Representation illustrated in arts of Islam

The representation illustrated in arts of Islam treats history of the representation of the living beings in the Islamic art until the end of the 19th century, with a reference particular to the characters Saint S.

Like the Christian Iconoclasme , the Aniconisme Musulman is based - in the name of the Monothéisme - on the rejection of the Idole S. In fact, the prohibition of the illustrated image was respected since the 9th century in the whole of the Muslim world as regards religious spaces. On the other hand, its use appears in many profane productions. It depends at the same time on religious factors - for example Sunnites and Chiites does not treat same manner the question - but also social, philosophical and historical.

As for the representation of holy prophets and characters, it is a variously respected taboo: apparently absent from the Arab world, the religious imagery is abundant in the world Persan and present in the empires Othoman and Moghol.

The aniconism in Islamic art is a complex subject, the more so as of many generally accepted ideas are conveyed on this subject in occident.

The image in the religious texts

The Coran

Few verses refer to the question of the image in Coran. For Oleg Grabar, eminent specialist in the beginnings of Islamic art, this fact would be especially due to the quasi-absence of art in the pre-Islamic Arabia: the question of the images almost did not arise at the time of the creation of the crowned book. Moreover, this source is rather difficult to exploit because many interpretations were made by it a posteriori, often even several centuries after its written setting.

Several sourates can nevertheless bring information:

“Jesus will say to the children Israel: I come towards you accompanied by signs by the Lord; I will form mud the figure of a bird; I will blow above, and by the permission of God, the bird will be alive. ”

( Coran , III, 43)

“O believers! the wine, the games of chance, the statues “the stones drawn up”, according to the translations and the fate of the arrows are an abomination invented by Satan; abstain you-in and you will be happy. ”

Coran , V, 92 or V, 90 according to the versions)

“Abraham known as with his/her Azar father: will you take idols for gods? You and your people you are in an obvious mislaying. ”

( Coran , VI, 74)

“And Abraham put in parts the idols, except largest, so that they were caught some with it what arrived”;

“And then they returned to their old errors and said to Abraham: you know that the gods do not speak. Do you adore, other than God, which can neither be useful to you of nothing, nor to harm to you? Shame on you and what you adore other than God! Won't you include/understand it? Burn it! they exclaimed, and assist from our gods if it should absolutely be punished. And us, we said; O fire! Would be him cold! That safety is with Abraham. ”

( Coran , XXI, 59; XXI, 66-69)

“Djinns i.e. the geniuses carried out for Solomon all kinds of work, the palates, the statues, of the broad plates like basins, cauldrons firmly supported like mountains. (...)”

( Coran , XXXIV, 12)

“He is creative and formative God. ”

( Coran , LIX, 25)

These extracts, most significant of Coran with regard to the images, show us several elements:

Islam clearly refuses the worship of the Idole S, and thus the representation of God.
God is regarded as the only creator ( Musavvir in Arabic, the same word is used for “painter”) because the only able one to insufflate the life. The artist cannot thus be because God cannot accept rivals. Nevertheless, this Exégèse was installation only rather late, according to Oleg Grabar.
On the other hand, of the people considered that the verse concerning Solomon, who mentions statue, is an explicit authorization of art present in Coran, but all the specialists are not agreement on this point.

Like points out it Silvia Naef, enquiring specialized in the question of the image in Islam, “it would be thus difficult to find, in Coran, a “theory of the image” or, at least, a position well defined on this subject. ” One finds there nothing similar to the very strong sentence the Exode (XX, 4) “you will not be made idols, nor no image of what is in the skies, in top, or of what is on ground, bellow, or of what is in water under the ground. ”

The hadiths

Contrary to Coran, of many Hadith S refer to the image. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to interpret these texts correctly, because, if their remarks refer to the life of Mahomet, they were often written well later (though it is difficult of always knowing when) and reflect more concerns the one posterior time than those which transfer the birth of Islam. Moreover, the hadiths are not always recognized: thus the Shiite and the sunnites have each one a corpus different of traditions.

Does Silvia Naef tries a rather detailed analysis of these sources in its work Y have a “question of the image” in Islam? . For it, the hadiths expose four points related to the prohibition of the images, and these precepts seem accepted about at the same time by the Shiites and the sunnites:

the images are impure, therefore one cannot request there or they are. This prohibition is especially related to the fear of one return to the idolatry.
According to the place and the support where it is placed, the image is regarded or not as licit. There still, this precept seems related to “the concern not to cause a worship”.
the artists producing of the human or animal images will be condemned in beyond that, because they show “immodestie” while wanting to imitate God, alone creative.
the painting of images not representing animals nor characters is allowed.

