Muslim Art

MUSLIM ART. - The Arabs, by extending their religious and political occupation over the territories of North Africa and the Middle East, made the culture and art of the dominated peoples their own, unifying them. In Spain the local tradition gave rise to a composite style that was called Mozarabic (musta'ribah = "Arabized") when it was due to Christians working in Muslim lands; and Mudejar (mud-dahar = authorized to dwell) if due to Arabs active in land reconquered by the Christians.

I. ARCHITECTURE

It was above all Persia that extended its influence over the whole of Islam, and from it come certain distinctive constructional features: the dome joined by pendentives to the square plan, the blind arcades for lightening the walls, the horseshoe arches, the raised ones, and the pointed arch. The architectural structure is often covered with a sumptuous decoration in which above all stucco, polychrome majolica tiles that cover entire surfaces, and, less frequently, colored stone play a part. Fanciful effects are obtained with the decoration of stalactite vaults (mugammas). Religious architecture had as its theme the construction of minarets and mosques in which, however, plan and elevation varied in the different regions and in the different ages. Civil architecture left sumptuous examples in the royal palaces, whose most frequent type had a defensive character on the outside. The whole construction developed around the central courtyard with fountains and pools of water; at the far end of the courtyard were the reception apartments, and, behind, the baths and the private dwellings. In Sicily the palaces built during the Fatimid domination no longer exist, but those erected in Palermo in the Norman age - the Cuba and the Zisa - are in large part due to Arab architects. In Spain there remains the most splendid and famous example of princely construction in the Alhambra of Granada, begun by Jūsuf I, 1333-54, and continued by his successors. In military architecture, which developed above all at the time of the Crusades, the Byzantine systems were followed.

II. SCULPTURE

The plastic arts had as their principal task the decoration of buildings: ornamental motifs that were predominantly geometric are found under the 'Abbāsids; floral and foliate ones under the Mamluks. The use of stucco prevails; sculpture in stone was not much used and was limited to the decoration of architectural elements.

Altogether exceptional are the figured representations of the Seljūq period from Konya (Asia Minor), with winged genii and combats of horsemen, which still reveal Sasanian influences. Even rarer are elements of sculpture independent of architecture, such as the rather roughly made lions that give their name to the famous court of the Alhambra. Bronze was also used, not only for objects of use such as aquamaniles in the form of animals, but also sometimes for large sculptures of a decorative character. Great skill is revealed by the ivory sculptors: they were already active in Mesopotamia as early as the 8th century and were later called to Spain by the caliphs of Cordoba (10th-11th centuries). In works of a secular character human figures are also represented, as in the precious casket of 'Abd al-Malik (1005, now in the cathedral of Pamplona), with scenes of hunting and combat, which reveal the influence of Sāsānid art. Christian princes too availed themselves of the skill of Muslim ivory sculptors (shrine of St. Millán de Cogolla, cross of St. Ferdinand in the Archaeological Museum of Madrid, from the early 11th century); in ivory the technique of openwork and of inlay was also used, the latter especially in Sicily (small casket of the Palatine Chapel of Palermo, 13th century).

III. PAINTING

Ancient Arab writers have left evidence of frescoes existing in mosques and palaces; however, the only surviving pictorial complex is the decoration of certain rooms in the royal Palace of Palermo, executed after the fall of Arab rule by Muslim craftsmen. But those representations give only a very vague idea of the wealth of imagination and the technical refinement reached by miniature painting.

This art seems to have been practiced perhaps a little late, since Firdusi in his Book of Kings (end of the 10th century) speaks of frescoes in princely palaces, and never of miniatures.

In North Africa it was applied to the illustration of religious books, and there the elegance of the script and the preciousness of the geometric decoration dominate, which in wealth of imagination rivals carpets. In Persia, miniature painting had from the beginning of the 13th century to the end of the 18th a splendid variety of compositions. Three great schools succeeded one another there, corresponding to the three dynasties that ruled Iran: the Mongols, the Timurids, the Safavids. Following the Mongol invasion of the 13th century, the influence of Chinese painting penetrated into Persia, and determined particular characteristics of the miniature, which reached great heights especially under the Timurids, great lovers of letters and art. In the first half of the 15th century the prince Baysunghur, grandson of Tamerlane, founded at Herat an academy of the book, from which works of great beauty issued; the greatest personality of this school is Kamal al-din Behzad, who had disciples at Herat and at Tabriz. The subjects most commonly treated are scenes of battles, hunts and banquets. Despite the continued interest of princes (the shah 'Abbas I had sent young painters to Rome for the purpose of study), in the 18th century the decline begins.

IV. MINOR ARTS

The impetus given to the art of the book also favored the perfecting of the technique of binding, of which the most frequent type is in engraved leather with geometric ornaments in gilding. Also in the field of textile arts Persia was particularly active, producing light silks, brocades, velvets and continuing the Sassanid tradition of floral ornaments and motifs of confronted animals. But the most important product of the East in this field was the carpet, at first a popular handicraft, then an industry organized in court workshops, soon sought after and exported also to Europe (it is already seen reproduced in Italian paintings of the first half of the 16th century). This art was alive in Anatolia, in the Caucasus and above all in Persia, where it had its greatest development under the Safavids. To this period belong the most precious examples, with floral designs, gardens, hunts, animals (carpet of the Poldi-Pezzoli Museum in Milan, from 1521).

In Muslim countries metals were decorated with agemina, according to a technique that spread from Mesopotamia not only to Persia, but to the West as far as Venice. The use of enamel on metal is instead quite rare and only of Byzantine derivation. As on painting, Chinese art also had an influence on the decoration of majolica. The production of pottery was vast, exported and sought after also in the West. The decoration was not only painted but sometimes also sgraffito. The most common forms are long-necked flasks, cups, bowls, "albarelli," whose model was imitated in Italy and gave its name to pharmacy jars. An Islamic discovery was the metallic-luster glaze, which originated apparently around the 9th century, in Mesopotamia, and which spread to Persia, Egypt, and Spain, where there were numerous centers of production: Majorca (whence the name majolica), Valencia, Seville and Malaga, from whose workshops came the great vase of the Alhambra. Arab workers continued their activity in Spain after the expulsion of the Muslims, and the Mudejar production is vast.

Cesare Botti