Islamic Art

Islamic Art

Islamic art, by definition, is a modern perception created in the 19^th century by art historians. In retrospect, historians aimed to facilitate classification as well as the study of the material that developed from Arabia in the seventh era and was under the Islamic people.

Additionally, Islamic art describes all arts that were shaped in the regions where Islam was the central religion. Primarily, Islamic art embodies the architecture developed by Muslim patrons or created by Muslim artists. Islamic art involves the artistic traditions in the Muslim culture in general. The Islamic art world shows its cultural values. Also, it exposes how Muslims sight the spiritual realm as well as the universe. Islamic art emphasizes the religious representation of beings and objects but not their physical qualities. Chiefly, it helps the artists and individuals who experience the skill to become closer to Allah. The comparison, contrast, and critique of literature by Mudarabah, Diouf, and Steinhardt reveal different outlook of Islamic art; .

they all show what Islamic art is and what it is not.

The literature, “The silent theology of Islamic art: Islamic art as a way of speaking in a more profound way compared to written words” by Mudarabah and Qirad (para 1) illustrates the use of Islamic art to introduce Islam to an audience who is not familiar to the religion. Mudarabah and Qirad would not certainly recommend a translation of the Quran nor the variety of books that provide the introduction of Islamic theology. They suggest listening to the interpretation of the Quran in the Arabic melodic mode instead. Ideally, Mudarabah and Qirad show that books or articles regarding Islam do not match Islamic art.  According to Mudarabah and Quran (para 3), The beauty of Islamic architecture can be highly evident and influential than the most substantial claims. He also says that the Islamic arts can heal the soul as they are the gates in which we can access the genuine truths of the revelation, the cosmos as well as ourselves. Mudarabah and Qirad argue that the Quran was not discovered as a pair of a syllogism or ordinary national evidence but as a reading related to unrivaled philological beauty, full of stories, signs, metaphors as well as poetic wording. In retrospect, the hadith says, “God is beautiful, and He loves beauty”; therefore, insignificance in beauty is equivalent to meaningless to the divine. In this case, Mudarabah and Qirad’s arguments show that Islamic art communicates the truth and beauty of its revelation with a reflective truthfulness, which helps humans realize that beauty has permanently been and will continuously be a quality of the divine.

In support of Mudarabah and Qirad’s claim, Diouf (para 4) depicts Music in Africa as a way of showing how Islamic art is a way of bringing a person closer to Allah without necessarily using the Islam articles. According to Diouf, music is an essential part of Sufi life, following the order of the hadith “Adorn the Quran with your voices.” In retrospect, music is seen as a way of communicating emotionally. In terms of beauty, Diouf (para 25) says that African Muslims do not add anthropomorphic decorations to their apparatuses for reasons regarding religion. Primarily, an instance is seen where Diouf uses a melancholy song to portray how symbolic art speaks in a more profound method (para 36). The song was sung by a man who later uttered a solemn prayer. The song was a musical recitation of the Sufi chant in the case that the man was calling on his faith’s oral expressions to ease his despair. Ideally, Islamic art portrays the man’s faith’s verbal emotions through the use of music. The song also shows how Islamic art can heal the soul as the man showed his sorrows by singing the melancholy song. Therefore, in this respect, music as an example of Islamic art is associated with the healing process of the soul.

Steinhardt (para 1) shows that Islamic art is based on beauty in terms of patterns, buildings, and decorations. Steinhardt says that periodic designs formed by the repetition of a single unit cell theme can have only a restricted set of rotational symmetries. In retrospect, the decagonal and pentagonal motifs are often seen in Islamic art. Steinhardt’s study (para 3) shows the significance of breakthroughs in both Islamic design and mathematics. Chiefly, the patterns and decorations are Islamic arts that speak more intensely than written words. In retrospect, the girih-tile method opened the way to creating new kinds of extraordinary intricate decorations whose underlying mathematics was not understandable for another five centuries in the west.

According to Mudarabah and Qirad (para 41), Islamic arts such as poetry, calligraphy as well as the recitation of the Quran provides Muslims with a model for Islamic spirituality. Mudarabah and Qirad argue that Muslims should view the purification of their heart in accordance to following the footsteps of the prophets, and a quest to the awareness of God as an art rather than an identity. Mudarabah and Qirad (para 42) argue that the Islamic groups with rich civilizations of Islamic holiness have flourishing artistic traditions though they are not affluent. In consideration, the practice of Islamic religiousness is the science of taste improves an individual’s taste allowing the acknowledgment of spiritual truths as well as realism in sensible ways. Likewise, the Islamic arts refine as well as supports the practice of Islamic devoutness.

According to Diouf (para 40,41), Islamic art is not based on the blues. Blues are not music found in the Islamic religion. Diouf suggests that blues are commonly understood as secular music of loss, although it has a more thoughtful, spiritual side that defies misery. She reveals that blues is an age-old spiritual as it mocks the despair stated clearly in the music and expresses the great human joke engaged against the universe. In retrospect to spirituality, an individual may find a repeat of one of the blue’s roots in Islamic music and practices. To fight the onslaught of these harsh historical conditions, African Americans placed the use of cultural tools that best permitted them to show their hope and suffering. Ideally, there are some of the most continuing contributions of west African Muslims to American culture.

According to Mudarabah and Qirad (para 21,22), Muslim religious arts and arts made by Muslims that the real foundation of Islamic art is the Islamic revelation but not its historical influences or precedents are not Islamic art. Mudarabah and Qirad argue that the Islamic arts combined the methods and techniques of West Africa, Chinese, Central Asian, Sassanid       as well as the Roman artists to come up with a new art illustrating the original religion’s vision of realism. Also, they show that religious architecture involves items of religious importance, and not all divine literature is Islamic, but a lot of Islamic art is a holy art. In retrospect of Islamic art, they argue that it is the system of the art, formed by revelation but not the self of the artist that styles a work typically Islamic. According to Mudarabah and Qirad, Islamic arts also bears the inscription of the Quran based on its meanings as well as structures.

In conclusion, Islamic art is a significant area of religion, primarily in Islam. The pieces of literature by Steinhardt, Diouf, Mudarabah, and Qirad reveals that Islamic art is essential since its emphasis on the spiritual illustration of objects and beings. Primarily, the arguments have discussed both what Islamic art is and what it is not. The three revel that Islamic art speaks in a more deeply method more than a written article. Also, the authors show that Islamic art is based on paintings, decoration, and calligraphy.

Nevertheless, the exquisiteness of Islamic art attracts love in a divine and humane way of whether praying in or even just walking. Primarily, Islamic arts, on the other hand, is not the arts constructed by Muslims but is the system of the art, formed by revelation. Also, the blues are not part of Islamic as Islam is a holy religion, unlike blues, which are viewed as secular music. Generally, the restoration of the arts should be the foremost for Muslims since skills are essential to the transformation of the Muslims soul and thoughts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work Cited

“Silent Partnership (Mudarabah/Qirad).” Islamic Commercial Law, 2015, pp. 111-121.

Diouf, Sylviane A. “What Islam Gave the Blues.” Renovatio | The Journal of Zaytuna College, 2019, renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/what-islam-gave-the-blues.

Lu, P. J., and P. J. Steinhardt. “Decagonal and Quasi-Crystalline Tilings in Medieval Islamic Architecture.” Science, vol. 315, no. 5815, 2007, pp. 1106-1110.