As implicit in the names of his Epistles, Paul spread Christianity to the Greek and Roman cities of the ancient Mediterranean world. In cities like Ephesus, Corinth, Thessaloniki, and Rome, Paul encountered the religious and cultural experience of the Greco-Roman world. This encounter played a major role in the formation of Christianity.
Rotunda of Galerius, later a Christian church, and afterwards a mosque. Today it is known as the Church of the Rotunda, 4th century C.E., Thessaloniki, Greece (photo: George M. Groutas, CC BY 2.0)
Christianity as a mystery cult
Christianity in its first three centuries was one of a large number of mystery religions that flourished in the Roman world. Religion in the Roman world was divided between the public, inclusive cults of civic religions and the secretive, exclusive mystery cults. The emphasis in the civic cults was on customary practices, especially sacrifices. Since the early history of the polis or city-state in Greek culture, the public cults played an important role in defining civic identity.
Arch of Titus and Colosseum, late 1st century C.E., Rome (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
As it expanded and assimilated more people, Rome continued to use the public religious experience to define the identity of its citizens. The polytheism of the Romans allowed the assimilation of the gods of the people it had conquered.
As the boundaries of the Roman-Byzantine Empire gradually constricted over the period of Late Antiquity (c. late third to mid-eighth century C.E.), the Byzantines found themselves in contact with an ever expanding range of cultural groups. Following the rise of Islamic armies in the seventh centuries, extensive eastern regions of the Byzantine Empire were lost to Islamic conquerors. Many territories across North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean coast were never recovered, and from the seventh to early thirteenth century Byzantium struggled to preserve its eastern borders against diverse rivals, especially newly emerging Islamic polities. Simultaneously Byzantium faced perennial challenges to its political authority from the North and West, with Western and Eastern European adversaries periodically vying for control of territories at the Empire’s edges.
These military conflicts occurred in tandem with diplomacy, and objects frequently played a role in intercultural negotiations. An eleventh-century text produced at the Fatimid (medieval Islamic) court in Cairo (Egypt), The Book of Gifts and Rarities (Kitāb al-Hadāyā wa al-Tuḥaf), includes detailed accounts of the wondrous gifts exchanged with Byzantium, including silk garments and hangings, precious metal vessels, and exotic animals. While the exact objects described in this text are not preserved today, surviving examples of these categories of luxury objects give shape to these verbal accounts.
For example, Byzantine silks depicting animal and hunter motifs were favored as diplomatic gifts to Islamic rulers because their iconography referred to a shared value for the reverence of nature and the pleasures of elite pastimes.
Silk fragment with imperial hunters (Mozac Hunter silk), Byzantine, possibly 8th or 9th century (Musée des Tissus, Lyon; photo: Pierre Verrier)
Diplomatic relations also included the exchange of people. The Book of Gifts and Rarities and medieval historical accounts document the presentation of enslaved people, the exchange of prisoners, and the transfer of conquered people across medieval Afro-Eurasia. These individuals sometimes included craftsmen, who helped to spread artistic knowledge, styles, and technical skills. In some instances, diplomatic relations were secured through marriage alliances that entailed the transfer of brides. In 972, Theophano, niece of the Byzantine emperor, was wedded to Otto II, heir to the Holy Roman Empire. Their union was commemorated with an Ottonian marriage contract that, alluding to Byzantine tradition, was written in gold on richly purple-dyed parchment and decorated with animal motifs in roundels, which resemble ornamental patterns found on precious silks.
Marriage contract of Emperor Otto II and Theophano, Ottonian, 14 April 972, parchment, black and gold ink, c. 155 x 40 cm, Niedersachsisches Staatsarchiv, Wolfenbüttel, Germany (Wikimedia Commons)
Theophano was a tastemaker at the Ottonian court. Having carried with her works of Byzantine art, she helped to transmit Byzantine artistic models and forms to medieval Western Europe. An ivory plaque depicting Theophano and Otto portrays them in typical Byzantine fashion, their union (and rule) affirmed by Christ himself.
Otto II and Theophano crowned by Christ, Byzantine-Ottonian, 982-983, ivory, c. 19 x 11 x 1 cm (Musée de Cluny)
Foreign women also married into the Byzantine royal family to secure alliances. This Byzantine manuscript (Vatican cod. gr. 1851) depicting a foreign child-bride might celebrate the betrothal of Agnes of France (daughter of the French king Louis VII ) to Alexios II (son of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos) in 1179. It includes illuminations, one of which visualizes the young woman’s metamorphosis into a Byzantine princess through the transformation of her regalia (in the upper register, between the images from left to right) and her culminating appearance enthroned in imperial splendor (lower register, at center). [1]
A foreign bride (with a red-outlined halo) arrives in simple attire (upper left corner) at Constantinople (depicted in the middleground); she is subsequently transformed into a Byzantine princess through changes in her garments (as depicted in the upper right, where she is received by women of the imperial court, and the lower center, where she is enthroned). Vatican City, Vatican Library, cod. Gr. 1851, Fol. 3v.
Copyright: Dr. Alicia Walker, “Cross-cultural artistic interaction in the Middle Byzantine period,” in Smarthistory, July 30, 2021, accessed April 15, 2024,
Spread of Islam
Hypostyle hall, Great Mosque-Cathedral at Córdoba, Spain, begun 786 and enlarged during the 9th and 10th centuries (photo: wsifrancis, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow waterway that runs between Spain and Portugal to the north and Morocco to the south, separates Europe from Africa (see map below). Although water divides the two continents, the strait has served as a bridge—and has encouraged lively exchange and dynamic interaction throughout the region. We tend to think of bridges as physical structures that help to guide people over an obstacle such as a body of water, but by looking at the history of the region, especially in terms of art and architecture, we can see that the Strait of Gibraltar and the Mediterranean Sea actually served to unify, and were instrumental in shaping the people, cultures, and histories of adjacent regions on two continents.
This essay provides an overview of the art and architecture of the Islamic West, a term that refers to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal today) when it was under Islamic rule, and what is today Morocco in northwest Africa. Not only will we look at art and architecture that was produced by Muslims, but we will also explore striking examples of visual culture from Iberia’s Jewish and Christian communities, work that highlights the rich diversity and multiculturalism of medieval Iberia. Examples drawn from different dynasties demonstrate the remarkable degree of cultural exchange and interaction that flourished there.
Constructing an Islamic Identity
The victory of Muslim forces against the Visigoths at the Battle of Guadalete in 711 marked a new era in the history of the Iberian Peninsula. In the centuries that followed, the Islamic presence in the Iberian Peninsula, particularly its southern reaches, increased considerably.
Map of the Mediterranean and west Asia in the 9th century
In 755, the Umayyad dynasty was reestablished on the Iberian Peninsula (when the last surviving member of the family fled west after the triumph of the Abbasid caliphate).
Although it predates the Umayyads, the city of Córdoba (in what is now southern Spain) developed rapidly under the dynasty as one of its capital cities. Both Córdoba and its surroundings boast incredible monuments that shed light on the visual cultures of early Islamic Iberia, a period when the Islamic presence in the region was rapidly growing, and there was an effort to establish a coherent and shared sense of identity in this new land.
Information about Judaism can be found in Part 1 of this text, linked above.
Christianity
Jesus Christ (c. 4-6 CE – c. 30 CE), also called Jesus son of Joseph, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Galilee or simply “Christ,” was a Jewish religious leader who became a central figure in Christianity, regarded by most Christian branches as God himself. He is also considered an important prophet in Muslim tradition and the precursor of Prophet Muhammad.Christ was not originally Jesus’ name. It was customary among ancient Jews to have only one name and add either the father’s name or the name of their place of origin. This is why during his life; Jesus was called sometimes Jesus of Nazareth and other times Jesus son of Joseph, which is supported by Christian sources (Luke 4.22; John 1.45; 6.42; Acts 10.38). The word, Christ, is not a name but a title derived for the Greek word christos , a term analogous to the Hebrew expression Meshiah, “ The anointed one. ” Many Jews hoped that the former glory of Israel would be restored by a newly anointed son of King David, and they used the Messiah title to refer to this restorer. Early Christian literature sometimes combined the name of Jesus and his title using them together as Jesus’ name: Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus. The reason for this is that the early followers of Jesus’ teachings believed he was the Messiah. (39)
History
The life of Jesus began in north and central Palestine, a region between the Dead Sea and the Jordan River in the east and the Eastern Mediterranean in the west. This region was under Roman control since the 1st century BCE, initially as a tributary kingdom. The Roman campaigns, coupled with internal revolts and the incursion of the Parthians, made the region very unstable and chaotic up until 37 BCE, when Herod the Great (c.73 BCE – 4 BCE) became king. The region gradually gained political stability and became prosperous. Although Jewish in religion, Herod was a vassal king who served the interests of the Roman Empire.
After Herod’s death in 4 BCE, the Romans intervened again in order to split up the Herodian kingdom between three of Herod the Great’s sons.
Galilee in the north and Perea in the southeast were entrusted to Herod Antipas (c. 20 BCE – c. 39 CE), whose reign (4 BCE – 39 CE) covered the entire life of Jesus.
Philip the Tetrarch was appointed ruler over northern Transjordania .
Herod Archelaus was made ruler of Samaria , Judea , and Idumea , and he exercised his power with tyranny and brutality; some of these abuses are recorded in the gospel of Matthew (2.20–23). The combination of killings, revolts, and social turbulence in Archelaus’ realm was too much for the patience of Roman authorities: in 6 CE theEmperor Augustus deposed and exiled Archelaus, sending him to Gaul, and his domain became the Roman Province of Iudaea in 6 CE (sometime spelled Judea , not to be confused with Judea proper, the region between Samaria and Idumea). Thus, Iudaea was under direct Roman administration and rulers directly appointed by the Roman Emperor governed the Province.
None of the gospels shows much interest in dating accurately the birth of Jesus, and there are no references to the Roman dating system, or to any other dating systems used in the Bible. Matthew simply states that Jesus’ birth occurred “in the days of Herod the king [ Herod the Great ].” The exact year for Jesus’ birth is not known for certain, but there is enough ground to believe that he could not have been born any later than 4 BCE. Moreover, though this is the latest he could have been born, it could well be an earlier date, even as early as 17 BCE according to some scholars.
Like the Buddha, Confucius, Socrates and many other great teachers of Antiquity, Jesus left no written records. To say that he never wrote anything is to contradict the gospel of John (8.7) where we read that Jesus wrote something in the sand with his finger, but after more than two millennia, we can safely assume that these lines, whatever they were, are long gone. Details about his life survived in early Christian oral tradition for many decades until the slow process of committing them to writing started.
The earliest Christian records mentioning the life of Jesus are the letters ascribed to Saint Paul, many of which are actually of uncertain authorship. Some of these letters date back to approximately 65 CE, maybe a few years earlier. The details in these letters do not offer details of the life of Jesus outside the Last Supper and his execution.
The Gospels
We also have the gospels. The word ” gospel ” means ‘ good news ‘ (from Old English) and refers to the accounts of the life of Jesus. Many different gospels have come down to us but only a group of four are accepted by Christian tradition to be inspired by God.
This group is known as the ” canonical gospels ” and includes the gospels according to Matthew , Mark , Luke , andJohn .
The remaining gospels are known as ” apocryphal ” or ” non-canonical gospels ” and are not considered to be divinely inspired. Three of the four canonical gospels are labelled as ” synoptic gospels ” (Matthew, Mark and Luke), because their content presents many similarities. John, however, presents a very different picture of events.
The earliest of the four canonical gospels is believed to be Mark, written probably around 65–70 CE. Its content is not arranged chronologically, but according to subjects, such as miracle stories, parables, pronouncement stories, etc. The only segment arranged chronologically is the Passion narrative (14.1–16.8). The two later synoptic gospels are Matthew, written around 85-90 CE, and Luke, about 90–100 CE. It is widely believed that the authors of these two gospels used Mark as their main source. In addition to Mark, there is a hypothetical source of the teaching of Jesus used by the authors of Matthew and Luke, which is known as the “Q” source (from the German word Quelle, “ source ”). (39)
The Growth and Spread of Early Christianity
Persecution of Christians
Members of the Early Christian movement often became political targets and scapegoats for the social ills and political tensions of specific rulers and turbulent periods during the first three centuries, CE; however, this persecution was sporadic and rarely Empire-wide. (41)
The first recorded official persecution of Christians on behalf of the Roman Empire was in 64 CE, when, as reported by the Roman historian Tacitus, Emperor Nero blamed Christians for the Great Fire of Rome. According to Church tradition, it was during the reign of Nero that Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome. However, modern historians debate whether the Roman government distinguished between Christians and Jews prior to Nerva’s modification of the Fiscus Judaicus in 96, from which point practicing Jews paid the tax and Christians did not.