Various interpretations

In spite of the hadiths, the theologists of Islam are divided enough on the question of the illustrated image, and several schools clash. Nevertheless, this problem does not seem inevitably exchange in traditional Islam: no treaty on the image exists, those are evoked only in various contexts, like the moralities. Moreover, the Moslems almost never delivered to the destruction of figurative images, put aside Mahomet itself, at the time of the famous scene of destruction of the idols of the Kaaba. In the Formation of Islamic art , the author undoubtedly quotes even a very revealing anecdote apocryphal book but on this subject:

“One day, a Moslem rider which was exerted with horsemanship damaged the eye of the statue accidentally the Byzantine emperor [[Héraclius], who had been set up like marks border between Byzance and the Muslim world]. The Christians raised a protest and (...) asked that the statue of the caliph Omar, i.e. the equivalent of Heraclius in the Islamic world (...) is mutilated in the same way. Thus it was decided, an image of Omar was made, her damaged eye and each one was of agreement that justice had been returned. What is essential (...) is that the Moslem chief (...) acquieça with the fact that the statue of his caliph is mutilated because he did not believe as closely as his Christian counterpart in the major significance of an image. ”

Certain authors seem rather favorable to the image. It is for example the case of Abu 'Ali Al-Farisi (901 - 979) and Al-Qurtubi (death in 1272 or 1273), quoted by the historian of art Bishr Farès in its article “Philosophy and jurisprudence illustrated by the Arabs” and taken again by Silvia Naef. Those rest on two already quoted Koranic verses, that where it is written that Solomon was made set up statues (XXXIV, 12) and that where Jesus insufflates the life in a worked mud bird (III, 43).

For much nevertheless, the image is a means of being diverted divine way, and this for several reasons, perhaps related to the brutal discovery of the worlds Byzantine and sassanide, in which the images hold a great place. It is first of all the fear of one return to the idolatry which dominates, and pushes many theologists to refuse the images in the places where can be held the prayer. Nevertheless, a second problem appears rather quickly: the image is also regarded as a luxury (what it is really in the empires close to Islam). However, Mahomet, like good number of large religious characters besides, is described like a modest, orphan man without fortune. The Moslem ideal is thus rather opposed to the luxury, and consequently to the images. Al-Nawawi, lawyer chafi' ite written thus that “the presence of a silk bed or images in a dining room is regarded as hateful”. In the same way, Al-Ghazali (1058 - 1111) quotes, in a list of reprovable things, “the image of an animal on a ceiling or a wall”.

According to the theologists, one finds also nuances: some accept the painted images, but not the carved images, because the seconds imitate reality while the first, from their two-dimensional aspect, cannot be compared with the work of God. An exception can be made for the headstocks, useful for the little girls, but certain people, whose Al-Nawawi remains reticent. In the same way, the position of the image appears very important: pressed with the feet, this one cannot be the subject of devotion, and thus is frequently accepted on the carpets or the grounds.

The most extreme case of refusal of the image is undoubtedly that of Al-Mujahidd (642 - 718 or 722) for which “even the fruit trees was prohibited since, owing to the fact that they bore fruits, they were “alive”.

The space-time situation of the image

Religious spaces and absence of image

The most known consequence concerning the image in Islam is undoubtedly the total aniconism of the Mosquée S and religious buildings and this, since the beginning of the creation of this type of buildings: the Large mosque of Omeyyades to Damas or the Dome of the Rock to Jerusalem, two greater religious creations of the beginnings of Islam, comprises both no figurative representation. One notices even in the mosaics of the first the use of initially illustrated Byzantine models, but of which secondary reasons - cities - are put the foreground and to the characters, replaced by trees.

In the same way, the Coran S do not comprise figurative images, but when they contain illustrations, those are geometrical figures, which can approach some sometimes Mysticisme S. Nevertheless the principal decorative element in Corans is not illumination, but the penmanship itself, an art which this absence of representations develops the Islamic world abundantly to not only mitigate, but also because, in the Islamic religion, “God was made verb”, and to recopy in a neat way Coran is an act of piety. Penmanship is also found like reason at the same time decorative and meaning in the other religious elements, in particular architecture. At the end of the 7th century, the dome of the Rock comprises already a coherent program of Koranic and para-Koranic inscriptions.

Exceptions in the religious field

There exist nevertheless exceptions - rather rare it is true - to this rule: the mosques Anatolia of 12th and 13th century often comprise, on their frontage, of the illustrated elements carved like dragons. The same remark perhaps made for certain monuments Iran iens. In the same way, one knows Coran, comprising an image of Mahomet.

