Art of the Islamic world

The Taj Mahal, a silk carpet, a Qur‘an; all of these are examples of Islamic art. But what exactly is Islamic art and architecture?

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Illustration from the Akbarnama

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Hajj

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Bahram Gur Fights the Karg (Horned Wolf), ...

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The Court of Gayumars

The complex geometry of Islamic design — […]

The complex geometry of Islamic design

Tughra (Official Signature) of Sultan Süleiman the Magnificent from Istanbul — […]

Tughra (Official Signature) of Sultan Süleiman the ...

Coins of faith and power at the British Museum — […]

Coins of faith and power at the ...

Kairouan (from UNESCO) — […]

Kairouan (from UNESCO)

Stories of the modern pilgrimage — […]

Stories of the modern pilgrimage

The Damascus Room (detail) — […]

Qa’a (The Damascus room)

Mimar Sinan, Süleymaniye Mosque (detail) — […]

Mimar Sinan, Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul

Basin (Baptistère de Saint Louis) (detail) — […]

Mohammed ibn al-Zain, Basin (Baptistère de Saint ...

Mimar Sinan, Rüstem Pasha Mosque, Istanbul — […]

Mimar Sinan, Rüstem Pasha Mosque, Istanbul

Mihrab from Isfahan (Iran) (detail) — […]

Mihrab from Isfahan (Iran)

Two Royal Figures, Iran (Saljuq period) (detail) — […]

Two Royal Figures (Saljuq period)

Coronation Mantle (detail) — […]

Coronation Mantle

Khusraw Discovers Shirin Bathing, From Pictorial Cycle of Eight Poetic Subjects, mid 18th century, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 88.9 cm, Shiraz, Iran (Brooklyn Museum) — […]

Khusraw Discovers Shirin Bathing

Taj Mahal, Agra, India, 1632-53 (photo: Mathew Knott, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) — […]

The Taj Mahal

Divination Bowl with Inscriptions and Zodiac Signs, mid 16th century, copper alloy (brass), engraved with repoussé center, 3 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 8 1/2in. / 9.5 x 21.6 x 21.6cm (The Brooklyn Museum) — […]

Divination Bowl with Inscriptions and Zodiac Signs

Iznik ewer, 2nd half of the 16th century (Ottoman), fritware, painted in black, cobalt blue, green, red under transparent glaze, 17-7/8 x 15-1/2 inches / 45.4 x 39.4 cm (photo: Brooklyn Museum, CC BY 3.0) — […]

Iznik ewer

View of lower half, Spherical Hanging Ornament, Iznik, Turkey (Ottoman), c. 1575-85 (Brooklyn Museum) — […]

Spherical Hanging Ornament (Iznik)

Emperor on a pedestal (detail), Bichtir, Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings from the "St. Petersburg Album," 1615-1618, opaque watercolor, gold and ink on paper, 18 x 25.3 cm (Freer|Sackler: The Smithsonian's Museums of Asian Art) — […]

Bichitr, Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to ...

Medallion Carpet, The Ardabil Carpet, Unknown artist (Maqsud Kashani is named on the carpet's inscription), Persian: Safavid Dynasty, silk warps and wefts with wool pile (25 million knots, 340 per sq. inch), 1539-40 C.E., Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan or Kirman, Iran (Victoria and Albert Museum) — […]

The Ardabil Carpet

Ottoman miniature showing a Safavid dignitary before Ottoman sultan, Sultan Murad III, n.d. (Topkapi Museum, photo: Walter Denny) — […]

Introduction to the court carpets of the ...

Sedefkâr Mehmed Ağa, Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque), completed 1617 (photo: Tim O'Brien/Oberazzi, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) — […]

The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Camii)

Mimar Sinan, Mosque of Selim II, Edirne, Turkey, 1568–75 (photo: grcnysll CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) — […]

Mimar Sinan, Mosque of Selim II, Edirne

The Ardabil Carpet, Maqsud of Kashan, Persian: Safavid dynasty, silk warps and wefts with wool pile (25 million knots, 340 per sq. inch), 1539-40 C.E., Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan or Kirman, Iran (Victoria & Albert Museum) — […]

Arts of the Islamic world: The Later ...

