Week VIII

ASIAN RELIGIONS AND ART: ISLAM

Key Works:

  • The Mosque at Cordoba, Spain (Janson, Plates 352-354)
  • Line drawing of Cordoba
  • The Alhambra at Granada, Spain (Janson, Plates 355, 356)
  • Illuminated Page from the Koran
  • Prayer Rug

    READING: Janson, H.W., History of Art,1995 ed., "Islamic Art," pp. 266-278 (on reserve in the Fine Arts Library)

    TERMS:

    TIME LINE: (8th-14th century)

    FURTHER READING:

    NOTES: What arts are most important to the Muslim religion? Why?

    THE MOSQUE AT CORDOBA

    The interior of the Mosque at Cordoba is a vast space, 178 meters on the north-south axis and 125 meters on the east-west axis. It covers an area of 22,250 square meters, a space larger than any known church including St. Peters in Rome. This interior, unlike that of Christian churches, is neither viewed as a home of the gods nor a place for litergical worshi p. It is a place where the faithful gathered for prayer, all facing Mecca together to emphasize the unity of the faith.

    Today Islam is the religion of more than four hundred million persons inhabiting large areas in Asia, Africa and parts of Eur ope today. Islam (or Muslim) is a term which refers to the religion and to the whole body of believers and the countries in which they live. The youngest of the world's great religions, Islam developed in Arabia in the sixth century A.D. The area had b een a frontier of the Roman Empire and was a land of independent nomadic tribes, a few outposts of trade and conflicting religious traditions.

    The founder of Islam is Muhammed, who was born in Mecca in c. 570 and believed himself to be a prophet of devine revelation. He was forced to flee in 622, but established himself in the rival city of Medina where he gathered converts and condoned the jihad (Holy War) as a means of collecting supplies to support his followers. In 630 he returned in trium ph to Mecca. The Muslim calendar dates from his flight, or hegira. After his death in 632, the religion gained momentum and began to spread in Arabia and the Near East. Soon Islam became a powerful theocracy, foe of institutions of the western medieval world which derived their ecclesiastical support from Latin and Greek branches of Christendom.

    Muhammed himself set up no priesthood and no organized church. However, the Koran in which were collected the sayings of God as they were revealed to Muhammed in Arabic, became the guide for all life's endeavors. The "Five Pillars" of Islam set out duties for all believers. First, one must recite the creed, "There is no god but God; Muhammed is the Messanger of God." Second, the duty of worship and prayer after ritual washing and while facing the direction of Mecca, five times a day and in the mosque on Fridays. Third, a complete abstinence of food, drink and sexual activity during daylight during Ramadan, the month (ninth) when Muhammed first re ceived revelations from God. Fourth is the duty of almsgiving. Fifth is the duty of hadj, a pilgrimage to Mecca which every Muslim should undertake before death.

    In point of time, Islam followed Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism in its formula tion. Islam acknowledges these great religions and believes itself to be the fulfilment of them. Indeed, Muslims believe that Abraham, Moses and Christ all preached Islam, but their followers changed their teaching into the religions of today. In the M uslim view, only Muhammed's preaching preserved, unchanged, the message of God. Characteristic of Islam is the blending of ethnic and universal elements - it opens its ranks to all, stressing the brotherhood of the faithful before Allah (God), regardless of race or culture. It was, however, a national religion, firmly centered in Arabia and its political aspirations. The warriors who set out to conquer the earth for Allah did not expect to convert the unbelievers to Islam, their aim was to rule, to enf orce obedience to themselves as servants of the One True God. Those who wanted to share the privileged status could join Islam, but had to become Arabs-by-adoption. They had to learn the Koran in Arabic and to adopt the social, legal and political frame work of the Muslim community. Unlike the Buddhists, the Arabs absorbed the conquered and their cultural heritage and adapted them to Islam.

    Early in the history of the religion, no demands were made on the visual arts. Muhammed condemned idolat ry and the Koran placed statues among the handiwork of Satan. Painting and representation were not specifically mentioned and will figure in later art. During the fifty years following the death of the Prophet, a Muslim place of prayer could be a Chris tian church or Persian columned hall taken over for the purpose, or even a rectangular field surrounded by a fence or ditch. These were the first mosques, or places for prayer.

