Hello! This video will cover the art of the Islamic world,
so thinking about some countries where Islam was the dominant religion.
Just a little background on Islam: so founded by the Prophet Muhammad
born in Mecca -- in
modern-day Saudi Arabia -- around 570
AD or CE and died in 632.
Before Muhammad, the Arabs had not received a prophet or scripture in their language so
you have Jewish individuals, who have a scripture, you
have Christianity, which now has a scripture,
and so this is a new monotheistic tradition or monotheistic religion
that is in Arabic.
The importance of a "Brotherhood of man" is emphasized -- an equality
before God. This was a period where Muhammad was noticing greater inequality
among the people in his group or in his surrounding regions.
The chapters and verses of the Koran -- sometimes spelled with a "K" sometimes
spelled
"Qu" -- this recitation -- these were revealed to Muhammad over a period of 20
years it's often described as a very
painful experience as these different verses, as these
different parts of the Koran are being revealed to him, as
what's believed to be the words of God. Some basics
on at the five pillars of faith of Islam,
so you've got the Creed, very important prayer -- five times
daily prayer towards Mecca, fasting in the month of Ramadan,
alms giving or giving of charity, and then pilgrimage to Mecca at least once
in a lifetime, if possible well. What we tend to
notice with art of the Islamic world is that there's an emphasis on the written
word and
and the study of scripture. We see the written word, of course,
in volume of the Koran -- beautifully created -- similar in the very high
quality that we saw
with illuminated manuscripts. So we see these really beautiful
high-quality
examples of the Koran like we see here, which a Koran page
that's on vellum -- very fine, soft calfskin,
opaque watercolor, gold, ink. So very, very nicely produce, very high-quality
materials,
speaking to how important these words are, these Scriptures are.
So we see it in these types of books, but we also see it decorating
architecture, so will notice that just a little bit.
But focusing in on this image, you can see that it's done in
a very beautiful type of script -- a kind of calligraphy that we refer to "KUFIC"
script,
and in fact people who couldn't write in this style because it was a challenging,
because the language is so difficult,
we even the Western artist trying to imitate it in what we call "Pseudo-Kufic"
script. These Koran pages would have
had little marks within the within the image
to show -- or within the writing -- to show how to read it; how to recite it
so that the words could come alive and be part of prayer.
We do see a little bit of decoration with a little palm frond here
but by and large we tend to just see an emphasis on the word,
maybe a little bit of vegetal decoration, but really an avoidance of figures,
for the most part, in a lot of religious works of art, in the Islamic world.
Works of art that are more secular -- for example secular stories,
epic poetry, works of art that were commissioned by the
rulers, we do see some figures. However in religious works we really see an avoidance
in most cases of representing these kind of figures.
Alright, next, looking here at the "Dome of the Rock", which is a very important
early Islamic structure completed in 691 in Jerusalem.
It is constructed on plateau in east Jerusalem and is regarded as the site
where Muhammad went on a spiritual journey to heaven and hell
by the angel Gabriel. He is considered the only
living person to have done this, so also thought to be the site
of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, so going way back to you
an earlier prophet -- an earlier figure,
who was also celebrated in the Hebrew Scriptures -- in the Old Testament
in Christianity -- also the site of the first Jewish temple built by King
Solomon,
so a very significant site in Jerusalem, and so
we have a space here that's really been claimed now for Islam,
and is in a place that's really dominating the skyline in Jerusalem
with this dome, and also with this beautiful tile work that we now see.
This has been heavily restored it and changed over time, however,
because it is such as central and important structure. It's not a mosque in the
traditional sense; it's not a mosque
for people to come and pray. It's more of a marker of this important site,
and it's very close to
some other sites for, for example, Christianity, like the Holy Sepulchre
that's designed in a similar way you have a central plan with a dome.
These are both markers of important sites for their respective
faiths. Moving on, we are going to move up towards Spain -- southern Spain -- which becomes a
Muslim dynasty -- Muslim Kingdom
and it's called Al-Andalus, and so the area of
Cordoba becomes a very important site in southern Spain,
and we see what becomes a very important mosque there -- a hypostyle mosque -- so we
have columns
filling this space. You can see the columns really dominate this area here,
so this is, in fact, a mosque, unlike The Dome of the Rock, so this is
a space where people can come and pray. Mosques were also places where people
could come
and wash before prayer, spaces of learning,
so you have a courtyard space, too, where people could gather. Remember that a lot of
these religious structures --
mosques, churches -- were social spaces too, so just like today where
sometimes we'll have social activities, but even more so, I would say,
back in this medieval period where these places of worship were
the heartbeat and the central place of your
city. So the Great Mosque at Cordoba,
of course, has changed a lot over time so
you had a mosque constructed, where people could come and pray, but eventually
when there was what's known as the "Reconquista" or this reconquering of
southern Spain,
in fact later on, a church is gonna go right in the middle of and this is somewhat
controversial, as it is seen to have
ruined the beautiful architecture that with their originally.