Folio from a Qur'an, 14th century, ink on paper, 13 1/5. x 5 1/5" (The Brooklyn Museum) — […]

Mamluk Qur’an

"Bahram Gur in a Peasant's House," Folio from the so-called "Second Small Shahnama," early 14th c., ink, opaque watercolors, gold on paper, 6 5/16 x 5 11/16", Ilkhanid Dynasty (Brooklyn Museum of Art) — […]

Bahram Gur in a Peasant’s House, Ilkhanid ...

Court of the Myrtles — […]

The Alhambra

Dado Panel from the Courtyard of the Royal Palace of Mas'ud III of Ghazni, 1112 C.E., marble, 28 1/8 x 12 13/16 x 3 1/2" (Brooklyn Museum of Art) — […]

Dado Panel, Courtyard of the Royal Palace ...

Pyxis of al-Mughira, possibly from Madinat al-Zahra, AH 357/ 968 CE, carved ivory with traces of jade, 16cm x 11.8 cm (Musée du Louvre, Paris) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) — […]

Pyxis of al-Mughira

Qu'ran fragment, in Arabic, before 911, vellum, MS M. 712, fols 19v-20r, 23 x 32 cm, possibly Iraq (The Morgan Library and Museum, New York) — […]

Folio from a Qur’an

Courtyard, The Great Mosque or Masjid-e Jameh of Isfahan (photo: reibai, CC BY 2.0) — […]

The Great Mosque (or Masjid-e Jameh) of ...

Mihrab (prayer niche), c. 1270, Konya, Turkey, now in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin (photo: Glenna Barlow) — […]

Arts of the Islamic world: The Medieval ...

Great Mosque of Kairouan prayer hall facade (photo: Damian Entwistle, CC BY-SA 2.0) — […]

The Great Mosque of Kairouan

Mihrab, Great Mosque at Cordoba, Spain (photo: jamesdale10, CC BY 2.0) — […]

The Great Mosque of Cordoba

The Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra), Umayyad, stone masonry, wooden roof, decorated with glazed ceramic tile, mosaics, and gilt aluminum and bronze dome, 691-2, with multiple renovations, patron the Caliph Abd al-Malik, Jerusalem (photo: Orientalist, CC BY 3.0) — […]

The Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra)

Base of the dome, Dome of the Rock, 687, Jerusalem — […]

Arts of the Islamic world: The Early ...

Court of the Lions, The Alhambra, Sabika hill, Granada, Spain, begun 1238 (Photo: Jim Gordon) — […]

About chronological periods in the Islamic world

Interior of the Great Mosque of Cordoba, Spain, 8th-10th centuries (photo: Timor Espallargas, CC BY-SA 2.5) — […]

Common types of mosque architecture

Mihrab & minbar, Mosque of Sultan Hassan, Cairo, 1356-63 (photo: Dave Berkowitz, CC BY 2.0) — […]

Introduction to mosque architecture

View of the minarets of the Blue Mosque, Istanbul (photo: Graham Bould) — […]

Arts of the Islamic world

The Kaaba, granite masonry, covered with silk curtain and calligraphy in gold and silver-wrapped thread, pre-Islamic monument, rededicated by Muhammad in 631-32 C.E., multiple renovations, Mecca, Saudi Arabia (photo: The Kaaba in the Masjid el Haram, 2010 Tab59, CC BY-SA 2.0) — […]

The Kaaba

Photograph of Hajj in 2011 (photo: @ifatma) — […]

The Five Pillars of Islam

Great Mosque at Damascus (Photo: G. Lewis) — […]

Introduction to Islam