Origins and the life of Muhammad the Prophet

Islam, Judaism, and Christianity are three of the world’s great monotheistic faiths. They share many of the same holy sites, such as Jerusalem, and prophets, such as Abraham. Collectively, scholars refer to these three religions as the Abrahamic faiths, since Abraham and his family played vital roles in the formation of these religions.

Islam was founded by Muhammad (c. 570–632 C.E.), a merchant from the city of Mecca, now in modern-day Saudi Arabia. Mecca was a well-established trading city. The Kaaba (in Mecca) is the focus of pilgrimage for Muslims.

The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, provides very little detail about Muhammad’s life; however, the hadiths, or sayings of the Prophet, which were largely compiled in the centuries following Muhammad’s death, provide a larger narrative for the events in his life. Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. in Mecca, and his early life was unremarkable. He married a wealthy widow named Khadija. Around 610 C.E., Muhammad had his first religious experience, where he was instructed to recite by the Angel Gabriel. After a period of introspection and self-doubt, Muhammad accepted his role as God’s prophet and began to preach word of the one God, or Allah in Arabic. His first convert was his wife.

Muhammad’s divine recitations form the Qur’an; unlike the Bible or Hindu epics, it is organized into verses, known as ayat. During one of his many visions, in 621 C.E., Muhammad was taken on the famous Night Journey by the Angel Gabriel,  travelling from Mecca to the farthest mosque in Jerusalem, from where he ascended into heaven. The site of his ascension is believed to be the stone around which the Dome of the Rock was built. Eventually in 622, Muhammad and his followers fled Mecca for the city of Yathrib, which is known as Medina today, where his community was welcomed. This event is known as the hijra, or emigration. 622, the year of the hijra (A.H.), marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar, which is still in use today.

Between 625–630 C.E., there were a series of battles fought between the Meccans and Muhammad and the new Muslim community. Eventually, Muhammad was victorious and reentered Mecca in 630.

One of Muhammad’s first actions was to purge the Kaaba of all of its idols (before this, the Kaaba was a major site of pilgrimage for the polytheistic religious traditions of the Arabian Peninsula and contained numerous idols of pagan gods). The Kaaba is believed to have been built by Abraham (or Ibrahim as he is known in Arabic) and his son, Ishmael. The Arabs claim descent from Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar. The Kaaba then became the most important center for pilgrimage in Islam.

In 632, Muhammad died in Medina. Muslims believe that he was the final in a line of prophets, which included Moses, Abraham, and Jesus.

After Muhammad’s death

The century following Muhammad’s death was dominated by military conquest and expansion. Muhammad was succeeded by the four “rightly-guided” Caliphs (khalifa or successor in Arabic): Abu Bakr (632–34 C.E.), Umar (634–44 C.E.), Uthman (644–56 C.E.), and Ali (656–661 C.E.). The Qur’an is believed to have been codified during Uthman’s reign. The final caliph, Ali, was married to Fatima, Muhammad’s daughter and was murdered in 661. The death of Ali is a very important event; his followers, who believed that he should have succeeded Muhammad directly, became known as the Shi’a, meaning the followers of Ali. Today, the Shi’ite community is composed of several different branches, and there are large Shi’a populations in Iran, Iraq, and Bahrain. The Sunnis, who do not hold that Ali should have directly succeeded Muhammad, compose the largest branch of Islam; their adherents can be found across North Africa, the Middle East, as well as in Asia and Europe.

During the seventh and early eighth centuries, the Arab armies conquered large swaths of territory in the Middle East, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, and Central Asia, despite on-going civil wars in Arabia and the Middle East. Eventually, the Umayyad Dynasty emerged as the rulers, with Abd al-Malik completing the Dome of the Rock, one of the earliest surviving Islamic monuments, in 691/2 C.E. The Umayyads reigned until 749/50 C.E., when they were overthrown, and the Abbasid Dynasty assumed the Caliphate and ruled large sections of the Islamic world. However, with the Abbasid Revolution, no one ruler would ever again control all of the Islamic lands.

Additional resources

The Birth of Islam on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

World Religions in Art: Islam (from the Minneapolis Museum of Art)

BBC Article on the Sunni and Shi’a

Source: Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay, “Introduction to Islam,” in Smarthistory, June 30, 2018, accessed November 21, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/introduction-to-islam-3/.

Early period (c. 640–900 C.E.)

After Muhammad’s death in 632, there were four caliphs later referred to by the Sunni as “rightfully guided,” who succeeded Muhammad. However, from 656 there were conflicts over succession, and two civil wars (656–661 and 680–692) broke out within the community of Muslims. Out of these wars emerged the Umayyad Dynasty, whose capital was Damascus in modern-day Syria. Responsible for the first great monuments of Islamic art and architecture, Umayyad rulers built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the Great Mosque of Damascus, and the so-called Desert Palaces in Syro-Palestine . The Umayyads ruled as caliphs until 750 C.E., when they were overthrown by the Abbasids. The Abbasids, like the Umayyads before them, ruled as caliphs over much of the Islamic world until 861. Their capital was at Baghdad, and later they ruled from the palace-city of Samarra in Iraq for parts of the ninth century. After 861, the Abbasids lost control of large parts of their empire through a series of uprisings in which provincial governors asserted their independence. A series of local dynasties, such as the Aghlabids (800–909) and Tulunids (868–905) in North Africa, and the Buyids (945–1055) in Central Asia, emerged and ruled, developing regional artistic styles.

Medieval period (c. 900–1517 C.E.)

By the tenth century, there was fragmentation and individual dynasties sprang up. These dynasties had varying degrees of control over different parts of the lands where Islam was the dominant or a major religion.

In North Africa and the Near East, certain major dynasties, such as the Fatimids (909–1171), emerged and ruled an area that includes present-day Egypt, Sicily, Algeria, Tunisia, and parts of Syria.  It is also at this time that some of the major Turkic dynasties and people from Central Asia came to the forefront of politics and artistic creativity in the Islamic world. The Seljuqs were Central Asian nomads who ruled eastern Islamic lands and eventually controlled Iran, Iraq and much of Anatolia, although this empire was short-lived. The main branch of the Seljuqs, the Great Seljuqs, maintained control over Iran.

It was also the time of the European Christian crusades, which aimed to retake the Holy Land from the Muslims. A series of small Christian Kingdoms emerged in the twelfth century, as did Muslim dynasties, such as the Ayyubids (1179–1260), whose most famous leader, Salah al-Din (r.1169–93), known in Europe as Saladin, ended the Fatimid dynasty. Eventually the enslaved soldiers, upon whom the Ayyubid dynasty depended for their military protection, overthrew the last Ayyubid sultan in 1249/50. These enslaved persons, known in Arabic as mamluk, literally meaning “owned,” became known as the Mamluks and they controlled Syria and Egypt until 1517.

The Mamluks also had to face one of the greatest threats to their reign early on: the invading Mongols. The Mongols and their great leader, Genghis Khan (c. 1162–1227), are almost always associated with blood-thirsty conquest and destruction, but his legacy included the Yuan dynasty in China (1279–1368), the Chaghatay khanate in Central Asia (c. 1227–1363), the Golden Horde in southern Russia, extending into Europe (ca. 1227–1502), and the Ilkhanid dynasty in Greater Iran (1256–1353). The Pax Mongolica (“Mongolian Peace”) includes a great flowering of the arts.

