7.2 West Asia

Background Information

The general trend of religious arts in West and Central Asia are centered around Islam (origin: West Asia, 7th century) and Buddhism (origin: South Asia, 6th century). Despite the regions being diverse, they share many similar practices and beliefs.

The artwork itself in West Asia can vary between having a religious or secular focus. Since Islamic art is the most dominant, the works have similar characteristics pertaining to Islamic traditions. Pilgrimage is a very essential religious practice in Buddhism and Islam. The artworks, therefore, tend to focus on pilgrimage in addition to crafting sacred sites, as seen with the Dome of the Rock, and sacred images in Tibet, as seen in the Buddha sculpture Jowo Rinpoche.

Many West and Central Asian arts were created for different global and local patrons; where the audiences were mainly of royalty, monastic religious practitioners, and wealthy patrons. Foreign collectors would also seek these works to use for trade or gifting. Architecture in these regions were also widely used: mostly with religious functions. For instance, the plethora of Islamic mosques (decorated or ornamented with non-figural images) included vegetal forms and were typically embedded with calligraphy to record sacred texts. An important element of the structure of a mosque is the Qibla wall, in which is built to face towards the direction of Mecca (home of the Kaaba). The Qibla wall is decorated with an empty mihrab for prayer. 

Other Islamic religious architecture can be viewed in monuments (ex: the Kaaba) as well as tomb structures. Central Asia, particularly, emphasized Buddhist cave architecture. These cave structures would utilize wall painting and relief carving. Moreover, the Tibetan lands were home to Buddhist architecture found in forms of monastic architecture and stupas.

Works in West Asia

Petra

Image Courtesy of Adventure Travel. The Treasury of Petra.

Image Courtesy of Universes in Universe. The Great Temple of Petra.

Form

• Cut rock
• The style of architecture was influenced by Greece and Alexandria, as evidenced by the use of Corinthian columns (columns with leaves 🍃 carved near the capitals) and pediments (a triangular 🔺 top near the front of a building).

Function

• Petra was a trading city located in present-day Jordan, which was then a part of the Nabataean Kingdom.

Content

• In the cliffs ⛰️ are tombs, where the Nabataeans buried the dead.
• On the façade of Petra's treasury are carvings of Greek, Egyptian, and Assyrian gods, showing the region's exposure to different religions from nearby empires and the combination of indigenous and nonnative traditions.

Context

• Finding out when the tombs of Petra were built has been difficult for archaeologists to figure out 🤷‍♂️, so they assume that they were created when the Nabataeans were richest, which is between the 2nd century BCE and 2nd century CE.

The Kaaba

Image Courtesy of Khan Academy. 

Form

• Black granite covered in silk, gold, and silver

Function

• Muslims around the world pray 5 times each day in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia from where they currently are (qibla).
• Muslims are expected to make the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) once in their lifetime, and during this trip, they circumambulate (go around) the Kaaba counterclockwise 🔄 seven times.

Content

• Covering the Kaaba is a layer of black cloth (the kiswah), which is covered with ornate calligraphy (decorative handwriting).
• The Kaaba has been repaired and reconstructed 🚧 many times since the time of Muhammad (the founder of Islam).

Context

• This building is said to have been built by Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ishmael.

Dome of the Rock

Image Courtesy of Tourist Israel

Form

• Stone and wood octagon decorated with ceramic and mosaics

Function

• Most people believe that the Dome of the Rock was originally built to commemorate where Muhammad ascended to Heaven (miʿraj), but it is also the place where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac and the Temple of Jerusalem once stood.

Content

• The building is covered in Arabic calligraphy.
• The designs covering the Dome of the Rock are geometric (made with lines and simple shapes) and do not contain any human 👩 or animal 🐪 forms.

Context

• The Dome of the Rock is a significant landmark in the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam).
• Some believe that Abd al-Malik constructed the building so that more people would visit it, rather than making the Hajj to Mecca. His enemy Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, who lived in Mecca, was successful at getting visitors to the holy city, and al-Malik wanted to limit his success (talk about tea ☕).

Great Mosque (Masjid-e Jameh)

Image Courtesy of reibai (CC BY 2.0)

Form

• Brick, plaster, wood, and ceramic tile
• At the center of the building is a rectangular courtyard, which is surrounded by a two-story arcade (a structure made of arches supported by columns) and an iwan (a rectangular vaulted space that is closed on three sides and open on one) at each side.

