Decorative Arts

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Decorative Arts

Motifs . Although the decorative arts of Islam are sometimes referred to as the “minor arts,” they in fact express much of the genius of Muslim art. The artist working for a Muslim patron had to conform to the Muslim standards for religious art if his production was to be displayed in a religious institution. Because of the prohibition on portraying people and animals, Islamic decoration consists basically of three major motifs: the geometrical, the vegetal, and the calligraphic. Of these, the geometric is by far the most common, with plant decorations or calligraphy usually serving as embellishments. Yet, occasionally plant decoration has been quite important, and calligraphy is usually present in some measure. Muslim geometric decoration tends to consist of complex webs of interlocking lines, which are more often straight than curved, producing an angular effect in the designs. Rounded lines are used especially with vegetal or calligraphic motifs.

Woodworking . Muslim artists developed woodworking as an art in itself and as a subsidiary to architectural decoration, in both cases producing masterpieces. The large number of carved ceilings, doors, windows, and screens that have survived for centuries in all Muslim countries attest to the dexterity of the Muslim woodcarvers. Boxes inlaid with mother-of-pearl as well as highly ornate pieces of inlaid furniture have survived in Iran, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and India. Masjids, madrasahs (colleges for religious studies), and other religious buildings were provided with ceilings, doors, and windows of carved wood. In addition, a masjid usually had a minbar (pulpit), a kursi (a raised seat for the Qur’an reader to sit on while reciting), and a chest to hold the Qur’an—all carved from wood. The woodworker usually carved his wood in different depths to create different impressions through light and shadow. The Muslim artists particularly excelled at making mashrabiyyahs, screens made of turned wood fitted together in geometric patterns. Several museums around the world, including the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, have excellent examples of woodwork from the earliest periods.

Metalworking and Jewelry . Museums worldwide also have examples of Muslim metalworking—including utilitarian ware such as ewers, basins, jugs, incense burners, lamps, and handwarmers. Metalworkers also made finials for the tops of masjid domes and minarets, which usually end in a crescent, as well as elaborate window grilles and locks. Weapons were often elaborately and expensively decorated with bronze and brass metalware inlaid with silver. Rulers could afford to have their swords embellished not only with silver but also with gold. Entry doors for various religious institutions, as well as some houses and palaces, consisted of a solid wooden core entirely covered with worked metal. There is a story that when the Sultan Hasan Masjid in Cairo was first built, the windows and the doors separating the large prayer hall from the mausoleum were covered with gold, and the day after they were installed they disappeared forever without a trace. One thing that seems to unite all human cultures from the dawn of history is a fascination with and production of jewelry for personal adornment. Since the medieval period, gold and silver bracelets, rings, earrings, and clasps for scarves and belts have survived throughout the Muslim world.

POET OF PESSIMISM

Born in Ma’arah, Syria (near Alepp), Abu al-‘Ala’ Ma‘arri (973-1058) became blind as a youth and relied in his writing on memory and sound. As the following examples demonstrate, his poetry and prose are known for his pessimistic and ascetic style, beliefs that were controversial from an Islamic standpoint.

III

Vain are your dreams of marvelous empire,

Vainly you sail among uncharted spaces,

Vainly seek harbor in this world ef faces

If it has been determined otherwise.

You that must travel with a weary load

Along this darkling, labyrinthine street—

Have men with torches at your head and feet

If you would pass the dangers of the road.

Myself did linger by the ragged beach,

Whereat wave after wave did rise and curl;

And as they fell, they fell—I saw them hurl

A message far more eloquent than speech:

XII

We that with song our pilgrimage beguile,

With purple islands which a sunset bore,

We, sunk upon the desecrating shore,

May parley with oblivion awhile.

Alas! I took me servants: I was proud

Of prose and the neat, the cunning rhyme,

But all their inclination was the crime

Of scattering my treasure to the crowd.

LVIIII

There is a palace, and the ruined wall

Divides the sand, a very home of tears,

And where love whispered of a thousand years

The silken-footed caterpillars crawl.

LXIX

And where the Prince commanded, now the shriek

Of wind is flying through the court of state:

“Here,” it proclaims, “there dwelt a potentate

Who could not hear the sobbing of the weak.”