The Ilkhanids, who ruled over Iran, parts of Iraq and Central Asia, oversaw great artistic development in manuscripts, such as those that recounted the Shahnama (or Book of Kings), the famous Persian epic. They were important patrons of architecture. The Ilkhanid dynasty disintegrated in 1335 and local dynasties came to power in Iraq and Iran.

In 1370, the last great dynasty emerged from Central Asia: the Timurids (c. 1370–1507). They were named for their leader, Timur (also known as Tamerlane), who conquered and controlled all of Central Asia, greater Iran, and Iraq, as well as parts of southern Russia and the Indian subcontinent. The Timurids were outstanding builders of monumental architecture. Herat, in present-day Afghanistan, became the capital and cultural center of the Timurid empire.

While artistic production and architecture flourished in Asia under different Islamic dynasties, it also bloomed in the western Islamic lands. The most famous of these dynasties is probably the Nasrids (1232–1492) of the southern Iberian Peninsula and western North Africa, whose most important artistic achievement is the remarkable Alhambra, a palace-fortress complex in Granada, in present-day Spain.

Later period (c. 1517–1924 C.E.)

This period is the era of the last great Islamic Empires. The Ottoman Empire, which had started as a small Turkic state in Anatolia in the early fourteenth century, emerged in the second half of the fifteenth century as a major military and political force. The Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453 and the Mamluk Empire in 1517. They dominated much of Anatolia, the Balkans, the Near East and North Africa until the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War I. The Ottomans are famous for their domed architecture and pencil minarets, many of which were built by the great architect, Sinan (1539–88) for Sultan Süleyman (r. 1520–66). This period is considered the peak of Ottoman art and culture.

The Safavids, who established Shia Islam as the dominant faith of Iran, ruled from 1501–1722 and were the greatest dynasty to emerge from Iran. Architecture, paintings, manuscripts and carpets all flourished under the Safavids. Shah Abbas (r. 1587–1629) was the greatest patron of the arts and the Safavid Dynasty’s most outstanding ruler. In the eighteenth century, a period of turmoil in Persia, the Qajar dynasty  (1779–1924) rose to power and established peace and their rule saw the beginning of modernity in Iran.

The other great dynasty that oversaw a remarkable artistic and architectural output was the Mughals. Founded by Babur, the Mughals (c. 1526–1858) ruled over the largest Islamic state in the Indian subcontinent. While there had been earlier sultanates in what is today northern Indian and Pakistan, the emperors of the Mughal dynasty were patrons of some of the greatest works of Islamic art, such as illuminated manuscripts and painting, and architecture, including the Taj Mahal.

Additional resources

Islamic art on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

What is Islamic Art?

The Dome of the Rock, the Taj Mahal, a Mina’i ware bowl, a silk carpet, a Qur‘an; all of these are examples of Islamic art. But what is Islamic art?

Islamic art is a modern concept, created by art historians in the nineteenth century to categorize and study the material first produced under the Islamic peoples that emerged from Arabia in the seventh century.

Today Islamic art describes all of the arts that were produced in the lands where Islam was the dominant religion or the religion of those who ruled. Unlike the terms Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist art, which refer only to religious art of these faiths, Islamic art is not used merely to describe religious art or architecture, but applies to all art forms produced in the Islamic World.

Thus, Islamic art refers not only to works created by Muslim artists, artisans, and architects or for Muslim patrons. It encompasses the works created by Muslim artists for a patron of any faith, including Christians, Jews, or Hindus, and the works created by Jews, Christians, and others, living in Islamic lands, for patrons, Muslim and otherwise.

One of the most famous monuments of Islamic art is the Taj Mahal, a royal mausoleum, located in Agra, India. Hinduism is majority religion in India; however, because Muslim rulers, most famously the Mughals, dominated large areas of modern-day India for centuries, India has a vast range of Islamic art and architecture. The Great Mosque of Xi’an, China, is one of the oldest and best preserved mosques in China. First constructed in 742 C.E., the mosque’s current form dates to the fifteenth century C.E. and follows the plan and architecture of a contemporary Buddhist temple. In fact, much Islamic art and architecture was—and still is—created through a synthesis of local traditions and more global ideas.

Islamic art is not a monolithic style or movement; it spans 1,300 years of history and has incredible geographic diversity—Islamic empires and dynasties controlled territory from Spain to western China at various points in history. However, few if any of these various countries or Muslim empires would have referred to their art as Islamic. An artisan in Damascus thought of his work as Syrian or Damascene—not as Islamic.

As a result of thinking about the problems of calling such art Islamic, certain scholars and major museums, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, have decided to omit the term Islamic when they renamed their new galleries of Islamic art. Instead, they are called “Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia,” thereby stressing the regional styles and individual cultures. Thus, when using the phrase, Islamic art, one should know that it is a useful, but artificial, concept.

In some ways, Islamic art is a bit like referring to the Italian Renaissance. During the Renaissance, there was no unified Italy; it was a land of independent city-states. No one would have thought of one’s self as an Italian, or of the art they produced as Italian, rather one conceived of one’s self as a Roman, a Florentine, or a Venetian. Each city developed a highly local, remarkable style. At the same time, there are certain underlying themes or similarities that unify the art and architecture of these cities and allow scholars to speak of an Italian Renaissance.

Themes

Similarly, there are themes and types of objects that link the arts of the Islamic World together. Calligraphy is a very important art form in the Islamic world. The Qur’an, written in elegant scripts, represents Allah’s (or God’s) divine word, which Muhammad received directly from Allah during his visions. Quranic verses, executed in calligraphy, are found on many different forms of art and architecture. Likewise, poetry can be found on everything from ceramic bowls to the walls of houses. Calligraphy’s omnipresence underscores the value that is placed on language, specifically Arabic.

Geometric and vegetative motifs are very popular throughout the lands where Islam was once or still is a major religion and cultural force, appearing in the private palaces of buildings such as the Alhambra (in Spain) as well as in the detailed metal work of Safavid Iran. Likewise, certain building types appear throughout the Muslim world: mosques with their minarets, mausolea, gardens, and madrasas (religious schools) are all common. However, their forms vary greatly.

One of the most common misconceptions about the art of the Islamic world is that it is aniconic; that is, the art does not contain representations of humans or animals. Religious art and architecture, almost from the earliest examples, such as the Dome of the Rock, the Aqsa Mosque (both in Jerusalem), and the Great Mosque of Damascus, built under the Umayyad rulers, did not include human figures and animals. However, the private residences of sovereigns, such as Qasr ‘Amra or Khirbat Mafjar, were filled with vast figurative paintings, mosaics, and sculpture.

The study of the arts of the Islamic world has also lagged behind other fields in art history. There are several reasons for this. First, many scholars are not familiar with Arabic or Farsi (the dominant language in Iran). Calligraphy, particularly Arabic calligraphy, as noted above, is a major art form and appears on almost all types of architecture and arts. Second, the art forms and objects prized in the Islamic world do not correspond to those traditionally valued by art historians and collectors in the Western world. The so-called decorative arts—carpets, ceramics, metalwork, and books—are types of art that Western scholars have traditionally valued less than painting and sculpture. However, the last fifty years has seen a flourishing of scholarship on the arts of the Islamic world.

