"Between Logos (Kalima) and Light (Nur): Representations of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Painting" (original) (raw)

"Images" (of the Prophet Muhammad)

Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God (edited by Coeli Fitzpatrick and Andrew Walker), pages 286-294., 2014

"The Illustration of History in Persian Manuscripts"

Iran 56.1 (2018), pp. 47-67

Many medieval manuscripts are illuminated with paintings and other graphic elements, one purpose of which may have been to reinforce the significance of the work in question with a pictorial gloss, and perhaps also as a visual aid to convey its message for the benefit of readers who may not always have been literate. Reading the text through pictures is a matter of particular interest in the case of historical literature, as chronicles often commissioned at court lend themselves especially well to a deliberate programme of enhancing the image of the ruler and celebrating his deeds according to the political concepts and ideological imperatives of the time. This paper addresses the question of the illustration of historical texts within the Persian tradition of book art, focusing on the Jami' al-tawarikh of Rashid al-Din and its impact on later productions.

Visual Representation in the Contexts of Islam and Islamism A Selected Bibliography

2022

The second part of the 20th and the beginning of 21th century saw a surge of interest worldwide in the art of the Islamic world. This curiosity and appreciation has been shared by scholars and students, museum curators and gallery owners, connoisseurs and collectors. Whereas thirty years ago so-called “Islamic art” was treated as very specialist subject for the initiate, the situation is very different now with the publication of a huge amount of literature approaching the subject on many levels for a wider audience and addressing an ever-widening range of issues. Hoewer this bibliography is not only focused on the “Islamic art” as caligaphy, geometric compositions, architecture, book-art, glas- and metalwork, ceramics, etc., but also on the broader “Islamic visual culture”, including the cinematic art, pop-culture (street art and graffiti) and the non-artistic visual representation of Islam and Islamism, e.g. from the field of politics (visual propaganda and mission) or every day visual culture (items and objects). The main goal is to offer a balanced and representative and a relatively comprehensive selection of secondary scientific texts (especially monographs, books, edited volumes, journal articles, bibliographies and academic theses) that were written about Islamic and Islamist visual culture, without including the primary sources.

Muhammad Encyclopaedia -- Depiction of the Prophet

While in Christianity the veneration of Jesus and other important figures has always been closely linked to his pictorial and corporal depiction over the centuries, Muslim religiosity is more restrained in this regard. The strict inhibition to make an image of God (or as a matter of fact of any living creature) as repeatedly expressed in the Hebrew Bible (cf., e.g., Ex 20:4, Lev 26:1, Deu 4:15-19) was adopted-albeit only in a somewhat mitigated form-in the Qur'an (cf. Q 5:90). It was, however, in the hadith corpus and in subsequent legal literature that the Jewish example was elaborated into an Islamic theory of aniconism. In a great number of traditions, Muhammad is reported to have cursed those who produce images, since-according to a widespread topos-angels would not enter a house in which there are dogs or images. Those who produce pictures are after all threatened with severe punishment in the hereafter. Moreover, Muhammad's removing of the pre-Islamic idols of the Ka'ba after the conquest of Mecca in 630 is regarded as a paradigmatic event in the assertion of Islamic monotheism. Pictures and images of living creatures were shunned as an imitation of God's sovereignty as the creator of all beings (cf. Q 59:24), to forestall the emergence of new pagan cults, and for fear of the magical powers that might potentially emerge from visualized depictions. This seemingly uncompromising attitude notwithstanding, which of course also extended to the ban on portraits of the Prophet, his family (Ahl al-Bayt), and his Companions (sahaba), aniconism was by no means unanimously enforced in the entire realm of Islam. While it appears that it was relatively strictly followed in the Maghreb, restraint was far less pronounced in the eastern parts. In the Indo-Iranian cultural sphere in particular, painting and visual arts flourished after the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, and non-Islamic influences were unmistakable. 133 ABC-CLIO eBooks

Notes on the Aesthetics of Medieval Islamic Art—and of Medieval Persian Painting

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

The article sets the discussion of Islamic art within the very animated discussions of the last few decades by many prominent scholars that have sought to pinpoint its nature and that have highlighted the twin dangers of over-generalisation and too narrow a focus. Given that the parameters of the discussion have undergone radical change, and the need to revise traditional paradigms, the article confines itself to Islamic art in the medieval period and the central Islamic lands, especially through the prism of nature. Problems of definition and of the usefulness of medieval texts, and the roles of abstraction and contemplation, are reviewed in turn and the article ends with an attempt to define more closely the aesthetics of a single branch of Islamic art, namely medieval Persian book painting.