The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, which lasted from 302–311 CE. In 303, the emperors Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius, and Constantius issued a series of edicts rescinding the legal rights of Christians and demanding that they comply with traditional Roman religious practices.
Later edicts targeted the clergy and ordered all inhabitants to sacrifice to the Roman gods (a policy known as universal sacrifice). The persecution varied in intensity across the empire—it was weakest in Gaul and Britain, where only the first edict was applied, and strongest in the Eastern provinces.
During the Great Persecution, Diocletian ordered Christian buildings and the homes of Christians torn down, and their sacred books collected and burned during the Great Persecution. Christians were arrested, tortured, mutilated, burned, starved, and condemned to gladiatorial contests to amuse spectators. The Great Persecution officially ended in April of 311, when Galerius, senior emperor of the Tetrarchy, issued an edict of toleration which granted Christians the right to practice their religion, though it did not restore any property to them. Constantine, Caesar in the western empire, and Licinius, Caesar in the east, also were signatories to the edict of toleration. (42)
Edict of Milan
In 313, Constantine and Licinius announced in the Edict of Milan “ that it was proper that the Christians and all others should have liberty to follow that mode of religion which to each of them appeared best, ” thereby granting tolerance to all religions, including Christianity.
The Edict of Milan went a step further than the earlier Edict of Toleration by Galerius in 311, and returned confiscated Church property. This edict made the empire officially neutral with regard to religious worship; it neither made the traditional religions illegal, nor made Christianity the state religion (as did the later Edict of Thessalonica in 380 CE). The Edict of Milan did, however, raise the stock of Christianity within the empire, and it reaffirmed the importance of religious worship to the welfare of the state. (42)
The Nicene Creed
In 325 CE Constantine invited clerics from across the empire to a conference at Nicaea where he made a plea for unity. (54)Under the supervision of Emperor Constantine I, the Nicene Creed (325 CE) was composed by an ecumenical council , which was and is accepted as authoritative by most Christian groups, but not by the Eastern Orthodox Church (at least, the second version in 381 CE is rejected for adding in the Filioque Clause—”And the Son”).
The Nicene Creed describes the pre-existence of Jesus Christ, his role in the future judgment of humanity, how Jesus is “homoousis” — of the same substance with God, how and why the Holy Spirit is to be worshipped as part of the holy family, discusses the requirement of baptism, and minimizes the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, interestingly. (41)
The Athanasian Creed
Although there are others, the Athanasian Creed (328 CE) also proved important in pushing back against the heresies of the day, namely Docetism and Arianism . (41)
Docetism held that Jesus’ humanity was merely an illusion, thus denying the incarnation (Deity becoming human).
Arianism held that Jesus, while not merely mortal, was not eternally divine and was, therefore, of lesser status than the Father. (44)
Christianity: State Religion of Roman Empire
By the 5th century CE, Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire, leading to a dramatic change in how the faith played out in greater society. This caused a shift in Christianity from private to public worship; from a distinctly Jewish character to one more aligned with the Gentiles; from an individual matter to more of a community affair; from a seeker-driven faith to an exclusively chosen body of believers; from a looser, more informal structure to that of distinct strata of operation and authority; and from gender empowering to more specific gender-specific limitations. Additionally, Christian leaders had to figure out how Christianity integrated with Roman law and government, dealt with barbarian peoples, and still maintained the essence of Jesus’ teachings and missions for his followers. (41)
Christianity in the Early Middle Ages
With the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the west, the papacy became a political player, first visible in Pope Leo’s diplomatic dealings with Huns and Vandals. The church also entered into a long period of missionary activity and expansion among the various tribes. Catholicism spread among the Germanic peoples, the Celtic and Slavic peoples, the Hungarians, and the Baltic peoples. Christianity has been an important part of the shaping of Western civilization, at least since the 4 th century. (43)
Around 500, St. Benedict set out his Monastic Rule , establishing a system of regulations for the foundation and running of monasteries. Monasticism became a powerful force throughout Europe, and gave rise to many early centers of learning, most famously in Ireland, Scotland and Gaul, contributing to the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9 th century.
In the 7 th century Muslims conquered Syria (including Jerusalem), North Africa and Spain. Part of the Muslims’ success was due to the exhaustion of the Byzantine Empire in its decades long conflict with Persia. Beginning in the 8 th century, with the rise of Carolingian leaders, the papacy began to find greater political support in the Frankish Kingdom.
The Middle Ages brought about major changes within the church. Pope Gregory the Great dramatically reformed ecclesiastical structure and administration. In the early 8 th century, iconoclasm—the destruction of religious icons—became a divisive issue, when it was sponsored by the Byzantine emperors. The Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (787) finally pronounced in favor of icons. In the early 10 th century, Western Christian monasticism was further rejuvenated through the leadership of the great Benedictine Monastery of Cluny. (43)
Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur’an, a book considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Allāh) and by the teachings and normative example (called the Sunnah and composed of Hadith) of Muhammad, considered by them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim.
Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and the purpose of existence is to love and serve God. Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, whom they consider prophets. Muslims maintain that the previous messages and revelations have been partially misinterpreted or altered over time, but consider the Arabic Qur’an to be both the unaltered and the final revelation of God. Religious concepts and practices include the five pillars of Islam, which are basic concepts and obligatory acts of worship, and following Islamic law, which touches on virtually every aspect of life and society, providing guidance on multifarious topics from banking and welfare, to warfare and the environment.
Most Muslims are of two denominations, Sunni (75–90%, or Shia (10–20%). About 13% of Muslims live in Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country, 25%; in South Asia, 20%; in the Middle East, and 15%; in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sizable minorities are also found in China, Russia, and the Americas. Converts and immigrant communities are found in almost every part of the world (see Islam by country). With about 1.57 billion followers or 23%; of earth’s population, Islam is the second-largest religion and one of the fastest-growing religions in the world. (45)
A Brief History of Muhammad
In Muslim tradition, Muhammad (c. 570 – June 8, 632) is viewed as the last in a series of prophets. During the last 22 years of his life, beginning at age 40 in 610 CE, according to the earliest surviving biographies, Muhammad reported revelations that he believed to be from God conveyed to him through the archangel Gabriel (Jibril). The content of these revelations, known as the Qur’an, was memorized and recorded by his companions. During this time, Muhammad preached to the people in Mecca, imploring them to abandon polytheism and to worship one God. Although some converted to Islam, Muhammad and his followers were persecuted by the leading Meccan authorities.
After 12 years of the persecution of Muslims by the Meccans and the Meccan boycott of Muhammad’s relatives, Muhammad and the Muslims performed the Hijra (“emigration”) to the city of Medina (formerly known as Yathrib) in 622 CE. There, with the Medinan converts and the Meccan migrants, Muhammad in Medina established his political and religious authority. A state was established in accordance with Islamic economic jurisprudence.
Within a few years, two battles were fought against the Meccan forces:
First, the Battle of Badr in 624 CE, which was a Muslim victory.
Then a year later, when the Meccans returned to Medina, the Battle of Uhud, which ended inconclusively.
The Arab tribes in the rest of Arabia then formed a confederation and during the Battle of the Trench besieged Medina with the intent of finishing off Islam. In 628 CE, a treaty was signed between Mecca and the Muslims and was broken by Mecca two years later. After the signing of the treaty many more people converted to Islam. At the same time, Meccan trade routes were cut off as Muhammad brought surrounding desert tribes under his control. By 629 CE Muhammad was victorious in the nearly bloodless Conquest of Mecca, and by the time of his death in 632 CE (at the age of 62) he united the tribes of Arabia into a single religious polity. (45)
The Early Caliphates
With Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community. Abu Bakr, a companion and close friend of Muhammad, was made the first caliph. The Quran was compiled into one book during this time.
Abu Bakr’s death in 634 CE resulted in the succession of Umar ibn al-Khattab as the caliph, followed by Uthman ibn al-Affan, Ali ibn Abi Talib, and Hasan ibn Ali. The first caliphs are known as the “Rightly Guided Caliphs.” Under them, the territory under Muslim rule expanded deeply into the Persian and Byzantine territories. When Umar was assassinated in 644 CE, the election of Uthman as successor was met with increasing opposition. The Quran was standardized during this time. In 656 CE, Uthman was also killed, and Ali assumed the position of caliph. After the first civil war (the “First Fitna”), Ali was assassinated by the Kharijites in 661 CE. Following this, Mu’awiyah seized power and began the Umayyad Dynasty. (45)
After being united under the aegis of Islam, the Arabs—known as the Umayyads—began military campaigns outside of their realm. In the mid-seventh century, Muslim armies began invading parts of the increasingly vulnerable Sassanid and Byzantine empires, claiming land in what are now Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. In fact, so powerful were the Islamic army and navy that Byzantium was permanently crippled by the invasions.
The Umayyads went on to conquer northern Africa and invade India, building a kingdom that exceeded the size of the Roman Empire. But despite their success abroad, the Umayyads suffered a period of discord at home: a succession dispute resulted in a division of Muslims into Sunni and Shi’a factions. While the Sunnis retained temporary control of the caliphate, a Shi’ite uprising in 750 CE toppled the Umayyads and established Abbasid rule. Under the Abbasids, mass conversion to Islam was encouraged, as was a dynamic Afro-Eurasian trade network. The Abbasids also established Persian as the official language, and encouraged the flowering of Islamic culture. (46)
When a Shi’a leader—Abu al-Abbas—usurped power from the reigning Sunni caliph in 750 CE, the Umayyad era officially came to a close. While al-Abbas tried to execute all members of the Sunni Umayyads, one leader escaped to the Iberian Peninsula, where he established a new Umayyad kingdom. However, Abd ar-Rahman I was not the first Muslim to invade Spain; Muslim Berbers had overthrown the Visigoths and established the kingdom of Al-Andalus in the early eighth century. Still, the Umayyads in Spain—known as the Caliphate of Cordoba—retained power until the 1000s. With the decline of the Caliphate, several smaller kingdoms, called “taifas,” claimed control over southern Spain. It was not until 1492, when the Christian monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella declared a holy war against the Spanish Muslims did Muslim control of the regions come to an end. (47)
Five Pillars of Islam
The Pillars of Islam are five basic acts in Islam, considered obligatory for all believers. The Quran presents them as a framework for worship and a sign of commitment to the faith. They are:
Shahadah (creed)
Daily prayers (salat)
Almsgiving (zakah)
Fasting during Ramadan
Pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime
The Shia and Sunni sects both agree on the essential details for the performance of these acts.
Prayer
Ritual prayers, called Ṣalāh or Ṣalāt, must be performed five times a day. Salah is intended to focus the mind on God, and is seen as a personal communication with him that expresses gratitude and worship. Salah is compulsory but flexibility in the specifics is allowed depending on circumstances. The prayers are recited in the Arabic language, and consist of verses from the Qur’an.
A mosque is a place of worship for Muslims, who often refer to it by its Arabic name, masjid. The word mosque in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated to Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller, privately owned mosque and the larger, “collective” mosque. Although the primary purpose of the mosque is to serve as a place of prayer, it is also important to the Muslim community as a place to meet and study. Modern mosques have evolved greatly from the early designs of the 7th century, and contain a variety of architectural elements such as minarets.
Alms-giving
“Zakāt” (“alms”) is giving a fixed portion of accumulated wealth by those who can afford it to help the poor or needy and for those employed to collect Zakat; also, for bringing hearts together, freeing captives, for those in debt (or bonded labour) and for the (stranded) traveller. It is considered a religious obligation (as opposed to voluntary charity) that the well-off owe to the needy because their wealth is seen as a “trust from God’s bounty.” Conservative estimates of annual Zakat are estimated to be 15 times global humanitarian aid contributions. The amount of zakat to be paid on capital assets (e.g. money) is 2.5% (1/40), for people who are not poor. The Qur’an and the hadith also urge a Muslim to give even more as an act of voluntary alms-giving called ṣadaqah.
