"Islamic Art Belongs As Much To The Present As To The Past"

Titus Burckhardt

"For the contemplative man a lesson can be learned from everything." (Sufyan al-Thawri)

The art of Islam is essentially a contemplative art, which aims to express above all, an encounter with the Divine Presence.

The origin of Islamic art has often tried to be explained through tracing it back to some precedent in Byzantine, Sassanid, Coptic or other art, yet what is lost sight of, is the intrinsic and original unity of Islamic art and thus the 'seal' that Islam conferred on all borrowed elements.

In order to understand the essence of Islamic art it is first necessary to realise the different conceptions of art itself. From the European point of view, the criterion of an artistic culture lies in its capacity to represent nature and even more in its capacity to portray man. From the Islamic point of view, on the contrary, the main scope of art is not the imitation or description of nature - the work of man will never equal the art of God - but the shaping of the human ambience. Art has to endow all the objects with which man naturally surrounds himself - a house, a fountain, a drinking vessel, a garment, a carpet - with the perfection each object can posses according to its own nature. Islamic art does not add something alien to the objects that it shapes; it merely brings out their essential qualities. 

In traditional art, beauty and use go hand in hand; they are two inseparable aspects of perfection, as envisaged by the Prophetic tradition: 'God has prescribed perfection in all things.'

 It is connected with the concept of ihsan as set forth in the Hadith of Gabriel, whereby the religion rests on three fundamental principles: Islam (submission to the Divine Will), Iman (faith), and Ihsan. Ihsan may be translated as 'spiritual virtue' or simply virtue, and includes the ideas of beauty and perfection. More exactly it means inward beauty, beauty of the soul or of the heart, which necessarily emanates outwards, transforming every human activity into an art and every art into the remembrance of God. 

If we consider inward beauty and outward beauty, we find the latter has its origin in the former. To the extent that human activities are integrated into Islam, they become a support for beauty - a beauty which in fact transcends these activities because it is the beauty of Islam itself. This is particularly true of the fine arts, as it is their role to manifest the hidden qualities of things. The art of Islam receives its beauty not from any ethnic genius but from Islam itself and just as Islamic science has its roots in the Qur'an and hadith, so the typical forms of Islamic art are rooted in the spirit of Islam. 

Challenging the notion that works of art from earlier centuries need to be studied as historical 'phenomena'...for the Muslim, the great mosques of Kairawan, Cordoba, Cairo, Damascus, Isfahan, Herat and so on belong as much to the present as to the past, insofar as it is possible to realise the state of mind of those who created them, and thus what is timeless in the art of our spiritual ancestors is the roots in Islam itself.

An important lesson that Islamic art provides is in challenging the notion that works of art from earlier centuries need to be studied as historical 'phenomena', which belong to the past and have very little to do with the future. Against this relativistic point of view, for the Muslim, the great mosques of Kairawan, Cordoba, Cairo, Damascus, Isfahan, Herat and so on belong as much to the present as to the past, insofar as it is possible to realise the state of mind of those who created them, and thus what is timeless in the art of our spiritual ancestors is the roots in Islam itself.

(Burckhardt T, Mirror of the Intellect, Suhail Academy) 

http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/march02_index.php?l=0

The Classical Instrument Sarangi

Sarangi and Tabla

"Sufism has made significant contributions to Islamic civilization in music and philosophy, dance and literature." The Garden of Truth, Seyyed Hossein Nasr 

The Classical Music Heritage of Islamic Thought

There is no historical knowledge how music was presented in the social setting of ancient India. 

It is, however, obvious that during the medieval, the so- called ‘Muslim’ period music acquired a respectable place in the set of entertainments which rulers, princes and rich people made available to themselves, In this setting, Dhrupad gave way to a lighter form of music which came to be known as Kheyal. Kheyal is an Urdu word meaning ‘emotion.’  In other words, the song or the poem became an important element, unlike Dhrupad where the chain of sounds was the main frame. The Kheyal is the mainstream classical music as performed today

Kheyal starts with alaap, in lower sounds and in slow motion. This is intended to unfold the ‘face’ of the Raag, its swaroop. The song has two alternating parts, sthayi (stable) and antara (higher). Sthayi is the resting level where the singing must return every time after having covered the ascendancy of the antara.