Arts of the Islamic world

Here, we have decided to use the phrase “arts of the Islamic world” to emphasize the art that was created in a world where Islam was a dominant religion or a major cultural force, but was not necessarily religious art. Often when the word “Islamic” is used today, it is used to describe something religious; thus using the phrase, Islamic art, potentially implies, mistakenly, that all of this art is religious in nature. The phrase, “arts of the Islamic world,” also acknowledges that not all of the work produced in the “Islamic world” was for Muslims or was created by Muslims.

Note on organization from the contributing editor

We have organized the material in this section into three chronological periods: early, medieval and late. When starting to learn about a new area of art, chronological organization often enables students to grasp the material and its fundamentals before going on to more complex analysis, like comparing building types or styles. Within each of these chronological groups, we have focused on creating geographic groups or groupings to organize the material further. The Islamic world was only unified very briefly in its history under the Umayyads (661–750 C.E.) and the early Abbasids (750–932 C.E.). Soon various dynasties or rulers simultaneously commanded sections of territory, many of which had no cultural commonalities, aside from their religion.

Arabic, Persian and Turkish are complex languages whose transcription from their respective scripts to English has changed considerably over time. For the sake of ease, we have used the most common forms today, omitting the vocalizations. While we have aimed for consistency, we have also tried to use the simplest forms for those who are new to the arts of the Islamic world.

Additional resources

The Nature of Islamic Art on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Archnet, a resource focused on architecture, urbanism, environmental and landscape design, visual culture, and conservation issues related to the Muslim world.

Islamic Art reading list from the Victoria and Albert Museum

Source:  Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay, “Arts of the Islamic world,” in Smarthistory, August 8, 2015, accessed October 28, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/arts-of-the-islamic-world/.

The historical context of the emergence of Islam was 7th-century C.E. Arabia. Muhammad was a merchant who was born in the oasis city of Mecca, in the western regions of the Arabian Peninsula. Mecca is also home to a revered shrine, the Ka‘bah, a cube-shaped edifice at the heart of the Meccan sanctuary, which the Qur’an indicates was built by Abraham and his son Ismael for the worship of one true God (Q. 2. 127). According to traditional accounts, Muhammad was born into a Meccan noble tribe known as the Quraysh. They were accomplished traders and custodians of the city’s coveted shrine. The pre-Islamic era is portrayed in the traditional Islamic sources as an ‘age of ignorance’ (jahiliyyah). Religion at that time was dominated by the cult of polytheism, and among the key religious festivals celebrated in pre-Islamic Arabia was the annual pilgrimage (hajj) to the Ka‘bah. Although the Arabs believed in the existence of a supreme being who sustained the universe, they also worshipped lesser deities and idols and sought their intercession. Referring to the Arabs’ recognition of a supreme being and multiple idols, the Qur’an states: ‘We worship them only, because they draw us closer to God’ (Q. 39. 1).

The Islamic literary sources intimate that at the age of forty, while secluded in a cave on the outskirts of Mecca, the very first verses of the Qur’an were revealed to Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel, thus marking the beginning of his call to prophethood.

Recite in the Name of your Lord who created;
Created man from a congealed clot of blood;
Recite and indeed your Lord is most merciful;
He who taught by the pen;
Taught man what he knew not

 

The essence of the Qur’an’s message was simple: it affirmed the existence of one Supreme Being and declared that Muhammad was his appointed messenger. The earliest adherents were close members of the Prophet’s family and friends. In the face of opposition and persecution in Mecca, in July 622 they migrated to Medina, an agricultural settlement north of Mecca. This event, referred to as the Hijrah, proved to be a turning point for the faith as it then became possible to propagate the religion openly and gain new converts. Having consolidated his base at Medina, and within less than eight years of the Hijrah, Muhammad and his followers were able to wrestle control of Mecca in 630, subsequently extending their authority over key parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Within thirty years of Muhammad’s death in 632, vast swathes of the Near and Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia had come under Muslim rule and influence. In this context Arabic became not only the language of the faith of Islam, but also the language of its civilisation.

When was the Qur’an written down?

According to Muslim literary sources, when the Prophet passed away in 632 the Qur’an did not formally exist as a fixed text but was “written down on palm-leaf stalks, scattered parchments, shoulder blades, limestone and memorised in the hearts of men.” During the rule of one of Muhammad’s later successors, the caliph Uthman (r. 644–656), a standardised copy of the Qur’an was compiled and distributed to the main centres of the Islamic Empire. Although the caliph’s original codices have not survived, his introduction of a fixed text is recognised as one of his enduring achievements. One of the oldest copies of the Qur’an, which is dated to the 8th century, is held in the British Library; it includes over two-thirds of the complete text.

Due to the fact that written Arabic was not fully developed, the earliest Qur’an manuscripts were transcribed in what is termed a scriptio defectiva. The script lacked a system for the annotation of long and short vowels, and diacritics were used only occasionally to identify individual letters. In later manuscripts scholars developed notations to represent short vowels in the form of carefully placed red dots. These were eventually replaced by small vowel markings in the shape of diminutive characters and strokes.

Despite these improvements to help readers, the oral transmission of the Qur’an retained its primacy. The fact that formal daily prayers, in which the recitation of the Qur’an is central, are performed in Arabic underlines the devotional value of the recitation of the text; even the word Qur’an is actually derived from the Arabic verb “to recite.” The requisite practice of committing the whole text to memory has an extended history, and still forms an integral part of the curriculum followed in seminaries throughout the Islamic world. The preservation and study of the Qur’an led to the flourishing of literary traditions of learning, including grammar, philology and even poetry, as scholars used insights from such scholarship to interpret the Qur’an.

What is important about the language of the Qur’an?

The Qur’an intimates that it represents the literal speech of God, which was revealed in a flawless form of Arabic. It is traditionally believed that the authorial voice of God is directly behind its narratives and statements, whether God is cited as speaking directly, or whether the text is enjoining laws or depicting events, including quoting from the Prophet’s adversaries or retelling the feats of the great biblical prophets. In the pre-Islamic period poetry served as the primary vehicle of literary expression, and the Arabs prided themselves on being accomplished poets. In the Qur’an Muhammad’s opponents are frequently quoted as describing his revelation as “the utterances of a poet” (Q. 69. 41) and “the words of a mortal” (Q. 74. 25). Keen to counter such allegations, the Qur’an resolutely defends its compositional distinctiveness and even issues a challenge to the Prophet’s antagonists, insisting that “Had humans and Jinns (spirits) come together to replicate this Qur’an, they would not have been able to do so, even if they were to work together to that end” (Q. 17. 88). The theme of the Qur’an’s linguistic inimitability was used to promote its divine status and cited as proof of the prophethood of Muhammad.

Themes and contents of the Qur’an

The Qur’an comprises 6,236 verses (ayahs) which are divided into 114 chapters or surahs, each of which takes its name from a prominent event, theme or topic relevant to the chapter. Hence, the first chapter of the Qur’an is referred to as “The Opening” (al-Fatihah), while chapter twenty-six, “The Poets” (al-Shuʿaraʾ), derives its name from a reference to the conduct of ancient poets with which the chapter concludes.

Each chapter (with the exception of chapter nine) is preceded by an introductory formula, ‘In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful’, referred to as the basmalah.

