Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World

The film shows that after a long history of Islam and its struggle one of the greatest gifts it has given for civilization is its creativity and intelligence embodied in Islamic art. The nuance and elegance of Islamic art is appreciated regardless of one's belief and religion. The art is used to depict the true and deepest emotions and also aspirations of people who follow Islam. Other from reflecting the essence of Islamic world it also shows the development of Islam throughout the complex world with influence of different traditions. The given film effectively shows the role of art in muslim tradition and how it reflects culture and aspirations of people of that community.

First of all, the great emphasis of Islamic art on writings illustrates the importance of it to Islamic culture. As Jesus Christ, the son of God is a gift of God to Christians, Qur'an is a gift for muslims. Our'an teaches the law and the way of life, but most importantly it is very word of God. So, for muslisms the Qur'an is not just a holy book or poetry but it is word of Allah. As Allah revealed himself through words the art of calligraphy, or beautiful writing is the most important art in Islamic tradition. So the Qur'an is a focus of devotion and also the focus of art as people try to make manuscripts as beautiful as possible. And the use of word everywhere is the distinctive feature of Islam different from other religious traditions. Various breathtaking mosques including Taj Mahal and Alhambra while having enormous territory, are full of scriptures on their walls. These are the words from the holy book that are painted painstakingly with great precision and attention. People also used glass cubes with gold foils, the most expensive kind of cubes. In addition, special minerals as cobalt from Iran were used to create unusual and vivid colors. This also reflects the extraordinary wealth of Islamic leaders. The meticulous attention of people to materials needed to calligraphy as reed pen, tools used to sharpen it, usage of expensive animal skins and also special treatment of paper prior writing on it shows the relation of people to writing and its importance. For muslims, copying Qur'an was the experience of divine presence in those words, and it was a kind of prayer and meditation.

By looking at different objects of Islamic art we can figure out what are the important things for muslims. For example, the symmetry and organization of columns and other objects in mosques illustrates the importance of geometry in religious and also everyday life of muslims. The geometry is required to determine the direction of prayer and also the time of prayer and this constitutes the religious importance of geometry. Moreover, the knowledge of geometry also was needed while traveling as a map in a desert landscape where people lived. So, the importance of geometry was reflected in the design and decoration of mosques that is common in different mosques throughout the world. This shows how Islamic art especially the decoration of mosque's walls reflects important aspects of people who follow Islam. In addition, the decoration as use of ornaments, mosaic paintings were also important as they created a play of light and gave special experience or feeling in a sacred place. So due to light playing people experience differently in summer, winter, sunrise or sunset. And this gives unusual feeling that is accesible to everyone. The special thing about the ornaments is that regardless of who you are muslim or of other religion you'd appreciate the beauty of them. This may bring to conclusion that the beauty of islamic art that reflect people's thought cannot call for hostility. The other important point is the water in Islamic tradition. So there can be a lot of reasons why water is important in Islamic tradition. Firstly, this can be due to scarcity of water in early and also present day Islamic societies. Also, it says «God make everything alive through water» in Qur'an and water is needed prior to prayer. So it is a sign of cleansing in a literal and metaphoric way that helps to put muslims in the right mental framework to approach the divine. So, a common feature of mosques are ablution places with water and also gardens that contain water and plants, too. So, the architectural design shows the importance of water in Islamic culture.

It is clear that islamic art reflects culture and also history of Islam, its development throughout the time and its interaction with other traditions. From the lecture we know that at the very beginning of emergence of Islam there was no clear distinction that this is the new religion, and at first there was believer's movement that included Hebrew and Christians, too. So we don't have clear distinction from the early times. Also the interaction of different traditions are illustrated in designs and architecture of mosques. For example, the earliest Quranic words found in stone building in Jerusalem the Dome of the Rock that borrows the form from Byzantine martyrdom. The Dome covers massive rock where prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven on his mystical night journey. So here we see the coexistence of different religions and their connection with each other. However, the new features are apparent in a way that the Arabic inscriptions are depicted throughout the Dome. This careful and beautiful writing is an indication of new culture. The another depiction of influence of other traditions on Islam is shown in the example of Emperor Jahangir. He collected European and also Christian art, and there is a picture of him with halo, that is a christian item. These findings show that Islam coexisted with other religious traditions in a peaceful environment and in tolerance towards them. And indeed, emergence of Islamic religion was not a breakage of preexisting traditions but their continuation.