Fasting
Fasting (ṣawm) from food and drink (among other things) must be performed from dawn to dusk during the month of Ramadhan. The fast is to encourage a feeling of nearness to God, and during it, Muslims should express their gratitude for and dependence on him, atone for their past sins, and think of the needy. Sawm is not obligatory for several groups for whom it would constitute an undue burden. For others, flexibility is allowed depending on circumstances, but missed fasts usually must be made up quickly.
Pilgrimage
The pilgrimage, called the ḥajj, has to be done during the Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah in the city of Mecca. Every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it must make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his or her lifetime. Rituals of the Hajj include:
Walking seven times around the Kaaba
Walking seven times between Mount Safa and Mount Marwah recounting the steps of Abraham’s wife, while she was looking for water in the desert before Mecca developed into a settlement
Spending a day in the desert at Mina and then a day in the desert in Arafat praying and worshiping God and following the foot steps of Abraham
Symbolically stoning the Devil in Mina recounting Abraham’s actions (45)
In 313, the Roman Empire legalized Christianity, beginning a process that would eventually dismantle its centuries-old pagan tradition. Not long after, emperor Constantine transferred the empire’s capital from Rome to the ancient Greek city of Byzantion (modern Istanbul). Constantine renamed the new capital city “Constantinople” (“the city of Constantine”) after himself and dedicated it in the year 330. With these events, the Byzantine Empire was born—or was it? The term “Byzantine Empire” is a bit of a misnomer. The Byzantines understood their empire to be a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire and referred to themselves as “Romans.” The use of the term “Byzantine” only became widespread in Europe after Constantinople finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. For this reason, some scholars refer to Byzantium as the “medieval Roman” or “Eastern Roman” Empire.
The history of Byzantium is remarkably long. If we reckon the history of the Eastern Roman Empire from the dedication of Constantinople in 330 until its fall to the Ottomans in 1453, the empire endured for some 1,123 years. Scholars typically divide Byzantine history into three major periods: Early Byzantium, Middle Byzantium, and Late Byzantium. But it is important to note that these historical designations are the invention of modern scholars rather than the Byzantines themselves. Nevertheless, these periods can be helpful for marking significant events, contextualizing art and architecture, and understanding larger cultural trends in
Byzantium’s history
Early Byzantium: c. 330–843
Scholars often disagree about the parameters of the Early Byzantine period. On the one hand, this period saw a continuation of Roman society and culture—so, is it really correct to say it began in 330? On the other, the empire’s acceptance of Christianity and geographical shift to the east inaugurated a new era. Following Constantine’s embrace of Christianity, the church enjoyed imperial patronage, constructing monumental churches in centers such as Rome, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. In the west, the empire faced numerous attacks by Germanic nomads from the north, and Rome was sacked by the Goths in 410 and by the Vandals in
455. The city of Ravenna in northeastern Italy rose to prominence in the 5th and 6th centuries when it functioned as an imperial capital for the western half of the empire. Several churches adorned with opulent mosaics, such as San Vitale and the nearby Sant’Apollinare in Classe, testify to the importance of Ravenna during this time.
Under the sixth-century emperor Justinian I, who reigned 527–65, the Byzantine Empire expanded to its largest geographical area: encompassing the Balkans to the north, Egypt and other parts of north Africa to the south, Anatolia (what is now Turkey) and the Levant (including modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan) to the east, and Italy and the southern Iberian Peninsula (now Spain and Portugal) to the west. Many of Byzantium’s greatest architectural monuments, such as the innovative domed basilica of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, were also built during Justinian’s reign.
Following the example of Rome, Constantinople featured a number of outdoor public spaces —including major streets, fora (in ancient Roman urban planning, the city center: an open space used for markets and gatherings of citizens, surrounded by temples and public buildings), as well as a hippodrome (a course for horse or chariot racing with public seating)—in which emperors and church officials often participated in showy public ceremonies such as processions. Christian monasticism, which began to thrive in the 4th century, received imperial patronage at sites like Mount Sinai in Egypt. Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt.
Yet the mid-7th century began what some scholars call the “dark ages” or the “transitional period” in Byzantine history. Following the rise of Islam in Arabia and subsequent attacks by Arab invaders, Byzantium lost substantial territories, including Syria and Egypt, as well as the symbolically important city of Jerusalem with its sacred pilgrimage sites. The empire experienced a decline in trade and an economic downturn. Against this backdrop, and perhaps fueled by anxieties about the fate of the empire, the so-called “Iconoclastic Controversy” erupted in Constantinople in the 8th and 9th centuries. Church leaders and emperors debated the use of religious images that depicted Christ and the saints, some honoring them as holy images, or “icons,” and others condemning them as idols (like the images of deities in ancient Rome) and apparently destroying some. Finally, in 843, Church and imperial authorities definitively affirmed the use of religious images and ended the Iconoclastic Controversy, an event subsequently celebrated by the Byzantines as the “Triumph of Orthodoxy.” (Orthodoxy refers to right Christian belief, believed to be essential for salvation.)
Jewish Metaphysics
After Alexander the Great, a student of Aristotle, conquered Persia in 332 BCE, his generals divided the empire’s vast lands in Asia, the Levant, northern Africa, and Europe into three states and spread Greek culture and ideas into these territories, Hellenizing these areas. As a result, wealthier Jews gained exposure to the Greek classics.
Philo of Alexandria
Born into a wealthy, Hellenized family in the Roman province of Egypt, Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE–50 CE) published both his philosophical treatises and his personal accounts of his political experiences. Philo served as ambassador to Emperor Gaius Caligula on behalf of the one million Jews dwelling in Egypt. His work represents the first systematic attempt to make use of ideas developed by Plato and other Greek philosophers to explain and justify Jewish scripture. In Plato’s metaphysical vision, true reality is unchanging and eternal, with the world we experience only a temporary reflection of these eternal forms. But, Philo asked, how can the creation of a physical world be explained? How can eternal forms express themselves in a physical world? In reconciling Jewish and Greek doctrines of creation, Philo identifies Plato’s forms as logos, or the thoughts of God. Separate from the eternal divinity—Aristotle’s unmoved mover—logos serves as the mediator between God and the physical world. When in the Book of Genesis, God says, “Let there be light,” this is the logos of the unmoved mover. Philo’s fusion of Greek and Jewish philosophy lays the foundation for early Christian doctrine. In fact, his scholarship was preserved by the Christian community and only rediscovered by the Jewish community in the 16th century.
Early Jewish Ethics and Metaphysics
At the time of Philo, the Jewish Bible consisted of the five books of Moses, known as the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the later books that make up the Tanakh. Much of Jewish theological, legal, and philosophical thought was passed down orally. Following the Roman Empire’s destruction of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah in 70 CE, the Sanhedrin, a semiautonomous Jewish legal and judicial body that had been forcibly relocated to northern Israel, began transcribing the oral traditions so as not to lose them. These writings would later become the Talmud. Among these writings is the text Ethics of Our Fathers, which provides a moral guide to everyday life. Later, Jewish scholars also began to explore metaphysics, culminating in the Kabbalah, which examines the relationship between God—defined as the infinite, unchanging, and eternal—and the finite world we experience. Eventually, the brutal repression of Jews who remained in their homeland led to the collapse of the Hellenized Jewish communities throughout the Roman Empire. As a result, the continuation of Philo’s work fell to a subgroup of Jews whose new religion, Christianity, would be adopted by Rome.
LITERATURE
The Christian Bible
The Christian Bible has had a long and complex genesis. The term “bible” is derived from the Greek word βιβλία (books), which in turn is based on the Greek word for papyrus (βύβλος or βίβλος). (Throughout antiquity papyrus was the principal material from which books were made.) As reflected in its name, the Christian Bible is a book made up of many books, incorporating the Jewish bible, known as the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) as its first section. The Hebrew Bible is referred to by Christians as the Old Testament (derived from the Latin word testamentum, in the sense of dispensation or covenant). The Christian Bible also includes a smaller corpus of Christian texts as its second section, the New Testament. Although the Christian Church regards both Testaments as inspired, it also holds as a fundamental doctrine that the New Testament bears witness to the fulfillment of the Old.
What does the Old Testament consist of?
Early Christians adopted a Greek version of the Jewish scriptures that had been produced for Jews residing in Egypt and other Greek-speaking territories, who were less familiar with Hebrew. Known as the Septuagint (“seventy” in Latin), this translation was traditionally attributed to seventy or so scholars working in Alexandria for Ptolemy II Philadelphus (308–246 B.C.E.). The Septuagint has at its heart the three key elements of Jewish scripture.
The first, the Torah, is traditionally ascribed to Moses and comprises the five books from Genesis to Deuteronomy. The second is the twenty-one books of the Prophets, including the twelve Minor Prophets. The third, the Writings, comprises thirteen assorted books: the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles 1–2. The shaping of these thirty-nine books had evolved over nearly a millennium.
The Septuagint also contains several texts that are excluded from the canon of Jewish scripture, most notably Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Baruch, and the two books of Maccabees. These texts were thus accepted by early Christians, who developed their canon based on the Greek rather than the Hebrew version of the Jewish scriptures.
When St. Jerome (c. 342–420; see below) undertook the translation of the Bible into Latin, he advocated that the Church follow the Jewish canon, and designated these extra texts as Apocrypha (from ἀπόκρυφος, ‘hidden’). Because the Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century used copies of the Jewish Hebrew canon of Scripture as the basis for their translations, these texts either do not form part of Protestant Bibles, or are included in them separately as apocrypha or deuterocanonical books. The apocrypha do, however, remain part of Roman Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.
Produced in the Eastern Mediterranean during the early 4th century, the Codex Sinaiticus preserves the earliest surviving copy of the New Testament (British Library)
What is the New Testament?
Whereas their opinions differ over the Old Testament, Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Christians all accept the same New Testament canon. This was formed over a much shorter period than the Jewish scriptures, but similarly comprises several distinct texts. The core of the New Testament is the Four Gospels. The word “gospel” is possibly derived from the Old English translation of the Latin word evangelium, which is itself based on the Greek εὐαγγέλιον (good news) and is the origin of the term for the authors of these texts, the Evangelists. Initially, many accounts of the Gospel were in circulation, and some, like the Gospel of Nicodemus, continued in popularity through the Middle Ages.
However, the Four Gospels of Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were widely accepted as uniquely authoritative from an early date. Their Gospels comprise individual witnesses to the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, and to his status as the Christ (“Anointed One”), or Messiah, predicted in the Old Testament. The other twenty-three books of the New Testament include the Acts of the Apostles, in which St. Luke recounts the life of the Church immediately after Jesus’s ascension; letters to early Christian communities or individuals written by the Apostle Paul and other early Christian leaders; and an apocalyptic account, or revelation, traditionally attributed to St. John.
Although the core of the New Testament canon (the Four Gospels and thirteen Epistles of St. Paul) was established by the middle of the second century, the full canon of twenty-seven books was formally confirmed only during the fourth century. Until then, some books, such as Hebrews and Revelation, were in doubt, and other texts, such as the Epistle of Barnabas and Shepherd of Hermas, were considered authoritative by some Christians. All of the books of the New Testament were originally written in Greek, the language of the predominant literate community in the region, to further the evangelizing purpose of the New Testament.
Early translations of the Bible
By the fourth and fifth centuries the language of the Bible had changed. As the Christian faith spread to other regions and nations, their Scripture was also translated into other languages, beginning with those of the earliest converts. Known to biblical scholars as the Versions and recognized by them as important witnesses to the earliest forms of the text of the Bible, these texts included translations into Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian and Ethiopic.
The opening of St John’s Gospel, from an early 17th-century Armenian Gospel book (British Library)
Through the work of Syriac missionaries, Syriac translations were widely disseminated into Persia, Arabia, India, and Central Asia, and gave rise to the earliest versions in other languages used in those areas, such as Armenian. The Syriac Gospel Lectionary from the early thirteenth century, the Armenian Gospels from the early seventeenth century and the Ethiopic Octateuch and gospels from the late seventeenth century demonstrate the continued use of these Versions over many centuries. Versions include some additional books, such as the Third Epistle to the Corinthians cited by St. Gregory the Illuminator (d. 332), which was included in many later copies of the Armenian New Testament.