Here I'm just showing an image of that little church peeking out with the buttresses off on the
side,
and then showing you where in Spain this is located -- right in this area.
So what happens is you see Islam spreading through the Middle East,
through North Africa,
and then coming up into Spain, and this becomes really a point of contention
with Christians dominating areas of the north, and then
Muslims dominating the area of the south, and the Muslims reaching up towards the north,
and then you have this
moment a conflict where the respective religions are trying to
control this area. The Umayyads is the dynasty
that we do see in this areas, so the "Umayyads" is a name to be familiar
with. Just going inside of the Great Mosque of Cordoba, you can see that with
these hypostyle mosques,
it really creates an ideal space for prayer by
delineating separate spaces for people with prayer rugs, spaces for people
to come and pray, and have an individual spot.
You would have in these mosques places for speaking,
and also there were clear niches -- the mihrab,
where everyone could direct their attention
for praying, because the mihrab would direct your attention towards Mecca --
the very important city of Mecca --
so just pointing out some of the stylistic features here and
the construction features. You have these alternating red and white voussoirs
and having this alternation between red and white --
sometimes we see black and white, grey and white, green and white --
those types of decorations were quite common in both Christian and Islamic
architecture
during this period. So people often emphasize how separate these religions
are
but in traditions of the architecture, you see
Christian being inspired by
architecture from the Islamic world and vice versa,
so you do see an exchange going on in different
cases. You do have double arches here, which verticality, emphasizes
the height of the mosque, directs your attention
upwards, so that's also significant.
This is the mihrab, which is very important within the structure so that
you know where to direct your attention during prayer,
often the most decorative area of the mosque, so very, very easy
to spot. And just to point out, you can see a little bit those inscriptions --
Koranic inscriptions --
tha emphasize the importance of script
and they emphasize the importance of the study of scripture
in Islamic art. And you can see these scalloped arches -- rather than just
having a smooths arches, now they've become scalloped here,
and we'll see some of this scalloping in Romanesque churches, too
in a different areas of France and Spain.
Alright, just showing how these domes were a little bit different than for example
the dome on Hagia Sophia --
here we have what are called "squinches" which are little segments that are curved on
the outside
and then straight on the inside, and it creates a space between the square on the
bottom and
the circular dome on the top, and usually its functions better for smaller,
more decorative domes that we tend to see within these mosque
structures. Just showing you here an example of
more secular art. This is probably a coming of age gift for one of the princes
of the Umayyad dynasty, dating to 968.
He, in fact, was executed at the age of 27,
so he didn't really have a chance to make a big name for himself, but you can
see it does include script up here,
but it's also packed with visual information, so the kind of vegetal
scrolls that
sometimes we see in decoration in Islamic art and writing and things like that,
but also you do see figures here, which is important to emphasize that
in secular art, having figures really isn't a huge problem,
so you see stories that glorify the kind
of courtly activities that might have taken place here. You see people hunting, on
horseback, you see music being played, you see scenes of wrestling over here;
and also you see examples of animals
that probably have allegorical significance in terms of symbols
of protection and or maybe being attacked by
outside forces and strength in that type of
attack, so and probably some kind of allegorical
symbolism here, but also
just showing some of the features of court life at the time,
in terms of the royal court. Another site that's very famous for its representation
quite life -- although it's a much later structure, a much later
work of art than what we've been looking at previously --
is the Alhambra which is a very famous Palace in Granada, Spain,
so this was created by another dynasty, but it also shows you this interest in
visual complexity, so if we go back
and a briefly issue that ivory casket, which probably helped something
very valuable -- something like perfume or valuable material --
you see this interest in visual complexity -- just
filling that visual space with lots and lots of information
on all carved in this beautiful ivory. Well, we see this same kind of interest
in decorating spaces as we see here with the Alhambra,
so we tend to see more of an avoidance of the human form here, or
figures. You do have things like the lion fountain here in the "Court of the Lions",
and you have this space that's divided up with beautiful symmetry,
so you do see often a desire for symmetry, also
you have four rivers, which is often described as
and similar to heaven, so you do see a little bit of figures here -- of
course this is a secular space created by an Islamic dynasty,
but you see that interest in visual richness some people have read into this the
importance of mathematics in the Islamic world at this point,
specifically referring to spaces like this, which was on of the
hall spaces, dining spaces,
where you see this look almost like a cave structure
with like stalactites and stalagmites hanging down from the top here,
but if you zoom in, you can get a sense of that that visual richness,
and that interest in filling space with visual information,
so in Islamic art you tend to see more of an emphasis
on forms look more natural,
that sometimes are geometric in certain cases,
and then also script, so a real change from what we tend to see in the
Christian world --
which is more at what we focus on this class -- but did it's important for us
to see
what types of works of art were being produced in these areas of the Middle
East, and then also in southern Spain,
where a lot of the structures remained, and then were appreciated when Spain
was then re-conquered
and returned to Christianity later on or became more Christian later on,
so just I'm emphasizing that as we move
along.