Islamic Art Influence

Muslims ruled a large empire for a long period of time. The influence of the Islamic Empire is demonstrated through the similarities of the arts and architecture from the Umayyad to the Ottomans. The issue is the museum website refers to all the art as Islamic Art, which is not the case. Depending on the observer, one can interpret whether all the art as Islamic or not. For instance, an orthodox Muslim might find only the art that contains calligraphy, geometry, and vegetal designs as Islamic. On the hand, a secular Muslim might find the all the arts including figural representations as Islamic. Besides religion, the art is grouped together based on time period, geography and the dynasty that ruled. To recognize how the empire developed and

influenced each other, the galleries were grouped a certain way.
In order To understand why the museum website referred to the art gallery as “Islamic Art” while the museum itself called it “Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and later South Asia,” we need first understand the religion of Islam and its rise in the Arab lands. Following the death of the prophet Muhammad, his followers spread his teachings throughout other lands such as Northern Africa, Spain, Sassanid Persia, and later Central and South Asia. Their rapid expansion influenced the Muslims to derive their architecture that incorporated the styles of the places they conquered such as the Sassanid, Byzantine and Romans. Islamic Art spanned over 1400 years of history, which encompassed a diverse geography, which were not always predominantly Muslim; therefore not all the art can be classified as Islamic Art. Even though all the Islamic Empire were ruled by Muslims, different forms of arts developed during different dynasties. For instance, calligraphy, Byzantine mosaics, and Sassanid iconography flourished during the Umayyad, geometric and vegetal designs flourished during Abbasids. These designs represented the infinite nature of God, and is known as arabesque. The unique arabesque is present from the beginning of the gallery till the end. Looking at the dynasties and their development of arts and architecture demonstrates why it is not all Islamic Art.
One of the most important architecture from the first Islamic dynasty that incorporated the designs of the Byzantine and Sassanid was the Dome of the Rock. Under the Umayyad caliphate the capital was moved from Medina to Damascus. One of the most prominent ruler of that dynasty Abd-al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock. This important architecture that is of great importance to all three monotheistic religions, is designed with influences of mosaics from the Byzantine and iconographic designs from the Sassanid. Synthesizing their own designs of calligraphy, geometry, and vegetal designs the Islamic Empire’s renowned Dome of the Rock is a combination of not just Islamic art but the combination of the influence from the dynasties they began to control. They also introduced mosques with mihrabs and minarets, which became a traditionally design for mosques even today. Throughout the other Islamic rulers maintained this Islamic design as new mosques were built.
Under Abd-al-Malik we also see the beginning of unification of the Muslim community and the importance of non-figural art to figural forms.

Abd-al-Malik changes the common Byzantine coins that have icons and figures on it to Arabic script from the Quran. This is one of the most important change the Umayyad brought to the Islamic Empire. In some ways it set a precedence of the importance of calligraphy in Islamic art, which continues to be used to this day. By replacing the coins that had leaders on them to Quranic verses, the Umayyad caliphate unified the Islamic Empire and emphasized the power of God and not humans. When the Abbasid Dynasty came into power, the last ruler of the Umayyad dynasty fled to Spain and became the ruler there and became the Amir of the state and ruled for a long time. The Islamic Empire there adapted to the arts influenced by the majority non-Muslims in

Spain.
The Abbasid Dynasty moved their capital from Umayyad’s Damascus to Baghdad and later developed an important city known as Samarra. Under the Abbasid government, arts flourished. New Islamic arts such as geometric shapes of Islamic art and the vegetal forms. Under the Abbasid there was also an increase in the use of colors in pottery and luster painting over white glaze. Luster painting of the Abbasid period is seen throughout the museum even after the fall of the Abbasid caliphate. These styles spread across the lands the Muslims later conquered. In the museum, for example, the arts of the Ming Dynasty silverware were very similar to those of the Abbasids. It was evident that it wasn’t just other arts that influenced Islam but that Islamic art also influenced the works of other cultures. At the same time the arts of the Mongol Dynasty depicted people with little eyes showing the influence of Central Asia in Islamic Arts.
According to the Quran iconography and sculptures of humans or animals was a work of Satan and can be used as idolatry and the Quran said to avoid it. Some Madhabs used analogy to interpret the Quranic verse to mean iconography of living things is forbidden, while others argue if a Muslim follows Sunnah then it is not forbidden. When the prophet broke the idols in Ka’ba, he left the picture of Mary and Jesus. In either case, like other issues, the Muslims found loopholes to draw humans and sculpt animals. The Shi’ite Ismaili Fatimid Dynasty used a lot of figural images along with other Islamic arts. The Fatimid’s could have been influenced by the northern African arts such as the Egyptians art that depicted a lot of humans and animals.
The Mongol Dynasty came from central Asia and took over lands in the Arabian lands. While the arts of the Mongols did incorporate arabesque, it also differed from other Islamic arts. Developing from Central Asia, the Mongols were largely influenced by the arts of the Chinese. This is evident because the arts of the Mongols depicts people that look different those of the other Islamic Empire. The other Muslim dynasties like the Mughals and the last powerful Ottoman Empire also saw the influences the conquered land had on their arts and architecture. The Mughals architecture were built by Muslims and Hindus, which differed from those of older Muslim dynasties but still included designs such as calligraphy, geometry. The Ottomans transformation of Hagia Sophia into mosque was also breakthrough for the Islamic Empire. The Ottomans finally took over the Byzantine Empire. The Ottomans introduced pencil shaped minarets into Islamic arts and integrated previous Islamic arts into their architectures.
The MET called it Islamic Art in their website to emphasize that at some point in their ruling the Muslims controlled the Arab lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and South Asia. In the museum, it is called the longer name to show that even though it was under Islamic rule not all the Art were Islamic. In fact, most of the art were preexisting art of those who already lived in those lands, and they influenced Islamic Art just as Islamic Art influenced them. It was a cultural exchange of two empires.
The art that the Muslims developed were calligraphy, geometry and vegetative designs. These arabesque are usually associated with Islamic Art. The museum did not only contain the arabesque design, but it also contained a lot of iconography and sculptures containing humans and animals. This controversy can influence how an observer might view the art and interpret whether the art is all Islamic or not. While the renowned architecture like Dome of the Rock did not have any figures, in the private sectors people did depict images of humans, animals, and even the prophet. The answer then depends on the viewer of the art. A secular Muslim might interpret the art as Islamic, but an Orthodox might not. I believe the art is not all Islamic since the Islamic Empires vast land was not all composed of Muslims.
The museums was largely separated based on the religions, but other reasons why it was grouped this way was to show how the dynasties beginning with Umayyad influenced the later dynasties, who also incorporated their own ideas. The galleries were also separated by time period showing the length of the Islamic Empire and the first and last dynasty. The geographical distinction indicates the diverse influences on Islamic Art.
History shows that when a land in conquered by a strong group there is bound to be an exchange in culture, which includes in clothing style, architecture, arts, education and more.

It was no different for the Muslims. Islamic Art has many influences from the conquered. Despite the influence and cultural exchanges between many empires, Islam maintained its unique style of art and architecture of calligraphy, vegetal work, and geometric shapes. Over the vast empire and the long period of ruling, the cultural exchanges between Islamic Empire and other empires influenced the arts and architecture that still impacts the culture of that area today. But it is also important to be mindful that not all the art is

Islamic.