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Islam Quintych Watercolor Study

SYMBOLISM & SOURCES

Islam found itself in the same quandary as Judaism when it came to producing religious art. Believing literally in the commandment of God to make no graven images, Muslims were adamantly opposed to idols and polytheism. One of Muhammad’s primary accomplishments was to rid Arabia of the rampant forms of multiple god worship that had always flourished in the region. But Islam differed from Judaism in creating a religious art without creating idols. While Islam was absolutely without icons or even symbols that might allude to religious images, it nevertheless created a religious art that in many ways surpassed the two previous religions of Abraham: Judaism and even the icon- filled religion of Christianity. All writers on the subject do not share my opinion in this respect. In one of my otherwise favorite books on world art the following was written, “It might be said that Islam inspired no religious art — only art that just stopped short of being irreligious” (Honour & Fleming 315). From a Western perspective the art of Islam may not seem overly religious at first analysis. It is all line, shape, color and space designed into marvelous, complex systems of geometry and abstraction. When these compositions are contemplated in their relationship to the Islamic religious qualities of equality, order, unity, balance, intellectual growth, and beauty the compositions are religious art in its most pure form. They are an expression of, and aid in, religious devotion and duty on the highest level.

The historical and technical legacy of the Roman and Persian empires set the foundations on which Islamic art was to grow. The Islamic artists and architects were to blend and adapt many of the aesthetic traits of these two traditions into an artistic heritage that varied throughout the vast Islamic empire, adapting itself to the people and traditions of each region.

The two greatest forms of Islamic artistic expression are that of calligraphy and architecture, and many times these two forms are harmonized into one radiant expression. For the imagery of my quintych I chose to combine a group of Islamic designs into one new composition. The strength of the original designs called for very few changes and this canvas is more of a composite study than many of the other paintings in the Designs of Faith series. This was partially due to my awe at the Islamic sense of design, and also the way the composition fell together in such a natural and automatic way in the very early planning stages of the painting.

CENTER SECTION

The center section of the quintych is a study of a mihrab, a prayer niche. Mihrabs are placed on the wall of the mosque that faces toward Mecca. The mihrab is the direction and the focus of the people during their prayers, providing the physical focus of the non- physical, the spiritual communication of the individual with God. The mihrab I chose for my study was produced in Kashan, Iran, around 1354. It was somehow acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 1939.

The intricate patterns of geometry and abstracted nature are balanced with beautiful linear movements of three different forms of Arabic calligraphy. The writings on the wide blue outer border are from the Qur’an, Surah (chapter) 9, verses 18-22:

18. Only those who believe in God and the Last Day, who fulfill their devotional obligations, pay the zakat, and fear no one but God, can visit the mosques of God. They may hope to be among the guided.

19. Do you think that giving a drink of water to the pilgrims and going on a visit to the Sacred Mosque, is the same as believing in God, and the Last Day, and the striving in the cause of God? In the eyes of God it is not the same; and God does not show the unrighteous the way.

20. Those who accepted the faith and left their homes and fought in the way of God, wealth and soul, have the greater reward with God, and will be successful.

21. Their Lord announces to them news of His mercy, acceptance, and gardens of lasting bliss.

22. Which they will enjoy forever.

Indeed God has greater rewards with Him.

The second band of calligraphy, on the arch around the niche itself, is from the writings of the tradition, the hadith, and gives the five pillars of Islam: faith, prayer, charity, pilgrimage, and fasting. The final and focal point calligraphy of the mihrab is within the box in the center of the niche. I chose to alter the text from the original which stated that the mosque was the house of the faithful, to what I found in my research to be a more suitable central point for my painting. In the box I wrote a phrase from the call to prayer, “Allahu Akbar. La ilaha ill-Allah,” or “Allah is the Greatest. Nothing deserves to be worshipped except Allah.”