In the West major changes also occurred. By the end of the second century, Latin was the most widely used language in the West, and Old Latin versions of the Bible were circulating in both Gaul (a historical region in Western Europe) and North Africa. More significantly for the future, the early Christian scholar St. Jerome initiated a translation and revision of the complete Bible into Latin, authorized by the Pope.
St. Jerome’s letter to Pope Damasus, who commissioned the translations of the Bible, appears at the beginning of the Lindisfarne Gospels, c. 700 (British Library)
Working first in Rome and then in Bethlehem, he used Hebrew and Greek texts, but also drew on the Old Latin versions. St. Jerome spent around half his life on his translations, and even then may not have himself progressed in the New Testament beyond the Gospels. He also purposely excluded several of the books of the Old Testament that he regarded as apocryphal.
The use of Old Latin versions persisted for several centuries. Some manuscripts included texts that fused both the Old Latin and St. Jerome’s translation. St. Jerome’s exclusion of apocrypha was also reversed and Old Latin versions used to supply perceived gaps. In fact, the whole text had to be corrected at various points, for example by Alcuin of York for Charlemagne. St. Jerome’s legacy to the Church was, however, critical. The Vulgate (or common) Latin version that St. Jerome had initiated became the single, authoritative version of Christian Scripture in Western Europe for over one thousand years.
During this period all translations of the Bible into Western vernacular languages were made from the Vulgate. None was regarded as having the authority of its model. They were regarded as aids to understanding the Scripture, not as Scripture itself. Only the Reformation brought new authoritative Western translations of the entire Bible based on the original Hebrew and Greek texts. These vernacular translations of the Bible in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries formed the basis of what we now read as the Bible.
The Qur’an is the holy book of the religion of Islam, containing the words of God as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad starting in the year 610. Following the Prophet’s death in 632, these revelations, which had initially been memorized by the early Muslim converts, were fully written out for the first time. At this time they were organized into 114 chapters (called suras in Arabic) that were themselves divided into verses (ayas), and placed in order of decreasing length rather than the order in which they were revealed (except for the first very short opening chapter). Following this codification of the text, Qur’ans have been copied in beautifully produced and lavish manuscripts that reflect the fact that they contain the words of God. The text is written in specially devised scripts, and gold and colored inks are used to enhance the appearance of the pages.
When you encounter pages from a Qur’an, you find much more than just the Arabic text. There are different traditions about where certain verses end, how certain words are pronounced, the intonation to use when reading them aloud, and other such details. As a result, many of the visual features in the text that are classified as decoration were actually introduced into the manuscripts to preserve these specific readings. This essay will help you understand the many marks that appear in historic manuscripts, and how they facilitate the ways the Qur’an is studied, recited, and prayed with.
Frontispieces
Moving from the front to the back of a manuscript, for instance, you might first encounter a frontispiece. This is either a single page, or two-facing pages, with painted ornament which serves as a decorative entry into the contents.
Frontispiece to volume two of a 30-volume Qur’an, late 9th–early 10th century (Syria or Iraq), ink, opaque watercolor and gold on parchment, 17.1 cm (each page) (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
Many early Qur’ans have frontispieces with geometric or floral illumination, such as this example from the 9th or 10th century which has interlacing gold borders enclosing a geometric, stippled design. Extending into the margins on either side are floral roundels, also in gold.
Other frontispieces might also include information about the text itself. The Qur’an copied by Ibn al-Bawwab in Baghdad in 1000–1001 is an important manuscript that serves as an example of what this information might be. It includes three double-page frontispieces, two of which have calligraphy along with the gold, blue, black, and brown decorative motifs.
Left: first frontispiece with script in oblong bands; right: second frontispiece with script in interlacing octagons, Qur’an of Ibn al-Bawwab with chapter, verse, word, letter, vocalization, and diacritic counts, 1000–1001 (Iraq, Baghdad), ink and gold pigment on paper, 18.3 x 14.5 cm (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Is 1431, folios 6 verso and 7 verso)
In the first frontispiece, the script is arranged in oblong bands while in the second it is set within interlacing octagons. The calligraphy specifies the number of chapters, verses, words, letters, and diacritical marks in this volume of the Qur’an. This accords to an accounting approved by ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (an early convert and a son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad). Ibn al-Bawwab would have included this information to certify that he had copied exactly a particular reading of the Qur’an, in its entirety, and without error. This last part was important because it’s always possible, when copying a text by hand, for words or phrases to be accidentally skipped or repeated.
Chapter headings
The text following the frontispiece is organized by chapter, with the chapter names written in a different script from the main text. On this page, the title of chapter 54, sura al-qamar (“the moon”), appears on the fifth line from the top, in a gold ink also different from that used for the Qur’anic text.
Folio from the Qur’an of Ibn al-Bawwab with Sura 53 (al-Najm, “The Star”), verse 53 and Sura 54 (al-Qamar, “The Moon”), verses 1–11, 1000–1001 (Iraq, Baghdad), ink and gold pigment on paper, 18.3 x 14.5 cm
(Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Is 1431, folio 243 verso)
Since the chapters names were applied later to each revelation (usually taking a word that features prominently within it), the change in script makes it clear that the titles are not part of God’s words. This heading also includes the number of verses in the sura (in this case, 55), and the place where it was revealed to Muhammad—either Mecca or Medina (this verse was revealed in Mecca, as indicated by the word “Meccan” in the margin).
Folio from the Qur’an of Ibn al-Bawwab with Sura 53 (al-Najm, “The Star”), verse 53 and Sura 54 (al-Qamar, “The Moon”), verses 1–11, 1000–1001 (Iraq, Baghdad), ink and gold pigment on paper 18.3 x 14.5 cm (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Is 1431, folio 243 verso)
Diacritics and vocalizations
In Arabic, short vowels do not have their own characters, and some consonants share character forms only distinguished with the addition of diacritics (the dots placed above or below these forms to create different letters). This copy of the Qur’an is distinguished by the clear and consistent use of diacritic and vocalization marks, which did not always appear in earlier Qur’ans. This is an important feature since the Qur’an, whose name itself means “recite,” is taught and memorized by reading aloud, following rules about the pronunciation, style, tone and intonation by which it is voiced. The Qur’an is also recited as part of daily prayers, during sermons and other ceremonies, and is experienced by sound as much as by sight. The inclusion of these marks therefore not only help avoid confusion about which letter has been written, but also assist someone reciting the Qur’an aloud to pronounce the words correctly according to the reading by which the text has been copied.
Verse markers
This page also includes markings for the ends of verses. These kinds of markings appear in many Qur’an manuscripts and can take different forms, ranging from small gold circles to rosettes or the motifs here, of the three dots arranged in a triangle (one such marking can be seen at the left side of the second line).
At the end of every fifth verse the dots are replaced with a golden letter kha, as seen on the top line.
Tenth verses are marked in a more elaborate way: within the text is a gold circle inscribed with a letter that represents the number of verses reached, while another gold roundel in the margin includes that number written out in words. This kind of mark was included because variant readings can break verses in different locations; the insertion of the verse marker would therefore make it clear which reading is used in a given manuscript. It also helps the reader keep a count of the verses, both to certify the integrity of the text that has been copied, and also to track how many verses have been read on a particular day, since sometimes worshippers will read the text in equal parts over the course of a week or a month.
Markers for prostration
One last type of mark found on this page indicates where a person reading or reciting the Qur’an should prostrate (bend down and touch the forehead to the ground). Here it is an illuminated circle to the right of the chapter heading; at its center is a golden star-shape around the word sajda (prostrate). There are either fourteen or fifteen verses for which prostration is indicated (depending on different beliefs), and the act reflects the person’s humility through his or her willingness to prostrate in front of God.
Ending illumination from the Qur’an of Ibn al-Bawwab with letter counts, 1000–1001 (Iraq, Baghdad), ink and gold pigment on paper, 18.3 x 14.5 cm (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Is 1431, folios 285 verso–286 recto)
Finispieces
Finally, at the end of the text, in what is called a finispiece, some Qur’ans include tables that provide the number of times each letter in the alphabet appears. These tables serve again to certify the completeness and correctness of the text that has been copied. The Ibn al-Bawwab Qur’an includes just such an accounting on a set of illuminated folios that concludes the manuscript; on the right side of each table is the name of the letter, and to left is written the number of its occurrences.
Division into volumes
One last development to note are the methods for separating the Qur’anic text into sections in order to facilitate its reading over specific periods of time. In these cases, the text would be divided in nearly equal parts that might be read during the course of a week (creating seven parts called manazil, plural of manzil) or a month (creating 30 parts called ajza’, plural of juz’). The thirtieths might also be sub-divided into a half (nisf), a fourth (rub‘), and even sixtieths (ahzab, plural of hizb). In a single-volume Qur’an, these divisions in the text could be indicated with illuminations in the margins. Alternatively, the sections could be bound separately; in especially elaborate productions, each of these volumes might be given their own frontis- and finispieces.
These interventions into the Arabic text were devised over many centuries in response to the changing needs of the numerous Muslim communities. As the text of the Qur’an was written, as the initially small group of Muslims spread into non-Arabic speaking areas, as scholars developed variant readings, and as rituals involving the Qur’an developed, calligraphers and illuminators responded with a range of visual devices to help and support with readings of the text, but in beautiful and eye-pleasing ways that corresponded to the sanctity of the text.
(The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt) (photo: Joonas Plaan, CC BY 2.0)
A monastery built on holy ground
The Monastery of Saint Catherine is the oldest active Eastern Orthodox monastery in the world, renowned for its extraordinary holdings of Byzantine art.
The location of the monastery is significant for Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, because tradition identifies it as the place of the Burning Bush, a major biblical event where Moses encountered God:
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 3: 1-6 (NRSV)
Icon with Moses before the Burning Bush, early 13th century, Byzantine (Mount Sinai?), tempera and gold on wood, 92 x 64 cm (The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt)
The episode is represented in several artworks in the monastery’s collection, including an early thirteenth-century icon made of tempera and gold on wood. This image represents the moment when God spoke to Moses: “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5, NRSV).
The Monastery of Saint Catherine was founded between 548–565 C.E., in the later years of the Byzantine emperor Justinian’s reign, part of a massive building program that he had initiated across the empire.
Louis Haghe after David Roberts, Monastery of St. Catherine beneath Mount Sinai, 1849, colored lithograph (Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0)
The basilica
The monastery’s exterior walls and main church, which pilgrims can still see today, largely survive from the original, sixth-century phase of construction. A few elements came later (for example, the belfry was added in the 19th century).
The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine (view from the northeast), Sinai, Egypt (photo: Marc Ryckaert, CC BY 3.0)
Plan of Saint Catherine’s Monastery with the traditional location of the Burning Bush noted (adapted from plan by Shakko, CC BY-SA 3.0)
Transfiguration mosaic
The church follows the pattern of a basilica, having a rectangular plan (read more about basilica churches). Monks have worshipped for 1,400 years inside this church.
Columns frame the central nave and above the altar is a recently-restored apse mosaic that might hint at the building’s original name. The mosaic depicts a moment in the Christian New Testament called the “Transfiguration,” in which Christ appears transformed by radiant light, an event witnessed by three of his apostles. The scene is set against a glimmering gold background. When the monastery was first built it might have been dedicated to the Transfiguration, which in Christian belief is like the Burning Bush in that it is a moment when God revealed himself to humanity.
Transfiguration Apse mosaic, 6th century, the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt (Photo: Europa Nostra, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) (view annotated photo), Here Jesus is shown in the center radiating light as John, Peter, and James witness the miracle. The two standing figures that frame the central group are the prophets Elijah and Moses.
Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him…While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.Matthew 17:1-3, 5-6 (NRSV)
Icons and Iconoclasm
Iconoclasts destroying an icon of Christ, Khludov Psalter, 9th century (State Historical Museum, Moscow)
During the Iconoclastic period of the eighth to ninth centuries, the Byzantine Empire, and particularly its capital city of Constantinople (modern Istanbul), was convulsed with the question of whether religious images with human figures (called “icons”) were appropriate, or whether such images were in effect idols, akin to the statues of gods in ancient Greece and Rome. In other words, did worshippers pray through icons to the holy figure represented, or did they pray to the physical image itself? The Iconoclasts (those who opposed images) attempted to ban icons and reportedly even destroyed some.
