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Islamica GB Rl Islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 1 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 1 Islamic Art 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 2 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 3 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 4 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 5 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 6 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 7 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 8 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 9 Islamic Luca Mozzati Architecture Painting Calligraphy Ceramics Glass Art Carpets PRESTEL Munich • Berlin • London • New York 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 10 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 11 CONTENTS 13 INTRODUCTION 122 CENTRAL ASIA BETWEEN THE TENTH AND TWELFTH CENTURIES 132 THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN BETWEEN BASIC PRINICIPLES THE ELEVENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 22 THE INTERPRETATION OF ISLAMIC ART 162 THE SELJUQS 30 THE FORMS OF ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE 188 THE ILKHANIDS, THE TIMURIDS AND THE KHANATES 52 CALLIGRAPHY: THE FORM OF THE DIVINE WORD 220 THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 60 THE APPLIED ARTS 252 PERSIA FROM THE SAFAVIDS TO THE QAJAR DYNASTY 284 THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT THE HISTORY OF ISLAMIC ART 66 THE UMAYYADS APPENDIXES 80 THE ‘ABBASIDS: EMPIRE OF THE CALIPHATE 310 GLOSSARY 94 THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN BETWEEN 313 PRINCIPAL DYNASTIES AND FIGURES THE EIGHTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES: OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD THE BIRTH OF REGIONAL IDENTITY 318 BIBLIOGRAPHY 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 12 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 13 INTRODUCTION In keeping with the true nature of things, the human should breathtaking speed and facility throughout a world exhausted Note conform to the Divine, and not the Divine to the human. by the constant state of belligerence between the Byzantine The transliteration of names, in particular in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, is based on (Sayyed Hossein Nasr) and Persian empires and the inevitable consequences in frequently encountered current English terms of economic, social and religious upheaval, within the forms (though our selection in no way “Let us suppose that we are living back, say, in the year 900. space of a few short decades Islam was to invade and con- excludes other, equally valid alternatives). For the sake of simplicity, the majority of [During this period] the Islamic Middle East/North Africa was quer Spain and part of Southern Italy; traverse the wastes of diacritics have been omitted. the cradle of civilisation. Not only was it the most advanced the Sahara and convert populations in black Africa where it region in the world economically, standing at the centre of the overlaid their local cults; and expand to the borders of distant global economy, but it enjoyed considerable economic growth Asia, encountering Vedic religions and Buddhism. To the north and even per capita income growth. … Were we to … inquire it flooded into Oxiana (today Uzbekistan), venturing farther into the causes of Islamic economic progress, we might come even than the conquering armies of Alexander the Great, until up with the following answer. The Middle East/North Africa it ran up against the frontiers of China. was progressive because … first, it was a pacified region in The territory over which Islam held sway had already wit- which towns sprang up and capitalists engaged in long-dis- nessed the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian civilisations in tance global trade. Second, Muslim merchants were not only the West, followed by Greek Orthodoxy. In ancient times the traders but rational capitalist investors who traded, invested East had seen the dominance of Persian and Zoroastrian cul- and speculated in global capitalist activities for profit-maximis- tures. It was this joint legacy that laid the foundations of ing ends. Third, a sufficiently rational set of institutions was cre- Islamic artistic experience. In the domain of culture – and ated including a clearing system, banks engaged in currency therefore of art too – the Islamic world assimilated the cre- exchange, deposits, and lending at interest, a special type of ative energies, technical skills and local customs of the con- double-entry bookkeeping, partnerships and contract law, all of quered peoples, rejuvenating them with original concepts the which presupposed a strong element of trust. Fourth, scientific like of which had never been seen before. Islam and its lan- thought had developed rapidly after 800. And fifth, Islam was guage, Arabic, constituted