The whole performance of Kheyal is embellished by frequent taans, presented either in terms of the swars as pronounced, that is Sa, Re, etc., or just as vowels at the same sound levels. As for rhythm, after alaap the singing stays at a normal rhythm, but it gradually speeds up until we reach a crescendo which is presented as tarana. The consonants and the vowels which make the ‘words’ in tarana are without meaning - as in a mantra - and to make this a true representation of the Raag requires some skill.

 Jugalbandi, or a duet, is one of the interesting ways in which classical music is presented. The two performers may not be of the same class, although there are two famous cases of brothers, both vocalists, performing together, Nazakat Ali- Salamat Ali of Pakistan and Rajan Mishra- Sajan Mishra of Varanasi. 

 For the purists, ‘light classical’ or ‘semi- classical’ is an area of controversy. This class includes Thumri, Dadra, Tappa and Holi. The Thumri developed in about 18th century and was practiced mainly by courtesans for the entertainment of the rich. Varanasi and Gaya came to be known as the most prolific centers of Thumri. The practitioners of this genre do not accept its designation as ‘semi-classical’. It is pointed out, with good justification, that if Raag and Taal are both being adhered to, nothing else is required to name it ‘classical’. 

Poetry is the main component in a Ghazal. In fact, ‘ghazal’ is the name of a particular form of Urdu poetry, which is generally romantic, and sometimes devotional. Ghazal need not incorporate any Raag and is not contained within the discipline of Taal. The Ghazal singer needs only a light support of Tabla. Quite frequently, instead of the performer adhering to the framework of Taal, it is the Tabla player who adheres to the way the singing takes place. Understandably, the eminent Ghazal singers have used the lyrics of great Urdu poets, such as Zauq, Ghalib, Meer, or Faiz Ahmad Faiz. The words of the poem sometimes contribute much more to the listener’s pleasure than the music through which it is presented. Not being bound down with Raag and Taal, Ghazal singers are able to display great originality and innovation is the frills they provide.

Qawwali emerged as the musical expression of Sufi thought. Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, arose in Arabia and Iran about 9th century, as a philosophical movement within Islam which places man in a passionate, emotional relationship with God and ultimately in union with Him. As far as is known, the musical presentation of Sufi experience as Qawwali was not developed until about 15th century when Sufi orders arose in different parts of India.

Undoubtedly, Amir Khusro, prince, poet, musician and Sufi, was the one who developed Qawwali in 15th century as a combination of mysticism with music. Qawwalis are presented at important Muslim shrines such as Salim Chishti in Ajmer and Nizamuddin in Delhi, as Kirtan is presented in Hindu temples. With several singers participating in a Qawwali, an orchestration of human voice rises, wave after wave, and when the poetry is deeply devotional, it casts a spell over the listeners. Great Qawwals have reasonably good classical training and they provide such inputs as aalap, tan, and even tarana, making a powerful presentation of rich music. A number of the songs still being presented are the compositions of Amir Khusro himself. Since such mystic experience is human rather than scriptural, the poetry employs images, metaphors, even stories taken from both Hinduism and Islam, and has a philosophical, rather than a communal flavor.

The word gharana, literally meaning a household in Hindi, is used in classical music to refer to a lineage of masters and disciples that have evolved a common style. The many gharanas of Indian classical music offer their own unique flavors and nuances, which are quite recognizable to the trained ear. Gwalior gharana is considered to be the fountainhead of all gharanas from where other vocalists learned classical music from their gurus and migrated to other locations if they were of extraordinary merit.

The gharanas were never based on the name of these ustads but the places where they had settled. Thus we have Agra gharana (not the Faiyaz Khan gharana). Following this convention, there are Patiala gharana, Kirana gharana and, of course, Gwalior, Jaipur and Indore gharanas. These came to be known as the principal ones. These gharanas had a distinct flavor of their own.

