Islamic art
So today in Arabic class we were learning more words and their roots. Every word in Arabic is derived from a root and one of the words we learnt is توحيد (tawhid) which is derived from وحد (wahad). The word tawhid means to promote oneness and wahad means to unify. Then the teacher says a lot of Islamic art ex. The dome and patterns, are seen as symbol of tawhid in Islam. At that point I was confused and intrigued at the same time. I was like is she saying that Islamic art is unifying because it’s structural? Or what? at the same time I wanted to learn more about this because we talked about Islamic art in class. Unfortunately the fire alarm rang, disrupted our class and I couldn’t ask her to elaborate. So I’m like ok whatever I’ll just Google it when I get home. From what I found on the internet (which was not much and if any not very thorough) is that there is a unifying characteristic about Islamic art which the Qur’anic message of tawhid produced. One particular site talked about how Islamic art is the unifying of history and geography together because Islamic art is spread over a vast region reaching from Spain to Asia and going south to Africa and history through the different materials used from the span of the 7th century to modern day. As we all learnt and saw, Islamic Art had a geometric element to it. Another website said that this geometric pattern might have expressed “the logic and order inherent in the Islamic vision of the universe.” Also noting the importance of science especially the study of geometry and astronomy, this in turn may have “nourished the Arabic passion for creating infinite, decorative pattern” or going back to tawhid, this form pattern unified both art and science to create Islamic art. There are probably tons more explanations but I thought this “unification” was the most interesting, because I think this is what truly represents Islam.
April 15th, 2010 at 8:29 am
I agree. The concept of Tawhid does resonate in everything Islamic, and art is no exception. As far as I understand, Tawhid is the reason that Islamic art prohibits Muslims from creating visual representations of God (or any of the prophets); in order to preserve the transcendence and unity of God. But how does the actual art itself – geometric patterns, for the most part – represent Tawhid? Even though there are very few images of lifelike objects – people, places, things in Islamic art, the geometric forms are somehow able to instil emotion and convey this concept, or feeling rather, of Tawhid. And for some reason the shapes are able to move me more than a picture of a mother holding her baby or any such thing. I wonder why? Perhaps the interlocking, never-ending patterns remind me that there is something bigger out there, they transcend time and space, they convey unity and… oh. There we go. Tawhid.
April 16th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Finally inspired to be on here by your (class’s) wonderful company yesterday 🙂
– I had a comment to add to your post. A while ago I had the opportunity to listen to a talk on Islamic art/architecture back home. It was given to a few ‘artsy’ types in one of Colombo’s well known hand craft art galleries (so interesting audience, but I digress). What I haven’t forgotten from the talk, though it was over 10 years ago is how the presenter explained the concept of geometry in Islam connecting to ‘one-ness’ or tawhid. If you look at it closely you will see a lot of motifs designed around a square. The artist’s idea was that the ratio of 1:1 (height:width) in a square represents the link between Creator to Created (1 to 1) and the Unity of God itself. Another interesting point is the seemingly endlessness of the patterns.. the idea of eternity born when one looks at them.
If you will allow me, I would consider Geometry a visual representation of Mathematics (whereas Music is commonly held to be Mathematics in motion). The principles of Mathematics govern the Universe and therefore govern us, a signature of the God-head found everywhere. Perhaps its this that we instinctively connect to when we see the geometrical patterns of Islamic art. I’d like to submit that these were not randomly successful art designs but had very sophisticated thinking and enlightenment behind them. Your thoughts?
April 18th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Completely true! When Celeste did her presentation on Mathematics in class, a significant portion of it was about Islamic Art. She even had a very cool schematic explanation about how the never-ending patterns were developed…. Unfortunately I’m not sure where she found it. Celeste if you read this, will you post it please?
May 6th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I recently found this video on Islamic Architecture.. very nice documentary specifically focused on the Art work of the Architecture.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYz9d2rt8_o