The royal veil: early Islamic figural art and the Bilderverbot reconsidered
The essay questions the Bilderverbot in early Islam by looking at the contrast established in the scholarship between the strict opposition to iconic theology found either in Muslim religious spaces or in the normative texts (hadith) and the use of figural images in the 8th-century palaces built in...
| Published in: | Religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
[2017]
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| In: |
Religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Umayyads
/ Palace
/ Figuration (Art)
/ Islamic art
/ Image prohibition
/ History 700-800
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| RelBib Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion BJ Islam KBL Near East and North Africa TF Early Middle Ages |
| Further subjects: | B
Aniconism
B Historiography B Palaces B Qusayr ‘Amra-Forms B Image prohibition B Umayyads B Early Islam |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The essay questions the Bilderverbot in early Islam by looking at the contrast established in the scholarship between the strict opposition to iconic theology found either in Muslim religious spaces or in the normative texts (hadith) and the use of figural images in the 8th-century palaces built in the Syrian steppe by the Umayyads. In the first part of this essay, I shall examine how the production of figurative images for the Umayyad palaces was systematically put down to corruption while aniconism was taken as the normative model for Islamic art. Then, I will re-consider a famous painting from Qusayr ‘Amra that provides evidence for a religiously inspired figural art and reflect upon the implications for our understanding of aniconism in early Islam. My main argument is that it was primarily the belief in an invisible God that inhibited the production of images rather than the opposition to images as such. |
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| ISSN: | 0048-721X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2017.1319992 |