Indian classical music, never written and, therefore, never distributed to aspiring musicians, is learned at the feet of one's master. Ustad Allauddin Khan, when learning his craft, even worked as a domestic servant in his master's home.

 http://www.classicalmusicofindia.com/9255.html

THE DOMINATING PRINCIPLE OF ISLAMIC ART COMES FROM THE QURAN

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

The principle, the truth of the Nature of Reality which dominates over Islamic art and the philosophy of beauty which governs it, comes directly from the Qur’an and hadith. It is, however, much too subtle to be seen externally. One of the reasons is that you don’t have a book in Islam on the philosophy of beauty or how they did architecture? No body knows how the Badshahi Mosque or the Taj Mahal or Isphahan mosque was built. This tradition was handed over orally from generation to generation through the artistic guilds, those of chivalry, the brotherhood organisations that were ultimately connected to the Çarâqah or the esoteric path. What are these principles that have dominated over all forms of Islamic art from its beginning?

The first is tawhid, the doctrine of unity. All authentic Islamic art must reflect Divine Unity. There are consequences for that. First is that you must always have an integration of the form. There is a centre to it. Islamic art is always a centered art. It has a centre from which it speaks - whether architecture, calligraphy, miniature, carpet weaving etc.-and that is a reflection of tawhid. One can extend this principle to great lengths, as it is the most important of all principles of Islamic art. It means to exclude from Islamic art all forms of idolatry.

Theologically idolatry means to make an idol or statue and say that it is God. This is only the external understanding of idolatry. But an understanding of Islamic art is always related to Sufism which tries to transcend the external forms to reach tawhid within, to understand the unity of creation. It is not accidental that every great calligrapher of Islamic lands is related to Sufism. Anyhow the first important principle i.e. tawhid works on many levels; of integration, of lack of alienation, of lack of tension between parts, integration of the psyche of the listener instead of dispersion etc.

Second principle is that of Jamal. Up till modern times all art took beauty into consideration. Modern art has developed the cult of ugliness, considering beauty to be trivial and unnecessary and even a luxury. The modern theoreticians of art considered that art should be related to utility and not to beauty. The Islamic perspective has been summarised in an important Áhadith that defines Islamic art in the whole of Islamic civilisation. “Allahu Jamâlun yuhibu ‘l-jamal”(God is beautified and He loves beauty). Beauty is reality, ugliness is unreality. To live in ugliness is to live in illusion, in unreality. This is in contrast to much of the modern art, which tries to discover the ugly, the evil and says that it is important, the good is not important.

There is the famous saying, “In every thing there is a sign which bears witness to His Oneness.” Islamic art tries to accentuate that aspect instead of hiding it. 

 Thirdly, there is the un-iconic character of the Islamic art. In many civilisations art flows from the representation of the Divinity. Examples of the Christian or Hindu art could be cited in this regard. All Christian art is dominated by the image of Christ. On the other hand, un-iconic art means an art that refuses to depict the divine in a direct from. It excludes a statue or an image that represents divinity. The reason for it is the emphasis of Islam upon tawhid on the highest level. It is not a religion based upon the manifestation of divinity like the Hindu avatars or Christ who, in a sense, is the Abrahamic avatar since for the Christians he represents the descent, the incarnation of the Divinity. Islam places itself on the position of the Divinity Itself, the pure Divinity, the Absolute Reality which cannot descent in the world of forms or it would no longer be the Absolute. That is why Islamic art is characterised by an attempt to bring the Sacred into the world without representing the Divinity directly.

Read full lecture: http://www.allamaiqbal.com/publications/journals/review/apr02/08-Principles%20of%20Islamic%20Art.htm

DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES THROUGH GENERATIONS IN ISLAMIC ART

Whether produced in a courtly or an urban setting or for a religious context, Islamic art is generally the work of anonymous artists. Given the great number of extant examples, comparatively few signatures are found on metalwork, pottery, carved wood and stone, and textiles.


Those signatures that do occur, combined with rare evidence from contemporary textual sources, suggest that families of artists, often over several generations, specialized in a particular medium or technique. Often time the artist was an artisan whose stock of patterns and technical skills were handed down from generation to generation within specialised families. Learning the techniques, the firing or glazing of the pottery, the weaving of the cloth etc., and learning the particular shapes and designs to be used, formed a single process in training the young.


The least artisanal work, such as woodwork, pottery, weaving, and so forth includes, beyond its material technique, a certain transmitted science, sometimes reduced to some very simple rules but always bearing an aspect of wisdom, which the artisan will more or less penetrate, according to the degree of his contemplative intelligence and his experience.


