Islamic art and early manifestations of Islamic art

Islamic Art had a very great development between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, standing out especially in the Safavid and Ottoman empires.

"Outside the western world, artistic development also took place intensely and with various cultural exchanges. From the region of Anatolia (part of present-day Turkey), in Asia Minor, to the Far East, where the Chinese and Japanese civilizations developed, the artistic development was impressive, one of the notable examples being Islamic art.

With the foundation of Islam by the prophet Muhammad in the seventh century, many peoples who lived in the Arabian Peninsula, Persia and Asia Minor, as well as later in North Africa, unified around the new religion. Arabic became the sacred language of Muslims and also a source of artistic expression.

One of the first manifestations of Islamic art, architecture, flourished mainly in the construction of temples, that is, mosques. The architectural complex of the mosques mainly involved the construction of an interior with sumptuous decoration, expressed in arabesques (drawings in harmonic geometric shapes), and in Arabic calligraphy, with excerpts from the Koran.

But Islamic art had its strongest expression in two segments and accompanied two branches of Islamic civilization itself: the Safavid and Ottoman. The Safavids came to dominate the region of Persia (now Iran) from the year 1501, under the leadership of Ismail. Over time, the Safavid empire expanded northwards, occupying regions such as present-day Afghanistan, south of the Arabian Peninsula, and eastwards, towards present-day Pakistan.

This empire bequeathed a vast artistic production to posterity, standing out in paintings, including the representation of human forms (a fact that did not exist in other branches of Islamic art), and an extraordinary tapestry, with arabesques and calligraphic inscriptions. Among the most famous rugs of the Safavid Persians is the Ardabil rug, as noted by art historian Stephen Farthing:"

"[...] the Safavids depicted living beings in their artwork, and the presence of people and animals became a distinctive feature of the style in illuminated manuscripts, as seen in Rostam sleeping while Rakhsh confronts the lion. Intricate floral arabesques they were an equally important feature in Safavid art, particularly in the abundant production of textiles and rugs. 16th-century Persian rugs are some of the most sumptuous ever produced. Maqsud of Kashan, 946.” [1]

The Ottoman style prevailed in Central Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa, given that this was the extension of the Ottoman Empire, which was climbed from 1453, when there was the fall of Constantinople. The traces of Ottoman art mixed the typically Arab legacy with techniques from Byzantium, with the Timurid style, with the art of the Balkans and with what was done on the shores of the Mediterranean, especially in Venice. In addition, there was also the influence of Mongolian and Chinese art, as historian Farthing also attests:

“[…] ceramic designs were influenced by Chinese porcelains, and stylized patterns of plants and flowers were the most frequently employed, especially in the admired Iznik ceramics. Calligraphy and drawings with geometric strokes were mainly restricted to architectural decoration. In the 19th century, iznik ceramics were collected in the West and served as a source of inspiration for various artistic styles of the 19th and 20th centuries, most notably the Arts & Crafts movement”. [2] p. 195."