Shafaqna English– The Dumbarton Oaks Papers has published the paper “Islamic Art and Byzantium” written by Oleg Grabar in 1964.
According to Shafaqna, this paper represents an interpretation of the systems of association between forms and functions and between images and needs which Byzantine art, for different historical and geographical reasons, imposed on the new culture. The author has focused his attention on the Umayyad period in which documents are particularly abundant and relations between the cultures are especially strong. Moreover, it has been tried to show that the practice was continued at later periods.
Some explanations and interpretations, and the findings are mentioned below:
- As we deal with Islamic art and Islamic civilization in general, we find that the man-made setting within which the culture grew and from which its art developed is of particular importance in determining the relationship between Byzantium and the Arab world.
- As far as the main cities are concerned, little was changed. A new type of building was introduced, the mosque, which in almost all instances known in Syria was located on the site of some older sanctuary. The most celebrated example is at Damascus where the church of John the Baptist was destroyed and the Great Mosque erected in its stead. It is well known that practically all the elements of construction of this mosque are characteristic of the architecture prevalent in Syria under Byzantine rule; also that there was a major innovation in the composition of the plan: the peculiar relationship between court, portico, and deeply recessed sanctuary is new and is probably derived from the earlier House of the Prophet (PBUH) in Medina. The striking feature in comparing this new building with what preceded it is that the new Islamic composition re-established the unity of the classical Roman architectural ensemble which had been abandoned by the intervening Christian church. Because the Umayyads used the shape and the dimensions of the Roman temenos as the foundation of their mosque and developed their religious structure within the mold created by classical antiquity. On the other hand, the Christian building was comprised of much smaller dimensions and could not use the frame provided by the classical construction.
- In Jerusalem, the celebrated Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque also exhibit techniques of construction and partially of decoration characteristic of Christian art, but what is ultimately the most remarkable feature of the new Muslim creation- the Haram al-Sharif– is again the fact that the Muslims, for political and historical, but especially for ideological reasons, gave a new holiness to the most ancient sacred spot in the Holy City. In other instances, as at Hamah, Christian churches were converted into mosques.
- The role of Byzantine art is clear: it was one of the sources from which the new Muslim art chose elements which served to illustrate its own needs and practices. It is particularly unfortunate that, after a remarkable documentation for the first half of the eighth century, there is almost no evidence from next centuries which would allow us to trace the growth of an Islamic iconography of power, let alone the precise Byzantine sources of such an iconography. The shift of power toward the east certainly resulted in an increase in Iranian influences.
- In the thirteenth century, when the artists of the Arab world renewed the search for iconographic models to add distinction to the newly created art of book illustration, they again turned to Byzantine models which, by their presence seemed almost magically to promote the quality of the book. The practice could be pursued in other areas as well; in architectural decoration particularly a fascinating return to the use of classical themes on facades is apparent.
- The first main conclusion from this analysis is that by the very nature of the history of the seventh century, certain clearly identifiable ecological practices in Byzantium and Syria created the extraordinary phenomenon of Umayyad palaces. Likewise, in later times the social contacts with Christian populations, the reliance on Greek scientific books, and basically, the Mediterranean orientation of most Arabic-speaking areas in the Middle Ages made inevitable the Arabs’ knowledge of, use of, and reliance upon Byzantine themes.
- The second main conclusion is that there are almost no instances of the Muslims having borrowed from Byzantium without there being an identifiable need within their culture, or of their having continued with old traditions without making modifications demanded by the new world. This statement may require some correction as one deals with certain details of ornamental themes, but it can be maintained concerning official art. Islamic art used Byzantine art when it required iconographic expressions. Therefore, byzantine art became an essential ingredient in the formation of Islamic art. However, if we examine the nature of the impact of the former upon the latter, we note that, despite the reputation of Byzantine emperors as patrons of art and possessors of artists and treasure, it was not Byzantine art but the themes of Byzantine art which were used by the Muslims.
- Byzantine art provided the new culture with a vocabulary and with the rudiments of a grammar, but the developed language from it was a new one. During its development, as the need for new themes and modes occurred, the Muslims turned again and again to the origin of Byzantium; much as Renaissance word-makers, somewhat out of snobbery and somewhat out of a genuine need for new words, turned to Greek for a vocabulary, from which certain words have since become popular, while others have disappeared as artificial and meaningless combinations.
- One of the striking characteristics of the themes used by Islamic art, brought to it by Byzantine hands, is that so many of them are quite classical. The illusionist style of fragments of the Damascus mosaic decoration, the arch on column, the agricultural structure of Syria, the palace-villas, the compositions of frontispieces- and to these can be added other features not treated here, such as the shapes of mausoleums and vegetal decorative designs- all reflect the art of Antiquity, and almost never did the answer and emotionally deeper Byzantine mode make its appearance.
- Far more than any other artistic tradition which created Islamic art, it was from the Byzantine that the new culture most consciously- if not necessarily most often- and with due acknowledgement took its vocabulary of forms and images. This was so, partially, because the Byzantine world, more than any other, carefully nurtured the great inheritance it had assumed from Antiquity. It was so also because Byzantium was the one world Early Islam most wanted, and failed, to conquer. But, most importantly, it was so because, to the Islamic and especially to the Arab Middle Ages- and also to the Christian and especially to the Carolingain West-Byzantium, even at its lowest and weakest moments, partook of that mysterious aura which at certain periods of history has provided specific cultures and countries with a prestige of artistic genius which, rightfully or not, they possessed at that period.
Source: jstor.org
Note: Shafaqna do not endorse the views expressed in the article.