It has been said that work with ones hands allows one to know oneself. In this way, manual art can be a means through which man is better able to contemplate on his Lord. Not only by recognising the bounty of materials that God has provided him/her with, but also, more importantly through recognition of ones own capabilities and limitations as an artisan, when comparing his work to the Greatest of Crafters.


In contrast to Western art, in which painting and sculpture are pre-eminent, it is in the so-called decorative arts that Islamic art found its primary means of expression.


Through the diversity of the Islamic Empire, which linked together, for the first time in history, such varied and distant peoples as Spaniards, Africans, Persians, Turks, Egyptians and Indians, a quick dissemination of knowledge and artistic merging arose.


During Parthian and Sasanian times, the ceramic arts had been little patronised by the wealthy, especially east of Iraq. Even in villages, the pottery remained undistinguished as compared with that of earlier centuries. But for the first time, under Islamic Abbasid rule, porcelains imported from China (in its expansive Tang period) inspired a distinct revival of ceramic art.


The porcelain imports could not be duplicated, but ways were found to imitate its whiteness. They succeeded in developing many original decorative techniques including lustre ware and a method of polychrome painted ware called Minai.


These same decorative techniques were utilized in tile making, in which Muslims were unsurpassed. 

THE ISLAMIC VIEW OF CRAFTSMANSHIP

From an Islamic perspective art consists in fashioning objects in a manner conformable to their nature, for that nature has a virtual content of beauty, since it comes from God; all one has to do is release that beauty in order to make it apparent.

According to the most general Islamic conception, art is no more than a method of ennobling matter.

And since there is no better action than the remembrance of God, according to the sayings of the Prophet (pbuh), a craft can be good only to the degree to which it aids in this remembrance, directly or indirectly.

Just as knowledge of Qur'an and hadith, according to traditional Islamic teaching, needs to be passed down through an unbroken golden chain from teacher to student leading back to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

Similarly this wisdom and baraka (spiritual blessing) is recognised and permeates many aspects of the conscientious Muslim's life even in the domain of craftsmanship.

The following account is found in Titus Burckhardt's book "Fez: City of Islam"

"I knew a comb-maker who worked in the street of his guild, called Abd al-Aziz (slave of the Almighty).


One day he complained to me that the importation of plastic combs was diminishing his business: 'It is not only a pity that today, solely on account of price, poor quality combs from a factory are being preferred to much more durable horn combs,' he said; 'it is also senseless that people should stand by a machine and mindlessly repeat the same movement, while an old craft like mine falls into oblivion.


My work may seem crude to you; but it harbours a subtle meaning which cannot be explained in words. I myself acquired it only after many long years, and even if I wanted to, I could not automatically pass it on to my son, if he himself did not wish to acquire it - and I think he would rather take up another occupation.


This craft can be traced back from apprentice to master until one reaches our Lord Seth, the son of Adam. It was he who first taught it to man, and what a Prophet brings-for Seth was a Prophet-must clearly have a special purpose-both outwardly and inwardly. I gradually came to understand that there is nothing fortuitous about this craft, that each movement and each procedure is a bearer of an element of wisdom. But not everyone can understand this. But even if one does not know this, it is still stupid and reprehensible to rob men of the inheritance of Prophets, and to put them in front of a machine where, day in and day out, they must perform a meaningless task."

Read more: http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/march02_index.php?l=2

Mosque Architecture

Mosque Al-Azhar, Cairo, Egypt

The Mosque of al-Azhar was founded by Jawhar al-Siqilly, the Fatimid conqueror of Egypt, in 970 as the congregational mosque for the new city of al-Qahira.

The first khutba was delivered from its minbar in 972 and a university was established there in 988.

Mamluk madrasas were established in the ziyada (outer enclosure): Taybarsiyya in 1309 and Aqbughawiyya in 1340. The Taybarsiyya has two iwans, one for the Shafi'ites and the other for the Malikites.

This mosque served as a model for the Mosque of the Qarafa, a congregational mosque built by al-Sayyida al-Mu'izziyya in 976. 

Read more:http://www.archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=3466

The Artistic Expression Fostered by Islam Itself

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art

"Although this [Islamic Art] is a highly dynamic art, which is often marked by strong regional characteristics as well as by significant influences from other cultures, it retains an overall coherence that is remarkable given its vast geographic and temporal boundaries. Of paramount concern to the development of this singular art is Islam itself, which fostered the creation of a distinctive visual culture with its own unique artistic language.