The art reflects people's aspirations and deepest feelings. In the film Muhammad al-Asad says that Islam contains different people but need in shelter is common for all muslims. So, people put tremendous effort in what they build and therefore they reflect a great deal about them. Buildings reflect economic, social and cultural values. For example, the ornaments represent heaven that is the promise of God for his people. It is clear that the concept of heaven is important for muslims as they believe in resurrection when people will be judged by their deeds. So for proper behavior and righteousness they were promised with heaven and indeed most muslims carry the image of heaven in their hearts. The other reflection of religious aspirations of muslims by islamic art is representation of flora and fauna in other words the creatures of God. God says: "To know me, know my creatures". And as there is no depiction of God in Islam as in Christianity or Hinduism, muslims believe that they will get closer to God by deeply looking on its creatures and understand their essence. This belief is reflected in art in a form of living paintings on walls and rugs.

To sum up, I think that the purpose of the film was to show how islamic art reflects the people who believe in Islam. And that the art is common for whole humanity, one doesn't need to learn Islam to understand its art, everyone regardless of his religious background can appreciate the beauty of it. It shows who are the people that follow Islam, their religious and cultural aspirations. And their treatment of art and Quranic words with great attention, patience cannot beget violence. The beauty of Islamic art and architecture is universal and it teaches peace and unity of people. Knowing the essence and understanding the different religions are important in our world where we have various prejudice towards religions. The Islamic art is a very way to compehend Islam and its teachings.

For the first time, I want to visit the Islamic world The art is stunning, I think I knew that , but the explanation of each use of art invited me into the culture and took what fear I have away and left me with indelible memories and desire to know more about this part of the world. What an achievement. You all should be proud and consider your purpose successful. The blue, the blue. Thank you so much, Karen Davis Portland Or

Islamic art:mirror of the invisible world This documentary film called "Islamic art: mirror of the invisible world", which is directed by Robert H. Gardner, is a perfect depiction of the culture and art of the Muslim people all over the world. It encompasses 1400 years of the history of Islam and also encompasses nine countries from Spain and Western Africa countries to modern India. With the birth of Islam, people of Arabian peninsula united under one flag and started to conquer neighboring lands. It started to spread all over the world with unprecedent speed. The religion of Islam not only affected people's spririts and political structure, but also culture. The main idea of this documentary is that Islam, especially the Holy Quran, was the source of cultural development of Muslim people. Another point is that elements of Islamic culture, despite being under one roof, varies geographically. These are clearly shown in aspects of the culture such as writing, building,ornamentation, colouring, and water.

One of the most spread element of Islamic culture is writings. Arabic writings are almost omnipresent. They can be found almost anywhere: in the walls of buildings, mosques, domes, and in day-to-day objects such as boxes. Writing is central in Islamic culture. If we look back into how Islam came, we think of the story when the Prophet Muhammed was in the cave and God or Allah send revelations to him. These revelations or suras are foundamental in Islam and are considered to be very important. Quranic excerpts or suras are written in many places such as mosques and palaces. Examples are the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Great Mosque of Alhambra which is located in Cardoba, Spain. Alhambra, as historians say, if you walk in that mosque you can see Arabic writings in the walls which are in the same level as human eyes. The idea is that when people walk inside the mosque, they can read whole stories written in Arabic. Muslim people put enermous effort in improving writings and this is the place where caligraphy was born. As contemporary worlds best caligraphy writer Mohammed Zachariye says, it is wonderful how Muslim people are very delicate in writings. They carefully choose special parchments or papers today and special stick to write caligraphy. Even the angle of stick must be in a certain value to achieve the best writing. He says that Writing Arabic words (mostly they are Quranic excerpts) is itself a praying. Arabic beatiful caligraphy is used in so many places that it became an ornament.