CII

How strange that we, perambulating dust,

Should be the vessels of eternal fire,

That such unfading passion of desire

Should be within our fading bodies thrust.

Source: The Diwan of Abu’-Ala, translated by Henry Baerlein (New York: Button, 1914), pp. 34, 35, 36, 44, 45, 48, 54.

Glass . One of the crafts at which Muslim artists excelled was glassmaking. Islamic collections in museums nearly always feature fine examples of vases, cups, and especially lamps from medieval times. Endowment deeds for the masjids and other religious institutions that were built during the Mamluk period (1250–1517) attest to the large number of glass lamps made to light the new buildings. The decorations on glass products resemble those used on metalware and ceramics and in book illumination. Inscriptions as well as figural and geometric motifs

decorate the Mamluk lamps. Colored enamel was used, and most of these lamps were also gilded. Surviving examples also bear the coats of arms of the Mamluks who commissioned them.

Ceramics . Under Muslim patronage, potters produced a wide array of ceramic products, including plates, bowls, cups, jugs, and lidded jars. They produced colored tiles to decorate the walls and floors of palaces, residences, and masjids. The quality of surviving ceramic products ranges from crude to refined. Centers of ceramic production were spread all over the Muslim world, with some places being most prominent at various times. Kashan in central Iran was so important that the Arabic word for ceramic tiles is kashani. Surviving ceramics were created with molds and hand building as well as on potters’ wheels. Muslim potters decorated their wares with slip, under-glaze, overglaze, and luster painting. Slip, also referred to as engobe, is diluted clay used to decorate a clay pot when it is leather hard, or “green,” before the first firing. Underglaze, slip, or diluted clay to which colored pigment has been added can be applied to a pot or tile when it is leather hard or after it has been fired. After a piece is fired, it is covered with a transparent glaze and refired, making it shiny and sealing it so that no water can seep through. Overglaze is applied after the first firing. Luster painting, decoration with metallic colors such as gold, is a demanding process. Decorative themes on Muslim ceramics include geometric patterns and floral motifs as well as figural compositions. Inscriptions were also used, sometimes incised into the pot, a technique known as sgraffito, or in other cases painted on. There is no doubt that the techniques and colors of Chinese ceramics had a profound influence on early Islamic pottery. The blue-and-white Chinese pottery seems to have been favored by Muslim potters, but they did not blindly copy Chinese pottery; rather, they combined Chinese indigenous motifs.

Textiles . Medieval sources document that Muslim rulers commissioned luxurious textiles from early on. Textiles were ordered not just for clothing but also for curtains, rugs, and furniture coverings used in the domestic and religious spheres. They were also used as gifts from the ruler, or sultan, to his amirs and other rulers and were given to visitors to the court whom the ruler wished to distinguish with robes of honor. Textiles were important because they identified the various classes within each society—through the quality and decoration of individuals’ garments and of their horse and camel saddles. Also, banners identifying various court officials were displayed at ceremonies. Surviving materials include cotton, linen, wool, and silk, all of which were originally brightly colored and highly decorated. Colors used included but were not confined to shades of blue, green, and gold. The decorative motifs of textiles surviving in museums vary and include bands of inscription, floral and geometric motifs, and animal and bird figures. The inscriptional band, known as a tiraz, usually mentions a sultan’s titles and wishes him glory, honor, or long life. The animals and birds include real animals and imaginary ones, such as griffins. Some stand peacefully in rows, and some are engaged in fights. Luxurious textiles were hand embroidered, while those for everyday use had block-printed designs. By the fourteenth century, Muslim textiles were being exported to Europe, as is documented in several

paintings by well-known artists. Production of textiles was spread all over the Muslim world, and the surviving examples point to the fact that there was an exchange of ideas and techniques with other countries, such as China and India. Because textiles are more fragile than wood, metal, glass, or ceramic, examples surviving from before 1500 are very rare.