The traditional view is that the Qur’an’s contents were revealed piecemeal. Revelation identified with the early Meccan years focussed primarily on the accentuation of God’s unity and transcendence, a theme encapsulated in the following chapter:

Say God is One; He is Eternal;
He was not begotten nor does he beget;
and he has no peer or equal (Q. 112.1–4)

The language of the Meccan verses is composed in a form of eloquent prose which is concise and rhythmic, employing an intricate range of figurative expressions and rhetorical devices. In terms of content, theological and ethical themes are intertwined. Early Qur’anic revelation includes declarations about the omnipotence and omniscience of God, the resurrection of the dead, the impending Day of Judgement and rewards and punishment in the hereafter. The theme of personal morality and piety is also promoted, while polytheism and idolatry are condemned. Also connected with revelation of this period are the so-called “disjointed letters” of the Qur’an. This designation is due to the fact that twenty-nine of the Qur’an’s chapters open with either a single letter of the Arabic alphabet or a combination of these letters, which are recognised as individual verses; indeed, a number of chapters are actually named after these letters. The precise meaning of these individual letters remains a mystery as the commentary tradition that developed around the study of the Qur’an seemingly offers no decisive clues as to their actual import.

The imposition of a detailed system of ritual practices and laws occurs in the post-Hijrah period. Set times for prayer, fasting, the giving of alms, and the performance of pilgrimage were made obligatory by the Qur’an at Medina. A range of legal measures was introduced, including rules for inheritance and dietary guidelines, the proscription of usury, laws on marriage and divorce and a penal code. Religious polemics with Jews and Christians are also a feature of Qur’anic revelation of this later period.

What does the Qur’an say about Christianity and Judaism?

In the Qur’an, Muhammad is designated as being the final prophet sent to mankind and is hailed as being one of a distinguished line of divinely appointed messengers who were sent to proclaim the message of God’s unity. It states:

Indeed, those who believe, the Jews, the Christians, and the
Sabians – all those who acknowledge God and the Last Day and
perform good works – will be granted their rewards with their Lord.
Fear shall not affect them, nor shall they grieve (Q. 2.62)

Confirming the shared spiritual heritage with Judaism and Christianity, the tribulations and triumphs of biblical personalities are also portrayed in the narratives of the Qur’an. Teachings on Jesus emphasise his human nature, although the Qur’an upholds the notion of his immaculate conception and the miracles he performed. However, it rejects the claim that Jesus was the Son of God and also the concept of the divine Trinity; the Qur’an also denies the Crucifixion. Jesus is lauded as a prophet to the Children of Israel, and his mother Mary is held in great esteem, even having a chapter of the Qur’an named after her. It is significant to note that in deference to the sacred status of their revealed scripture, the Qur’an describes Jews and Christians as being “the People of the Book.”

This essay originally appeared in Discovering Sacred Texts at the British Library (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Additional resources:

Read about a folio from a Qur’an at Smarthistory

Read about a Mamluk Qur’an at Smarthistory

1. The profession of faith (the shahada)

The profession of faith (the shahada) is the most fundamental expression of Islamic beliefs. It simply states that “There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet.” It underscores the monotheistic nature of Islam. It is an extremely popular phrase in Arabic calligraphy and appears in numerous manuscripts and religious buildings.

2. Daily prayers (salat)

Muslims are expected to pray five times a day. This does not mean that they need to attend a mosque to pray; rather, the salat, or the daily prayer, should be recited five times a day. Muslims can pray anywhere; however, they are meant to pray towards Mecca. The faithful are meant to pray by bowing several times while standing and then kneel and touch the ground or prayer mat with their foreheads, as a symbol of their reverence and submission to Allah. On Friday, many Muslims attend the mosque near mid-day to pray and to listen to a sermon (khutba).

3. Alms-giving (zakat)

The giving of alms is the third pillar. Although not defined in the Qu’ran, Muslims believe that they are meant to share their wealth with those less fortunate in their community of believers.

4. Fasting during Ramadan (saum)

During the holy month of Ramadan (the ninth month in the Islamic calendar), Muslims are expected to fast from dawn to dusk. While there are exceptions made for the sick, elderly, and pregnant, all are expected to refrain from eating and drinking during daylight hours.

5. Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca

All Muslims, who are able, are required to make the pilgrimage to Mecca and the surrounding holy sites at least once in their lives. Pilgrimage focuses on visiting the Kaaba and walking around it seven times. Pilgrimage occurs in the twelfth month of the Islamic Calendar.

Additional resources

More from Smarthistory on Hajj

More Hajj stories from the Asian Art Museum

More stories of the modern pilgrimage from the British Museum

Source: Dr. Mustafa Shah, “The Qur’an,” in Smarthistory, May 6, 2021, accessed October 28, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/the-quran-2/.

A Timurid painting of Mecca, depicting the pilgrims camping outside and making preparations. Miscellany of Iskandar Sultan, 1410–11, manuscript, 18.4 x 12.7 cm (The British Library, London)

What is hajj?

Hajj is undoubtedly the most well-known pilgrimage in Islam; it is one of the five pillars of Islam and is considered a duty for all Muslims who are in good health and can afford the journey to Mecca. It takes place during the month called Dhu al-Hijjah. Hajj has many rituals including tawaf (the circumambulation of the Ka‘bah) and sa’i (the running between the hills of Safa and Marwah). Umrah is similar to hajj but can take place at any time of the year. Pilgrims also enter the holy sanctuary of the Grand Mosque of Mecca through a different gate. The pilgrimage to the Ka‘bah is specified in numerous Qur’anic verses, including 5.97 which reads:

God made the Kabah the Sacred House
maintaining it for humanity
and the Sacred Month and the sacrificial gift
and the garlanded.
That is so that you will know that God knows
Whatever is in the heavens
And whatever is in the earth.BAKHTIAR’S TRANSLATION

Illuminated opening page and folio showing Q 5:97 of a Qur’an manuscript from Aceh, early 19th century. Qur’an, early 19th century, manuscript, 33 x 20.5 cm (The British Library, London)

Hadiths are accounts of the Prophet’s life that determine much of Islamic practice. Some of these texts provide specifics on how to conduct the rituals associated with hajj. For example, one hadith reports that ‘The Prophet offered four rak’a of the zuhr prayer in Medina and two rak’a of ‘asr prayer at Dhu al-Hulaifa’. This hadith and others tell Muslims how to execute the particular rituals of hajj, which include specific prayers and supplications, as well as the order in which the traditions associated with hajj should be performed.

Pilgrimage guides also serve as an important aid for Muslims by giving instructions on what prayers and other supplications to perform at particular sites. For centuries these existed in a written form, while today Muslims also have the option of electronic forms of pilgrimage guides or smartphone apps, for both hajj and umrah, as well as for other pilgrimages known generally as ziyarat.

Illustration of the Ka‘bah in Mecca from a travel guide for pilgrims in Malay, Risalah majmu‘ah fi manasik al-Hajj by Muhammad Azahari bin Abdullah, published in Singapore in 1900 (The British Library, London)

The use of technology has altered hajj in other ways too. In previous centuries the only options for travel were by land or sea, and the journey could be both difficult and dangerous, as well as long. The advent of air travel has made it easier for Muslims to reach Mecca. Tour companies offering packages for umrah and hajj are also popular; their posters can be seen on billboards, in Islamic literature and online.

Why is Mecca so important to Muslims?

