Islamic visual art has rich decorative functions and bright colors, which is abstract as far as religious art is concerned. The typical Islamic decorative pattern is called Arabic decorative style, which takes flowers, leaves or fruits as elements, and sometimes uses the outlines or geometric patterns of animals and people to form complex patterns with straight lines, angular lines or curves interlaced. This decoration is used on buildings and objects.
Pottery, glass products, metal products, textiles, manuscript illustrations and carpentry occupy the first place in Islamic culture. Pottery is the most important item in early Islamic decorative arts. Flash ceramics is the greatest contribution of Islam to ceramic art. The decoration method of this kind of pottery is to add metal compounds to glaze powder and then bake it to form a halo metal film. Other famous objects made in the caliphate era (750 to 1 1 mid-century) include Egyptian bronzes and wood carvings, Iraqi gypsum and Spanish ivory carvings. During the Seljuk period (1 1 mid-century to1mid-3rd century), pottery, textiles and glass products were still very important. In addition, practical articles made of bronze and brass are also inlaid with silver and pure copper and decorated with complex patterns. Manuscript illustration has also become an important and respected art at this time. The miniature shows Iran's invasion of Mongolia (1220? 1260) is the greatest and most distinctive art in the later period. Writing plays a special role in Islam and is a tool to convey the revelation of God. Therefore, calligraphy has developed many rich and complex styles on the basis of various elegant fonts. Calligraphy art is not only used to copy scriptures by hand, but also an important feature in architecture and other decoration.
Mosques and related religious buildings can best reflect the characteristics of Islamic architecture. Early Islamic architecture, taking the Dome Temple on the rock roof of Jerusalem (69 1) and the Grand Mosque in Damascus (705) as examples, all originated from Christian architectural features such as domes, cylindrical arches and porcelain inlays, and also built huge atriums for the congregation to pray. Religious architecture did not form its own style until the caliphate era, when multi-column mosques were built in Iraq and Egypt. This architectural style is to erect a roof on columns, and its square or rectangular design can be changed, that is, columns can be added or reduced as needed to expand or reduce the area. Seljuk period and Safi period (150 1? Iran (1736) adopts different mosque architectural designs and consists of four domed halls facing the atrium. These brick mosques also use domes and decorated inner corner arches. The influence of Persian architectural features on India can be seen in the Pearl Mosque (1653) and the Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal. Ottoman architecture from Islamic and Byzantine architectural traditions takes Selimier Mosque in edirne (1575) as an example, which has a large dome with a slender minaret in the center. As for non-religious Islamic architecture, one of the best examples is the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain (13? 14th century).
Islamic literature is written in four major languages: Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu. Arabic, as a language to reveal Islam and the Koran, occupies an absolutely important position. In the eyes of Muslims, the Koran is an excellent literary model. The basic elements of Arabic poetry continue the pre-Islamic model, adopting single rhyme (meaning that every line in a poem uses the same rhyme format) and complex rhyme (meaning that long syllables and short syllables are arranged in 16 meter). Arabic poetry can be divided into three basic types, among which Gazal is usually a love poem, which is a one-sentence poem from 5 to 12; Qasidah is a one-sentence poem with more than 20 or even 100 lines, which is usually used to express formal and meticulous praise. Persians use their own language to create poems by applying the types, forms and rules of Arabic poetry, and improve them. They also developed a new form of poetry-Masna Wei, which consists of a series of rhyming antitheses. Persians use it to write narrative poems (this form is unknown to Arabs), which is the representative of Shah-Namih written by Ferdowsi (1020). Persian literature has in turn influenced Urdu literature and Turkish literature, especially in vocabulary and meter. Turkish literature also has a rich and independent tradition of folk songs. Islamic literature also includes pure literature, teaching and popular prose. The most representative literary form of Islamic prose is maqamah style, which tells quite simple stories with deliberately complicated methods, and there are many metaphors, puns and other word games in the stories. In the field of popular literature, the most famous work is Arabian Nights, which brings together rich fairy tales from various Muslim regions.
Islamic music is a kind of monophonic music without harmony. Its characteristic is that rhythm and melody are two different systems, mainly single-line melody, and attach importance to improvisation by famous artists. The arrangement of rhythm and melody follows certain rules or scales. Islamic music uses difference tones, that is, half tones that are not completely equal, such as three quarters, to achieve the decorative effect of melody, and also uses small intervals or large intervals to achieve this effect. Islamic music is usually played by a small ensemble, that is, a singer and several instrumental players alternately perform solo and instrumental music. Singers or instrumentalists are responsible for guiding the melody, while percussion instruments are responsible for the rhythm, including drum sets, cymbals and percussion sticks. Wind instruments include Zona (an oboe-like instrument), different types of flute, trombone, horn and double-tube single-spring instruments similar to clarinet. However, stringed instruments are the most popular, and the most famous is ud, a short-necked lute with four or five strings. In addition, there are some trapezoidal musical instruments, such as santur and qanun. The former strikes the metal strings on the piano surface with two rafters, while the latter plays by hand. Other stringed instruments include violin and bow lute, such as Kaman, Kamanga and Laba.
(The picture shows a flashing ceramic bowl made by Thad Porter, depicting a Christian priest shaking an incense burner, made in the first half of12nd century. It is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. )