The Beginning

“If it exists at all, Islamic art would be one that overpowered and transformed ethnic or geographic

traditions, or else one that created some peculiar kind of symbiosis between local and pan-Islamic modes of

artistic behaviour and expression. In either instance the term “Islamic” would be comparable to those like

“Gothic” or “Baroque” and would suggest a more or less successful cultural moment in the long

history of native traditions. It would be like a special overlay, a deforming or refracting prism which

transformed at times temporarily and imperfectly, at other times permanently, some local energies and

traditions.” -- Oleg Grabar (1973)

Some dates

• 622 C.E. Hijrah (beginning of Muslim era)• 632 C.E. Death of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)• 633-640 C.E. Conquest of Syria, Palestine & Iraq• 642 C.E. Lower Egypt conquered• 651 C.E. Conquest of Western Iran• 711 C.E. Beginning of Spanish conquest• 731 C.E. Taskent captured, hence completing conquest of

Northeastern Iran

The Early Islamic World

“A mosque served its community as a meeting-place, council chamber, courtroom, treasury, and centre for military

operations. Administrative announcements were made and political allegiances sworn in the mosque; traders and scholars

gathered there; and books were commonly “published” by being read out aloud in the mosque. The homeless were

allowed to sleep in its precincts, and even dinners might be held there. It replaced the classical agora or forum as the

main meeting-place in a city. Only over the centuries did its space become sacralised and closer to the Western concept

of a holy area.” -- Robert Irwin (1997)

Form follows Function

Haram Al-Sharif (Dome of the Rock) Caliph Abd al-Malik (691 C.E.)

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Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 4th-5th Century, Jerusalem

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Umayyad Mosque of Damascus Caliph al-Walid (709-715 C.E.)

‘Abd al-Rahman I (784-86 C.E.) ‘Abd al-Rahman II(833-852 C.E.)al-Hakam II (961-976 C.E.)Vizier al-Mansur (987 C.E.)

Great Mosque of Cordoba

Great Mosque of Samarra Caliph al-Mutawakkil (847-861 C.E.)

Mosque of Ibn Tulun Ahmed ibn Tulun (870-879 C.E.)

Qusayr ‘AmraCaliph al-Walid (712-15 C.E.)

Khirbat al-MafjarCaliphs Hisham, al-Walid II (724-43 C.E.)

MshattaCaliph al-Walid II (743-44 C.E.)

BaghdadRound city of al-Mansur (762)

Samarra“Al-Mutasim had architects brought and told them to choose the most suitable positions, and they selected a number of sites for the palaces. He gave each of his followers a palace to build … Then he had plots of ground marked out for the military and civil officers and for the people, and likewise the Great Mosque. And he had the markets drawn out round the mosque and wide market rows, all the various kinds of merchandise being separate … according to the arrangement after which the markets of Baghdad were designed. He wrote for workmen, masons, and artisans such as smiths, carpenters, and all other craftsmen to be sent, and for teak and other kinds of wood, and for palm trunks to be brought from Basra … Baghdad … and from Antioch and other towns on the Syrian coast, and for marble workers and men experienced in marble paving to be brought.” -- al-Yaqubi (d. 874 C.E.)