Mecca is important to Muslims for a number of reasons. The Prophet was from Mecca and returned there before his death. The Hira cave, on Jabal al-Nour, is reportedly where the Prophet received his first revelation. Islam is also an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion that is strongly rooted in the traditions associated with Judaism and Christianity. Muslims believe that Mecca is the place where Abraham and Ishmael built the Ka‘bah, an act referred to in Qur’an 3.96. According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet Muhammad returned the Ka‘bah (more formally called al ka‘bah al-musharrafah) to its former status as a monotheistic site, rescuing it from the polytheism that had taken it over in previous centuries.

The holy city of Medina, as depicted in a copy of the Dala’il al-khayrat (Guide to Goodness), a devotional prayer-book, produced in India in the 19th century. Muhammad*ibn Sulayman al-Jazuli, Depiction of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina from Dala’il al-khayrat (Guide to Goodness), 19th century, India (The British Library, London)

Numerous cultural artefacts speak to the importance of Mecca for Muslims, as well as the religious duties associated with the city and its environs. Pictures of the Ka‘bah are found on posters, on carpets, in Muslim places of worship and in Muslim homes. Pictorial representations of the holy sanctuary are found in numerous Islamic cultures, executed in styles ranging from drawings and paintings to prayer rugs. In addition to paintings, drawings, and other artistic representations, hajj guides, maps, manuals and certificates inspired and recorded the experiences of pilgrims from the Hijaz to faraway lands such as Southeast Asia and Africa.

This 15th-century scroll from the commemorates the hajj by a woman called Maymunah. Seen here, reading downwards, are: the sanctuary of the Ka’bah at Mecca, the hill al-Marwah (depicted as a series of concentric circles), the shrine of the Prophet Muhammad at Medina, and the sole of the Prophet’s sandal, in which is written one of his sayings. Hajj pilgrimage certificate, 1433, manuscript (The British Library, London)

Are there other Islamic pilgrimages?

Outside of hajj and umrah, hundreds of other religious journeys are undertaken by Muslims around the world, ranging from local visits to family graveyards in Javanese villages to large-scale annual pilgrimages to cities such as Karbala and Mashhad. In part, the restrictions on hajj contribute to the popularity of these other pilgrimages. Islam is a global religion with over 1.7 billion followers, however only two million pilgrims can perform hajj each year due to safety concerns and the limited space of the sites. The expense of hajj and its distance from many Muslim communities are also barriers. Thus, Muslims around the world participate in other religious journeys known collectively as ziyarat. While not considered an obligation on the same level as hajj, these journeys are nonetheless popular. The other factor that may contribute to their popularity is that the range of places visited as part of these traditions is immense, and often reflect the cultural and religious variations in diverse Muslim communities. For instance, among popular ziyarat sites are the graves of Sufi saints, the large tomb complexes of Shi‘a imams, the mountains surrounding holy cities and the forests of Bosnia.

This Ottoman-era book of model correspondence shows drawings of various tombs in Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina. The tombs depicted in the Hejaz were destroyed in 1926. Mustafa Efendi [scribe], İnşā’-i a‘là – انشأ اعلى, early 18th century, paper manuscript, 31 x 21 cm (The British Library, London)

Various debates surround the religious appropriateness of these ziyarat. These debates centre around who has the authority to determine proper Islamic tradition. Some Muslims are uncomfortable with pilgrimages outside of hajj; they are not universally accepted, yet they remain popular around the world, from Africa to Southeast Asia.

What pilgrimages are important to Shi‘a Muslims?

Muslims around the world have their own pilgrimage traditions that exist outside of hajj and umrah. In some cases, these are particular to a small community, such as the case of the local pilgrimages in Southeast Asia. In other cases, pilgrimage is a transnational affair, involving Muslims from every corner of the earth. The best case of this outside of hajj, umrah and popular Sufi sites such as Rumi’s tomb in Konya in Turkey, is found in the transnational pilgrimages of the Shi‘a.

For Shi‘a Muslims, the family of the Prophet and in particular the relatives of his daughter Fatima and her husband Ali (the Prophet’s cousin), are especially important. These relatives are recognised as the Twelve Imams and their family by the majority of Shi‘a, who consider the visitation of the Imams’ tombs, as well as those of their relatives, a duty.

 

A guide book for pilgrims, including a 17th-century depiction of the Holy Shrine of Mecca. This 17th-century work describes of the holy shrines of Mecca and Medina and the rites of pilgrimage tombs. Shown here (left) are tombs of the Prophet’s family, and (right) the tomb of the Prophet’s wife Khadījah and others at Mecca. Muḥyī *Lārī [Muhyi Al-Din Lari], Futūḥ al-ḥaramayn (‘Revelations of the two sanctuaries’), 17th century, Iran, manuscript, 22.2 x 15.2 cm (The British Library, London)

Imam Reza’s shrine in Mashhad, Iran, is one of the most popular Shi‘a sites. As the largest mosque in the world, the shrine complex covers an area of over six million square feet. Imam Husain’s shrine at Karbala also represents the largest pilgrimage in the world in terms of numbers, with up to twenty million people gathering for the Arbaeen, which commemorates the martyrdom of Husain.

The Muharram festival is in commemoration of Imams Husain. This festival starts on the first day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, and lasts for ten days. Painting of a Muharram procession, gouache on mica, Benares or Patna style, 1830–40 (The British Library, London)

Sainthood in Islam

The question of sainthood in Islam is an interesting one. Islam does not have a canonisation process like, for instance, the Catholic Church. In academic literature, the word saint is often used to describe the awliya’  (wali, sing.), or the “friends of God.” These are individuals believed to be close to Allah. Sufi individuals such as Rumi, whose tomb in Konya sees millions of visitors a year, and Rabiah, who is buried in Basra, Iraq, are considered by many to be awliya’ . In other contexts, those close to Allah are culturally specific, such as the wali songo—the nine founding saints of Islam in Indonesia. There, numerous tombs of the wali songo populate the coastlines and interior of Java.

The oldest mosques on islands such as Lombok are visited by locals, Indonesians from other islands in the archipelago and by Muslims from as far away as Cairo. The Imams of the Twelver Shi‘a Imamate resemble more closely the early martyrs of the Christian Church, with the exception of the last Imam, who is believed to be in a state of occultation.

Sacred space in Islam

Sacred space is an important topic in understanding Islamic pilgrimage. The direction of prayer is the Ka‘bah, bringing the focus of Muslim prayer towards Mecca throughout the day. The qiblah (direction of prayer) is often marked by a sticker or other symbol in hotel rooms, so that Muslims can orient themselves for their daily prayers. Shi‘a, who like other Muslims face Mecca to pray, use a prayer stone (turbah) made from clay from a holy Shi‘a city, or place their forehead on the earth, illustrating the importance of the earth as a sacred tableau.

For Muslims, the world is Allah’s creation, hence the expression, “The world is your prayer mat.” This saying is likely inspired by a hadith of the Prophet’s in which he states, “The entire earth is a place of prayer except for graveyards and bathrooms.” Whatever the authenticity of the tradition, the Islamic view of space does not observe the religious and secular division that is more common in the West. Islamic practices such as removing one’s shoes before entering a mosque, shrine or home suggest that any place where prayer takes place is sacred. Some places, however, are more sacred due to their history, who is buried at the site or how many pilgrims visit the place. Scholars have named the sense of camaraderie generated by these pilgrimages communitas.

