Decoration as a “Language” in Explaining the Concept of Islamic Art and Architecture

Document Type : Scholary

Authors

1 PhD Candidate of Islamic Philosophy, the College of Farabi, the University of Tehran, Qom, Iran

2 Associate Professor, the Department of Islamic Philosophy, the College of Farabi, the University of Tehran, Qom, Iran

Abstract

This article attempts to investigate the proposed answers for the three questions about Islamic art and particularly Islamic architecture: first, does Islamic art have an independent identity? Despite the buildings with different applications in Islamic architecture, is there a common space? Can a single yardstick be introduced for investigating different spaces of Islamic art and architecture? In investigating the answers, this article backs up the independent identity of Islamic art and architecture and introduces the calligraphic-vegetative-geometric decorations as a “visual language” of Islamic art and architecture and presents it as the unifying factor of spaces in Islamic art and architecture and tries to provide a new proposition for the issue of meaning in Islamic art and architecture which is formed based on the viewpoint of ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt Hamidānī about the meaning. Imām.

Keywords


The Noble Qur’ān.
Barrucand, M. & J. Bednorz (2007), Islamic architecture in Andalusia. Translated by Fā‘izah Dīnī, Tehran, the Academy of Arts.
Blum, J. & Sh. Beller (2002), Islamic art and architecture (2). Translated by Yaqūb Āzhand, Tehran, the Academy of Arts.
Fatḥī Āzar, S. & M. ῌamzih Nizhād (2014), »The semantics of axis in the mosque and the church«. Quarterly of Iranian-Islamic city studies, No. 17, pp. 53-62.
Graber, O. (1978), The formation of Islamic art. Yale University Press.
Herzfeld, E. (1987), Arabesque. In the Encyclopedia of Islam. Leiden, Brill, vol. 1, pp.363-367.
Hillenbrand, R. (2012), The Islamic architecture. Translated by Ayat Allāh Zādih Shīrāzī, Tehran, Ruzaih.
Jawādī, Sh. (2005), Decoration: the main element in the aesthetics of the art of Iran. Bāgh Naẓar, No. 3, pp. 51-57.
Jones, D. (2009), Architecture in the world of Islam. Edited by George Michael, Translated by Yaqūb Āzhand, Tehran, Mulā Publications.
Leokak, R. (2009), Architecture in the world of Islam. Edited by George Michael, Translated by Yaqūb Āzhand, Tehran, Mulā Publications.
Munzawī ‘A. N. & ‘A. ‘Usairān (1998), The letters of ‘Ayn al-Quḍāt. Tehran, Asātīr.
Naṣr, ῌ. (2013), Islamic art ant spirituality. Translated by Raḥīm Qāsimīyān, Tehran, ῌikmat.
Pope, A. (2003), The architecture of Iran. Translated by Qhulām ῌusein Ṣadrī Afshār, Tehran, Akhtarān Punlications.
Watkin, D. (2011), The architecture history of the west. Translated by Muḥammad Taqī Farāmarzī, Tehran, Kāwush Pardāz Publications.