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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 ...
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 ...
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]
Islam appeared in western Arabia in the 7th century AD through revelations delivered to the prophet Muhammad in Mecca. Within a century of Muhammad's death the Islamic empires controlled the Middle East, Spain and parts of Asia and Africa. Because of this, similarly with Roman art, Islamic art and architecture had regional versions. As the ...
David Wade [b] states that "Much of the art of Islam, whether in architecture, ceramics, textiles or books, is the art of decoration – which is to say, of transformation." [ 10 ] Wade argues that the aim is to transfigure, turning mosques "into lightness and pattern", while "the decorated pages of a Qur’an can become windows onto the infinite."
Islamic art was widely imported and admired by European elites during the Middle Ages. [5] There was an early formative stage from 600-900 and the development of regional styles from 900 onwards. Early Islamic art used mosaic artists and sculptors trained in the Byzantine and Coptic traditions. [6]
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.
For a long time, Islamic art from outside the Persianate world was considered aniconic in academic research. Known pictures including human figures from the mileu of Muslim courts have been described as an "aberration" by the early 20th-century writer Sir Thomas Arnold (d. 1930).