The importance of awliya’  and other important Muslim individuals shapes the sacred spaces associated with pilgrimage in Islam. In the case of the Prophet Muhammad’s grave in Medina, the presence of his body, the graveyard where he is buried (al-masjid al-nabawi) and the history of the early Muslim community (ummah), have shaped the history of the city. The Jannat al-Baqi, the graveyard adjoining the Prophet’s mosque, is the site of many of the graves of his relatives and companions. The renovations and expansions of his modest and small mosque, the first in Islam, which also served as his home during his lifetime, attest to the popularity of pilgrimage for Muslims, whether in Mecca, Medina or elsewhere in the world.

Written by Sophia Arjana

Sophia Arjana is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Western Kentucky University. She is the author of three books, Muslims in the Western Imagination (2015), Pilgrimage in Islam: Traditional and Modern Practices (2017), and Veiled Superheroes: Islam, Feminism, and Popular Culture (2017). Her forthcoming book is Buying Buddha, Selling Rumi: Orientalism and the Mystical Marketplace (2019).

The text in this article is available under the Creative Commons License by-nc/4.0/

Originally published by The British Library.

Source: The British Library, “Islamic pilgrimages and sacred spaces,” in Smarthistory, March 17, 2021, accessed October 28, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/islamic-pilgrimages-and-sacred-spaces/.

 

The Kaaba

by DR. ELIZABETH MACAULAY

The Kaaba, granite masonry, covered with silk curtain and calligraphy in gold and silver-wrapped thread, pre-Islamic monument, rededicated by Muhammad in 631–32 C.E., multiple renovations, Mecca, Saudi Arabia (photo: Muhammad Mahdi Karim, GNU version 1.2 only)

Prayer and pilgrimage

Map of Mecca, Saudi Arabia (NormanEinstein, CC BY-SA 3.0

Pilgrimage to a holy site is a core principle of almost all faiths. The Kaaba, meaning cube in Arabic, is a square building, elegantly draped in a silk and cotton veil. Located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, it is the holiest shrine in Islam.

In Islam, Muslims pray five times a day and after 624 C.E., these prayers were directed towards Mecca and the Kaaba rather than Jerusalem; this direction (or qibla in Arabic), is marked in all mosques and enables the faithful to know in what direction they should pray. The Qur‘an established the direction of prayer.

All Muslims aspire to undertake the hajj, or the annual pilgrimage, to the Kaaba once in their life if they are able. Prayer five times a day and the hajj are two of the five pillars of Islam, the most fundamental principles of the faith.

Upon arriving in Mecca, pilgrims gather in the courtyard of the Masjid al-Haram around the Kaaba. They then circumambulate (tawaf in Arabic) or walk around the Kaaba, during which they hope to kiss and touch the Black Stone (al-Hajar al-Aswad), embedded in the eastern corner of the Kaaba.

Eastern corner of the Kaaba with the Black Stone, al-Hajar al-Aswad (photos: Saudi Arabia General Presidency of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque)

The history and form of the Kaaba

The Kaaba was a sanctuary in pre-Islamic times. Muslims believe that Abraham (known as Ibrahim in the Islamic tradition), and his son, Ismail, constructed the Kaaba. Tradition holds that it was originally a simple unroofed rectangular structure. The Quraysh tribe, who ruled Mecca, rebuilt the pre-Islamic Kaaba in c. 608 C.E. with alternating courses of masonry and wood. A door was raised above ground level to protect the shrine from intruders and flood waters.

Muhammad was driven out of Mecca in 620 C.E. to Yathrib, which is now known as Medina. Upon his return to Mecca in 629/30 C.E., the shrine became the focal point for Muslim worship and pilgrimage. The pre-Islamic Kaaba housed the Black Stone and statues of pagan gods. Muhammad reportedly cleansed the Kaaba of idols upon his victorious return to Mecca, returning the shrine to the monotheism of Ibrahim. The Black Stone is believed to have been given to Ibrahim by the angel Gabriel and is revered by Muslims. Muhammad made a final pilgrimage in 632 C.E., the year of his death, and thereby established the rites of pilgrimage.

Modifications

The Kaaba has been modified extensively throughout its history. The area around the Kaaba was expanded in order to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims by the second caliph, ‘Umar (ruled 634–44). The caliph ‘Uthman (ruled 644–56) built the colonnades around the open plaza where the Kaaba stands and incorporated other important monuments into the sanctuary.

During the civil war between the caliph Abd al-Malik and Ibn Zubayr who controlled Mecca, the Kaaba was set on fire in 683 C.E. Reportedly, the Black Stone broke into three pieces and Ibn Zubayr reassembled it with silver. He rebuilt the Kaaba in wood and stone, following Ibrahim’s original dimensions and also paved the space around the Kaaba. After regaining control of Mecca, Abd al-Malik restored the part of the building that Muhammad is thought to have designed. None of these renovations can be confirmed through study of the building or archaeological evidence; these changes are only outlined in later literary sources.

The Kaaba with kiswa, c. 1910 (photo: G. Eric or Edith Matson, Library of Congress)

Reportedly under the Umayyad caliph al-Walid (ruled 705–15), the mosque that encloses the Kaaba was decorated with mosaics like those of the Dome of the Rock and the Great Mosque of Damascus. By the seventh century, the Kaaba was covered with kiswa, a black cloth that is replaced annually during the hajj.

Illustration of The Great Mosque, Futuh al-Haramayn (a Handbook for Pilgrims to Mecca and Medina), fols 19b–20a, 1582, Mecca, Saudi Arabia (The Khalili Collection)

I. The hypostyle mosque

It makes sense that the first place of worship for Muslims, the house of the Prophet Muhammad, inspired the earliest type  of mosque – the hypostyle mosque. This type spread widely throughout Islamic lands.

The Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia, is an archetypal example of the hypostyle mosque. The mosque was built in the ninth century by Ziyadat Allah, the third ruler of the Aghlabid dynasty, an offshoot of the Abbasid Empire. It is a large, rectangular stone mosque with a hypostyle (supported by columns) hall and a large inner sahn (courtyard). The three-tiered minaret is in a style known as the Syrian bell-tower, and may have originally been based on the form of ancient Roman lighthouses. The interior of the mosque features the forest of columns that has come to define the hypostyle type.

The mosque was built on a former Byzantine site, and the architects repurposed older materials, such as the columns—a decision that was both practical and a powerful assertion of the Islamic conquest of Byzantine lands. Many early mosques like this one made use of older architectural materials (called spolia), in a similarly symbolic way.

On right hand side of mosque’s mihrab is the maqsura, a special area reserved for the ruler found in some, but not all, mosques. This mosque’s maqsura is the earliest extant example, and its minbar (pulpit) is the earliest dated minbar known to scholars. Both are carved from teak wood that was imported from Southeast Asia. This prized wood was shipped from Thailand to Baghdad where it was carved, then carried on camel back from Iraq to Tunisia, in a remarkable display of medieval global commerce.

The hypostyle plan was used widely in Islamic lands prior to the introduction of the four-iwan plan in the twelfth century (see next section). The hypostyle plan’s characteristic forest of columns was used in different mosques to great effect. One of the most famous examples is the Great Mosque of Cordoba, which uses bi-color, two-tier arches that emphasize the almost dizzying optical effect of the hypostyle hall.