But by the time of the Iconoclastic controversy, the Sinai Peninsula, where Saint Catherine’s Monastery is located, was under Islamic rather than Byzantine control, enabling the monastery’s icons to escape Iconoclasm. Other factors, including the monastery’s isolated location, fortifications, continuous occupation by monks, as well as the dry climate of the region, all likely contributed to the preservation of icons at Sinai.
Christ Blessing, first half of the 6th century, encaustic on panel, 84 x 45.5 x 1.2 cm (The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt)
Early Byzantine Icons
Bronze statuette of Jupiter Capitolinus, 1st–2nd century C.E., bronze, 11.9 x 6 . 5.1 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The sixth-century icon of Christ Blessing—or Christ “Pantokrator” (all-ruler), as this image would later become known—was painted using encaustic that enabled the artist to create a vivid sense of naturalism. This icon was painted by a highly skilled artist, and therefore might have been made in the capital city of Constantinople.
Christ raises his right hand to give a blessing. His other hand holds an elaborate manuscript, which probably takes the form of a contemporary Gospel book, emphasizing Christ’s identity as the embodied “Word” of God. This bearded, mature version of Christ—just one of several ways Christ appears in art before Iconoclasm—draws on pre-Christian traditions of rendering other male divinities such as Jupiter.
The Monastery of Saint Catherine preserves a number of rare Early Byzantine icons such as this.
Icon with the Heavenly Ladder of Saint John Climacus, late 12th century, tempera and gold on panel, 41.3 x 29.9 x 2.1 cm (The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt)
The Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra), Jerusalem, 691–92 (Umayyad), stone masonry, wooden roof, decorated with glazed ceramic tile, mosaics, and gilt aluminum and bronze dome, with multiple renovations, patron the Caliph Abd al-Malik (photo: Gary Todd, CC0 1.0)
The Dome of the Rock is a building of extraordinary beauty, solidity, elegance, and singularity of shape… Both outside and inside, the decoration is so magnificent and the workmanship so surpassing as to defy description. The greater part is covered with gold so that the eyes of one who gazes on its beauties are dazzled by its brilliance, now glowing like a mass of light, now flashing like lightning.Ibn Battuta (14th century travel writer)
The Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra), Jerusalem, 691–92 (Umayyad), stone masonry, wooden roof, decorated with glazed ceramic tile, mosaics, and gilt aluminum and bronze dome, with multiple renovations, patron the Caliph Abd al-Malik (photo: Dennis Jarvis, CC BY-NC 2.0)
A glorious mystery
One of the most iconic images of the Middle East is undoubtedly the Dome of the Rock shimmering in the setting sun of Jerusalem. Sitting atop the Haram al-Sharif, the highest point in old Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock’s golden-color Dome and Turkish Faience tiles dominates the cityscape of Old Jerusalem and in the 7th century served as a testament to the power of the new faith of Islam. The Dome of the Rock is one of the earliest surviving buildings from the Islamic world. This remarkable building is not a mosque, as is commonly assumed, and scholars still debate its original function and meaning.
Interior of the Dome of the Rock, c. 1898–1914 (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
Between the death of the prophet Muhammad in 632 and 691/2, when the Dome of the Rock was completed, there was intermittent warfare in Arabia and Holy Land around Jerusalem. The first Arab armies who emerged from the Arabian peninsula were focused on conquering and establishing an empire—not building.
The Dome of the Rock was one of the first Islamic buildings ever constructed. It was built between 685 and 691/2 by Abd al-Malik, arguably the most important Umayyad caliph, as a religious focal point for his supporters, while he was fighting a civil war against Ibn Zubayr. When Abd al-Malik began construction on the Dome of the Rock, he did not have control of the Kaaba, the holiest shrine in Islam, which is located in Mecca.
The Dome is located on the Haram al-Sharif, an enormous open-air platform that now houses Al-Aqsa mosque, madrasas and several other religious buildings. Few places are as holy for Christians, Jews, and Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif. It is the Temple Mount, the site of the Jewish second temple, which the Roman Emperor Titus destroyed in 70 C.E. while subduing the Jewish revolt; a Roman temple was later built on the site. The Temple Mount was abandoned in Late Antiquity.
View of the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, Haram al-Sharif, the Temple Mount, Jerusalem (photo: Larry Koester, CC BY 2.0)
The rock in the Dome of the Rock
At the center of the Dome of the Rock sits a large rock, which is believed to be the location where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Ismail (Isaac in the Judeo/Christian tradition). Today, Muslims believe that the Rock commemorates the night journey of Muhammad. One night the Angel Gabriel came to Muhammad while he slept near the Kaaba in Mecca and took him to al-Masjid al-Aqsa (the farthest mosque) in Jerusalem. From the Rock, Muhammad journeyed to heaven, where he met other prophets, such as Moses and Christ, witnessed paradise and hell and finally saw God enthroned and circumambulated by angels.
The Rock is enclosed by two ambulatories (in this case the aisles that circle the rock) and an octagonal exterior wall. The central colonnade (row of columns) was composed of four piers and twelve columns supporting a rounded drum that transitions into the two-layered dome more than 20 meters in diameter.
The colonnades are clad in marble on their lower registers, and their upper registers are adorned with exceptional mosaics. The ethereal interior atmosphere is a result of light that pours in from grilled windows located in the drum and exterior walls. Golden mosaics depicting jewels shimmer in this glittering light. Byzantine and Sasanian crowns in the midst of vegetal motifs are also visible.
The Byzantine Empire stood to the North and to the West of the new Islamic Empire until 1453, when its capital, Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Turks. To the East, the old Sasanian Empire of Persia imploded under pressure from the Arabs, but nevertheless provided winged crown motifs that can be found in the Dome of the Rock.
K.A.C. Creswell, Sectional axonometric view through dome (Creswell Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
Mosaics
Wall and ceiling mosaics became very popular in Late Antiquity and adorn many Byzantine churches, including San Vitale in Ravenna and Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Thus, the use of mosaics reflects an artistic tie to the world of Late Antiquity. Late Antiquity is a period from about 300–800, when the Classical world dissolves and the Medieval period emerges.
The mosaics in the Dome of the Rock contain no human figures or animals. While Islam does not prohibit the use of figurative art per se, it seems that in religious buildings, this proscription was upheld. Instead, we see vegetative scrolls and motifs, as well as vessels and winged crowns, which were worn by Sasanian kings. Thus, the iconography of the Dome of the Rock also includes the other major pre-Islamic civilization of the region, the Sasanian Empire, which the Arab armies had defeated.
A reference to local churches
Scholars used to think that the building enclosing the Rock derived its form from the imperial mausolea (the burial places) of Roman emperors, such as Augustus or Hadrian. However, its octagonal form and Dome more likely referenced earlier local churches. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem was built to enclose the tomb of Christ. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Dome of the Rock have domes that are almost identical in size; this suggests that the elevated position of the Dome of the Rock and the comparable size of its dome was a way that Muslims in the late 8th century proclaimed the superiority of their newly formed faith over Christians. Furthermore, the octagonal form of the Dome may derive from the Church of the Kathisma, a 5th-century church, later converted to a mosque, that was located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. It was constructed over the rock where Mary reportedly sat on her way to Bethlehem. It is octagonal in shape and had an aisle that allowed circumambulation around the center. Therefore, rather than looking to the monuments of Rome, which was now far less important than Constantinople and Jerusalem, these local buildings may have been more important models.
Interior view of the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra), Jerusalem, 691–92 (Umayyad), stone masonry, wooden roof, decorated with glazed ceramic tile, mosaics, and gilt aluminum and bronze dome, with multiple renovations, patron the Caliph Abd al-Malik (photo: Virtutepetens, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The inscription
The Dome of the Rock also contains an inscription, 240 meters long, that includes some of the earliest surviving examples of verses from the Qur‘an—in an architectural context or otherwise. The bismillah, the phrase that starts each verse of the Qu’ran, and the shahada, the Islamic confession of faith, which states that there is only one God and Muhammad is his prophet, are also included in the inscription. The inscription also refers to Mary and Christ and proclaims that Christ was not divine but a prophet. Thus the inscription also proclaims some of the core values of the newly formed religion of Islam. It also demonstrates the importance of calligraphy as a decorative form in Islamic Art.
Below the Rock is a small chamber, whose purpose is not fully understood even to this day. For those who are fortunate enough to be able to enter the Dome of the Rock, the experience is moving, regardless of one’s faith.
Interior view of the Dome of the Rock with partial inscription (Qubbat al-Sakhra), Jerusalem, 691–692 (Umayyad) (photo: Virtutepetens, CC BY-SA 4.0)
When Damascus became the capital of the Umayyad dynasty, the early 8th century caliph al-Walid envisioned a beautiful mosque at the heart of his new capital city, one that would rival any of the great religious buildings of the Christian world. The growing population of Muslims also required a large congregational mosque (a congregational mosque is a mosque where the community of believers, originally only men, would come to worship and hear a sermon on Fridays — it was typically the most important mosque in a city or in a neighborhood of a large city). The Great Mosque of Damascus was commissioned in 708 C.E. and was completed in 714/15 C.E. It was paid for with the state tax revenue raised over the course of seven years, a prodigious sum of money. The result of this investment was an architectural tour de force where mosaics and marbles created a truly awe-inspiring space. The Great Mosque of Damascus is one of the earliest surviving congregational mosques in the world. The mosque’s location and organization were directly influenced by the temples and the church that preceded it. It was built into the Roman temple wall and it reuses older building materials (called spolia by archaeologists) in its walls, including a beam with a Greek inscription that was originally part of the church.
Courtyard fountain and the dome of the clock in the distance, Great Mosque of Damascus, photo: Thom May, CC BY-NC 2.0
The complex is composed of a prayer hall and a large open courtyard with a fountain for ablutions (washing) before prayer. Before the civil war that began in 2011, the courtyard of the mosque functioned as a social space for Damascenes, where families and friends could meet and talk while children chased each other through the colonnade, and where tourists once snapped photographs. It was a wonderful place of peace in a busy city. The courtyard contains an elevated treasury and a structure know as the “Dome of the Clock,” whose purpose is not fully understood. There are tower-like minarets at the corners of the mosque and courtyard; the southern minarets are built on the Roman-Byzantine corner towers and are probably the earliest minarets in Syria. Again, the earlier structures directly influenced the present form.
Prayer hall, Great Mosque of Damascus with the shrine of Saint John the Baptist in the center, photo: Seier+Seier, CC BY 2.0
From the courtyard, one would enter the prayer hall. The prayer hall takes its form from Christian basilicas (which are in turn derived from ancient Roman law courts). However, there is no apse towards which one would pray. Rather the faithful pray facing the qibla wall. The qibla wall has a niche (mihrab), which focuses the faithful in their prayers. In line with the mihrab of the Great Mosque is a massive dome and a transept to accommodate a large number of worshippers. The façade of the transept facing the courtyard is decorated on the exterior with rich mosaics.
Mosaic, Great Mosque of Damascus, 8th century (photo: american rugbier, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Although a fire in the 1890s badly damaged the courtyard and interior, much of the rich mosaic program, which dates primarily to the early 8th century, has survived. The mosaics are aniconic (non-figurative). Islamic religious art lacks figures, and so this is an early example of this tradition. The mosaics are a beautiful mix of trees, landscapes, and uninhabited architecture, rendered in stunning gold, greens, and blues. Later sources note that there were inscriptions and mosaics in the prayer hall, like the Umayyad mosque in Medina, but these have not survived.
Mediterranean influences
The architecture and the plants depicted in the mosaics have clear origins in the artistic traditions of the Mediterranean. Acanthus-like scrolls of greenery can be seen. Not only are they similar to those found in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, but similar motifs can be seen in the sculpture of the ancient Roman Ara Pacis.
There are other strong connections to the visual traditions of the Mediterranean world — to Ptolemaic architecture in Egypt, to the architecture of the Treasury at Petra, and the wall paintings of Pompeii. By using these well-established architectural and artistic forms, the Umayyads were coopting and transforming the artistic traditions of earlier, once dominant religions and empires. The use of such media and imagery allowed the new faith to assert its supremacy. The mosaics and architecture of the Great Mosque signaled this new prominence to an audience that was still predominantly Christian, that Islam was as powerful a religion as Christianity. The subject of the mosaics remains debated to this day, with scholars arguing that the mosaics either represent heaven, based on an interpretation of Quranic verse, or the local landscape (including the Barada River).
