Editing Islamic art (section)

==== 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>