin with, we have to tackle the task of defining Islamic art.
Britannica.com says that Islamic art includes such an immense variety of literature, performing arts, visual arts, and music that it virtually defies any comprehensible definition.
We know we’re in for it, but even the encyclopedia has trouble defining it.
Now there are those out there who might say that there is no such thing as Islamic art, or those who think that art is not even allowed within the parameters of Islamic faith.
Well, those people would be wrong on both counts.
The confusion comes from something called anachronism, which refers to the prohibition of creating an image that has a likeness to any sentient being, and especially of God, prophets, and saints.
However, we know that there are many artistic outpourings that do not involve portraits or recreations of people, so the idea that all art is forbidden is deeply reductionist.
Don’t be that person.
Second, while some practitioners of Islam do favor anachronism, many do not.
A research article by Dr. Ismail Ismail, who is a professor of Islamic art at the University of London, said,
that Islamic anachronism has been a subject of theological debate in the culture of Islam for more than a millennium, and it still is.
So while figures are often absent from specifically religious artwork, they are frequently found in other areas of Islamic art.
In regards to prophets, Muslims love and respect all of them equally.
Yet we believe they are human and not divine.
Glorious to God and no human beings are glorified through Islamic artwork, especially in a manner that confuses their power.
In regards to depictions of God, in chapter 42, verse 11 of the Quran, God says,
Muslims cannot portray God with human features or in metaphorical ways, such as forms of energy.
Our creativity and imagination are limited to what we witness and sense.
This brings up an important point.
The expression Islamic art is a little misleading, as it gives the impression that Islamic art is, by nature, religious.
This isn’t necessarily the case.
In a teaching packet published by the National Gallery of Art in Washington,
Islamic art has few exclusively religious symbols comparable to the Christian cross.
Its makers and its patrons might be Muslim or not.
While Islamic art might make use of Quranic verses, and some of its most famous examples can be found on the walls of mosques throughout the world,
religious use is only one aspect of Islamic art.
An essay by Dr. Elizabeth McCauley Lewis says that in today’s terms,
Islamic art describes all of the arts produced in the lands where Islam was the dominant religion or the religion of those who ruled.
Some of the difficulty that the Western world has in identifying and defining Islamic art
comes from the human tendency to make comparisons.
Islamic art is frequently compared to Western art with a similar expectation of form and style
without taking cultural significance or actual skill into consideration.
According to Dr. Oskar Soganji, many scholars believe that the incompatibility between
Western and Eastern concepts of art is a problem to be solved.
In this approach, it is assumed that there is one uniform path humans have to follow.
When stated like that, making comparisons between these two art styles seems utterly ridiculous.
We shouldn’t be surprised when one culture’s understanding of art differs from another,
nor should we use the same scale of value on one as we do the other.
We know, then, that Islamic art is not necessarily religious or only Muslim.
We know it can include representations of people or not,
and we know it is not like Western art.
So what is it, then?
Let’s have a look at a few examples.
Calligraphy is one of the most highly prized forms of Islamic art.
While not exclusive to Islamic culture,
the Victorian Albert Museum notes that Islamic artists use calligraphy in astonishingly varied and imaginative ways,
which have taken the written word far beyond pen and paper
into all art forms and materials.
For these reasons, calligraphy may be counted as a uniquely original feature of Islamic art.
Islamic calligraphy transmits meaning both through the words used in the design,
but also through the design itself and how the words are adorned.
This allows the artwork to convey a multitude of meanings,
much more than written or visual mediums alone.
One such example is the Alhambra Fortress and Palace in Granada, Spain.
Named for its reddish walls,
every inch of the place is decorated in some manner,
and calligraphy plays a significant role.
Among many of the arches, pillars, and walls is the phrase,
only God is victor,
as well as many poems by various court poets.
In fact, according to the official website,
many of the arches are false arches that do not serve to support the structure but are there as decorative pieces, offering more space to calligraphs.
When it comes to Islamic art,
intricacy is often the name of the game,
and arabesques, or biomorphic art, are no exception.
These are scrolling patterns of plant and floral motifs
that were originally used by earlier cultures, such as the Byzantines.
However, the form was so heavily used and perfected by various Arabic cultures,
it was eventually named after them.
Take, for example, this mosque.
The dome, the entranceway, the halls, most of the building, in fact,
is richly decorated with these sprawling arabesques
that draw you in with their intricacy and rich colours.
Geometry is one of the defining characteristics of Islamic art.
They are usually made by replicating and repeating a single geometric unit
to create an overarching, sprawling pattern.
The Islamic contribution to the world’s understanding of math and science is well-documented,
and here, math and numbers take centre stage.
This form of art requires a great deal of advanced technical knowledge,
as the patterns are never just arbitrary designs.
The designs represent themes like unity, infinity, universality, and so on.
But beyond that, it’s an art form based on numbers,
where every number has a meaning.
Take, for example, Dana Awartani’s Heavenly Bodies series.
Artbazel.com breaks it down for us.
Each of the central squares are affiliated with one of the seven columns,
the classical planets, a day in the week, and an angel.
They were also once regarded as a form of protection
as well as a source of higher spiritual knowledge through numerology.
These works are structured based on the first square,
which sits at the top right of the work
and holds the code to decipher which planet has been illustrated.
Where once these coded paintings might have been used as designs for weavings on clothes,
here they work as illuminations,
with each of the seven works exploring form, pattern, numerology, and mysticism,
functioning almost as a manifestation of the artist’s exploration
into the threads of divination in ancient Islam.
As you can imagine, by understanding the geometric terms used in creating them,
these works can be decoded into a multitude of meanings.
These, of course, are only a few examples of the types of Islamic art that exist,
and we’ve only scratched the surface of a rich and varied culture
full of beauty, creativity, and talent.
They show us that Islamic art is not only beautiful,
requiring immense skill to produce,
but also that it’s cerebral,
containing incredible depth and complexity of meaning.
I encourage you to take a trip to your local museum or even a nearby mosque
and have a look at some of the breathtaking artistic offerings on display there.
You won’t be disappointed.
If you liked what you saw, please remember to like, comment, share,
and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
See you all next time.

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