Scholars traditionally attributed the creation of these mosaics to artisans from Constantinople because a twelfth-century text claimed that the Byzantine emperor had sent mosaicists to Damascus. However, recent scholarship has challenged this as the text that made this claim was written from a Christian perspective and is much later than the mosaics. Scholars now think that the mosaics were either created by local artisans, or possibly by Egyptian artisans (since Egypt also has a long tradition of decorating domes with mosaics).
The influence of the mosque and its artistry can be seen as far as a way as Cordoba, Spain, where the 8th century Umayyad ruler, Abd al-Rahman (the only survivor of a massive family assassination that sparked the Abbasid Revolution), had fled. The mihrab and the dome above in the Great Mosque of Cordoba was decorated in blue, green and gold mosaics, evoking his lost Syrian homeland.
The Umayyad mosque of Damascus is truly one of the great mosques of the early Islamic world and it is remains one of the world’s most important monuments. Unlike many of Syria’s historic buildings and archaeological sites, the mosque has survived the Syrian Civil War relatively unscathed and hopefully, will one day again welcome Syrians and tourists alike.
Copyright: Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay, “The Great Mosque of Damascus,” in Smarthistory, May 15, 2019, accessed April 16, 2024, https://smarthistory.org/mosque-damascus/.
Hagia Sophia
The golden dome of this vast building appears suspended from heaven. It has withstood quakes, conquest, and crusades.
Constantine the Great presents the city (Constantinople) and Justinian the Great presents Hagia Sophia to the Virgin, mosaic, probably 10th Century, Southwestern Entrance, Hagia Sophia (photo: byzantologist, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
A symbol of Byzantium
The great church of the Byzantine capital Constantinople (Istanbul) took its current structural form under the direction of the Emperor Justinian I. The church was dedicated in 537, amid great ceremony and the pride of the emperor (who was sometimes said to have seen the completed building in a dream). The daring engineering feats of the building are well known. Numerous medieval travelers praise the size and embellishment of the church. Tales abound of miracles associated with the church. Hagia Sophia is the symbol of Byzantium in the same way that the Parthenon embodies Classical Greece or the Eiffel Tower typifies Paris.
Isidore of Miletus & Anthemius of Tralles for Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, 532–37 (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Each of those structures express values and beliefs: perfect proportion, industrial confidence, a unique spirituality. By overall impression and attention to detail, the builders of Hagia Sophia left the world a mystical building. The fabric of the building denies that it can stand by its construction alone. Hagia Sophia’s being seems to cry out for an other-worldly explanation of why it stands because much within the building seems dematerialized, an impression that must have been very real in the perception of the medieval faithful. The dematerialization can be seen in as small a detail as a column capital or in the building’s dominant feature, its dome.
Basket Capital, Hagia Sophia (photo: William Allen, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The capital is a derivative of the Classical Ionic order via the variations of the Roman composite capital and Byzantine invention. Shrunken volutes appear at the corners decorative detailing runs the circuit of lower regions of the capital. The column capital does important work, providing transition from what it supports to the round column beneath. What we see here is decoration that makes the capital appear light, even insubstantial. The whole appears more as filigree work than as robust stone capable of supporting enormous weight to the column.
Ionic Capital, North Porch of the Erechtheion (Erechtheum), Acropolis, Athens, marble, 421–407 B.C.E., British Museum (photo: Steven Zucker CC:BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Compare the Hagia Sophia capital with a Classical Greek Ionic capital, this one from the Greek Erechtheum on the Acropolis, Athens. The capital has abundant decoration but the treatment does not diminish the work performed by the capital. The lines between the two spirals dip, suggesting the weight carried while the spirals seem to show a pent-up energy that pushes the capital up to meet the entablature, the weight it holds. The capital is a working member and its design expresses the working in an elegant way.
Left: Basket Capital, Hagia Sophia (photo: William Allen, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0); right: Ionic Capital, North Porch of the Erechtheion (Erechtheum), Acropolis, Athens, marble, 421–407 B.C.E., British Museum (photo: Steven Zucker CC:BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The relationship between the two is similar to the evolution of the antique to the medieval seen in the mosaics of San Vitale. A capital fragment on the grounds of Hagia Sophia illustrates the carving technique. The stone is deeply drilled, creating shadows behind the vegetative decoration. The capital surface appears thin. The capital contradicts its task rather than expressing it.
Deep Carving of Capital Fragment, Hagia Sophia (photo: William Allen, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
This deep carving appears throughout Hagia Sophia’s capitals, spandrels, and entablatures. Everywhere we look stone visually denying its ability to do the work that it must do. The important point is that the decoration suggests that something other than sound building technique must be at work in holding up the building.
A golden dome suspended from heaven
We know that the faithful attributed the structural success of Hagia Sophia to divine intervention. Nothing is more illustrative of the attitude than descriptions of the dome of Hagia Sophia. Procopius, biographer of the Emperor Justinian and author of a book on the buildings of Justinian is the first to assert that the dome hovered over the building by divine intervention.
…the huge spherical dome [makes] the structure exceptionally beautiful. Yet it seems not to rest upon solid masonry, but to cover the space with its golden dome suspended from Heaven.from “The Buildings” by Procopius, Loeb Classical Library, 1940, online at the University of Chicago Penelope project
The description became part of the lore of the great church and is repeated again and again over the centuries. A look at the base of the dome helps explain the descriptions.
Hagia Sophia Dome, Semi-Dome and Cherubim in the pendentive (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The windows at the bottom of the dome are closely spaced, visually asserting that the base of the dome is insubstantial and hardly touching the building itself. The building planners did more than squeeze the windows together, they also lined the jambs or sides of the windows with gold mosaic. As light hits the gold it bounces around the openings and eats away at the structure and makes room for the imagination to see a floating dome.
Windows at the Base of the Dome, Hagia Sophia (photo: byzantologist, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
It would be difficult not to accept the fabric as consciously constructed to present a building that is dematerialized by common constructional expectation. Perception outweighs clinical explanation. To the faithful of Constantinople and its visitors, the building used divine intervention to do what otherwise would appear to be impossible. Perception supplies its own explanation: the dome is suspended from heaven by an invisible chain.
Advice from an angel?
An old story about Hagia Sophia, a story that comes down in several versions, is a pointed explanation of the miracle of the church. So goes the story: A youngster was among the craftsmen doing the construction. Realizing a problem with continuing work, the crew left the church to seek help (some versions say they sought help from the Imperial Palace). The youngster was left to guard the tools while the workmen were away. A figure appeared inside the building and told the boy the solution to the problem and told the boy to go to the workmen with the solution. Reassuring the boy that he, the figure, would stay and guard the tools until the boy returned, the boy set off. The solution that the boy delivered was so ingenious that the assembled problem solvers realized that the mysterious figure was no ordinary man but a divine presence, likely an angel. The boy was sent away and was never allowed to return to the capital. Thus the divine presence had to remain inside the great church by virtue of his promise and presumably is still there. Any doubt about the steadfastness of Hagia Sophia could hardly stand in the face of the fact that a divine guardian watches over the church.*
Damage and repairs
Hagia Sophia sits astride an earthquake fault. The building was severely damaged by three quakes during its early history. Extensive repairs were required. Despite the repairs, one assumes that the city saw the survival of the church, amid city rubble, as yet another indication of divine guardianship of the church.
Extensive repair and restoration are ongoing in the modern period. We likely pride ourselves on the ability of modern engineering to compensate for daring 6th Century building technique. Both ages have their belief systems and we are understandably certain of the rightness of our modern approach to care of the great monument. But we must also know that we would be lesser if we did not contemplate with some admiration the structural belief system of the Byzantine Age.
Historical outline: Isidore and Anthemius replaced the original 4th-century church commissioned by Emperor Constantine and a 5th-century structure that was destroyed during the Nika revolt of 532. The present Hagia Sophia or the Church of Holy Wisdom became a mosque in 1453 following the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans under Sultan Mehmed II. In 1934, Atatürk, founder of Modern Turkey, converted the mosque into a museum.
Apse mosaic with Virgin and Child, c. 867, Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul) (photo: byzantologist, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Holy figures
Apse mosaic: Virgin and Child
The first major mosaic added to Hagia Sophia following the 843 end of Iconoclasm depicted the Virgin Mary and Christ Child in the apse, the semidome above the altar at the eastern end of the church. It was accompanied by an inscription that alluded to Iconoclasm: “The images which the imposters [i.e. the iconoclasts] had cast down here pious emperors have again set up.” The mosaic was probably completed around 867, when patriarch Photios, the leader of the Church in Constantinople, preached a sermon that also interpreted this image in terms of the end of Iconoclasm. The location of this Virgin and Child mosaic—which visualized Christ’s incarnation (becoming flesh and blood)—was also significant since the Byzantines believed that the Eucharistic bread and wine similarly became Christ’s flesh and blood on the altar below.
Plan of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople
Tympana mosaics
Not long after the apse mosaic was installed, additional mosaics were added high on Hagia Sophia’s north and south walls, in the tympana beneath the central dome, toward the end of the ninth century.
Apse and tympanum in Hagia Sophia, Constantinople
These depicted rows of holy figures—Church fathers on the bottom, prophets in the middle, and probably angels above—though only a few of these mosaics survive today. Strikingly, recent patriarchs such as Ignatius the Younger (who died in 877) are pictured among Church fathers in the tympana, likely because of their defense of images during Iconoclasm, as well as their association with Hagia Sophia.
But not all of the images in Hagia Sophia were purely religious in their subject matter. Several mosaics featured images of emperors and empresses: some long dead and others still living at the time when the mosaics were installed. Such images remind us that over the long history of the Byzantine Empire, there was no separation of Church and state. The emperor often participated in Church rituals with the clergy in Hagia Sophia.
Two mosaics depicting emperors were positioned along a ceremonial route by which the emperor sometimes entered Hagia Sophia for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, as described in the tenth-century Book of Ceremonies.
Southwest vestibule
As they entered the narthex of Hagia Sophia, living emperors would have passed under a mosaic of great emperors from centuries past. This mosaic appears in lunette in the southwest vestibule and was likely installed in the early tenth century.A towering image of the Virgin appears at the center, flanked by large letters identifying her as the “Mother of God.” She holds the Christ Child on her lap and sits on a lavish throne, resting her feet on a jeweled footstool. This central image of the Virgin and Child is similar to the ninth-century image in Hagia Sophia’s apse discussed above, which the emperor would encounter as he continued into the church.
On the right, emperor Constantine, who founded Constantinople in 330 C.E., offers a model of the city (with its high crenelated walls) to the Virgin and Child. On the left, emperor Justinian, who built Hagia Sophia between 532–537, offers a domed model of Hagia Sophia—the very church in which this mosaic is located—to the Virgin and Child. Images showing donors offering smaller models of the buildings they had built to heavenly figures were common in medieval art. Both emperors wear the imperial loros, a rich sash-like garment that was often decorated with precious stones. The mosaic highlights the Byzantine understanding of the Virgin as protector of Constantinople, as well as the importance of imperial patronage.
Imperial Door
As the emperor continued his ceremonial entrance into Hagia Sophia, he proceeded into the main part of the church through the “Imperial Door,” the central door between the inner narthex and the nave. A mosaic dated to around 900 (probably slightly earlier than the mosaic in the southwest vestibule) appears in the lunette above the Imperial Door. In this mosaic, a frontal Christ sits formally on a lyre-backed throne. He blesses the viewer with his right hand and rests an open book on his left knee, which displays the text: “Peace be with you; I am the light of the world” (a paraphrase of John 20:19 and John 8:12). Two roundels flank Christ. An angel appears within the roundel on Christ’s left. On his right, a woman who is probably the Virgin Mary extends her hands toward Christ in a gesture of supplication.