In Islamic cultures the so-called decorative arts provide the primary means of artistic expression, in contrast to Western art, in which painting and sculpture are preeminent. Illuminated manuscripts, woven textiles and carpets, inlaid metalwork, blown glass, glazed ceramics, and carved wood and stone all absorbed the creative energies of artists, becoming highly developed art forms. These works include small-scale objects of daily use, such as delicate glass beakers, as well as more monumental architectural decoration, for example, glazed tile panels from building façades. Such objects were meticulously fabricated and carefully embellished, often with rare and costly materials, suggesting that the people for whom they were made sought to surround themselves with beauty.

Whether produced in a courtly or an urban setting or for a religious context, Islamic art is generally the work of anonymous artists. A notable exception is in the sphere of the arts of the book. The names of certain calligraphers are well known, which is not surprising given the primacy of the written word in Islam, as are those of a number of painters, most of whom were attached to a particular court. The identification of these artists has been based on signed or attributed examples of their works and on textual references. Given the great number of extant examples, comparatively few signatures are found on metalwork, pottery, carved wood and stone, and textiles. Those signatures that do occur, combined with rare evidence from contemporary textual sources, suggest that families of artists, often over several generations, specialized in a particular medium or technique."

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art houses one of the most significant collections of Islamic art in the world. 

http://www.lacma.org/islamic_art/intro.htm

Enduring Forms of Islamic Art: Calligraphy – An Islamic Heritage

Siddiqua Shahnawaz

Any architectural work has both a functional and an artistic dimension, which are :

1) An immediate physical context that determines the style, and 
2) A wider social, cultural and economic frame of reference that gives it meaning. 

For example, in the case of a Masjid, the prayer hall must be suitable for its purpose in accordance with the liturgy of Islam, but the building itself must also 'speak' to the local community, providing both spiritual upliftment and an anchor for the community's identity.

Calligraphy, known as 'khatt' in Arabic, is an outstanding example of such blending of form and function. From the grandest of Masjids with their expertly carved stuccos to the simplest of rural Masjids with few Qur'anic verses painted on their walls, one can see the strong influence of Qur'anic calligraphy that has attached itself to the expression of Islamic art.

A passion for the written script constitutes one of the fundamental traits of Islamic culture. For Islam, the Arabic script is not merely a tool invented by human beings, but a gift of God. As Allah says in the Qur'an: 

"Recite, and thy Lord is the Most Honourable! Who taught (to write) with the Pen, taught man what he knew not" 
(Surah al-Alaq, verses 3-5). 

Innumerable Hadeeth of the Prophet [pbuh] and his Ahlul Bayt [A.S] distinctly convey the importance of gaining knowledge and emphasize the value of the written word. For example, the Prophet has said "The ink of a scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr". 

In general, Qur'anic texts are selected for inscriptions in Masjids, but quotations from the Hadeeth and other pious phrases are also found. Thus, calligraphy serves as an ornamental purpose along with conveying the word of God and sayings of the Holy Prophet [pbuh]. 

Origin of Islamic Calligraphy 

In the words of Dost Muhammad of Gawashwan, a sixteenth century writer, "It is etched on the minds of the masters of the arcane that the garden of painting and illumination is an orchard of perfect adornment; and the arrangement and embellishment of the Qur'an, which bespeak the glorification of the word of the Exalted, are connected to the pen and bound to the design and drawing of the masters of this noble craft".

It has been recorded that the first person to adorn with painting and illumination the writing of the word that is necessarily welcomed was Ali Ibn Abi Talib [A.S], and the gates of this commodity were opened to this group by the key of that Majesty's pen. A few leaves (barg), known in the parlance of painters as Islami, were invented by him." (translated by Thackston in 'A Century of Princes').

Furthermore, Mir Sayyid Ahmad Mashhadi, in the preface to the Bahram Mirza Album says, "Guided by the inscription of the register of the city of knowledge, of which Ali is the gate..."everyone is commanded to strive to attain this noble and honourable craft (calligraphy) when he said, "Have beautiful writing, for it is among the keys to sustenance." Thus, calligraphy has always enjoyed a special status in Islam. 

