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| Leaf from a Manuscript of Persian Poetry |
Understanding
Islamic art
With the installation of Islamic art on the second floor, SOME BACKGROUND helps to
understand the works on view.
Classical Arabic is the language of the Qur’an, the sacred text of Islam.
Although people of many languages and cultures follow the Islamic faith, the Qur'an is always
written in Arabic, the language in which it was originally revealed to the Prophet Muhammad.
With the spread of Islam that began in the 7th century CE,
Arabic became the language of religion, government, commerce, literature, and science from the Arabian
peninsula to the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean and through Iraq and Iran to Central Asia. The Arabic language, expressed in Arabic
script, fostered cultural coherence across southern Europe and Asia and was also an outlet for artistic
expression.
Copies of the Qur'an are not accompanied by pictures, because pictorial
illustration is considered a sacrilegious appropriation of God's prerogative of
creation, but stylistic modulation and ornamentation of Arabic script were accepted and
encouraged. Images of animals and
vegetal forms frequently appear in manuscripts and on ceramics and
metalwork. Within a century of the birth
of Islam around 610 CE, emerging art forms possessed unique Islamic
characteristics, such as a preference for complete surface decoration and
calligraphic ornament. Integration of pre-Islamic artistic traditions with
these new styles developed into a visual vocabulary that met the requirements
of Islamic religious beliefs. Consequently, Arabic calligraphy became the most
important aesthetic expression of Islamic civilization.
Islam holds that the
Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad by the angel Jibril over a period of 23
years, beginning in 610 CE. The Arabic alphabet was standardized in about 786
CE, but since that time Arabic script has varied in style. Unlike the Latin-based
alphabet used for writing English, Arabic has no printed form in which letters are
written separately. Arabic has only a cursive form, in which the letters are written in
streams of closely spaced pen strokes. Cursive writing and the simplicity of
forms of the Arabic letters, as compared with Latin-based script, allowed
scribes to
modulate the contours of the letters for artistic effect.
By the 10th century,
calligraphers had developed a style of script known as broken cursive to emphasize
features such as balance and repetition of the markings on the page. Modulation, balance, and
repetition are techniques used by Islamic calligraphers to create text that is
prized for its flowing contours and linear tension.
Arabic script evolved from Aramaic script,
used since the 4th century CE. The Aramaic language has fewer
consonants than Arabic, so during the 7th century new Arabic letters
were created by adding dots to existing letters. The writing is done in
horizontal lines and read right to left. Numerals are read left to right.
The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters, with
some additional letters used when writing place names or foreign words. Most letters change form depending on whether
they appear at the beginning, middle or end of a word or stand on their own. Long
vowels a, I and u are represented by the letters alif, ya and waw.
Classic Arabic, the language of the Qur’an,
differs from modern Standard Arabic mainly in style and vocabulary. All Muslims
are expected to recite the Qur’an in the traditional language; however, many
rely on translations in order to understand the text.
Modern standard Arabic, the universal language
of the Arabic speaking world, is understood by all Arabic speakers. It is the language of the vast majority of
written material and of formal lectures, TV shows, etc.
Alif is the most common letter in Arabic. It is often paired with the
letter lam, for example in the
definite prefix al-, which is translated
in English as "the." Many English words derived from Arabic contain the
syllable "al-," such as alchemy, algebra, and alkali.
Islamic scribes of
this era varied the style of broken cursive to improve the appearance of the lines,
but they also stressed
readability. Unlike earlier transcriptions of the Qur'an, later text was intended to be read aloud, rather than recited from memory. This may
account for the scribe's unwillingness to
break words at the end of lines and continue them in subsequent lines. Like all
Arabic writings, the page is read
from right to left. At the end of
the last two lines on the left hand side of the page, letters are often squeezed up into the margins so
that the reading of the verses can
be completed without turning the
page.
Although recitation
of the Qur'an remains fundamental to Muslim religious observance today, the
written text of the Qur'an is venerated as the primary source of the revelation of God to
Muhammad. In the early days of Islam, the Qur'an existed only as an oral tradition,
recited in Arabic from memory. However, the fragility of human memory became apparent when 70
Qur'an reciters were killed in the Battle of Yamama in 632 CE. After this
disaster, which endangered the continued existence of Islam, the caliph Abu Bakr decreed that the
Qur'an would be written down. Since that time, the artistic expression of the
written Qur'an has complemented the prayerful recitation of its verses in observance of the
Muslim faith.
Thomas B. Cole, MD, MPH
JAMA,
April 7, 2010, Google
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