Islamic Decorative Arts: Metalwork, Rock Crystals and Mosaics

The text below is the excerpt of the book on Art of Islam (ISBN: 9781783107681), written by Gaston Migeon and Henri Saladin, published by Parkstone International.

Metalwork and Rock Crystals

The use of engravings on stones to express thoughts or represent a subject dates back to very ancient times, and Muslims are not different from the people who had preceded them in this regard. They exploited the stones used by their ancestors such as jasper, agate, onyx, sardonyx, hyacinth, carnelian, amethyst, hematite, jade, but this was exclusively for their stamps, seals or rings. Only rock crystal was apparently used to compose beautiful works of art, cups or ewers.

Additionally, they apparently attributed to real stones some specific virtues which they cherished.

Contemporary texts confirm to what value travellers and writers gave to the beautiful rock crystal objects that they could see. Here is what Khosrau Nassiri said in the 11th century: “I also saw there (in Cairo) rock crystals of assorted beauty, artistically decorated by workers with taste… They were brought from the Maghreb, but recently it was said that they came from the Red Sea, and that they were shaped in Egypt.” And in the inventory he compiled of Mostanser Billah’s treasures, Makrisi mentions “several boxes containing a large number of vases, shaped like those that still hold beer today, of the purest crystal, smooth or chased. Two boxes full of precious vases of different materials, a pool and a ewer of crystal, a carafe and a crystal jar that is completely transparent and perfectly worked, on each of which was engraved the name Aziz bil lah; 1,800 crystal vases some of which were worth up to 1,000 dinars and many other pieces of crystal, including a box decorated with figures in relief weighing 17 roks”.

There is therefore a high probability that all these beautiful rock crystals, mentioned extensively by Makrisi, date back from the time of the Fatimids, and here again, this kind of work is not limited only to Egypt, which they ruled for so many years, and where they efficiently protected the arts, but also perhaps to Sicily, that was so prosperous under their reign.

Mosaics

The origin of mosaic dates back to the Romans who used it for the pavement of buildings, for overlaying vaults and walls. It was the result of the combination of small cubes and small pieces of marble of different colours.

The Byzantine opus Alexandrinum was a combination of small pieces of marble, porphyry and other materials, shaped and arranged in regular geometric patterns. The Byzantines popularised the opus graecum or græcanicum, a sort of mosaic made up of small paste-like cubes of coloured and gilded glasses, which was found in Italy in the 5th and 6th centuries (at the Tomb of Galla Placidia and Sant’Apollinare in Ravenna), in Venice, Sicily and Lombardy.

This process was evidently introduced into Córdoba, where the mosque has many examples. In his description of the mosque, Edrisi recounts that the coatings of the walls of the mihrab were brought from Constantinople by Greek workers who were made to come for this sole purpose by Abd-ar-Rahman. The mosaics there often are made of small cubes of glass on which were applied a gold sheet, covered in turn by a glassy coating, and on this glossy background were decorations, flowers, garlands, strap-work and even inscriptions. Those were perhaps local works, since several Andalusian factories were renowned for a kind of mosaic called “el-mofassas.” There is no doubt that the early mosaics applied to the most ancient Arab monuments were done by Greek artists who borrowed from Byzantine traditions. Arab chroniclers called them “foseifosa” and unanimously considered them Byzantine works. The jewel-like, marvelous mosaics that sumptuously cover the walls and vault of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem cannot be considered any differently.

Ibn Said says that when Caliph Walid wanted to build the great Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, he turned to the Emperor of Byzantium, who provided him with a certain amount of mosaics and a large number of architects to apply them. Ibn Battutah and Mukadassi say that “the mosque was decorated with mosaics of extraordinary beauty and that from the marble panelling to the ceiling were dazzling gold-plated mosaics” and “colours representing cities, trees combined with inscriptions of the most magnificent handiwork”. Terrible fire disasters did not, however, spare any of these.

During the Arab era in Egypt, mosaics were made in two ways: it consisted of small cubes of marble applied in a mortar bed, or various marble fragments sealed in one piece forming the main background of the work, a process fairly similar to inlaying.

Sometimes it was preferable to fill the hollows of the carved pattern with softwood putty, especially of red and black colours, which simplified the work.

The most commonly used marble in Cairo mosaics were red, black and white: the red ones had a particularly beautiful tone. It is widely believed that these marbles were imported from Italy, all polished and ready for use. However, there there clearly were some exceptions, as some amount of materials from ancient and Christian monuments was obviously used.

The most remarkable mosaics of Islamic art are found in the Mosque of Damascus, whose decoration dates from the 9th century. It is a Byzantine work of art. It has two dominant themes: on the walls of the stone building, there is a representation of a peaceful and islamised world, and through floral decorations, an Umayyad vision of the ideal city. From then on, mosques became both a religious and political project. The Umayyad Mosque at Damascus was impacted by Byzantine influences through the works that were carried out by Byzantine architects and artists. Its capitals with their pyramid-like abacuses were already in use during the Byzantine period.

For those of you who wanted to have a deeper insight into Islamic Art, be sure not to miss these exhibitions.

• Arts of the Islamic World in Philadelphia Museum of Art (Ongoing)
• Engaging the Senses: Arts of the Islamic World in Smithsonian Institution (Ongoing)
• Arts of Islamic Lands: Selections from The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait in Houston Museum of Fine Arts (Ongoing)

To get a better insight into the Art of Islam, continue this exciting adventure by clicking on:

Ebook

Hardcover