Editing Islamic art (section)

=== Beginnings ===
==== Pre-dynastic ====
The period of a rapid expansion of the Islamic era forms a reasonably accurate beginning for the label of Islamic art. Early geographical boundaries of the Islamic culture were in present-day [[Syria]]. It is quite difficult to distinguish the earliest Islamic objects from their predecessors in Persian or [[Sasanian art|Sasanian]] and [[Byzantine art]], and the conversion of the mass of the population, including artists, took a significant period, sometimes centuries, after the initial [[spread of Islam]]. There was, notably, a significant production of unglazed ceramics, witnessed by a famous small bowl preserved in the [[Louvre]], whose inscription assures its attribution to the Islamic period. Plant motifs were the most important in these early productions.

Influences from the Sassanian artistic tradition include the image of the king as a warrior and the lion as a symbol of nobility and virility. [[Bedouin]] tribal traditions mixed with the more sophisticated styles of the conquered territories. For an initial period coins had human figures in the Byzantine and Sassanian style, perhaps to reassure users of their continued value, before the Islamic style with lettering only took over.

==== Umayyad ====
[[File:Mschatta-Fassade (Pergamonmuseum).jpg|thumb|right|[[Mshatta Facade|Palace façade from Mshatta]] in [[Jordan]], now in the [[Pergamon Museum, Berlin]], c.&nbsp;?740]]Religious and civic architecture were developed under the [[Umayyad Caliphate]]s (661–750), when new concepts and new plans were put into practice.

The [[Dome of the Rock]] in [[Jerusalem]] is one of the most important buildings in all of Islamic architecture, marked by a strong Byzantine influence ([[mosaic]] against a [[gold ground]], and a central plan that recalls that of the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]]), but already bearing purely Islamic elements, such as the great epigraphic [[frieze]]. The desert palaces in Jordan and Syria (for example, [[Mshatta Facade|Mshatta]], [[Qusayr 'Amra]], and [[Hisham's Palace]]) served the caliphs as living quarters, reception halls, and baths, and were decorated, including some wall-paintings, to promote an image of royal luxury.

Work in ceramics was still somewhat primitive and unglazed during this period. Some metal objects have survived from this time, but it remains rather difficult to distinguish these objects from those of the pre-Islamic period.

'Abd al-Malik introduced standard coinage that featured Arabic inscriptions, instead of images of the monarch. The quick development of a localized coinage around the time of the Dome of the Rock's construction demonstrates the reorientation of Umayyad acculturation. This period saw the genesis of a particularly Islamic art.

[[File:Umayyad Mosque-Mosaics west.jpg|thumb|right|Mosaics from the ''riwaq'' (portico) of the [[Umayyad Mosque]]]]

In this period, Umayyad artists and artisans did not invent a new vocabulary, but began to prefer those received from Mediterranean and Iranian [[late antiquity]], which they adapted to their own artistic conceptions. For example, the mosaics in the [[Umayyad Mosque]] of [[Damascus]] are based on Byzantine models but replace the figurative elements with images of trees and cities. The desert palaces also bear witness to these influences. By combining the various traditions that they had inherited, and by readapting motifs and architectural elements, artists created little by little a typically Muslim art, particularly discernible in the aesthetic of the arabesque, which appears both on monuments and in illuminated [[Quran]]s.

Some Umayyads commissioned [[erotic art]] for private settings. The Umayyad caliph [[Al-Walid II]] built the [[Qusayr Amra]], as his country retreat, whose decoration includes naked females and love scenes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fowden |first=Garth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3_okDQAAQBAJ |title=Qusayr 'Amra: Art and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria |publisher=University of California Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-520-23665-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref>Ettinghausen, Grabar, & Jenkins-Madina, p. 47</ref>

==== Abbasid ====
[[File:Cup Susa Louvre MAO568.jpg|thumb|[[Lusterware]] bowl from [[Susa]], 9th century, today in the Louvre]]{{Main|Abbasid art}}
The [[Abbasid Caliphate]] (750–1258<ref>Gruber, World of Art</ref>) witnessed the movement of the capital from Damascus to [[Baghdad]], and then from Baghdad to [[Samarra]]. The shift to Baghdad influenced politics, culture, and art. [[art history|Art historian]] Robert Hillenbrand (1999) likens the movement to the foundation of an "Islamic [[Rome]]", because the meeting of Eastern influences from Iranian, Eurasian steppe, Chinese, and Indian sources created a new paradigm for Islamic art. Classical forms inherited from Byzantine Europe and Greco-Roman sources were discarded in favor of those drawn from the new Islamic hub. Even the design of the city of Baghdad placed it in the "navel of the world", as 9th-century historian al-Ya'qubi wrote.<ref>Hillenbrand (1999), p.40</ref>

The ancient city of Baghdad cannot be excavated well, as it lies beneath the modern city. However, [[Abbasid Samarra]], which was largely abandoned, has been well studied, and is known for its surviving examples of [[stucco]] reliefs, in which the prehistory of the [[arabesque]] can be traced. Motifs known from the stucco at Samarra permit the dating of structures built elsewhere, and are furthermore found on portable objects, particular in wood, from Egypt through to Iran.

Samarra witnessed the "coming of age" of Islamic art. Polychrome painted stucco allowed for experimentation in new styles of moulding and carving. The Abbasid period also coincided with two major innovations in the ceramic arts: the invention of [[faience]], and of metallic [[lusterware]]. [[Hadith]]ic prohibition of the use of golden or silver vessels led to the development of metallic [[lusterware]] in pottery, which was made by mixing sulphur and metallic oxides to ochre and vinegar, painted onto an already glazed vessel and then fired a second time. It was expensive, and difficult to manage the second round through the kiln, but the wish to exceed fine [[Chinese porcelain]] led to the development of this technique.<ref>Hillenbrand (1999), p.54</ref>

[[File:Tiraz Textile Fragment with Inscriptions with Name of Caliph al-Muti', 946-974.jpg|thumb|upright=<!--size for low image-->1.3|Tiraz Textile Fragment, 946–974 [[Brooklyn Museum]]]]
Though the common perception of Abbasid artistic production focuses largely on pottery, the greatest development of the Abbasid period was in textiles. Government-run workshops known as ''[[tiraz]]'' produced silks bearing the name of the monarch, allowing for aristocrats to demonstrate their loyalty to the ruler. Other silks were pictorial. The utility of silk-ware in wall decor, entrance adornment, and room separation was not as important as its cash value along the [[Silk Road]].

[[Islamic calligraphy]] began to be used in surface decoration on pottery during this period. Illuminated qur'ans gained attention, letter-forms now more complex and stylized to the point of slowing down the recognition of the words themselves.<ref>Hillenbrand (1999), p.58</ref>