Narthex mosaic over Imperial Door, c. 900, Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul) (photo: byzantologist, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Below the Virgin, an unnamed emperor with similarly outstretched hands bows before Christ in a gesture of reverence known as proskynesis. Who is this emperor? Several theories have been proposed. Some have understood the emperor as Leo VI atoning for marrying four times—considered a sin and even illegal—in pursuit of a male heir. More recently, scholars have questioned whether this mosaic even represents a specific, historical ruler, or whether it is a more generalized representation of imperial submission to Christ. This image certainly would have been meaningful when emperors performed their own acts of proskynesis here in the narthex (as described in the Book of Ceremonies) before passing beneath this mosaic to enter the nave of the church.
Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul) (photo: byzantologist, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Imperial patrons
Two additional mosaics were added to Hagia Sophia in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Their subjects and location are closely related. Both depict emperors and empresses and are located in the south gallery (on the second level, above the south aisle)—which was traditionally reserved for imperial use during church services—near a doorway that connected Hagia Sophia with the Great Palace.
Constantine IX and Zoe with Christ
In the first mosaic, added during the waning years of the Macedonian dynasty, Christ appears enthroned at the center, flanked by an emperor and empress. When it was first installed between 1028–1034, this mosaic probably depicted empress Zoe and her first husband, Romanos III. The mosaic would have commemorated an imperial donation to Hagia Sophia, when the capitals of the Great Church were gilded.
Mosaic with Christ flanked by Constantine IX Monomachos and Zoe, c. 1028–1034 and 1042–1055, south gallery, Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul) (photo: byzantologist, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
But the mosaic was subsequently altered between 1042–1055, replacing Romanos III with Zoe’s third husband, Constantine IX Monomachos (who was also a patron of Nea Moni on Chios, known for its lavish mosaic decoration). This revised version of the mosaic, which survives today, probably commemorated another imperial donation to the Hagia Sophia, one which enabled the Divine Liturgy to be celebrated in the Great Church every day rather than only on weekends (the cost of putting on a service in Hagia Sophia—including paying the large number of clergy and staff—was considerable). Constantine IX and Zoe turn inward toward Christ, offering a bag of money and what is probably a contract of donation. This image illustrates how such donations to the Church were understood as offerings to God.
Empress Zoe, c. 1028–1034 and 1042–1055, south gallery, Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul) (photo: byzantologist, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Curiously, when the identity of the emperor was updated, Zoe and Christ were also given new faces. Perhaps the goal was to give all three faces a consistent stylistic appearance. Another theory suggests that Zoe’s original face may have been destroyed as an act of damnatio memoriae (the official erasure of someone’s legacy) when Zoe was briefly exiled before her third marriage, and therefore needed to be replaced.
Plan of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople
John II and Irene
A similar imperial mosaic was installed c. 1118–1134 beside the image of Constantine and Zoe in the south gallery. It is the only surviving mosaic from twelfth-century Constantinople. The Virgin and Child appear at the center (complimenting the nearby image of Christ). On either side, emperor John II of the Komnenian dynasty and empress Irene of Hungary occupy the same positions as Constantine IX and Zoe in the earlier mosaic, similarly offering a money bag and a rolled document.
Mosaic with the Virgin and Child flanked by John II and Irene, c. 1118–1134, south gallery, Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul) (photo: byzantologist, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
These emperors and empresses in the south gallery all appear shorter than the important central figures of Christ and the Virgin whom they flank. At the same time, the closeness of these haloed emperors and empresses to Christ and the Virgin suggests the considerable power of these Byzantine rulers, who immortalized themselves in fields of gold on the walls of Constantinople’s Great Church.
When cultural trends and traditions spread or change, they do so within the context of particular power dynamics, and anthropologists strive to understand how these power dynamics impact the evolution, maintenance, or loss of cultural beliefs. Different groups of people bring their own cultural beliefs and practices into an inter-cultural interaction, and the culture of more powerful groups is usually the culture that survives the interaction. The negotiation of power and culture falls upon a spectrum of outcomes that anthropologists examine and, using four different terms to refer to different scenarios, we can more easily discuss how culture and power influence each other.
We use the term “syncretism” to refer to an occasion where more than one cultural force fuses together to create something new that still includes elements from the old cultural forces. Syncretism falls on the middle of the spectrum of power negotiation because both cultural forces maintain some power and cultural identity in the interaction. Then, moving out from each side of the spectrum, one of the groups will lose more and more ability to maintain their cultural identity in the face of the more powerful group’s influence. In a move of strategic syncretism, Early Christians adapted Roman motifs and gave new meanings to what had been pagan symbols. Among the motifs adopted were the peacock, grapevines, and the “Good Shepherd.” Early Christians also developed their own iconography. Such symbols as the fish (ikhthus), were not borrowed from pagan iconography.
During the persecution of Christians under the Roman Empire, Christian art was necessarily and deliberately furtive and ambiguous, using imagery that was shared with pagan culture but had a special meaning for Christians. The earliest surviving Christian art comes from the late second to early fourth centuries on the walls of Christian tombs in the catacombs of Rome. From literary evidence, there might have been panel icons which have disappeared.
Initially Jesus was represented indirectly by pictogram symbols such as the Ichthys, the peacock, the Lamb of God, or an anchor. Later, personified symbols were used, including Jonah, whose three days in the belly of the whale prefigured the interval between the death and resurrection of Jesus, Daniel in the lion’s den, or Orpheus charming the animals. However, the depiction of Jesus was well-developed by the end of the pre-Constantinian period. He was typically shown in narrative scenes, with a preference for New Testament miracles, and few of scenes from his Passion.A variety of different types of appearance were used, including the thin long-faced figure with long centrally-parted hair that was later to become the norm. But in the earliest images as many show a stocky and short-haired beardless figure in a short tunic, who can only be identified by his context. In many images of miracles Jesus carries a stick or wand, which he points at the subject of the miracle rather like a modern stage magician (though the wand is significantly larger). The image of The Good Shepherd, a beardless youth in pastoral scenes collecting sheep, was the most common of these images and was probably not understood as a portrait of the historical Jesus. These images bear some resemblance to depictions of kouroi figures in Greco-Roman art.The almost total absence from Christian paintings during the persecution period of the cross, except in the disguised form of the anchor, is notable. The cross, symbolizing Jesus’s crucifixion, was not represented explicitly for several centuries, possibly because crucifixion was a punishment meted out to common criminals, but also because literary sources noted that it was a symbol recognized as specifically Christian, as the sign of the cross was made by Christians from the earliest days of the religion. (83)
Image attributions: (on left & center) Good shepherd 02band 03 uploaded to Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain by Leinad-Z-commonswiki; (on right) Healing of a bleeding woman fresco in Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter uploaded to to Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain by Batchheizer
Upper right corner (detail), Folio from the “Blue Qur’an” with Sura 30 (al-Rum, “The Romans”), verses 25–32, late 9th–early 10th century C.E. (Tunisia) or 9th century (Spain), gold and silver on indigo-dyed parchment, 30.4 x 40.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The Qur’an is the scripture of Islam, the words of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the language of Arabic between the years 610 and 632 C.E. Having been memorized and passed orally during Muhammad’s lifetime, these revelations were written down for the first time soon after the prophet’s death, and as later centuries progressed, special scripts were devised and unique manuscript forms were developed to carry the words of God.
The earliest copies of the Qur’an do not survive as complete manuscripts but rather as individual folios or small groups of folios. This makes it difficult to reconstruct a history of this period of development: single pages do not necessarily convey much information about the larger manuscripts to which they belonged, and inscriptions at the end of manuscripts that might have given information about where and when they were produced have been lost. This essay therefore presents one narrative around these developments, and an introduction to how to approach the visual features of Qur’ans made between the 7th and 12th centuries C.E., when the scripts used to copy the Qur’an shifted from being plain and unadorned to what could properly be considered calligraphy (beautiful writing) and a major art form in Arabic-speaking regions.
Qur’ans in hijazi scripts
Falling on the plainer end of the spectrum is one group of early Qur’ans, dating from the 7th and 8th centuries C.E., that is written in a family of scripts called hijazi. As seen on a page from an 8th century manuscript, the script is characterized by the accentuation of the vertical strokes of the letters. The letters slant to the right (to the beginning of each line, since Arabic is read from right to left). There are no dots that help distinguish letter forms from one another, and no dashes to mark the short vowels (in Arabic, short vowels do not have their own characters, and some consonants share character forms and are only distinguished with the addition of dots above or below these forms). It is also quite difficult to discern one word from another; spacing is uneven and words that come at the end of the line might be split and carried over to the next line, sometimes leaving just a single letter on its own.
An example of hijazi script. Folio from a partial Qur’an manuscript, 8th century C.E. (Saudi Arabia), ink on parchment, 31.5 x 21.5 cm (British Library, London, Or. 2165, folio 2 verso)
This folio also exemplifies the physical and material attributes of typical hijazi Qur’ans. It is written in black ink on parchment (prepared animal skin). It is oriented vertically, with a height greater than the width. There are many lines of writing, in this case, 24. In these Qur’ans, the beginning of a new chapter might only be marked by a blank space or at most a small band of decoration in colored ink.
Because of the general difficulty in deciphering the text of manuscripts like this, scholars have postulated they were probably not used for a straight-forwarding reading, or by a reader who was not already familiar with the text; most think it was used to guide a reading or recitation by someone who had memorized the text already but might need a reminder along the way. Another supposition is that the Qur’an manuscript itself had a sanctity, and copies were kept in places like mosques, religious schools, tombs, or the home because of its sacred aura.
Qur’ans in kufic scripts
During this period, but perhaps in other regions, another script family was also in use. The kufic set of scripts is distinguished by the angularity of its letter forms, and the use of thicker strokes than in the hijazi scripts. As seen in this example, attributed variously to Spain in the 9th century or Tunisia in the mid-9th to mid-10th century, another major difference from hijazi scripts is the horizontal orientation of the script and the way that letters are often stretched across the page so that the words precisely fill the space for each line. The vertical strokes of letters are frequently shortened or bent over to the left.
An example of kufic script. Folio from a partial Qur’an manuscript, before 911 C.E. (possibly Iraq), ink on vellum, folio 19 verso, 23 x 32 cm (The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, MS M.712)
Unlike Qur’ans in hijazi script, kufic Qur’ans tend to make use of diacritics (the marks that help distinguish letters written with the same form), as well as dots that indicate different short vowels. In some manuscripts, these dots (called vocalizations), are given in different colors that indicate variant readings of the Qur’an. On this page of a 10th century C.E. Qur’an from Iraq, the dots have been included in a red ink. The inclusion of these marks helps avoid confusion about which letter has been written, and also assists someone reciting the Qur’an aloud to pronounce the words correctly.
Another point of difference is that in kufic Qur’ans, decorated bands that mark the beginnings of chapters appear more consistently, and include the numbers of verses in the chapter along with the chapter name. The Qur’an shown here presents a useful example. Its golden illumination includes the words, ‘al-ankabut, nine and sixty ayat ,’ indicating that this is sura al-ankabut (the spider), with 69 verses.
An example of kufic script. Folio from the “Blue Qur’an” with Sura 30 (al-Rum, “The Romans”), verses 25–32, late 9th–early 10th century C.E. (Tunisia) or 9th century (Spain), gold and silver on indigo-dyed parchment, 30.4 x 40.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
In terms of format, Qur’ans in kufic scripts tend to have folios that are oriented horizontally. Most have a limited number of lines per page, sometimes as few as three or five. This means that enormous amounts of parchment would have been required to create each Qur’an, and they would therefore have been expensive to produce. By way of example, the page from the “Blue Qur’an” has fifteen lines of writing on it; from this basis, it has been estimated that it would have originally had 650 parchment folios requiring the hides of many animals. The folios were additionally dyed with indigo and inscribed with gold ink, making it an even more costly production.
Qur’ans in rounded scripts
The hijazi and kufic styles, often described as rectilinear or angular, continued to appear into the 11th century by which time a group of what are called “round scripts” increased in use. These scripts had already been employed for many kinds of other texts, but had not apparently been considered appropriate for the Qur’an (a deliberate distinction had previously been made between the scripts used to write out the words of God and those used for other purposes). The reasons for the rise and eventual acceptance of round scripts for use in copying Qur’ans are not universally agreed on by scholars, but may have to do with changes in the type of people who wrote out the Qur’an, which over time shifted from clerics to those employed as secretaries or scribes in the government infrastructure. These scribes were more accustomed to using round, or cursive, scripts that were faster and easier to write, and which, unlike the hijazi and kufic styles, did not require lifting the pen repeatedly to form individual letters. The new scripts were much simpler to read which would have also added to their general popularity.
