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Although the concept of "Islamic art" has been put into question by some modern art historians as a construct of Western cultural views, [9] [10] [11] the similarities between art produced at widely different times and places in the Muslim world, especially in the Islamic Golden Age, have been sufficient to keep the term in wide use as a useful ...
Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World shows audiences nine countries (Egypt, Israel, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, Spain, [8] Mali and India) and over 1,400 years of history. It presents the stories behind many well-known works of Islamic Art and Architecture.
Traditionally speaking in the Islamic empire, Arabic calligraphy was the common form of recording texts. Calligraphy is the practice or art of decorative handwriting. [3] The demand for calligraphy in the early stages of the Islamic empire (circa 7–8th century CE) can be attributed to a need to produce Qur'an manuscripts.
An exhibition at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi in 2008 was, at the time, the largest exhibition of Islamic art ever held. [8] The Wall Street Journal has described it as the greatest collection of Islamic Art in existence. [4] According to Edward Gibbs, Chairman of Middle East and India at Sotheby's, it is the best such collection in private ...
Islamic art began with artists and craftsmen mostly trained in Byzantine styles, and though figurative content was greatly reduced, Byzantine decorative styles remained a great influence on Islamic art, and Byzantine artists continued to be imported for important works for some time, especially for mosaics.
Islamic art includes a wide variety of media including calligraphy, illustrated manuscripts, textiles, ceramics, metalwork, and glass, and because the Islamic world encompassed people of diverse religious backgrounds, artists and craftsmen were not always Muslim, and came from a wide variety of different backgrounds.
The hypostyle mosque constructed by Muhammad in Medina served as a model for early mosque design throughout the Islamic world. [10] Umayyad religious architecture was the earliest expression of Islamic art on a grand scale [164] and the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus reproduced the hypostyle model at a monumental scale. [165]
For centuries, the art of writing has fulfilled a central iconographic function in Islamic art. [9] Although the academic tradition of Islamic calligraphy began in Baghdad, the centre of the Islamic empire during much of its early history, it eventually spread as far as India and Spain. Coins were another support for calligraphy.