Another exception, not necessarily religious but nevertheless interesting, is present in the three empires Othoman, moghol and safavide, at which one finds an art of the figurative penmanship. It is acted in fact of representation of animals, or, more rarely, men starting from calligraphic elements. The element represented is only suggested by contours and the reasons which the writing describes. This practice is paradoxical: is it still of penmanship, or rather about a diversion of penmanship?

In 1453, with Constantinople, the sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, filled with wonder by the magnificence at the Holy-Sophie basilica, immediately made cease the destruction of the mosaics, to which had started to deliver its soldiers, and decided to transform it into mosque. The mosaics were covered with plaster. However the Othoman Sultans made sure that they were periodically removed the plaster and restored before being again hidden with the eyes of the faithful ones.

See also: Hagia Sophia, Basilica Holy-Sophie

The image in the profane arts

Abbasid Omeyyades and : the Aniconisme of the beginnings of Islamic art

Like it points out Oleg Grabar, the first centuries of Islam refuse the illustrated image, even art itself, but this more for company names that nuns. The animated representations that we know, in particular in the castles of the Syrian plain, are in a very particular, deprived context and often are attached to Byzantine art and late antiquity that with the Islamic productions themselves. They thus are often regarded as exceptions, certainly important, within a production mainly aniconic.

The installation of the refusal of the image

For him, this refusal of the image arrives while following five distinct phases:

Before the conquest, i.e. with approximately of the hégire and almost until the death of Mahomet, because of artistic poverty of pre-Islamic Arabia, the Moslems have only vague notions of the artistic possibilities, and did not worry any.
During the conquest, the Arabs are abruptly put in contact with civilizations Byzantine and sassanide where the role of the image was very developed, so much in the profane context than in that of the religion (mainly at the Byzantines for this last point). They pile up treasures and admire much the artistic achievements.
a first refusal is born in the official art, as the currencies show it, which after having begun again and modified Byzantine figurative reasons and sassanides, become aniconic and simply carrying a Koranic inscription.
the refusal of the animated representation arrives then only out of the : official art, in the objects, paintings…
At the 8th century, the aniconism is consumed and it is then only that the theologists question and seek in the texts its reasons.

Causes of the refusal of the image at the beginning of the period

The aniconism of the beginnings of Islam thus does not seem to have been due to religious causes. Moreover, before even the installation of the hadiths, the mosques received an only not-figurative decoration, as it is the case with the Grande mosque of Omeyyades of Damas for example. Other reasons must thus be sought, and it seems that they are in the Moslem company of the beginnings and its relationships to the other empires existing at this period. For Oleg Grabar, it would be the influence of the Christian world and its many symbols which would have pushed Islam to dissociate and refuse the image to affirm its specificity, whereas it would have lost a part of it by creating a system symbolic system ineluctably influenced by Byzance. This search for specificity could besides have been influenced not only by one certain contempt of the worship of images in the Christian world, but to also undoubtedly stop a process of conversions to Christianity, and per refusal of the luxury which the Byzantine Art represented, Christians remaining in addition potential enemies.

It is possible also that the judaïque thought , religion whose many representatives had converted with Islam, played a significant part, even if it were not the source first. For Silvia Naef, there would not exist direct filiation between the two, but Judaism and Islam would in parallel have been subject to the influence “a bottom of thought common present in the area”.

Exceptions

At that time, according to Bishr Farès, historian of the Egyptian art that Silvia Naef quotes, would have taken place a “quarrel of the images”, undoubtedly very theoretical. Nevertheless, certain theologists would have estimated that prohibition was to apply only to the representation of God in a body form. It is for example the case of Abu 'Ali Al-Farisî (901-979) who seems to have been very near to influential rationalists with 8th and 9th centuries, the Mu' tazilite S.

One can nevertheless notice that certain very Islamic objects already carry images. If the Syrian “castles of the desert” have the appearance of an exception and are rather to attach to an ante-Islamic tradition, groups of metals of the 9th century, present already figurative decorations. One can undoubtedly attach this fact to the influence of Iran, which affirms itself more under the Abbassides than under Omeyyades. In the same way, starting from the end of 9th or the beginning of the 10th century, the human and animal figure again takes a dominating place in the art of ceramics in particular. One also knows a Spanish manuscript comprising a representation of caliphs umayyades and Abbasids.

The 10th century: a durable reversal of trend

As from the 10th century, even of the middle of the 9th century, the image becomes increasingly frequent in arts of Islam, and this, on various supports: objects, manuscripts, architectures. Several reasons can beings called upon to explain this change, which continues in all Islamic art, but not in a homogeneous way nor continuous according to the places and the times.

