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Islamic Middle East

Mosque lamp, Mamluk dynasty, c. 1350-55, from Cairo, Egypt, 35 cm high, © Trustees of the British Museum
Mosque lamp, c. 1350-55, Mamluk dynasty, 35 cm high, from Cairo, Egypt © Trustees of the British Museum. Enameled and gilded glass lamps like the one above were commissioned in large numbers for the many mosques built in Cairo by the Mamluk Sultans and their amirs. Many, including this example, are inscribed with verses from the Qur'an (24:35).
The term Islamic is used here to define the art and material culture of those lands where the dominant religion is Islam, the religion revealed to the prophet Muhammad in seventh century Arabia.
The Islamic lands have encompassed at different times Spain to the west and as far as the Malay world and China to the east. Within the broad definition of Islamic art there are both works made in the service of religious belief, such as Qur’ans or tombstones, as well as objects for secular use such as metalwork and ceramic vessels.

Defining features

Despite regional diversities and changes across time and place, there are a number of defining features of Islamic art: these include the pre-eminent role of Arabic calligraphy; the predominance of geometric and arabesque designs and the absence of figural representation in religious contexts.
Arabic is the language in which the Qur’an, the holy book of Muslims, was revealed and it was in the Arabic script that it was written down. Beautiful scripts were developed to copy the Qur’an and then were used in other contexts such as stone inscriptions or ceramic bowls. The script became both a method of communication and decoration. Other key elements are geometric designs: infinitely repeating units that include circles and squares, and vegetal ornament- designs that are often highly elaborate that feature elegant intertwining stems, scrolls and fleshy leaves. These elements either singly or combined, appear on many objects of Islamic art.
Marble panel from the cenotaph of Muhammad b. Fatik Ashmuli, 967, from Cairo, Egypt, carved with Arabic inscriptions in Kufic script, 45 x 76 cm, © Trustees of the British Museum
Marble panel from the cenotaph of Muhammad b. Fatik Ashmuli, c. 967,  carved with Arabic inscriptions in Kufic script, 45 x 76 cm, from Cairo, Egypt © Trustees of the British Museum
The panel above would have been at the head of a four-sided open cenotaph placed around the grave of the deceased. The ornamental inscription on the exterior is carved in high relief and consists of the beginning of the basmala "in the name of God the Merciful." This would have introduced verses from the Qur'an which continued on the exterior surface of the three missing panels. Similar panels in Cairo contain parts of sura (chapter) 112 (al-Ikhlas), one of the shortest chapters of the Qur'an, which translates:
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Say: ‘He is God, One,
God, the everlasting Refuge,
who has not begotten, and has not been begotten,
and equal to Him is not any one.
The inscription on the interior is incised into the stone; it again begins with the basmala then gives the name of the deceased, Muhammad b. Fatik Ashmuli and the date of his death in the month of Jumada II AH 356 (967 C.E.).
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