Ornaments are another wonderful elements of Islamic culture. Ornaments reflects people's lives. A central element of ornaments is geomentry. Geometry was used in people's daily lives to find the Qibla and to determine time of the praying. Geometrical figures are used in textiles, in walls of buildings and day-to-day objects. Apart from geometry, flora and fauna are important elements of ornaments. Different plants and flowers are illustrated in textiles. They are mostly in the forms of beautiful gardens of the Heaven. Actually this figures are used to show what the Heaven is like. It is also wriiten in Quran and illustrated in Prophet's hadiths. When Prophet Muhammed was asked about the Heaven and how it looks like, he described it as a beautiful garden with multible trees, fragrant flowers and flowing rivers. This might be a perfect illustration of Heaven for Arabian people as they inhabit in deserts and plants are rare things for them. Apart from flora, fauna is also used frequently as ornaments. In Quran, Allah says: To know me, you should know my creatures". Indeed, God cannot be seen in Islam. However, Muslims' life goal is to know their Creator by reading and interpreting Quran and also by observing God's creatures. That is why plants and animals are used commanly in ornaments of the Islamic culture. Most interesting thing is that it is not allowed to paint or creat objects with eyes (animals and humans, in other word). It is a figurative art. However, we can find them in many places. According to the film, in Islam it is not allowed to draw figurative art in such places like mihrab. This is done deliberately because otherwise it might seem that people are worshipping figurative art objects. Worshipping something or someone other then Allah is considered to be as a "shirk" in Islam.

The next element is the use of colours. Muslim people mostly use dust colours. Other colours are rare things. Use of colour varies geograohically. For example blue colour is mostly used in Iran but in Western African buildings you cannot see many colours. For instance Great Mosque of djenne is brown or dust in colour. Iranian buildings are blue because of the cobalt. Cobalt is used to obtain blue colour and there are many cobalt fields in Iran.

Water is very important thing in Islam. Allah says that "all living things are created by using water". Water is life. Water is very rare in Arabian deserts. Water is also important in terms of spirituality. All Muslims must do ablution before prayings. Water cleans not only human body, but human soul too. Doing ablution nbefore praying helps Muslim people to prepare themselves morally to stand in front of Allah and do prayings. There are special jugs that are used to do ablution. Another thing is a special plate under the jug in which used waterb after ablution accumulates. This water then is used to water plants. The Prophet Muhammed left many hadith about not wasting things and especially water. It is important to not waste water. That is why there is a special plate in which even used water accumulates and then effectively used.

Lastly, another element of Islamic culture is its buildings. After Arabians started to conquer neighboring countries, they started to build mosques. Mosque is a place for prayins and it is hierarchically structured. It has a mihrab which is the side of the Qibla, minbar where Imam reads Hutbas during Friday prayers and other special places for different purposes. Mosques are build in hypostyle. Prominent example is the Great Mosque in Damascus. In the great Mosque of Djenna, which is also built in hypostyle, there are 99 columns which represents the 99 names of Allah.

In conclusion, Islamic culture and its elements are divers and rich. They represent people's mentality, thei daily lives and beliefs. Main source of Islamic culture is Quran.