The installation of an art of the figuration

Several elements can be supports of the figurative image, which does not appear in a brutal way, but remains the fruit of an evolution taking its sources during the time already former to the 10th century.

Indeed, the animated representation was already present in some secondary groups of Islamic art, in particular of Iranian metals of the 9th century. Productions of court, as the ewer of Marwân II whose nozzle ends in a cock, are also figurative, but, following the example Châteaux of the desert of the Syrian steppe such that of Qusair Amra, it seems that they did not play a big role in the diffusion of the human and animal figure.

The representation of animated beings rather seems to come from North Africa and Egypt, where creates for itself into 909 the Shiite caliphate ismaëlite Fatimides, rival of that of the Abbassides. On the ceramics parts, but also the ewers, metals, wood… Moreover, in this area, the illustrated representations seemed accepted better, undoubtedly because of the Christian majority (Copte S) which there lived and consituait the major part of the craftsmen. One thus counts several illustrated wood fragments dating from 8th - 9th centuries.

The illustrated representation seems to emerge at the same time in other parts of the world Islamic, like the Spain, Iran which gains little by little a certain autonomy, but also the fertile Croissant, cradle of Abbasid civilization: with Samarra as with Suse, one notices the appearance of characters and animals on the monochromic glosses and earthenware.

With the invasion of the Turks Seldjoukides appears the miniature, which will become the source of many figurative representations. One knows no example of manuscript illustrated before the 12th century and the school of Baghdad, but it is thought that ceramics Minaï constitutes reflections of this art of painting. This one will not have of cease to develop, leading little by little to the creation of many schools in the various parts of the world Islamic.

In almost all the areas from now on, one paints, one engraves, one carves images illustrated on profane objects, intended as well for the middle-class as with the aristocracy.

Reason of the arrival of the figurative images

Several reasons can explain this phenomenon of upheaval.

One can initially note that the image arrives in a Shiite caliphate, which could, while following other rules, to seek to dissociate that sunnite of Baghdad. The presence in Egypt of many Coptes is also a big factor, as we already previously noted it.

The translation of traditional scientific works requiring explanatory representations is also an element which can make it possible to explain the flowering of decorated manuscripts. Because, it is a fact, the first works illustrated were scientific treaties like that of Al-Been enough, “Treated fixed stars” of 1009 - 1010 whose several specimens were quickly produced. It is only then that will be put in images the works of fiction, poetry and history. The development of the manuscripts must also be explained by the diffusion of the paper - which exists in the Muslim world as from the 8th century but of which the use spreads only at the 9th-10th centuries.

In the same way, in Iran, one can connect the arrival of the images and the catch of independence of the local, eager governors seems T it to emphasize the origins Persians of the Iranian people while giving for example the Art sassanide to the honor, by ordering literary works glorifiant the Iranian people like the Shah Nama but also while joining again with the figurative tradition of pre-Islamic Iran.

Nevertheless, for other works, like glossed ceramics, perhaps initially intended to imitate with lower costs the productions of gold plate, it is undoubtedly necessary to evoke the arrival on the scene of a new commercial middle-class. In a context where the Islamic world does not seem any more threatened in its own existence, as it was the case at the beginning of Islam, this social class claims from now on it also images and life in the objects which it buys.

Cases of refusal

The acceptance of the illustrated representation is however not uniform in everyone Islamic. Thus, the rigorous Berber dynasties of the Almohades and Almoravides, which follow the rite malikite seem rather reticent to use it, even if one knows some figurative objects of metal and an illustrated manuscript of this period. The case of fabrics produced in Spain is a little different: all or almost are decorated animals, but they were intended almost only for export.

In the same way, the productions mameloukes evolve little by little to a suppression of the image, which one can undoubtedly bring closer to problems that Egypt crosses - in particular the Black Death - and which gives place to a return to a more strict religion.

Problems raised by the representations illustrated in Islam

If the illustrated representation thus seems rather frequently allowed in arts of Islam, several problems arise: can the image represent reality? What of it are representations of the holy characters?

Image and realism

The prohibition of the resemblance in the Hadith S

“A man comes to see Ibn 'Abbas. He says: I am painter. Deliver to me your opinion on this subject. 'Abbas says to him: I inform you of what I intended to say by the Prophet (...): any painter will go in hell. One will give a heart to each image which it created and those will punish it in Géhenne. 'Abbas added: if you must absolutely make some, manufactures trees and all that does not have a heart”. This hadith celebrates, on which several theologists base themselves to refuse the illustrated representation, an alternative has in which Ibn 'Abbas answers “If, but you can decapitate the animals so that they do not have the alive air, and try which they resemble flowers. ”

This hadith watch at which point the image for the Moslems should not seek to have heart, to represent the life. By putting this fact in parallel with the strong stylization which often has course in the Islamic representations, certain researchers, like Alexandre Papadopoulo or Valerie Gonzales from of deduced that the artists refuse realism and seek, as it is besides the case in many other cultures (cf icon S Byzantine or Masque S Oceania NS), to create a world beyond reality, to transcend reality.