Function

• The purpose of a mosque is to unite the umma (Muslim community) through faith ☪️
• Because of the Great Mosque's location in the center of Isfahan, this mosque also functioned as a place for gathering.

Content

• The muezzin (person who leads prayer) goes onto the minarets (thin, portruding columns) five times each day to call people to prayer.
• Calligraphy 🖊️, tilework, brick, and stucco motifs add decoration to the mosque.
• The inside of the mosque is a hypostyle hall (a place with a roof that is supported by columns), similar to the Temple of Amun-Re and Hypostyle Hall from unit 2.

Context

• Because the mosque has existed under so many different empires and dynasties, including the Il-Khanate, Timurid, Safavid, and Qajar, each group has contributed its own style to the original building.

Folio from a Qur'an

Image Courtesy of Khan Academy

Form

• Ink and gold on parchment (a writing surface made from animal skins).

Function

• Because this work is so heavily decorated with an expensive material like gold, it can assumed that it was used for ceremonial purposes, rather than in the home regularly 🏠

Content

• This work pictures a verse from the Qur'an written in Kufic, a style of Arabic calligraphy with strong verticals and long horizontals.
• The artist chose to use geometric motifs (patterns), rather than human or animal ones, since they are considered inappropriate in Islam when on religious works.

Context

• Works like this were made by scribes (a person who writes documents 📝), who were well-respected because of their stylistic and artistic talent.

Basin (Baptistière de Saint Louis)

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Form

• Brass inlaid with gold and silver.

Function

• Originally, this work was used to wash hands at official ceremonies, but was later used by the French royal family 🤴 at their baptisms.

Content

• Pictured on the work is a series of battle scenes between the Mamluks (a group of slave soldiers, many of which converted to Islam) and the Mongols, possibly during the Mamluk-Ilkhanate Wars.

Context

• Artists who could inlay (embed pieces of a material into a new material) were respected because it is such a difficult technique to master.

Bahram Gur Fights the Karg

Image Courtesy of OHS APAH.

Form

• Ink and watercolor.
• This work looks similar to the illuminated manuscripts (books with text and decoration) of unit 3, including the Lindisfarne Gospels, Golden Haggadah, and Bible Moralisée.

** Can you spot any specific similarities between the appearance of Bahram Gur Fights the Karg and the European illuminated manuscripts?**

Function

• The purpose of this work was to tell the story of a fight between Bahram Gur (a king of the Sassanian Empire) and Karg (a unicorn 🦄) using both illustrations and text.

Content

• Bahram Gur is wearing clothing made from European fabric, which shows the extent that European and West Asian merchants interacted along the Silk Road. He is also has a halo around his head 😇, which shows how exposure to Christianity by Europeans influenced art made in the Islamic world.
• By choosing to depict this story, the artist wanted to show how Bahram Gur was an ideal king.
• The landscape in the scene is inspired by Chinese scroll art, showing the syncretism of Chinese and Persian styles in this unit.

Context

• This work is part of an epic poem called the Shanama (Book of Kings), which recounts the history of ancient Persia.

The Court of Gayumars

Image Courtesy of Khan Academy

Form

• Ink, watercolor, and gold on paper.

Function

• The purpose of this work was to show how humans and landscape can be harmonious, which is a theme seen throughout Chinese art.
• Unlike many of the other works from this region, it did not have a religious purpose, and we know this because animals and humans are depicted in it.

Content

• Pictured in the work are Gayumars (the first king of Persia), who is being enthroned 👑, his son Siyamak, grandson Hushang, and his court, who are sitting below him.
• The angel pictured in the work is telling Gayumars that the Black Div (son of the demon Ahriman) will murder his son.

Context

• Similar to Bahrum Gur Fights the Karg, this work is also a part of the Shanama.

The Ardabil Carpet

Image Courtesy of Khan Academy.

Form

• Dyed silk on wood.

Function

• Carpets like these were sold along the Silk Road by merchants from the Islamic world. Many of them were then used to decorate buildings like mosques 🕌 and shrines, since they were so highly valued and prized.

Content

• At the center of the Ardabil Carpet is a golden medallion surrounded by sixteen pendants, which may represent the shape of a dome from inside. Two of these pendants also have mosque lamps attached to them.
• The corners of the inner rectangle look like squinches (a support that helps attach a round dome to straight walls), which helps complete the feeling of looking 👀 into a dome.

Context

• The carpet was named for the city of Ardabil in present-day Iran, which was a major city 🏙️ of the Safavid Empire. During the time of the Safavids, the arts, especially textiles, flourished.