Early Islamic art (Umayyad and Abbasid)

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c. 661 – 1258 · Middle East · architecture, decorative arts · origin: Damascus

Inscriptions, ornament and arches instead of images: a space of prayer with no depiction of God

How to recognise it

• Arabic inscriptions as the main decoration
• Endless vegetal arabesque patterns
• Horseshoe and pointed arches
• Arcaded courtyard before the prayer hall
• Minaret tower beside the mosque

Why it emerged

The new caliphs set out to stamp Islam on former Byzantine and Persian lands: they hired local craftsmen but avoided figures in sacred spaces, so word and pattern became the main language of art.

Examples

Dome of the Rockc. 688–692Oldest major Islamic monument: an octagon with a golden dome and a 240 m inscriptionUmayyad Mosque706–715Set the congregational mosque template — courtyard, wide hall, minaret; mosaics show gardens of paradiseGreat Mosque of Kairouanc. 836Oldest mosque of the Maghreb; its square minaret became the model across North AfricaGreat Mosque of Samarra848–851Famed for its 52 m spiral Malwiya minaret; once the largest mosque in the worldMosque of Ibn Tulun876–879Cairo's oldest mosque in its original form: pointed arches and Samarra-style stucco

More in this style

• c. 730 Qusayr 'Amra

How it spread

• 661 Damascus
• 670 Kairouan
• 691 Jerusalem
• 762 Baghdad
• 785 Córdoba
• 836 Samarra
• 876 Cairo (al-Qata'i)

Meanwhile elsewhere

• Classic Maya art Americas
• Byzantine art Europe
• Insular art (Ireland and Britain) Europe
• Moorish style (al-Andalus) Europe
• Khmer art of Angkor Asia
• Yamato-e, Heian Japanese painting Asia
• Song landscape painting Asia
• Pre-Mongol architecture of Rus Eastern Europe & Russia
• Romanesque Europe
• Ife and Benin bronzes Africa
• Gothic Europe

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