Rugs . Rugs were produced all over the Muslim world with some centers, such as Tabriz and Shiraz in Iran, gaining prominence. Handwoven Persian carpets are among the best known in the world, and have been for centuries. They are renowned for their intricate designs and high-quality fibers, usually wool, and much care and work goes into making each one. Rug designs include many of the same motifs found in other decorative arts, such as illuminated manuscripts and woodworking. Since they would be placed on floors and walked on, however, carpets were to a great extent devoid of inscriptions. For the same reason, animal representation is more common on rugs than on other decorative items. Rug sizes varied from super large for the audience halls in palaces, to narrow and long prayer rugs for the rows of worshipers in masjids. Unlike rugs from other parts of the Muslim world, Mamluk rugs from Egypt, which are among the most beautiful, seem to have suddenly appeared fully developed toward the end of the fifteenth century. In almost all cases they were woven from wool dyed red, blue, and green. Their central pattern uses interlacing geometric motifs, similar to decorative motifs in illuminated manuscripts and woodworking, and their borders consist of medallions alternating with oval cartouches. Some scholars have explained the sudden development of Egyptian rug making as a result of political unrest in Iran. Egyptian rulers may have given refuge to Iranian artisans, who established a rug-weaving industry there.

Kiswah . Annually the Egyptian sultans provided the kiswah, the outer covering made especially for the Ka‘bah, the cubical stone building at the heart of the Great Mosque in Makkah. This black cloth covering, large enough to cover the Ka‘bah in its entirety, was carefully handwoven and embroidered with a large border of Qur’anic verses in gold thread near the top. When it was completed, a pilgrim caravan delivered it to Makkah. It was the duty of the amir of the pilgrimage to deliver the material. This practice was first documented in 1272, at the time of Sultan Baybars I, and continued well into the twentieth century. After the new kiswah arrived the old was then cut into pieces that were distributed to the pilgrims.

Qur’an Illumination . One area in which Muslim artists excelled was the illumination of sacred and secular books. The religious motivation that drove the artists to excellence in illuminating copies of the Qur’an spilled over into the secular domain. The Qur’an was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over a period of twenty-three years. Every time the Prophet received a new revelation, he taught it to his followers, who memorized it, and he also had it recorded in a written form. That tradition has continued to the present day; Muslims memorize the Qur’an and pass it on orally from teacher to student, from generation to generation. At the same time, there is a standard Qur’an in Arabic that continues to be copied to the present. Early copies of the Qur’an were written on kidskin and parchment, materials too thick and bulky to accommodate the whole book in one volume. Therefore, the Qur’an was traditionally made in thirty volumes, one volume for each of its parts. When a ruler ordered the construction of a new religious foundation, he always provided at least one lavishly illuminated copy of the Qur’an, which was typically embellished with gold leaf and pigments made from powdered semiprecious stones. Because of the prohibition on figural representation, no people or animals are depicted in copies of the Qur’an. The most elaborate illumination in medieval Qur’ans usually appear on the opening two pages, which usually have colorful floral borders encircling them entirely. The rest of the pages of a volume of the Qur’an may be similarly, but less elaborately, illuminated, or they may be left undecorated. Other decorative elements in copies of the Qur’an include medallions that mark the division of each part of the Qur’an into halves and quarters, to make it easy for the reader to measure out passages for recitation and reading.

Secular Book Illumination . While illuminators of religious books other than the Qur’an observed the ban on figural representation, illuminations in works of science and literature sometimes include humans and animals, especially when such illustration was needed. For example, books on anatomy and veterinary and human medicine include elaborate figural representations, as do other works, even on astronomy, zoology, or literatures. Probably illuminators were permitted to break the rule because their illuminations were two-dimensional and in private copies of books that were not on public display.

Persian Miniatures . From illustrations in private copies of secular books developed the genre called “Persian miniatures,” which especially flourished in the eastern Muslim world. Whereas painters in medieval Europe were becoming increasingly concerned with techniques for the naturalistic presentation of figures, surroundings, landscapes, and especially perspective, in the Persian world the emphasis was more on hierarchy, complex design, and brilliance of color. Muslim artists did not pay attention to one-point perspective with the figures diminishing in size to produce the illusion of distance. Rather, the most important person in a painting is the largest, no matter where he or she is placed. Rugs are painted as if floating in space, allowing the viewer to admire their entire designs, instead of being presented in visually correct perspective, which would allow the viewer to see only a portion of the design. Figures are larger than their architectural surroundings, and buildings tend to appear stacked up, instead of diminishing in size to create the illusion of space. Rock formations and other features show the influence of Chinese painting.