Art, Belief, and Identity in the
Early Islamic World
Warm Up
Why do people use symbols?
The Setting
In the 7th century, Islam spread rapidly. Many Christian communities suddenly lived inside a new Muslim empire.
This created:
When cultures meet, art changes.
Key Vocabulary
Icon = religious image
Figural = depiction of a human or animal
Aniconic = no human/animal figures
Iconoclasm = destruction of images
Idol = a physical object worshipped as a god
These words describe a debate that lasted centuries.
Jesus Christ Pantocrator (Detail from the deesis mosaic in Hagia Sophia, Istanbul)
Christian Use of Images
For the majority of Christian history, most people couldn’t read, so Christians often used images to teach religious stories.
Images of Jesus and saints were also used in worship to help focus the worshiper on God.
But not all Christians agreed on how much power images should have. Some worried: Are people worshipping the image instead of God?
This debate already existed before Islam.
Byzantine Icon from St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt, 12th century
Early Islamic Views on Images
Early Islamic art
Many early Muslims worried that images could become idols.
So instead of people, Islamic art focused on:
Calligraphy became sacred art because it wrote the Qur’an.
Mosaic detail, Dome of the Rock
Not All Islamic Art was
Image-Free
Qusayr ‘Amra fresco (hunting scene), 8th century, Umayyad Empire
The Dome of the Rock (691 CE)
This building in Jerusalem is one of the earliest Islamic monuments.
It uses:
The Dome of the Rock (691 CE)
Its messages challenge Christian ideas about God. Portions of two chapters of the Qur’an (112 and 4) are written around the exterior of the building:
112: Say: He is Allah, the one and only; Allah, the eternal, absolute; He sires no offspring, nor is he anyone's offspring; And there is none like him.
This shows how art can be used to express belief and identity.
This is art as argument.
Christians and Muslims Debated Images
Questions included:
Muslim writers criticized Christian figural icons.
Christian writers defended them.
Both sides used art to say: “This is who we are.”
Art became part of religious identity.
Christian Responses
Christian reactions
This shows that cultures influence each other.
Even disagreement can shape art.
Mosaics in the small sekreton, Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Istanbul) (photo: © Dumbarton Oaks)
Big Idea
Art reflects belief and identity
Art is not neutral. It tells us:
Early Christian and Muslim art influenced each other.
They developed together, not separately.
Exit Ticket
Write 3–5 sentences:
How did religion influence art in the early Islamic world?
Or:
Why do you think people care so much about symbols?