Read more: http://www.imamreza.net/eng/imamreza.php?id=4341

Enduring Forms of Islamic Art: Canons of Decorative Art

Early in the 11^th century there began a Sunni revival, which had both religious and cultural aspects. This movement, which saw itself as a restoration of traditionalism, was accompanied by an artistic revival that established many of the enduring forms of Islamic art and architecture – in particular, its canon of decorative art. The three elements of the Islamic decorative canon began to appear as early as the Umayyad period, but they crystallised into their classic forms during the ‘Sunni Revival’.

Calligraphy gives a visible form to the revealed word of the Qur’an and is therefore considered the most noble of the arts. It manages to combine a geometric discipline with a dynamic rhythm. Interestingly, none of its many styles, created in different places at different periods, has ever completely fallen into disuse. In the Islamic world it takes the place of iconography, being widely used in the decorative schemes of buildings.

Geometric patterns have always had a particular appeal to Muslim designers and craftsmen. They convey a certain aura of spirituality, or at least otherworldliness, without relating to any specific doctrine. In an Islamic context they are also quite free of any symbolic meaning. Above all they provide craftsmen with the opportunity to demonstrate his skill and subtlety of workmanship, and often to dazzle and intrigue with its sheer complexity.

Vegetal ‘Arabesque’ compositions are as ubiquitous in Islamic decoration as geometric patterns. It is difficult, without other indications, to determine where or when a particular composition of this genre might have originated. Like geometrical designs, these too are found across the entire range of mediums from book illustration to plasterwork; in ceramics, woodwork, metalwork and ivory-carving, even in carpets and textiles.

Read more: http://www.patterninislamicart.com/background-notes/the-evolution-of-style/

Silence Reigns in the Miniatures Room at NCA

Louis Werner

In the Miniature Painting Department of Pakistan’s National College of Arts (NCA), here, in a two-year intensive program that is a kind of modern karkhana, or Mughal painting workshop, students learn meticulous techniques, including ultra fine figure drawing and brushwork, tea staining of page borders and burnishing of paper surfaces—as well as how to work with such centuries-old materials as brushes made of squirrel-tail hair; handmade, multi-layered paper called wasli; and mussel-shell paint pots. Later, they give their imagination free rein to create new possibilities and new meanings for this highly disciplined tradition, in the context of a contemporary art world where few rules still seem to apply.

The NCA is now Pakistan’s premier institution granting Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees, and annually some 20,000 applicants seek one of its 150 admission slots; of these, only a dozen or so are chosen for the miniature-painting major.

Qureshi explains that it takes a special sort of student to major in miniatures, as opposed to, say, studio painting or printmaking. First of all, miniature painters sit on the floor all day, holding their paper up close to their eyes, bracing their painting arm against the body. “The hand becomes the palette, shells the mixing bowls. The floor replaces the stool, and the lap becomes the easel,” he says.

Minute, repetitive brush strokes render delicate figures in a painstaking technique called pardakht, a kind of linear pointillisme. It’s a far cry from the drips and splashes tossed about by the easel painters in the studio next door. Except for a faint bleeding of sound from students’ iPods, silence reigns in the miniatures room. Miniaturists choose their genre for reasons that derive from their personalities. 

As Shahzia Sikander said at her 2001 Asia Society show in New York, a time when she was working in a more traditional vein, “the entire notion of ‘copying’ needs to be clarified.” Is it, she continued, “understanding the process, or is it understanding the lineage of the medium, or is it mere appropriation? Copying can also mean understanding history. One has to look at someone else’s work very carefully before relating to it in a personal way, in the same sense as claiming a historical past.”

Only in Pakistan does one find radical innovators like Qureshi painting oversize “miniatures” directly onto the walls of museums, or works like Rubaba Haider’s 2008 senior thesis, a piece she calls mader-e-gul (“My mother, the flower”): an installation of 35 paintings in small, round frames hung from the ceiling waist-high in a walk-through maze, each painting an image conjured from her own emotional responses to her mother’s stomach surgery.

As wildly creative as NCA miniaturists are invited to become by the time they graduate, their first full year of study is dedicated to the mastery of technique. 