Bifolium from a Qur’an manuscript in round script, with last word of Sura 26 (al-Shu‘ara, “The Poets”), verse 227 and Sura 27 (al-Naml, “The Ant”), verses 1–7, late 9th–early 10th century C.E. (Iran; a note in Persian says it was corrected in 905 C.E.), ink on parchment, 12 x 9 cm, folios 33b–34a (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Is 1417d)
The transition to cursive scripts was gradual, however, and many styles flourished in 9th–12th centuries as variations developed in different geographic regions, some retaining more aspects of the angular scripts (like hijazi and kufic) than others. In Iran, for instance, a very early attempt at a rounded script hints at the attributes that were appealing in the new style. In this late 9th–early 10th century manuscript, there is greater uniformity in the width and length of the letters compared to the kufic and hijazi scripts, and the letter forms are distinct and legible, not having been stretched or flattened. The rounded extensions of letters that descend below the line of writing visually link one word to the next and help guide the eye across the page. Yet at the same time there is significant variation in the thickness of the strokes composing the letters, and the spacing between words is uneven, creating a certain visual busy-ness.
These matters would be resolved as various guidelines for writing cursive scripts were introduced. These advancements have traditionally been associated with three calligraphers, the first of whom, Ibn Muqla is said to have created a system of proportions between the letters based on a basic unit of the diamond shape made when the scribe’s reed pen is applied to the writing surface. The height and width of each letter in the script was then a given number of these units.
Qur’an of Ibn al-Bawwab with Sura 53 (al-Najm, “The Star”), verse 53 and Sura 54 (al-Qamar, “The Moon”), verses 1–11, dated 391 A.H./1000–1001 C.E. (Baghdad, Iraq), ink and gold pigment on paper, 18.3 x 14.5 cm, folio 243b (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Is 1431)
The next major advancement is attributed to Ibn al-Bawwab, who perfected a graceful, flowing, and highly readable style of writing based on this idea of proportions. This can be best seen in a Qur’an signed by him and dated to the year 1000–1001. The letters on its pages are of an even thickness and are arranged in a steady rhythm across each line, united by the rounded strokes of the letters that extend into the spaces between words. The text includes a complete set of diacritics and vocalization marks, given in the same color ink as the text, which further aids in its legibility.
Vocalization marks (note the dashes above the word) from the bottom line of the page (detail), Qur’an of Ibn al-Bawwab with Sura 53 (al-Najm, “The Star”), verse 53 and Sura 54 (al-Qamar, “The Moon”), verses 1–11, dated 391 A.H./1000–1001 C.E. (Baghdad, Iraq), ink and gold pigment on paper, 18.3 x 14.5 cm, folio 243b (Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Is 1431)
It is believed these innovations were introduced because by this time the Muslim population had multiplied, and many Muslims were not native Arabic speakers so these additions made it easier for those learning the Qur’an to read and understand its language. They also help to distinguish the different readings of the Qur’an, some of which were established during these centuries. Though there is only one version of the text of the Qur’an, there are different traditions about where certain verses end, how certain words are pronounced, the intonation to use when reading the words aloud, and other such details.
These changes to the script coincided with changes to the way that Qur’an manuscripts were made. This one was copied on pages made of paper, and vertically-oriented paper pages would become the norm for most Qur’ans after this time because they were much easier and cheaper to produce than those made of parchment.
Copyright: Dr. Marika Sardar, “The Qur’an and the development of Arabic scripts between the 7th and 12th centuries,” in Smarthistory, July 27, 2023, accessed April 15, 2024,
Islamic Painting
One of the widespread myths about Islamic art is that images of living creatures are banned. It is true that the Qur’an forbids the worship of idols, and “idol” was usually understood in antiquity and the Middle Ages in Europe and the Middle East to mean a painting or statue. For that reason, images of people and animals were almost never depicted in mosques. However, in other settings, there were plenty of images of all kinds. In fact, more figural painting in the Levant has survived from the early Islamic period, roughly the seventh to ninth centuries, than from the centuries immediately before Islam.
In the pre-Islamic period, there were religious paintings inside the Kaaba. Some were of Arabian gods, one showed the Virgin Mary and Christ Child, and others showed trees. The Prophet Muhammad was said to have removed the images of the local gods, but kept the Christian one, since Christ and Mary are also venerated by Muslims. However, all these paintings have since been lost. In fact most paintings from this period are lost, since the medium is vulnerable to deterioration over time—the ones which have survived have done so against the odds.
Painted Palaces
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.
Bathing scene on west wall of west aisle of audience hall, Qusayr ʿAmra, Jordan, c. 730s (photo by Sean Leatherbury/Manar al-Athar)
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.
Portrait of al-Walid ibn Yazid on south wall of west aisle of audience hall, Qusayr ʿAmra, Jordan, c .730s (photo: Agnieszka Szymanska/Manar al-Athar)
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.
Dome of the sauna withs symbols of constellations, Qusayr ʿAmra, Jordan, c .730s (photo: Steve Welsh/Manar al-Athar)
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
Floor painting (fresco) of Ge or Gaia, from Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, Syria, now in the National Museum in Damascus, 727 (photo: Daniel Waugh)
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.
Musicians and a hunter on horseback, floor panel found at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi,, floor panel found at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi, Syria, 727 displayed in the National Museum, Damascus (photo: Daniel Waugh)
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
Fragment of fresco showing simurgh, Qasr al-Hallabat, Jordan, first half of 8th century (photo: Sean Leatherbury/Manar al-Athar)
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.
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.
Stucco dado of qibla wall of mosque, al-Fudayn, Jordan, 8th century (photo: Beatrice Leal)
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.
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.
Left: fragment of a bowl, 9th–10th century, earthenware; buff slip, decoration in black with touches of red, green and bright yellow, attributed to Iran, Nishapur, 9 cm high (The Metropolitan Museum of Art); right: bowl, 10th century, attributed to Iran, Nishapur, earthenware; white slip, slip decoration in green luster, 11.7 cm high and 36.8 cm in diameter (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
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.
The mosaic referred to in this passage, laid in 684, was the first recorded in an Islamic building—and in the holiest of all Islamic buildings, the Kaaba. Most of Ibn Zubayr’s additions to the shrine were removed in 692, so the mosaic may not have lasted long. But the 10th-century account of it quoted above highlights three points that help us understand how mosaics were used in the early Islamic period.
Firstly, it shows how valuable they were; the tesserae were treasures, equal to the gilded marble columns mentioned alongside them. Mosaic continued to be highly valued throughout the first few centuries of Islam, and beyond, and was used alongside other precious materials as one element of elite architectural display.
Secondly, the mosaics came from a church, which Ibn Zubayr was able to loot due to the Islamic conquest of the Arabian Peninsula earlier in the 7th century. Mosaics were common in the Christian Byzantine Empire (and in the territories of its allies like Abraha), and in the Roman Empire before that—but it wasn’t one of the established arts of Arabia, where Islam began. After the Islamic conquest of southern and eastern Byzantium, Jerusalem and Damascus became the central cities of the caliphate; mosaicists working in this region for Muslim patrons maintained some aspects of the Byzantine style, and adapted or abandoned others.
And thirdly, while mosaics could cover huge structures, the individual tesserae were very small, and therefore easily portable and reusable; in Ibn Zubayr’s case, the materials were carried about 700 miles from Sanaa (today, in Yemen) to Mecca. One recurring question about early Islamic mosaics is where the artisans came from; in some cases they may have travelled long distances to carry out their commissions.
Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra), Umayyad, 691–92, with multiple renovations, Jerusalem (photo: Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar)
Elite display
Mosaic was used to decorate some of the most prestigious buildings in the Umayyad caliphate. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem was built in the 690s. Its upper walls and dome are covered with glass tesserae, and the lower walls are paneled with marble. The mosaics show a rich mixture of trees, plant-scrolls, and jeweled crown-like designs on a gold background.
The Great Mosque of Damascus, built in 705–15, also combines marble panels below with glass tesserae above. The best-preserved section shows a landscape with elaborate buildings and tall trees along a river bank, again on a gilded background. The amount of material and labor that went into these mosaics is stunning; to make the gilded tesserae for Damascus would have taken roughly 200 tons of glass, plus the gold from over 2000 coins, beaten into foil.
Great Mosque of Damascus, west arcade of the courtyard, Umayyad, 705–15, with multiple renovations (photo: Judith McKenzie/Manar al-Athar)
Similar schemes of mosaic were commissioned for the contemporary mosques at Mecca, Medina, and Aleppo, although these haven’t survived. Other Islamic sites where glass tesserae have been found include Qusayr ʿAmra, Qastal, and Mshatta in Jordan.
Floor mosaics used more durable stone instead of glass. The one below is from the hall of the bathhouse attached to the palace of Khirbat al-Mafjar, near Jericho in Palestine, and even in this more limited palette of colors the mosaicists produced impressive results. Some of the designs with interlinked loops look a bit like textiles—carpets—while others (not shown here) imitated the zig-zag patterns found on marble.
Mosaic from the bathhouse attached to the palace of Khirbat al-Mafjar, Umayyad, 730–40s (photo: Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar)
While mosaic was a high-status medium in itself, and was regularly combined with others, it could also be used to imitate them. It was part of the toolkit of early Islamic architectural splendor.
In secular Islamic buildings, figural imagery was no problem, probably because idol-worship was not seen as a risk outside of religious settings. Below is floor mosaic from Khirbat al-Mafjar. Scenes of animal combat were common in Byzantine floors in the region, so this would have been a familiar commission for the artists—but it may have been given a new meaning here; the lion probably stands for the caliph and patron of the building, since lions were symbols of power, and the room was used by the patron to receive guests.
Khirbat al-Mafjar, Umayyad, 730–40s, floor of reception room in bath complex (photo: Ross Burns/Manar al-Athar)
There are no known mosaics from Islamic palaces which show humans. This is surprising, because in the same buildings people were often represented in paint and stucco. A few mosaics included explicit Islamic iconography. A house floor in Ramla in Israel was decorated with an image of a mihrab and a quote from the Qur’an. The majority of early Islamic mosaics, however, do not have devotional subject matter.
Floor mosaic of house in Ramla, Israel, 8th century (photo: Andres Reyes/Manar al-Athar)
The medium of mosaic was not exclusively Christian or Islamic, but could be adjusted to each context. There were also Jewish mosaics in the eastern Mediterranean; many synagogues with mosaic floors have been found, mostly dating to the 5th and 6th centuries, before the Muslim conquest. Mosaic had been part of the artistic culture of the Roman Empire, and the mosaics of the 8th-century mosques and palaces may have been intended partly to present the caliphate as successor of that empire. Alongside any specific meanings of the compositions, they carried associations of sophistication and power from their classical heritage.
Logistics and continuity
In the mid-700s, over a century after the Islamic conquest, the congregation of St. Stephen’s church at Umm al-Rasas in Jordan commissioned a new floor for their sanctuary. If you compare this to the picture from the hall at Khirbat al-Mafjar, you can see similar patterns. Both could also be compared to earlier Byzantine floors in the same area.
St Stephen’s, Umm al-Rasas, floor of chancel, mid-700s (photo: Sean Leatherbury/Manar al-Athar)
The similarities show that there was enough demand for mosaics for craft knowledge to be passed on locally—apprentices continued to be trained in the designs familiar to the generation before. Medieval authors claimed that the mosaics in the big mosques were made by artisans sent by the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople. But it is more likely that most (if not all) of them came from closer to home, from the Levant.
However, mosaicists in the early Islamic period did increasingly have to travel long distances. We know from inscriptions that some of those who worked on the mosques in Mecca and Medina came from Syria, Palestine, and Egypt—up to a thousand miles away. Tax records from the small town of Aphrodito in Egypt shows that workers and materials were brought from all over the caliphate for large building projects.
Mosaics were commissioned for palaces and mosques during the first part of the Abbasid caliphate, although almost none of these survive. During the 9th century mosaics were overtaken in popularity by new forms of wall and floor covering, such as glass tiles, as the technologies to make them were developed. After this, existing mosaics were often repaired, but new ones were rarely commissioned until a revival during the Mamluk period.