a powerful ‘glue’ that bound especially important in stimulating capitalism on a global scale. together various cultural traditions, composing a surprisingly Certainly no-one would have entertained the prospect of writ- homogeneous amalgam that informed a wide range of civili- ing a book entitled The Christian [sic] Ethic and the Spirit of sations, as well as the spiritual and political experience of Capitalism; … more likely someone would have written a book hundreds of millions of people in many nations. Sharing one called The Islamic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, which and the same perspective, each gradually developed idioms would definitively demonstrate why only Islam was capable of of art and custom which, although stamped with a common significant economic progress and why Christian Europe would Islamic identity, gained an individual character over time. be mired forever in agrarian stagnation. Or one might subscribe Aided and abetted by vigorous input from indigenous commu- to the claim made by a contemporary, Said al-Andalusi (later nities, these codes were complemented by contributions from followed by Ibn Khaldun) that Europe’s occupation of a cold new arrivals and by the constant flux of populations for reli- temperate zone meant that its people were ignorant, lacked gious, commercial, or even scientific reasons. scientific curiosity and would remain backward.” (John M. Within this Islamic mosaic, cultural, spiritual and artistic worlds Hobson, The Eastern Origins of Western Civilizations, coexisted, which, although characterised by specific values Cambridge 2004, p. 272) and legacies, were nonetheless imbued with a definably Islam (from Islàm, an Arabic word meaning ‘abandonment’, ‘Islamic’ identity. ‘submission’ to God) is a religion characterised by absolute Pilgrims at Mecca and uncompromising monotheism, and a radical and unitary The Islamic religion 1410–1411 Persian miniature from a manuscript by view of the world, indifferent to the historical, social, cultural The Islamic profession of faith runs: “There is no God other Jalal al-Din Iskandar (15th century) and racial particularities of its adherents. Disseminated with than God and Muhammad is his prophet.” In order to become a British Library, London INTRODUCTION 13 01_001-161_Arte_Islamica_GB_rl_islam 12.07.10 13:02 Seite 14 Muslim (from the Arab muslim – plural muslimun/muslimin – investigations entered into in the hope of elucidating its mys- that which is ‘submitted’ to God), it is enough to pronounce teries through intellect and reason. “The Islam of a man is this before two witnesses. The term ‘Allah’ derives from the never sure unless it is based on submission and acceptance. Arab-Semitic root ’lh meaning ‘divinity’ in the generic sense, Whoever desires to know things whose knowledge lies which in the Arabic al-ilah signifies the One and Only God. In a beyond their capacity and whoever is not satisfied with sura of the Qur’an (LV), the Supreme Being is also known as acceptance will find that their desire distances them from a al-Rahman, “the Merciful,” the first of “The Ninety-Nine Most pure understanding of the true unity of Allah, from clear com- Beautiful Names” of Allah. The doctrine of the omnipotence prehension and correct belief, and they will oscillate between and the absolute freedom of Allah leads to a conception of faith and scepticism, confirmation and negation, acceptance the world created by and arising continuously from God. and rejection. They will be subject to rumour and will become In this sense, there can be no becoming, since everything, confused and full of doubt, since they will be neither a and therefore every event, is constituted from atoms created believer who accepts nor a non-believer who has reneged.” and destroyed in one ceaseless action by the godhead: reality (Abu Ja’far At-Tawahi al-Misri, ninth century). as it appears to us, all that happens and is seen, both objects Allah has announced his will to humanity through prophets and events, is but pure illusion. In such a perspective, human chosen among the common people, including both Jews and freedom contrasts with divine omnipotence in that a man’s Christians: the first was Adam, followed by Abraham and action too is established and created by God, and therefore Moses, until Jesus Christ, the last of the twenty-eight intended and permitted by him. Nonetheless, the concept of prophets cited in the Qur’an and named as “the Messiah.” The human responsibility does exist in the Qur’an (“Did you reject cross, however, was said to be occupied by a counterpart who the faith after accepting it?” III, 106), and underpins the doc- died in Christ’s stead, while the true Jesus (whose divinity is trine of the Last Judgement, when humankind will be judged obviously denied) will return to guide humanity resurrected for its actions and rewarded in paradise or punished with hell and freed of corruption in the millennium
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