II. The four-iwan mosque

Just as the hypostyle hall defined much of mosque architecture of the early Islamic period; the 11th century shows the emergence of new form: the four-iwan mosque. An iwan is a vaulted space that opens on one side to a courtyard. The iwan developed in pre-Islamic Iran where it was used in monumental and imperial architecture. Strongly associated with Persian architecture, the iwan continued to be used in monumental architecture in the Islamic era.

In 11th century Iran, hypostyle mosques started to be converted into four-iwan mosques, which, as the name indicates, incorporate four iwans in their architectural plan.

The Great Mosque of Isfahan reflects this broader development. The mosque began its life as a hypostyle mosque, but was modified by the Seljuqs of Iran after their conquest of the city of Isfahan in the 11th century.

Like a hypostyle mosque, the layout is arranged around a large open courtyard. However, in the four-iwan mosque, each wall of the courtyard is punctuated with a monumental vaulted hall, the iwan. This mosque type, which became widespread in the 12th century, has maintained its popularity to the present.

In this type of mosque the qibla iwan, which faces Mecca, is often the largest and most ornately decorated, as at Isfahan’s Great Mosque. Here, the mosque’s two minarets also flank the lavish qibla iwan. The Safavid rulers refurbished these walls with new tiles in the 16th century.

Though it originated in Iran, the four-iwan plan would become the new plan for mosques all over the Islamic word, used widely from India to Cairo and replacing the hypostyle mosque in many places.

III. The centrally-planned mosque

While the four-iwan plan was used for mosques across the Islamic world, the Ottoman Empire was one of the few places in the central Islamic lands where the four-iwan mosque plan did not dominate. The Ottoman Empire was founded in 1299. However, it did not become a major force until the 15th century, when Mehmed II conquered Constantinople, the capital of the late Roman (Byzantine) Empire since the 4th century. Renamed Istanbul, the city straddles the European and Asian continents, and, having been a Christian capital for over a thousand years, had a wholly different cultural and architectural heritage than Iran. The Ottoman architects were strongly influenced by Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the greatest of all Byzantine churches and one that features a monumental central dome high over its large nave.

Many Ottoman mosques in the late 15th and early 16th centuries referenced Hagia Sophia’s dome; however, it was not until the masterful work of Mimar Sinan, the greatest Ottoman, if not Islamic, architect, that the domes of Ottoman mosques competed with and arguably surpassed that of Hagia Sophia. Sinan experimented with the central plan in a series of mosques in Istanbul, achieving what he considered his masterpiece in the Mosque of Selim II, in Edirne, Turkey. Built for Selim II, son of Suleyman during the golden age of the Ottoman Empire, it is considered the greatest masterpiece of Ottoman architecture. It represents a culmination of years of experimentation with the centrally-planned Ottoman mosque.

Sinan himself boasted that his dome was higher and wider than that of the Hagia Sophia, highlighting the sense of competition with the earlier Byzantine building. In the Selim Mosque, Sinan distilled previous ideas about the central plan into a simple and perfect design. The interior octagonal space was made more spacious by 8 massive piers that pushed back into the walls, and a rhythmic harmony was created through apertures of small and large arches framed by joggled voussoirs, filling the large space with light and color.

Mosque architecture around the world

The three mosque types described above are the most common, and most historically significant, in the Islamic world. Despite their common features, such as mihrabs and minarets, one can see that diverse regional styles account for dramatic differences in the colors, materials, and the overall decoration of mosques. The bright blue and white tiled mihrabs of fourteenth-century Iran are a world apart from the muted colors and stone inlay of an Egyptian mihrab of the same century.

Even more regional differences appear when one looks beyond the central Islamic lands to the architecture of Muslims living in places like China, Africa, and Indonesia, where local materials and regional traditions, sometimes with little influence from the architectural heritage of the central Islamic lands, influenced mosque architecture.

The minaret at Kudus, Indonesia, for instance, reflects the influence of Hindu architecture. The Djingarey Berre Mosque of Timbuktu, in Mali, similarly responds to the pre-Islamic traditions of its own region, utilizing a unique West African style and using earth as the primary building material.

An early mosque in Xian, China, uses a very clearly Chinese style of architecture (below, left), but also incorporates more typical Islamic elements, like squinches and a distinctly Islamic-style arched mihrab (below, right).

Contemporary mosque architecture

Contemporary mosque architecture often represents a remarkable blending of styles, drawing from diverse architectural traditions to create something recognizably “Islamic,” that fulfills all the architectural requirements of a communal mosque and is contemporary in style. In Pakistan, the King Faisal Mosque, 1986 blends contemporary architecture with visual references to traditional forms. The building is strikingly modern, yet plays with the form of the tent structures of Bedouin nomads. This large mosque also incorporates Ottoman-influenced pencil-thin minarets into its modern design.

Additional resources:

3D views of historically significant mosques

Cite this page as: Kendra Weisbin, “Common types of mosque architecture,” in Smarthistory, August 8, 2015, accessed October 17, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/common-types-of-mosque-architecture/.

Umayyad (661–750)

Four leaders, known as the Rightly Guided Caliphs, continued the spread of Islam immediately following the death of the Prophet. It was following the death of the fourth caliph that Mu’awiya seized power and established the Umayyad caliphate, the first Islamic dynasty. During this period, Damascus became the capital and the empire expanded West and East.

The first years following the death of Muhammad were, of course, formative for the religion and its artwork. The immediate needs of the religion included places to worship (mosques) and holy books (Korans) to convey the word of God. So, naturally, many of the first artistic projects included ornamented mosques where the faithful could gather and Korans with beautiful calligraphy.

Because Islam was still a very new religion, it had no artistic vocabulary of its own, and its earliest work was heavily influenced by older styles in the region. Chief among these sources were the Coptic tradition of present-day Egypt and Syria, with its scrolling vines and geometric motifs, Sasanian metalwork and crafts from what is now Iraq with their rhythmic, sometimes abstracted qualities, and naturalistic Byzantine mosaics depicting animals and plants.

These elements can be seen in the earliest significant work from the Umayyad period, the most important of which is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. This stunning monument incorporates Coptic, Sasanian, and Byzantine elements in its decorative program and remains a masterpiece of Islamic architecture to this day.

Remarkably, just one generation after the religion’s inception, Islamic civilization had produced a magnificent, if singular, monument. While the Dome of the Rock is considered an influential work, it bears little resemblance to the multitude of mosques created throughout the rest of the caliphate. It is important to point out that the Dome of the Rock is not a mosque. A more common plan, based on the house of the Prophet, was used for the vast majority of mosques throughout the Arab peninsula and the Maghreb. Perhaps the most remarkable of these is the Great Mosque of Córdoba (784–786) in Spain, which, like the Dome of the Rock, demonstrates an integration of the styles of the existing culture in which it was created.

Abbasid (750–1258)

The Abbasid revolution in the mid-eighth century ended the Umayyad dynasty, resulted in the massacre of the Umayyad caliphs (a single caliph escaped to Spain, prolonging Umayyad work after dynasty) and established the Abbasid dynasty in 750. The new caliphate shifted its attention eastward and established cultural and commercial capitals at Baghdad and Samarra.

