Islamic art

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Islamic tilework of the Shrine of Hadhrat Masoumah, first built in the late 8th century.

Islamic art is the art of Islamic people, cultures, and countries.

1 Mediums of Islamic art
2 The study of Islamic art
3 See also
4 External reference

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Mediums of Islamic art

Islamic art throughout history has been mainly abstract and decorative, portraying geometric, floral, Arabesque, and calligraphic designs. Unlike the strong tradition of portraying the human figure in Christian art, Islamic art does not include depictions of human beings. The lack of portraiture is due to the fact that early Islam forbade the painting of human beings, including the Prophet, as Muslims believe this tempts followers of the Prophet to idolatry. This forbidding of human beings or icons is called aniconism. Over the past two centuries, especially with increased contact with Western civilization, this prohibition has relaxed to the point where only the most orthodox Muslims oppose portraiture.

Islamic art is centered usually around Allah, since Allah cannot be expressed into imagery, ["All you believe him to be, he is not"-Islamic Saying] geometrical patterns are used.similair to the Arabesque style, which also involves repeating geometrical patterns but are used to express ideals of order and nature.

Forbidden to paint human beings and taught to revere the Qur'an, Islamic artists developed Arabic calligraphy into an art form. Calligraphers would (and still do) draw from the Qur'an or proverbs as art, using the flowing Arabic language to express the beauty they perceived in the words of Muhammad.

Some examples of styles of Arabic calligraphy include:

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