“God is beautiful and loves beauty” an honorable hadith that clarifies one of the attributes of the Creator, the Mighty and Sublime, and mentioned it on the tongue of His Noble Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him.

This hadith has inspired thousands of Muslim artists for more than 1,400 years.

This inspiration did not come, as was customary in pre-Islamic civilizations and cultures, in physical form (in the form of statues, sculptures, or anthropomorphic avatars), but rather moved into another dimension.

Islamic culture, which tends to be ascetic in the mundane world for the sake of the other, pushed artists to artistic fields that go beyond this earthly world: architecture, calligraphy, painting on glass, ceramics, textiles, and much more, and they were rich fields of creativity influenced by this spiritual culture that resented sculptures and statues.

Islam spread in the Arabian Peninsula and the conquests extended to Central Asia, parts of Africa and the outskirts of France after the conquest of Spain.

All this in the first century of the mission.

Accordingly, this gigantic empire that extended to the east and west has become a melting pot of several nationalities, different languages ​​and countless local cultures, all of which together constitute what is universally known as Islamic arts.

coherent artistic heritage

The capitals of the Islamic Caliphate have multiplied over the centuries, from Medina to Baghdad to Damascus to Cairo to Constantinople during the era of the Ottoman Empire.

Although the multiplicity of cultures and the difference of races was expected to produce local works of art that were not related to each other, the Islamic empire came, contrary to what was expected, to present a unique and coherent artistic heritage.

There is a specific reason for the emergence of this artistic production of solid uniformity.

This reason is the Holy Qur'an.

The early Muslims sought to transcribe the Holy Book of God and collect it from the chests of the memorizers, which opened the door wide for the scribes who excelled in transcribing it in several lines in reverence and reverence for it because it is the word of God Almighty.

This was the starting point for one of the oldest and most famous Islamic arts, which is Arabic calligraphy.

Its types branched out and multiplied after that, to include the patch line, the kufi, the thuluth, and so on.

“Different countries use different styles and designs for writing, which gives Arabic calligraphy various decorative possibilities.” Metropolitan Museum of America.

A section of a Qur'anic manuscript of the late 14th and early 15th centuries (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

The expansion of the use of decorative patterns was not limited to Arabic calligraphy.

It has extended to include architecture, which will take on an Islamic spiritual color distinct from the Byzantine, Greek and Roman predecessors over time.

In this way, decoration became in itself a major unifying factor for all kinds of art produced on that gigantic patch of land (the Islamic empire).

Over the centuries, architecture has linked the various nationalities and ethnicities that make up the Caliphate states.

These nationalities poured into a single, flowing river under a dome of comprehensive Islamic decorative principles that apply to all types of buildings and objects in all Islamic cities.

The decoration became a means to create a sense of the spaciousness of the places and its dimensions, no matter how small the space was, because the spiritual dimension gave a measure of spaciousness that became a distinctive feature of Islamic architecture.

"There are comprehensive Islamic decorative principles that apply to all kinds of buildings and objects at all times. Hence the intimate relationship in Islam between all applied arts and architecture" according to art historian Georges Michel.

Here comes the intimate relationship in Islam between all applied arts and architecture (Wikipedia)

earthly paradise

The kings and princes of the advanced Caliphate countries were particularly interested in constructing their palaces and furnishing them with the finest carpets, fabrics and Arabesque benches.

This interest was reflected in art.

All regions produced decorative and handcrafted carpets, curtains, and covers, some of which are still displayed today in international museums.

For example, the American Metropolitan Museum displays a special and rare collection of fabrics and carpets from different Islamic eras.

On the front page of these artifacts came the meaning: “Under the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal dynasties, carpet weaving was transformed from a small craft based on patterns transmitted from generation to generation into an important industry at the level of the regions, and it was traded in Europe and the Far East, where it was More expensive than anywhere else. It was also used to cover furniture or hung on walls where especially beautiful pieces were collected by the dynasties.

As stated by the Museum, Persian carpets were one of the finest in the world.

It achieved a global position and fantastic commercial profits under the rule of the Safavids in the 16th century. It was characterized by the harmony of patterns, decorations and colors, and the use of flowers in decoration and embroidery, with a penchant for plant geometric shapes inspired by nature.

luminous words

The wide trade movement that flourished throughout the Islamic empire allowed the emergence of other types of arts such as ceramics, niches, painting, and writing on glass.

According to Alaa El-Din Mahmoud, Director of the Scientific Research Department in Egypt, interest in lighting, ceramic pots and ceramics reached its peak during the Mamluk era.

And that complaints were widely used in Egypt and the Levant, where they occupied a great place during times of increased lighting during the month of Ramadan.

The niches derive their name from the famous Qur’anic verse “...Like his light as a niche.”

Encyclopedia Britanica mentions that the glass was engraved and the niches were sculpted with various phrases, including religious or poetic, to light up as soon as the niche was lit and decorated the space of the places in which it was attached.

Most of the archaeological and historical litigations are concentrated between the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo and the Metropolitan Museum in the United States.