The Umayyad dynasty produced little of what we would consider decorative arts (like pottery, glass, metalwork), but under the Abbasid dynasty production of decorative stone, wood and ceramic objects flourished. Artisans in Samarra developed a new method for carving surfaces that allowed for curved, vegetal forms (called arabesques) which became widely adopted. There were also developments in ceramic decoration. The use of luster painting (which gives ceramic ware a metallic sheen) became popular in surrounding regions and was extensively used on tile for centuries. Overall, the Abbasid epoch was an important transitional period that disseminated styles and techniques to distant Islamic lands.

The Abbasid empire weakened with the establishment and growing power of semi-autonomous dynasties throughout the region, until Baghdad was finally overthrown in 1258. This dissolution signified not only the end of a dynasty, but marked the last time that the Arab-Muslim empire would be united as one entity.

Additional resources

Read about the Umayyads

Read the vibrant visual cultures of the Islamic West, an introduction

The Art of the Umayyad Period (661–750) from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Timeline of Art History

The Nature of Islamic Art from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Timeline of Art History

This essay discusses figurative and non-figurative paintings that have survived in four palaces between the 7th and 8th centuries:

1. Qusayr ʿAmra (Jordan)
2. Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi (Syria)
3. Qasr al-Hallabat (Jordan)
4. Khirbat al-Mafjar (Palestine)

In addition, the essay explores how pigment was used in the 8th–10th centuries to decorate three-dimensional forms in stucco, stone, and wood, and smaller paintings in manuscripts and on ceramic plates.

Painted palaces

Qusayr ʿAmra

The best-preserved early Islamic paintings are from the palaces of the Umayyad caliphs and princes. These mostly date to the first half of the 8th century. Starting with the most impressive, the bathhouse of Qusayr ʿAmra in Jordan was built for the prince al-Walid ibn Yazid. It has an audience hall and a suite of three bathrooms, and the walls of every room are painted with an amazing assortment of scenes.

Some seem to tell stories. In the middle of one wall of the audience hall, a semi-naked woman stands at the edge of a bath. She is watched by a group of men on a balcony, some of whom point at her, and one dressed in a bright blue robe (on the far left) leans forward over the railing to get a better view. A figure stands behind the bather, also gesturing at her, and another woman’s head can just be seen above, peering down from a little window. No one is sure what the scene means, but it is full of drama. Perhaps some of the figures were portraits of real people—maybe the man in blue is al-Walid himself—or perhaps they represented more abstract concepts or qualities, in the same way that, for example, the goddess Venus could stand for beauty and love in Roman art.

On other walls at Qusayr ʿAmra are portraits of the patron, and images of kings, wrestlers, hunters, fishermen, dancers, musicians, and mythological characters. There is also a painted star-chart in the dome of the sauna, with the symbols for the Greco-Roman constellations.

There were probably equally varied wall paintings at the Palestinian palace and bathhouse of Khirbat al-Mafjar, based on the fragments remaining, which show pieces of people, animals, and buildings (this palace is discussed more below).

Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi

The palace of Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi (also called Qasr al-Hayr West) was built for the caliph Hisham, and among its decorations were two huge frescos on floors. One of the panels shows vine scrolls, centaurs, and a woman carrying fruits in a cloth: she is probably the classical figure Ge or Gaia, a personification of the Earth. The floor was a very unusual place for painting. The composition looks like a Byzantine mosaic, and it is possible that paint was substituted for as an inexpensive or quicker alternative.

The second floor painting at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi shows musicians and a hunter on horseback, and is more Sasanian in its style and content, for example the hunter’s flowing scarf headdress was adopted from elite Sasanian fashion.

Palaces like these were usually outside cities, but they were often near main roads and so were relatively easy for their patrons to visit. They would have been used as temporary retreats—holiday homes—and probably also as sites of display, places for the Umayyad aristocrats to entertain and impress visitors. Grand paintings would have helped to create the desired atmosphere of luxury and sophistication.

Qasr al-Hallabat

At another Umayyad site, Qasr al-Hallabat in Jordan, the wall paintings include plant scrolls framing mythical simurghs or senmurvs—beasts with lions’ paws and peacocks’ wings. Medallions inhabited by little animals and people were also found at the ninth-century Abbasid palatial complex of Samarra, along with some larger compositions such as a pair of dancing women pouring wine into bowls. These later examples show that the art of figural painting continued to flourish in secular contexts after the Umayyad dynasty had ended.

Non-figural paintings in palaces

Moving to non-figural paintings, these could be used to decorate other parts of the same palaces. For example, designs along the dados of walls at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi imitated the patterns of other materials like marble and textiles.

Painted imitations of marble have also been found at early Islamic palaces in Balis and Rusafa in Syria, as well as at Qusayr ʿAmra and Khirbat al-Mafjar alongside the figural designs. In one example from Khirbat al-Mafjar, diagonal striped lines represent the veins in a slab of marble, while the diamond and circle in the center resemble inlaid pieces of expensive multi-colored stones. Very similar designs are found at non-Islamic sites in western Europe around the same time, particularly in the Lombard and Carolingian regions, as well as in much earlier Roman buildings.

Painting in three dimensions

Painting in the early Islamic period—and probably throughout the Middle Ages—didn’t just mean flat designs on walls or floors. Pigment was also used to decorate three-dimensional forms in stucco, stone, and wood. There are not many written descriptions of painting from this period, but those that exist often describe the colors as being applied to objects or parts of buildings, and so it is possible that this was the most common use of the medium. Painted stucco statues of soldiers and women holding flowers were found at Khirbat al-Mafjar, and it is probable that stone statues elsewhere were painted.

Pigment does not survive well on moulded stucco, for example the qibla wall of the mosque of al-Fudayn appears today as plain plaster, but it is likely that most panels like this were originally brightly colored. One clue is that the motifs chosen for the stucco-work were often ones associated with color, like the stylized flowers known as rosettes on the qibla wall shown above.

Small, painted objects

The paintings described so far were all large-scale, integral parts of rich buildings. Smaller objects could also be painted, from valuable items such as manuscripts to more mundane ones like ceramic plates. Early manuscripts of the Qur’an were sometimes illuminated with architectural and floral motifs, although more often with geometric ornament.

Developments in ceramic glazing technology took place in the 9th century, and from then on ceramics were painted with a much wider range of motifs. These were often simple versions of the designs chosen for palace walls: birds, animals and mythical creatures, kings, hunters, musicians and dancers, as well as non-figural patterns and script. The metallic yellow-brown was probably intended to imitate gold, such as in a bowl from the 10th century in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Western European ceramics of the same period are nowhere near as highly decorated, as the potters lacked the knowledge and materials for the glazes.

Other types of objects were almost certainly painted too, but have not survived so well over the centuries.

A culture of paint

Painted ornament in both two and three dimensions was an important part of elite visual culture in the Umayyad caliphate, while during the Abbasid period, innovations in technology brought intricately painted objects into everyday life. Early Islamic paintings were often vivid and imaginative; some reworked classical Greco-Roman or Sasanian motifs, and others were new. Far from being a period of iconoclasm or avoidance of images, this was a time of renewed engagement with the art of paint.

Additional resources

Manar al-Athar—for images of archaeological sites

Qusayr ʿAmra

Abbasid ceramics

Ernst Emil Herzfeld (1879–1948) in Samarra (from The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Khirbat al-Mafjar (from The Metropolitan Museum of Art)