The seventh century was a changing point of history. At that time once great empires of Byzantium and Persia were weakened by continuous wars and new power and culture were born in the Arabian Peninsula united by Islam religion. It was the beginning of the Islamic culture. In this movie, we can see the epic journey across several cities which are the main centers of Islamic development. This documentary film explores the breathtakingly beautiful art of the Islamic world and its history over 1400 years. It gives a chance to see Islamic culture which has an important influence on world history from a different perspective. Art does not belong to one particular culture, art is common to all. Art is a window to the past times. To see and appreciate the masterpiece done by another civilization, it is not necessary to understand it. However, by looking at their meaning we can understand their life, believes, hopes and feelings. The film explores the richness of Islamic art which was created in that civilization. The creation of masterpieces starting from small objects like box for a pen to changes of colors in monumental mosques depending on light is the great work of masters in that civilization. In the film, we can also see admirable beauty of ceramics, painting, textile, metallic tools and an extraordinary array of architecture. The unique thing in Islamic art is that Arabic words are everywhere. They are not just words; they are sign from God, belief and the sacred world from Koran which would always make a reminder about religion. They are written beautifully and it calls calligraphy. According to Sheila Blair, these inscriptions always say about the fact that God is one, not three as in Christianity. That is one of the key differences of Islam. Calligraphy is an art of writing. Muslims always tried to write Koran as beautiful as possible. According to Mohamed Zachariya who is the well-respected calligraphers in the world, it is a magical art. He says that every detail of art such as a quality of paper and angle of reed pen's cutting is important. Calligraphic writings are very accurate, spiritual and breathtaking. That is the voice of God everywhere around. So we cannot even imagine how they did it, and it is a great piece of art. The next is the architecture of buildings. In the video we can see the Alhambra which was built in the 14th century by the last Muslim rulers of Granada in Spain, mosques are in Damascus, Syria, the mosque in Africa and Sultan Suleiman's creative endeavors including the Topkapi Palace. Let's begin with their similarities. All of them are a great example of architectural art. All mosques have designed the mihrab wall which is placed to direct prayers to Mecca. Buildings are adapted to have many people at one moment like on Friday namaz. Also, they have a specific side for the person who invites and reminds about time to pray, azan riders. Also, some of the mosques have tribune for speakers during meetings. The building could show the power and wealthiness of its creator. The designed several hallways before the main hall, geometric ornaments, and calligraphic writings show the elite life. The luxury was in that courtyards open to the sky, but still inside. According to the Ruba Kanaan the light and its play with color, even smell was important and creates a spiritual effect. Interesting fact, figurative art does not exist in Islamic culture. Even if we can see some paintings and sculptures, they are not idols. All over the Islamic world, the textile plays an important role in purpose making comfort. Textile is very useful and comfortable, we can use it to separate us from dirty, to warm up, to decorate, to sit on it, sleep on it and they are easy to roll up and keep it. The carpet weaving was initially developed in Persia and come to India in 16 century. Weaving is a geometric technique that is easier to make horizontally in one direction and circled weaves were even more complex to do. So, the prints on carpets can be ornaments and figures, also a beautiful view of fauna and flora. In Islam God says "To know me, know my creations". So, they do not paint God, we cannot see it. But we can see it through the beauty of creations. That makes the belief even more spiritual and magical. While talking about Islamic art, it is impossible to not mention colors. Colors of metalware work, buildings or in the textile are amazing. All pigments were derived from nature. It is not hard to colorize silk and cotton. Metallic tools were colorized by inlaying, for example, gold or silver to bronze. One way they used to make colors in grinding. For example, grinding of copper gives blue color and cobalt gives white color. Another part of Islamic Art is related to water supply techniques. Most of the Islamic world is placed in deserts and in dry landscape where rainfall is very low. So, they have developed complex engineering techniques to supply the city with water, for example, qanats and wheels. So coming from this reason, gardens mostly placed in enclosed places. It makes easier to take care of the garden. Garden in Islam with a variety of fruit trees and beautiful flowers is associated with paradise. Islamic culture is rich in fascinating creations. We need to know not only about the history of wars and catastrophes; we need to know about treasure coming thought centuries. The same attitude should be modulated with Islamic culture's greatest gifts to our world which are an outpouring of creativity and intelligence. Islamic art is a combination of engineering skills and knowledge with deepest emotions that believes and loves to the beauty of their creators.