TOP AND BOTTOM SECTIONS

On the top and bottom panels of the quintych I have created two traditional Islamic geometric patterns chosen from the hundreds that exist. On the top panel I produced a pattern which, to me, symbolized heaven. The star radiating in all directions as the all- knowing God, Allah, radiates all that there is. On the bottom panel the pattern chosen was one that I feel suggests hell. The hexagons are surrounded by and created by the sharp pointed geometric shapes that slice and cut through space. These two sections form extremely abstracted versions of the heaven and hell panels of my Christianity Quintych. On the far outer edge I have designed a border and included some pertinent passages from the Qur’an. On the heaven panel the selections are Surah 13:35 and Surah 2:82:

13:35 The likeness of Paradise promised the pious and devout is (of a garden) with streams of rippling water, everlasting fruits and shade. This is recompense of those who keep away from evil; but the recompense of those who deny the truth is Hell.

2:82 But those who believe and do good deeds are people of Paradise, and shall live there forever.

While the pleasures of heaven to the faithful are a recurring theme of the Qur’an, equally if not more frequent is the surety of the punishments of hell for those who are unfaithful. My selections from the Qur’an on this theme written on the bottom panel are Surah 22:11 and Surah 2:81:

22:11 There are some men who worship God only from the margin. If there is some profit they are content; but if calamity befalls them they turn about, thus losing both this world and the next. This is indeed a palpable loss.

2:81 Why, they who have earned the wages of sin and are enclosed in error, are the people of Hell, where they will abide forever.

The color scheme of these sections was selected to harmonize with the center and side panels containing the traditional architectural and tile colors of Middle Eastern Islamic design.

SIDE SECTIONS

These panels are two minarets that create compositional balance and conceptual continuity in the quintych. A minaret is a tower connected to a mosque from which the call to prayer is given five times daily. The call is as follows:

Allah is the Greatest (repeated four times)

I bear witness that nothing deserves worship except Allah (repeated twice)

I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah (repeated twice)

Come to prayer (repeated twice turning the face to the right)

Come to success (repeated twice, turning the face to the left)

Allah is the Greatest (repeated twice)

Nothing deserves to be worshipped except Allah. (Ali 298)

While this is the formal announcement of prayer five times a day, it is also much more. It is proclaimed these five times daily from hundreds of thousands of mosques across the world today. It is a tremendous statement of the unity of God and the unity of Muslims. It is a clear synopsis of the Islamic faith and is a form of proclamation to all within hearing of the basis of Islam (Ali 299).

For my image of a minaret I chose to combine two into one. The main shaft of the pillar is based on great minarets of the Madrasa of Ulugh-Beg ibn Shahrukh, Registan, Samarqand, built in about 1420. The top of my minaret is based on the minarets of Madrasah-yi Madar-i Shah, Isfahan, Iran, built around 1350. This is from the same area as the mihrab which my center section is based on. The striking architectural and sculptural forms of the minarets become even more powerful when their function is understood and appreciated.

In the outer borders of each of the side sections I have selected more passages from the Qur’an. On the left section is Surah 31:16-18:

16. “O my son, whatsoever it may be, even though equal to a mustard seed in weight, or within a rock or in the sky or in the earth, God will bring it forth.

17. O my son, fulfill your moral obligations, bid what is known to be right and forbid what is wrong, and bear with patience what befalls you, These are indeed acts of courage and resolve.

18. Do not hold men in contempt, and do not walk with hauteur on the earth. Verily, God does not like the proud and boastful.”

On the right side the passage is Surah 2:177:

177. Piety does not lie in turning your face to the East or West:

Piety lies in believing in God,

the Last Day and the angels,

the Scriptures and the prophets,

and disbursing your wealth out of the love of God among your kin and the orphans, the wayfarers and mendicants,

freeing slaves, observing your devotional obligations, and in paying the zakat and fulfilling a pledge you have given, and in being patient in hardship, adversity,

and in times of peril.

These are the men who affirm the truth,

and they are those who follow the straight path.

SOURCES CITED

Ali, Maulana Muhammad, The Religion of Islam. The Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at Islam, Columbus, Ohio, sixth edition, 1990.

Honour, Hugh & John Fleming, The Visual Arts: A History. Prentice Hall, Englewood, NJ, 1991.

all quotes from the Qur’an from:

The Qur’an. translated by Ahmed Ali, Sacred writings, edited by Jaroslav Pelikan, Quality Paperback Book Club, New York, 1992.