Editing Islamic art (section)

====Syria, Iraq, Anatolia====
[[File:Erzurum Cifte Minareli Sunrise.JPG|thumb|[[Çifte Minareli Medrese (Erzurum)|Çifte Minareli Medrese]] in Erzurum. Before 1265]]
The Seljuq Turks pushed beyond Iran into Anatolia, winning a victory over the [[Byzantine Empire]] in the [[Battle of Manzikert]] (1071), and setting up a sultanate independent of the Iranian branch of the dynasty. Their power seems largely to have waned following the Mongol invasions in 1243, but coins were struck under their name until 1304. Architecture and objects synthesized various styles, both Iranian and Syrian, sometimes rendering precise attributions difficult. The art of woodworking was cultivated, and at least one illustrated manuscript dates to this period.

[[Caravanserai]]s dotted the major trade routes across the region, placed at intervals of a day's travel. The construction of these caravanserai [[inns]] improved in scale, fortification, and replicability. Also, they began to contain central mosques.

The [[Turkmen people|Turkmen]] were nomads who settled in the area of [[Lake Van]]. They were responsible for a number of mosques, such as the [[The Blue Mosque of Tabriz|Blue Mosque]] in [[Tabriz]], and they had a decisive influence after the fall of the Anatolian Seljuqs. Starting in the 13th century, Anatolia was dominated by small Turkmen dynasties, which progressively chipped away at Byzantine territory. Little by little a major dynasty emerged, that of the [[Ottoman dynasty|Ottomans]], who, after 1450, are referred to as the "first Ottomans". Turkmen artworks can be seen as the forerunners of Ottoman art, in particular the "Milet" ceramics and the first blue-and-white Anatolian works.

Islamic book painting witnessed its first golden age in the thirteenth century, mostly from Syria and Iraq. Influence from Byzantine visual vocabulary (blue and gold coloring, angelic and victorious motifs, symbology of drapery) combined with Mongoloid facial types in 12th-century [[book frontispiece]]s.

Earlier coinage necessarily featured Arabic [[epigraphy|epigraph]]s, but as Ayyubid society became more cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, coinage began to feature [[astrology|astrological]], figural (featuring a variety of Greek, Seleucid, Byzantine, Sasanian, and contemporary Turkish rulers' busts), and animal images.

Hillenbrand suggests that the medieval Islamic texts called ''[[Maqama]]t'', copied and illustrated by [[Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti]] were some of the earliest "[[coffee table book]]s". They were among the first texts to hold up a mirror to daily life in Islamic art, portraying humorous stories and showing little to no inheritance of pictorial tradition.<ref>Hillenbrand, p.128-131</ref>