This hadith also led certain puritans to mutilate manuscripts by scraping the heads of the characters represented, or while symbolically cutting them with a black feature.

The existence of realism

Other people call into question this design of Islamic esthetics. It is for example the case of Richard Ettinghausen and Silvia Naef. For them, it is false to say that Islamic art forever tended to represent reality. The portraits carried out in the Othoman empires , safavides and Moghols of it are positive proofs.

Silvia Naef also mentions the case, at the 11th century, of a vizier fatimide who would have organized a contest between two painters to represent a dancer in the most realistic possible way, in manner to even confuse the spectator. One could also announce the scientific representations which seek obviously the proximity with reality.

In the same way, if the three-dimensional sculpture and images seem refused due to competition with God, there exist exceptions to the majority of the times, in particular in Spain (mouths of fountains of the palate of Madinat Al-Zahara, lions of the Alhambra,…) and in Iran (lions burn-perfume of the Khurasan, cat-like Qajars,…).

Thus, one can conclude on this question by mentioning the words from Silvia Naef:

“If the esthetics of Islamic art is, without any doubt, very particular, it would be necessary to moderate this vision of an art far away from the representation of reality: such a refusal does not seem in any case to have been constant among the artists and their silent partners. ”

The representation of Mahomet and the holy characters

A second problem holds in the religious representations. It is considered most of the time that the saints, the prophets and the Imams cannot be represented in Islam, but of any obviousness, there exist representations, more or less explicit besides.

Contexts of these representations

As one saw, there almost does not exist image in religious space. It is thus not there that it is necessary to seek figurations of holy characters, but in profane works, like poetic or historical texts. For example, the Khamsa of Nizami speaks about religion and gives place to representations of Mahomet or other characters. It is the same for the books of the Prophets , who describe the exploits of those and give place to abundant representations. There exist still books concerning the life of Mahomet, in particular of the Miraj Nama , and the majority of the historical texts, as the Jami Al-Tawarikh of Aldine Rashid speaks about the Prophet and the saints having lived before or after him.

One can nevertheless emit several note:

Coran is not illustrated, and this for a simple reason. It is not a question of a narrative text, and it thus lends itself very badly to the representation.
the majority of the scenes emphasizing religious characters are narrative: one represents the events of the life of the Prophets, the great biblical episodes like the Arche of Noah, Jonas and the Whale… the crucifixion is never present, since the Moslems consider that God could not allow that its envoy is thus put at death.
There do not exist religious representations in Arab painting: those appear only in the worlds Turkish and Persan. It is necessary to seek a religious reason less there (even if Iranian is with Shiites majority, they have about the same ideas with regard to the image), but historical, political and social.
According to the tradition monotheist, God is not represented, but Iblis, the equivalent of the Diable or the incarnation of the Mal can appear in certain paintings.

These religious representations appear first of all in painting Persian of the 13th-14th centuries, i.e. under the domination of the Mongolian It-khanides. The first Persan manuscripts known magazines go back besides to this period. Some of the illustrations of a Jami Al-tawarikh of the beginning of the 14th century appear thus of the Moslem topics like the birth of Mahomet or Mahomet in the Kaaba, or of the topics borrowed from the Bible and recognized by the Moslems, including two beautiful illustrations of the legend of Jonas and the Baleine. One notes sometimes the use of Byzantine and Christian sources syriaques with regard to the scenes related to the Bible. In the world Timuride as in the Safavides and the Qajars, the representations of Mahomet and other saints multiply. They also appear in Othoman Turkey as from the 15th century.

Some elements of iconography of the holy characters in Islam

Several elements are frequently employed to represent the holy characters. It are first of all haloed flames (except in rare exceptions). On the contrary, the Nimbus, very frequent in the manuscripts, does not represent holiness, contrary to what one observes in the Christian world. In first half of the 16th century the use of a veil appears to mask the face of these representations, which spreads at the 17th century, then with 19th, the faces are not painted quite simply more.

With regard to Mahomet, the scene most frequently represented as from the 15th century is that of the Miraj, i.e. the rise of this one through the sky. According to the habit worked out in the Hadith S, it is perched on a mare with head of woman Bouraq. In Painting Persian , Grabar notes that these rises all seem “to raise of a standardized model”

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