Art Islamic

HISTORY OF ISLAMIC ART

"History is a mirror of the past and a lesson for the present."
(Persian Proverb)

Islam began in early seventh century in Arabia and quickly spread throughout the Middle East. Before the following century Islam had already spread to Byzantium, Persia, Africa, Europe and some parts of Asia, where many people converted to Islam. In its first thousand years, from the revelations to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to the great Islamic empires of the eighteenth, Islamic civilization flourished. While Europeans suffered through the Dark Ages, Muslims in such cities as Jerusalem, Damascus, Alexandria, Fez, Tunis, Cairo, and Baghdad made remarkable advances in philosophy, science, medicine, literature, and art. The uniting of so many diverse cultures under one religion had the advantage of quickly disseminating the latest and best discoveries to all parts of the realm. Paper making from China, "Arabic" numerals from India, classical Greek science and philosophy translations, and significant contributions in chemistry, physics and mathematics were all shared. All these diverse influences encouraged a new civilization to emerge which would generate a new form of cultural expression and new artistic styles