{ A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS } ISLAMIC ART AND ISLAMIC ART CULTURE ISLAMIC ART AND CULTURE { A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS } National Gallery of Art, Washington Division of Education ISLAMICART AND CULTURE National Gallery of Art, Washington Mailing address 2000B South Club Drive Landover, MD 20785 This packet was produced in conjunction with the exhibition Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Victoria and Albert Museum. It has been supplemented with objects not in the exhibition. National Gallery of Art, Washington (July 18, 2004−February 6, 2005) Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (April 3−September 4, 2005) Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (October 22−December 11, 2005) { A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS } Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, England (January 14−April 16, 2006). This exhibition was organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington. ISLAMIC ART AND CULTURE The exhibition at the National Gallery of Art is generously { A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS } sponsored by H.R.H. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States. The international tour of this exhibition has been made possible by the generosity of Mohammed Jameel, the benefactor of the V&A’s Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, which is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Abdul Latif Jameel, the late founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Group, and his wife Nafisa. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. The packet was prepared by the Division of Education and produced by the Publishing Office. Designed by Catalone Design Co. Our thanks to Rosamond Mack, Barry Wood, and Richard Carter. © National Gallery ofArt, Washington 2004 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington cover image: Architectural details from the Alhambra Grenada, Spain photograph Ana Maria Zavala TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION SLIDE DISCUSSIONS 1 Islamic art 15 SECTION 1: Islam, the mosque, 3 Calligraphy and the Qur’an 3 Arabesques 15 The Qur’an 3 Geometric designs 16 The Five Pillars of Islam 4 The question of images 18 The mosque 19 Slides 1−6 MAPS 5 The extent of Islamic territory c. 900 24 SECTION 2: Science and learning 6 The extent of Islamic territory c. 1500 28 Slides 7−9 HISTORICAL SURVEY 31 SECTION 3: Palaces and poetry 7 Muhammad and the beginnings of Islam 32 Slides 10−14 8 The fi rst caliphs and the Umayyads 9 A golden age: The Abbasid Dynasty 39 SECTION 4: Arts of the object 10 Early medieval dynasties in the west: in exchange Fatimids, Ayyubids 11 Early medieval dynasties in the east: 40 Slides 15−20 Ghaznavids, Seljuks 51 TEACHING ACTIVITIES 11 Late medieval period: Mongols and Mamluks 12 The late empires: Ottomans in the west 51 Social Studies: Investigation 14 The late empires: Safavids in the east 52 Creative Writing: It’s a Mystery 53 Art & Math: Shapes and Patterns 55 GLOSSARY & RESOURCES 58 Slides and reproductions ABOUT THIS PACKET This teaching resource consists of • this booklet, which contains introductory material, slide descriptions, teaching suggestions, maps, a glossary, and resources • twenty slides • four color reproductions • a CD with image fi les, and a PDF version of the online feature Artistic Exchange: Europe and the Islamic World ISLAMIC ART “Islamic art” is a label coined in the West in the 1 nineteenth century. Unlike “Christian art” or “Buddhist art,” it does not describe art with a particular set of religious imagery. In fact, Islamic art has few exclusively religious symbols comparable to the Christian cross. Instead, the term “Islamic art” designates all art, religious or secular, that was produced in lands under Muslim leadership. Its makers and its patrons might be Muslim or not. In this packet we look at works that span nearly a thousand years—from shortly after the foundation of Islam in the seventh century to the seventeenth century when the last two great Islamic empires—the Ottoman and the Safavid—had reached their peak. Although the defi nition of Islamic art usually includes work made in Mughal India, it is beyond the scope of this packet. The works we will look at here come from as far west as Spain and as far east as Afghanistan. Naturally, within this span of time and space many variations and styles occur. Yet, Islamic art remains somehow “recognizable” throughout. In the West, the word “art” produces mental images of paintings hung on walls or large-scale sculpture, but these (although not unknown) are not the focus of Islamic art. Rather, the most important outlets for artistic expression in the Islamic world were: - architecture - the arts of the book (calligraphy, manuscript illumination, and bookbinding) - the arts of the object (especially metalwork, ceramics, glass, and textiles) And each of these was ornamented with a particularly Islamic vocabulary of surface decoration: - calligraphy - arabesques, scrolling patterns, and fl oral or plant designs - geometric designs ISLAMIC ART AND CULTURE { A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS } CALLIGRAPHY Islam developed in a nomadic Arab culture that valued poetry and Oppisite page: 3 Minbar for Sultan Qa’itbay (detail) oral tradition. The faith’s fundamental basis is the message of God Egypt (Mamluk), probably Cairo, that was given to and relayed by the Prophet Muhammad, and that between 1468 and 1496, is preserved in the Qur’an. While Christians accept Christ as God’s Wood and ivory inlay Victoria and Albert Museum, London incarnation, Muhammad does not share God’s divinity. The priority of the words themselves, rather than the messenger, left Islam with little use for iconic images like those that developed in early Christianity. Instead, the emphasis on the words and the language of God’s message elevated the script in which they were recorded. Calligraphy—beautiful writing—became the most revered of all the arts. It was used—on buildings and art of all types—to communicate the words of the Qur’an or other messages but also for its decorative effect. ARABESQUES Scrolling patterns of plant and fl oral motifs were part of the visual vocabulary Islamic art inherited from its early Byzantine and Sasanian predecessors. They became so identifi ed with Islamic art that in the West they came to be called “arabesques.” Much of the Islamic world is arid and hot, and vegetation is scarce. Although too much can be made of the infl uence of this environment on art, it is perhaps natural that images of paradise refl ect a lush world, full of fl owers and fragrance, and well watered by cooling streams—and that these would be considered beautiful as ornament. GEOMETRIC DESIGNS Repeating geometric patterns express—and embody—unity within diversity and the harmony that governs all things. They satisfy the Islamic principles of tawhid (the unity of all things) and mizan (order and balance)—and in so doing, they refl ect the perfection of God’s creation. Allah, the Qur’an says “ordered all things.…” ISLAMIC ART AND CULTURE { A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS } THE QUESTION OF IMAGES 4 It is often believed—incorrectly—that the Qur’an prohibits images of living beings, either human or animal. The Qur’an does condemn the worship of idols: “O ye who believe, wine and games of chance and idols and divining arrows are an abomination of Satan’s handiwork...” (5.92). And the accounts and sayings of the Prophet recorded in the hadith—some collected much later—suggest his distrust of representation. Such likenesses could be seen as usurping the creative action of God. From the very fi rst, fi gures were absent in mosques, and then in other religious settings such as schools. Even the items used in religious buildings avoid fi gural decoration. But Islamic art is rich with fi gural decoration elsewhere: in the wall paintings and mural tiles within palaces; in manuscript illumination; on textiles; and on metalwork and ceramics not intended for religious purpose. ISLAMIC ART AND CULTURE { A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS } THE EXTENT OF ISLAMIC TERRITORY c. 900 KAZAKHST AN Ja xa rt Buda es ARAL (S yr SEA D a ry a) Venice C A C S AT L A N T I C A U C P S I A A S U S R A L A B L A C K S E A I N T OCEAN A E Lucca C N Pisa Florence S Bukhara IT ALY E Samarqand Istanbul A Rome U Iznik Z ARMENIA B E K Zamora Amalfi Bursa I S T A N Marv O IN Kütahya A T O L I A x A Salerno A N Ardabil us P Gunbad-i Qabus (A S Tabriz mu Ushak Darya) Toledo Valencia C I A Mashhad Miletus L I Tehran N Manises I Damghan A C Aleppo Mosul Takht-i Sulayman S Trapani Raqqah Nishapur A N S Rayy Varamin A ICI Tell Minis R Madinat al-Zahra’ LY U Herat T H S Córdoba Granada I I Samarra’ Taq-i Bustan K R I A Kashan N Y A M S R Baghdad Natanz H Málaga E Damascus A N G D I A R F T E Ctesiphon Isfahan I A R R A A N E A N S E Karbala’ Q Jerusalem al-Hillah Alexandria Basra MOROCCO Shiraz s NOR TH Cairo u d In AFRICA E G Y ARABIA P T Medina ISLAMICART AND CULTURE R E D S E Mecca A Y E M E N { A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS } 5 ISLAMICART AND CULTURE 6 { A RESOURCE FOR TEACHERS } THE EXTENT OF ISLAMIC TERRITORY c.1500 KAZAKHST AN Ja xa rt Buda es ARAL (S yr SEA D a ry a) Venice C A C S AT L A N T I C A U C P S I A A S U S R A L A B L A C K S E A I N T OCEAN A E Lucca C N Pisa Florence S Bukhara IT ALY E Samarqand Istanbul A Rome U Iznik Z ARMENIA B E K Zamora Amalfi Bursa I S T A N Marv O IN Kütahya A T O L I A x A Salerno A N Ardabil us P Gunbad-i Qabus (A S Tabriz mu Ushak Darya) Toledo Valencia C I A Mashhad Miletus L I Tehran N Manises I Damghan A C Aleppo Mosul Takht-i Sulayman S Trapani Raqqah Nishapur A N S Rayy Varamin A ICI Tell Minis R Madinat al-Zahra’ LY U Herat T H S Córdoba Granada I I Samarra’ Taq-i Bustan K R I A Kashan N Y A M S R Baghdad Natanz H Málaga E Damascus A N G D I A R F T E Ctesiphon Isfahan I A R R A A N E A N S E Karbala’ Q Jerusalem al-Hillah Alexandria Basra MOROCCO Shiraz s NOR TH Cairo u d In AFRICA E G Y ARABIA P T Medina R E D S E Mecca A Y E M E N MUHAMMAD AND THE BEGINNINGS OF ISLAM Muhammad was born around the year 570 in Mecca, { THE ISLAMIC CALENDAR } 7 a wealthy commercial and religious center in western Muhammad’s migration to Medina, called the hejira, marks the start of Arabia.