Islamic art and the heritage that the Muslim World built through centuries are a door and a key to understanding the Islam itself. This can clearly be seen in Robert Gardner's film Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World. As the film depicts, the art is a reflection of faith, believe and culture of followers of Islam. This fascinating documentary, with the collection of beautiful shootings from different countries with Islamic background, was able to illustrate the history, art and the role, that Islam played in the life of people.

The importance of writing and reading (which is stated in Qur'an) is introduced through the art of calligraphy. Qur'an is the direct speech of God and the film also comments "God speaks through the pen". Therefore, Qur'anic inscriptions are a huge fundamental part of Islamic art. We can see in the film, that different Mosques such as Süleymaniye Mosque, (dedicated to Ottoman Empire), the old mosque of Damascus Umayyad Mosque have Qur'anic inscriptions. Another example is one of the most significant mosques the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. As it is stated in this film and our class reading of Ibn Ishaq's The Life of Muhammad, this is an important place for followers of all 3 religions (Islam, Christianity, Judaism) and happens to be the place where prophet Muhammad was sent to heaven. That night is known to be one of the 5 sacred nights in Islam Mi'raj Night. The mosque's Qur'anic inscriptions are written in the most expensive gold cubes. Sheila Blair comments that the interior inscription says about the existence of only one God and is a rebattle to tripartite In Christianity. This can also be viewed in our class reading Apology of Patriarch Timothy of Baghdad, where he uses the allegory of a pearl to resolve a debate regarding the tripartite with Caliph. Through the example of Qur'anic inscriptions and the role of calligraphy, we can see that writing and reading had a significant role (reading and writing Qur'an is also considered as praying) in the life of Muslim people and that might be a reason for the birth of different famous mathematicians, scholars and literary figures during the Islamic Golden Age (8th to 14th century) such as Al-Biruni, Ferdousi.

Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World was also able to identify the meaning of space in Islam. The religion that spread to 3 continents had variations due to the different cultural values and traditions (as professor Garipova commented in one of her lectures). Therefore, there are different designs of mosques and their grandiosity was the signature of wealth and represented the local culture, tradition and material background. All of the mosques have pulpit known as minbar. Most of the mosques are dome shaped and hypostyle mosques (following the design of Umayyad Mosque). However, the mosque of Djenne located in Mali, has a different structure that was based on the preferences and views of the people that live there. The mosque does not have a big dome and is made of mud bricks. It contains 99 columns that are deicated to 99 holy names of Allah. The West African branch of Sufism that is spread in this region is for tolerance. It states that the main importance here is the connection with God and each person can have their own way of connection. Roderick Mcintosh also comments that "We need to make space where we can be alone with our own thoughts". This moment in film reminded me of one of our first readings in class Eliade (The Sacred and the Profane), where Eliade says that the sacred place can be anywhere, it is the moment, where you feel that you are connected with the divine, where you understand that God is always with you, whether you are in a mosque or in a church. I feel the connection of this idea in the Eliade with the above mention moment in film. In our class reading of Rahman Major themes of Qur'an, he also says we should keep in mind that God is always with us and we should not forget it. I believe that the diversity of mosques in different places can be explained through the fact that everyone's divine experience might be different but they all do have same faith and religion of Islam. Therefore, the meaning of space is broad and deep for Muslim people.

After explaining the role of space, the film describes the role of ornaments, textile and water. Different ornaments in Islamic art are very connected with geometry since Muslims had to know the proper direction of sun in order to pray, the time and the navigation. Therefore, we can see different types of geometrical ornaments with different textile, such as metalwork, adding colors to paintings and ceramics (literature is also not an exception, an example could be Shahname). Through the ornaments and textile, we can see that figurative art existed in Islamic art. Sultans, in fact, had sculptures of lions specially made by their request. Moving on to the water, it had and still has a sacred meaning. It is the foundation of our survival and living since as the film shows, for some Muslim countries water is a treasure that is hard to find.

In conclusion, the film Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World describes the history and culture of Muslim world through Islamic art and is a very interesting documentary. A viewer will get new information and will enjoy the beautiful scenery of Islamic heritage that was build through many centuries.