    Mosques of all periods have one element in common - the marking of t he qibla, the direction to which Muslims must turn in prayer. That wall faces Mecca and was marked by a colonade and by the entrance which was placed opposite it. By the end of the seventh century Muslim rulers of conquered domains began to erect mosque s and palaces on a large scale as visible symbols of power which intended to out-do all pre-Islamic structures in size and splendor. They drew on craftworkers gathered from Egypt, Syria, Persia and even Byzantium whose designs and decoration echo their b ackground and expansive spirit.

    By the eighth century, within a century of the death of Muhammed, the Muslims had conquered and converted most of the Near East and African provinces of Byzantium as well as Spain where they captured Toledo in 711. The Muslims, entered Spain as a military force and lacked women, so nearly all took Spanish wives. Furthermore, during this time many Christians converted to Islam and retained their Romance language giving Islamic culture in Spain a unique flavor soon reflected in architecture as well.

    The greatest monument of the reign of the first Muslim ruler of Spain was the mosque at Cordoba which he built in 785. The interior "forest of columns" with red and white Moorish (North African and Spanish sty le) horse-shoe shaped arches extending apparently endlessly in all directions is unique, although the overall plan is a traditional Muslim one. It has a crenelated, rectangular perimeter enclosing a forecourt with a basin for ritual ablution, a covered g allery and a hall for prayer. The qibla is hollowed out in one place in the form of a sacred niche or mihrab. Overlooking the courtyard is the minaret, the tower from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer five times a day.

    The first Mu slims in Cordoba were content to share a place of worship with the Christians. Soon, however, increased numbers determined Abdu'r-Rahman I (756-788) to purchase part of the site from the Christians. There he built the mosque in one year (785), saving on ly the Roman and Visigothic marble pillars which had been taken by the Christians from even earlier buildings. These pillars and the arches above were incorporated into this splendid mosque and became famous as an architectural invention. The superimpos ition of two tiers of arches gave added height and spaciousness. This feature was repeated by a succession of rulers as they enlarged the mosque in 848, 961 and 987 until it was converted back to Christian use after the reconquest of Cordoba in 1236.

    The Calif El Hakam II (in 961), mindful of his capital's prestige, bestowed upon the mosque its greatest jewel. At the end of the main aisle he built a supurb, gleaming mihrab, preceded by a triple madksourah, or enclosure reserved only for the Cali f. The enclosure is roofed by three ribbed domes which rest on a most unusual series of interweaving multilayered arches. All these interior areas are faced with mosaics against a background in gold.

    Unlike later Buddhism or Christianity, the I slamic faith did not permit figurative representations of God or his prophets and these mosaics, like most Islamic art, are stylized. No living creature is represented on Islamic religious structures and the Koran is embellished with luxurious, calligrap hic version of Arabic lettering called Kufic (mistakenly named after the belief that the script originated in Kufa, Iraq). Kufic script, complimented by abstract ornamental designs, became the main decoration in the form of inscriptions on mosques, secul ar buildings and even utilitarian objects in metal, clay and weavings in wool (carpets). This Islamic preference for linear surface decoration was fully used in the interior decoration of mosques. At Cordoba, the dome before the mihrab is typical becaus e it includes a stylized gold inscription in Kufic script at its base and a web of ornament above and below made up of a variety of designs all disciplined by symmetry, repetition and rhymic order.

    Following prayer in the mosque, the man who lea d the worship or his representative might speak on secular matters. This Arabic respect for learning has contributed to advances in astronomy, mathematics, medicine and optics through centuries of support of its scholars. Such secular and religious trad itions continue in the modern world and predominate in Egypt and Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Albania, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, the Yemen, Indonesia, Morocco, Tunesia and Lybia.

    FROM: K.M.Linduff, "The Mosque at Cordoba", in Art Past/Art Present, by D. Wilkins and B. Schultz, New York, 2000, 4TH ed.

    ARTS OF ISLAM

    These works were produced in court supported workshops during one of the most powerful and vast empires in world history, the Ottoman Empire (1299-1922). During the mid-sixteenth century this Turkish empire, u nder the leadership of Sultan Suleyman I (1520-1566), extended in the west to Greece, Albania, and Yugoslavia; across Anatolia into Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania in central Europe; and to the south and west across north Africa to Egypt, Syria, a nd Palestine; into the Crimea and the provinces between the Don and Dnieper Rivers; to the central, historic Islamic lands of Saudi Arabia and the regions along the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea. The Ottoman sultan was the central political leader, the ch ief military officer as well as the protector of Islam. He was also the guardian of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, the three holy cities of the Islamic world and ruled over the renowned cultural centers of Damascus and Cairo.

