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Course: Art of the Islamic world 640 to now > Unit 2
Lesson 3: Later period- Arts of the Islamic world: the later period
- Introduction to the court carpets of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires
- Muradiye Mosque
- Ottoman prayer carpet with triple-arch design
- Mimar Sinan, Şehzade Mosque
- Sinan, Süleymaniye Mosque
- Mimar Sinan, Mosque of Selim II, Edirne
- Sinan, Rüstem Pasha Mosque
- Hagia Sophia as a mosque
- The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Camii)
- Spherical Hanging Ornament (Iznik)
- Iznik ewer
- Tughra (Official Signature) of Sultan Süleiman the Magnificent from Istanbul
- Topkapı Palace tiles
- Qa'a: The Damascus room
- The Damascus Room at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Conserving the Damascus Room at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Photograph of Abdülhamid II
- Timur’s entry into Samarkand, page from the Zafarnama
- The Safavids, an introduction
- The Ardabil Carpet
- Ardabil Carpet
- The Court of Gayumars
- Paradise in miniature, The Court of Kayumars — part 1
- Paradise in miniature, The Court of Kayumars — part 2
- Wine bearers in landscape, a Safavid textile
- Riza-yi 'Abbasi, portrait of a young page reading
- Riza-yi ʿAbbasi, Seated calligrapher
- Mir Afzal of Tun, a reclining woman and her lapdog
- The Ardashirnama: a Judeo-Persian manuscript
- Divination Bowl
- The Mughal painting tradition: an introduction
- Illustration from the Akbarnama
- The Taj Mahal
- Bichitr, Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings
- Shah 'Abbas – Ruling an empire
- Shah 'Abbas – the image of a ruler
- Coins of faith and power at the British Museum
- Two portraits, two views
- Khusraw Discovers Shirin Bathing
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Two portraits, two views
Sheila Canby, curator of the exhibition Shah Abbas the remaking of Iran, discusses two very different portraits of Shah 'Abbas giving an insight into his character. © Trustees of the British Museum. Created by British Museum.
Want to join the conversation?
Do art historians believe that the "beardless youth" is a young man or a young woman?(8 votes)
The clothing should give more of an indication as to the gender of the youth, but that wasn't explored in the video.(6 votes)
In the first painting-if anyone knows-why are there silver spots on Shah Abbas' face?(2 votes)- It is an old painting, so that is some kind of damage (though I'm not sure what form of damage.)(2 votes)
- 1:40- Is this meant to be homoerotic? Was Persia hostile to homosexual relationships the 16th/17th centuries?(2 votes)
Most of the world was hostile to homosexuals back then.(1 vote)
I though Islam forbade any images of living things. Am I wrong?(1 vote)
From the author:There have been many times and places in the history of the Islamic world when images of people were perfectly acceptable (with some restrictions such as holy sites and texts).(2 votes)
Does this Arabian style was partly inspired by asian art? Like from China? This isometry and faces shapes looks very similar...(1 vote)- There were close ties between parts of the Islamic world and China at different periods in history—particularly under Mongol rule and in its wake.(2 votes)
At1:25she says to "restore its religion". Does anyone know what religion?(1 vote)
1:40Video transcript
we have two contemporary portraits of Shah boss in this exhibition and they're I think quite good in pointing up the contradictions in his character we have one that was painted by a mogul artist who came with an Indian Embassy to Iran in 1613 it shows him simply standing alone on a dark green ground and while his little stature seems small if you look closely at his face you see this very shrewd intelligent look in this man's eyes and of course his trademark moustache in fact you can get a measure of how strong his will was and how cleverly he arranged things in Iran he came to the throne with a plan and he actually was able to realize most of his ambitions and those ambitions really were to restore peace and prosperity to Iran to restore its borders to strengthen the religion by strengthening the rule of law and I think that those are really modern ideas and then the other or trick we have is right at the end of his life by an Iranian artist from 16 27 and he's sitting with a young beardless youth and sort of arms entwined and they're the youth is offering a cup of wine to him so it's a very intimate portrait by 1627 of course he had probably achieved most of what he'd set out to achieve and here we see him taking his pleasure you