Teachers Waseem Ahmed and Naheed Fakhruddin, both NCA graduates themselves, oversee their 13 students’ progress not only in pardakht, but also in tappiai, or background color application; layee, or flour-glue paper surfacing and burnishing; and siah qalam, or black-brush work. However, they add with relief, catching one’s own squirrel in Lahore’s Shalimar Garden for brushmaking is no longer required, as it was in the early days.

Video-game design may not be what ustad Bashir has in mind for the pardakht technique that he insists students must master before graduation, but Sardar’s teacher Hasnat Mehmood is all in favor of experimenting with anything at hand. He teaches fine graphite-pencil drawing in miniature style, and tries above all to keep his students from developing a “copyist” mentality. He puts new students through autobiographical exercises, asking them to draw a self-portrait beside a copied classic Mughal figure as a diptych in an invented architectural setting. 

Read Full Article: 

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200904/reinventing.the.miniature.painting.htm

The Symbolism of Quranic Illumination

Syed Tajammul Hussain

The lecturer suggested that this was a sacred visual language and which owed its origins and indeed early development to not one but two of the Khulafa-i-Rashideen, both of whom also were the revered sons in law of the Holy Prophet. For indeed with the evidence so far unearthed it is clear that the earliest Art of the Quran started with the first son in law, the 3rd Khalifa Uthman bin Affan and then was developed by the 4th Khalifa Imam Ali. Subsequent developments took place in the ensuing centuries with the involvement of BOTH temporal and indeed spiritual authorities of the time. Hence any symbol that was frowned upon or considered heretic was destroyed. Over time rules and regulations developed for both the visual language and on the art of calligraphy.

The lecture discussed the development of the main symbols known as alphabets in this visual language of the Holy Quran. The earliest symbol used is the Shamsa which came to be used in the time of the 3rd Khalifa. This is the symbol of the radiant sun was used to indicate a certain number of verse counts and suggested that the Verses of the Quran were like radiant with light. Since radiance was being depicted, the symbol of the sun was thus used in the Quran in the very early period and still continues to be used even in these dark times for Verse endings.


c. This material is copyrighted and subject of a forthcoming book by the lecturer Syed Tajammul Hussain.


Read more:
http://baytunur.blogspot.com/2010/02/islam-seminar-lecture-on-symbolism-of.html

Buy Book:  Splendours of Quran Calligraphy & Illumination, Martin Lings 
http://www.goshaenur.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=277

The Religious Dimension of Art

The Qur’an, by comparison with the Jewish Book of the Law, has very little to say about images. The Torah makes numerous and quite explicit prohibitions against figurative imagery of any kind. By contrast, the few references to idolatry in the Qur’an are not directed to figuration as such. The Jewish horror of divine representation extends even to the accidental creation of images, and the inadvertent bowing before false gods. This extreme image-phobia led to a culture in which art had a greatly reduced role. This is very obviously not the case in Islam. Islamic concepts, whilst regarding pagan idolatry as an abomination, rarely expressed the same abhorrence of non-religious imagery.

The Qur’an constantly reiterates the transcendent and inaccessible nature of Allah, with the implication that the Divine Nature can only be experienced through the Divine Word. For this reason there is no equivalent in Mosques of the sort of iconography found in Christian Churches. But its place is often taken by quotations from the Qur’an, which can be quite extensive, and which gave rise to the rich traditions of Islamic calligraphy as an elevated form of architectural decoration.

Various other Qur’anic themes have contributed to Islamic artistic sensibilities, including the perfection of the Creation; ‘Thou seest not in the Creation of the All-Merciful any imperfection’ (Qur’an 67:3), the divine quality of light; ‘Allah is the light of heavens and the earth’ (Qur’an 35:24), and a pervasive sense of other-worldly esotericism ‘With Him are the keys of the secret things; none knoweth them but He’ (Qur’an 6:59). Each of these qualities contribute to the well-known Islamic preoccupation with the dissolution of matter, for the hints of infinity in the patterns of which it is so fond and for the sense of space that it so often seeks. The aim seems always to escape imprisonment within earthly forms. The unwillingness to accept the ‘counterfeits’ of representation also account for this cultures preferences for abstraction in its decorative schemes.

http://www.patterninislamicart.com/background-notes/the-religious-dimension/