    The highly centralize d administrative structure of the Ottoman state was also applied to artistic production for the court. Societies of artists, including calligraphers, painters, bookbinders, jewelers, metalsmiths, woodworkers, tailors, hatmakers, and bootmakers were creat ed to respond to the specific material needs of the palace. Each society was organized in the same fashion with a chief, deputy chief, master workers and apprentices and the members were paid daily wages by the state.

    The most influential of t hese groups was the nakkashane (imperial painting studio) which formulated the decorative themes and designs that were first employed in manuscripts and then transmitted to various court arts from architectural decoration and furnishings to metalwo rk, textiles, ceramics and rugs. Their duty was to decorate the manuscripts commissioned for the Imperial Library. They produced tens of thousands of books on religious, historical, literary, and scientific subjects, most of which were housed in the Pal ace Library while others were distributed to educational institutions or other departments of the government. Some of these artists were also known to have travelled far beyond Istanbul where they worked in other palaces. The nakkashane was the creative brain of the Ottoman court style and its influence could be felt in all parts of the empire and in neighboring cultures.

    Similar to other Islamic societies, the Ottomans regarded calligraphy as the noblest of all the arts. To copy the holy bo ok, the Koran, was considered an act of piety and devotion. The artists, members of the nakkashane, who performed this task, did so with the highest degree of perfection and became celebrated artists, respected and honored by the sultans. Throughout Isl amic history the veneration of the Koran led to the development not only of calligraphy, but also illustration, and set the standard for all the visual arts.

    The most conspicuous feature of Ottoman court art of this period is the joyful representation of nature which depicts fantastic or realistic flora in perpetual growth. This theme, executed in styles that reflected both a mystical approach as well as a more naturalistic one, was meant to highlight the essence of nature--beauty and p erpetuity. Objects produced in the imperial workshops employed themes which were abstracted from drawings of the nakkashane that recreated an enchanted forest inhabited by mythical creatures and naturalistic flora. The illuminated title page of a Kor an transcribed by Ahmed Karahisari in 953 and illuminated in 1546-1547 under the patronage of Suleyman I shows a reliance on an established repertoire of decorative scrolls and cloud bands, but also his naturalistic renderings of plants. This combin ation revolutionized the decorative vocabulary of the age. The same compositions, colors and decorative schemes were used on tiled panels for buildings, on fabrics woven by court workers and on rugs.

    The most refined examples are prayer rugs, or seccades, characterized especially by their small size and stylized decor. They were meant to be used by one person either in private devotion or as part of a group. They all include a depiction of a mirhab niche clearly identified by arches supported by columns. The niche, frequently supplied with a hanging lamp, was used to orient the seccade--and the worshipper--toward Mecca. Because the rug had to be spread on the floor before prayer and folded into fourths to be stored, the materials had to be soft and pliable. The rugs of this period were usually made by knotting wool and/or cotton on a grid of silk.

    In our example, dating from the mid-sixteenth century when the type was first introduced, columns divide the field into three parts. In the central compartment hangs a mosque lamp designating a mihrab, while the pointed side arches support spandrels filled with cartouches and blossoms. Growing between the pedestals of the columns are sprays of carnations, tulips, roses and other flo ra. The panel above the arches is filled with decorative palmettes interspersed with cypress trees flanked by naturalistic blossoms. Four hexagonal buildings are represented in the panel above the central niche.

    This composition symbolizes the gardens of paradise, filled with perpetually blossoming spring flowers. The four buildings in the upper panel, protected by the trees and palmettes, represent heavenly pavilions, perhaps the domiciles of the souls of the righteous. Symbolizing the seren e and exuberant beauty and enduring quality of paradise, the rug provides the appropriate mood and setting for prayer. As an integral part of the regular prayers of the observant Muslim, these rugs were an important part of daily life.

    FROM: Linduff, K.M., "The Art of Islam," in Art Past/Art Present, by D. Wilkins, B. Schultz, and K. Linduff, New York, 2000, 4th ed.