Table of Contents
- Middle Period: the rise of Persian and Turkish poetry
For Students
Islamic arts: Media
Videos
Actors talking about their parts in a play based on Manṭeq al-ṭayr (The...
Video: Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Learn about the rich history of calligraphy in the Islamic world.
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Overview of the Alhambra, Granada, Spain.
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Images
Detail of a wool Persian arabesque carpet from Kermān, Iran, late 16th century; in...
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of Mrs. Harry Payne Bingham, 1959; photograph, Otto E. Nelson/Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Worshipper in front of the mihrab in the Blue Mosque, Cairo. The minbar...
Mathias Oppersdorff
The Building of the Famous Castle of Khawarnaq, miniature by Persian painter...
Courtesy of the trustees of the British Library
Ḥāfeẓ, detail of an illumination in a Persian manuscript of the Dīvān of...
Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.
Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature, 2005.
EPA/REX/Shutterstock.com
An oud with the characteristic wooden belly and backward-slanting pegbox.
Wesleyan Virtual Instrument Museum 2.0 (https://wesomeka.wesleyan.edu/vim2)
The kamanjā, a spike fiddle commonly used in Arab and Persian classical...
Wesleyan Virtual Instrument Museum 2.0 (https://wesomeka.wesleyan.edu/vim2)
Karagöz shadow puppets: (from left) Yahudi, a Jewish merchant, with donkey; Karagöz;...
Marc Riboud/Magnum
Fragment of Egyptian tapestry-woven textile of linen and silk with Arabic inscription,...
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Rogers Fund, accession no. 29.136.2; www.metmuseum.org
Interior of the Sultan Ahmed Cami (Blue Mosque), Istanbul.
Dennis Jarvis (CC-BY-2.0) (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Interior of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, Spain, begun 785 ce....
Alfonso Gutierrez Escera/Ostman Agency
Dome of the mihrab in the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, Spain.
© borisb17/Fotolia
Royal mausoleum of the Samanids, completed before 942 ce,...
© lisaveya/Fotolia
Interior of the dome of the 20th-century Muḥammad V Mausoleum in Rabat, Morocco.
© Michael Hynes
Mezquita-Catedral, the great Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, Spain.
Photos.com/Thinkstock
Gold mosaics adorn the walls of the mihrab in the Great Mosque of Córdoba, Spain.
© Ron Gatepain (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Bowl from Nīshāpūr, Iran, lead-glazed earthenware with a slip decoration, 9th–10th...
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Ivory casket made for al-Mughīrah, son of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III, from Córdoba, Spain,...
Courtesy of the Musee du Louvre, Paris; photograph Mansell—Giraudon/Art Resource, New York
Bronze griffin, 12th century; in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Pisa, Italy.
Scala/Art Resource, New York
Ceiling of the Cappella Palatina (Palatine Chapel), Palermo, Sicily. The chapel was...
Kelsey Carroll
Wheel-cut rock crystal ewer from Egypt, 11th century; in the Victoria and Albert...
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Coronation mantle of King Roger II of Sicily, gold embroidery and pearls on a red...
Courtesy of the Hofburg Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Lustreware bowl by the potter Saʾad, depicting a Christian priest swinging a censer,...
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Tomb tower at the shrine of Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī at Basṭām, Iran, 1313.
Josephine Powell, Rome
Brickwork facade of the 11th-century caravansary Ribāṭ-i Malik, near Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Courtesy of the General Direction of Museums and Historical Monuments, Ministry of Culture and Arts, Tehran, Iran
Two eyvāns of the Masjed-e Shāh (now Masjed-e Emām) of ʿAbbās I the Great...
Ray Manley/Shostal Associates
The minaret of Jām, Afghanistan, 1116–1202, designated a World Heritage Site in 2002.
Roland and Sabrina Michaud—Rapho/Photo Researchers
Ince Minare at Konya, Turkey, 1258, detail view showing the sculptural ornamentation...
Ara Guler, Istanbul
Lustre dish by Sayyid Shams al-Dīn al-Ḥasanī depicting Khosrow II as he discovers...
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Discussion near a village, from the 43rd maqāmah of the Maqāmāt...
Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Drawing from a manuscript of the Maqāmāt, 1323; in the British Museum (MS....
Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum
Pottery bowl from Kāshān, Iran, late 14th century; in the Victoria and Albert Museum,...
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; photograph John Webb
The Rabat Gate, Marrakech, Morocco, Almoravid period, 12th century.
Josephine Powell, Rome
Kutubiyyah Mosque, Marrakech, Morocco, Almohad period, 12th century.
Jean Bottin
Court of the Lions, Alhambra, Granada, Spain, 14th century.
Raffaello Bencini—Scala/Art Resource, New York
Gardens of the Partal Palace and the Torre de las Damas (Tower of the Ladies), Alhambra,...
© Toniflap/Fotolia
Mudéjar lustreware dish, known also as Hispano-Moresque ware, made in Valencia, early...
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Mozarabic horseshoe-shaped arches of Santiago de Peñalba church, El Bierzo, Spain.
Lourdes Cardenal
Mosque lamp, enameled and gilded glass, from Aleppo, Syria, c. 1300; in the Museum...
Museum fur Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin/Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The courtyard of the madrasah of Sultan Ḥasan, Cairo, 1356–62.
GEKS
The Gūr-e Amīr (mausoleum of Timur), Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Alex Langley/Photo Researchers
Detail of relief tile work from the mausoleum of Bayram Khān at Fatḥābād, Uzbekistan,...
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; photograph John Webb
Mongol warriors, miniature from Rashīd al-Dīn's History of the World, 1307;...
Courtesy of the Edinburgh University Library, Scotland
Bahrām Gūr killing a dragon, illustration from the Demotte Shāh-nāmeh (“Book...
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, Grace Rainey Rogers Fund, 1943.658 (CC0 1.0)
Diwān of Sultan Aḥmad, pastoral border painted by Junayd, c. 1405, from...
Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Prince Humāy at the Gate of Humāyun's Castle, miniature painted by Junayd...
By permission of the British Library
Capture of the fortress of the Knights Hospitallers at Smyrna, miniature from a Ẓafar-nāmeh...
Courtesy of the John Work Garrett Library, Johns Hopkins University; photograph Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore
Ceramic canteen, unglazed fritware, Syria or Egypt, 15th century; in the Los Angeles...
Photograph by Hartmannia. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Madina Collection of Islamic Art, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost, M.2002.1.56
Turkish Baroque style exemplified by the Fountain of Ahmed III, Istanbul, 1728.
Josephine Powell, Rome
Interior of the Rüstem Paşa Mosque, Istanbul, showing its coloured tile decoration.
Ara Guler/Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Octagonal tile, ceramic composite body, underglaze, painting in black, cobalt blue,...
Photograph by Katie Chao. Brooklyn Museum, New York, gift of Jack A. Josephson, 1990.21
İznik ware dish, second half of the 16th century; in the Victoria and Albert Museum,...
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; photograph John Webb
Ewer, ceramic with painted underglaze, from İznik, Turkey, late 16th century; in...
Photograph by Lisa O'Hara. Brooklyn Museum, New York, Museum Collection Fund, 06.4
Bottle depicting a hunting scene, ceramic, Iran, Safavid dynasty, first half of the...
Photograph by Katie Chao. Brooklyn Museum, New York, Brooklyn Museum Collection, 34.6024
The Maydān-e Emām (formerly the Maydān-e Shāh), originally built as a polo ground...
Arad Mojtahedi
Khosrow Makes His Elephant Trample the Enemy, miniature by Reẕā ʿAbbāsī,...
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Hunter on Horseback Attacked by a Mythical Beast, oil on canvas from Iran,...
Photograph by Katie Chao. Brooklyn Museum, New York, bequest of Irma B. Wilkinson in memory of her husband, Charles K. Wilkinson , 1997.108.2
Prince Yahya, oil on canvas by Muḥammad Ḥasan (Persian, active 1808–40),...
Photograph by Trish Mayo. Brooklyn Museum, New York, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles K. Wilkinson, 72.26.5
Panel of tiles recalling the gardenlike setting of heaven described in the Qurʾān,...
Photograph by Katie Chao. Brooklyn Museum, New York, Hagop Kevorkian Fund, 2002.3
Arabesque decoration on the dome of the Mādar-e Shāh madrasah, built by Ḥusayn I,...
Ray Manley/Shostal Associates
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