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Islamic Art And Culture

ISLAMIC ART AND CULTURE

“Islamic art” is a label coined in the West in the nineteenth century.

Unlike “Christian art” or “Buddhist art,” it does not describe art with a particular set of religious imagery. In fact, Islamic art has few exclusively religious symbols comparable to the Christian cross.

Instead, the term “Islamic art” designates all art, religious or secular, that was produced in lands under Muslim leadership. Its makers and its patrons might be Muslim or not.

In this packet we look at works that span nearly a thousand years—from shortly after the foundation of Islam in the seventh century to the seventeenth century when the last two great Islamic empires—the Ottoman and the Safavid—had reached their peak.

Although the definition of Islamic art usually includes work made in Mughal India, it is beyond the scope of this packet.

The works we will look at here come from as far west as Spain and as far east as Afghanistan. Naturally, within this span of time and space many variations and styles occur.

 Yet, Islamic art remains somehow “recognizable” throughout. In the West, the word “art” produces mental images of paintings hung on walls or large-scale sculpture, but these (although not unknown) are not the focus of Islamic art.

Rather, the most important outlets for artistic expression in the Islamic world were: