VOCABULARY WORDS
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ISLAMIC ART(400 BCE - 1650 CE)CONTENT: What do you see?
FORM: The details (what you see more exactly). How the artist delivers the content. CONTEXT: Everything NOT observable. FUNCTION: The intended purpose of the work. ART WORKSSacred Architecture:
56. Mosque at Cordova, Spain 84. Mosque of Selim II, Turkey 168. Great Mosque of Djenne, with markets, Mali 183. The Kaaba, Saudi Arabia 185. Dome of the Rock - interior 186. Great Mosque (Masjid-e Jameh) - courtyard - mihrab Other Architecture: 65. Alhambra Palaces, Spain 209. Taj Mahal, India Luxury Objects: 57. Pyxis of al-Mughira, Umayyad 188. Basin (Baptistère de St. Louis) Muhammad ibn al-Zain 191. The Ardabil Carpet, Maqusud of Kashan Painting: 187. Folio from a Qur’an, Abbasid 189. Bahram Gur Fights the Karg, folio from the Great Il-Khanid Shahnama 190, The Court of Gayumars, folio from Shah Tah masp’s Shahnam 208. Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings Five Pillars of Islam:Faith: There is no God but God; Muhammad is his messenger
Prayer: Salat–obligatory prayers said five times daily Charity: Zakat–“purification” or “growth” Fasting: during month of Ramadan Pilgrimage: Hajj–trip to Mecca once in a lifetime some go yearly during Ramadan 
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CONTEXT
Muhammed (the prophet) founder of the religion, born in570 CE in Mecca. At age 40 receives calling as a prophet of a new religion. He dies in 632 CE. Muhammed recognized Christians, Jews, and Arabs as descendants of Abraham and recognized Jesus, but not as divine. Muhammed is seen as a prophet and only his teachings preserve God’s (Allah) true message.
Islam established new social order and took complete charge of temporal (worldly) as well as spiritual a airs. Islam sponsored advanced scholarship and the translation of Greco-Roman texts from all areas of learning. Islam spread rapidly and by the 8th century conquered North Africa and Spain (785 CE). Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453. The century following Muhammed’s death was dominated by military conquest and expansion. Muhammed was succeed- ed by the four “rightly-guided” Caliphs: Abu Bakr (632-34 CE), Umar (634-44 CE), Uthman (644-56 CE), and Ali (656-661 CE). The Qu’ran (Koran) is believed to have been codi ed during Uthman’s reign.
Ritual centered around daily prayer and pilgrimage, without other rituals or hierarchical spiritually privileged priesthood. Mosques are places of daily prayer: the faithful would be called to prayer by the muezzin in the mosque’s minaret, enter enclosed courtyard, engaged in ritual washing, enter mosque, and begin individual prayer on their knees facing Mecca. The direction of Mecca was marked by a sacred niche, or mihrab, in the qibla wall (opposite to the entrance). In front of the mihrab was an elaborately decorated dome marking the exclusive enclosure for the caliph, called a madksourah. No images of anything living were allowed in Islamic mosques, only elaborate interweaving designs called arabesques, and calligraphic passages of text. Surfaces are covered with rich, at, linear patterns of geometric and organic design.
Islam established new social order and took complete charge of temporal (worldly) as well as spiritual a airs. Islam sponsored advanced scholarship and the translation of Greco-Roman texts from all areas of learning. Islam spread rapidly and by the 8th century conquered North Africa and Spain (785 CE). Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453. The century following Muhammed’s death was dominated by military conquest and expansion. Muhammed was succeed- ed by the four “rightly-guided” Caliphs: Abu Bakr (632-34 CE), Umar (634-44 CE), Uthman (644-56 CE), and Ali (656-661 CE). The Qu’ran (Koran) is believed to have been codi ed during Uthman’s reign.
Ritual centered around daily prayer and pilgrimage, without other rituals or hierarchical spiritually privileged priesthood. Mosques are places of daily prayer: the faithful would be called to prayer by the muezzin in the mosque’s minaret, enter enclosed courtyard, engaged in ritual washing, enter mosque, and begin individual prayer on their knees facing Mecca. The direction of Mecca was marked by a sacred niche, or mihrab, in the qibla wall (opposite to the entrance). In front of the mihrab was an elaborately decorated dome marking the exclusive enclosure for the caliph, called a madksourah. No images of anything living were allowed in Islamic mosques, only elaborate interweaving designs called arabesques, and calligraphic passages of text. Surfaces are covered with rich, at, linear patterns of geometric and organic design.
KEY IDEAS
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BRIEF HISTORY OF ISLAM |
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