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ART AND CRAFT
 In
contrast to Western art, in which painting and sculpture are pre-eminent, it
is in the so-called decorative arts that Islamic art found its primary means
of expression. Through the diversity of the Islamic Empire, which linked together,
for the first time in history, such varied and distant peoples as Spaniards,
Africans, Persians, Turks, Egyptians and Indians, a quick dissemination of knowledge
and artistic merging arose. In ceramics, as in other craft arts, such as metal
and wood work as well as work in cloth, the resources which had been developed
by designers throughout the region, from Coptic plaster-workers and weavers
in Egypt to silversmiths in Iran, were brought together in a new art with its
own traits. While Arab nomadic culture lacked a grand imperial art, aesthetics
tastes contributed essential elements to Islamic art. Nomads treasured the minor
arts of textiles and weapons, and lavished them with geometrical decoration
which was to have a lasting impact on Islamic art.
 In
metalwork, Muslim artisans crafted elaborate boxes, basins, bowls, jugs and
incense burners decorated with arabesques, inscriptions, and other highly stylised
plant forms, specialising also in brass and bronze, luxuriously inlaid with
gold, silver and copper. In carpet making, the Islamic world is renowned for
their great beauty and technical excellence, employing different motifs and
favouring certain colour schemes.
 Similarly
in ceramics, they succeeded in developing many original decorative techniques
in lustre ware and tile making which were unsurpassed. During Parthian and Sasanian
times, the ceramic arts had been little patronised by the wealthy, especially
east of Iraq. Even in villages, the pottery remained undistinguished as compared
with that of earlier centuries. But for the first time, under Islamic Abbasid
rule, porcelains imported from China (in its expansive Tang period) inspired
a distinct revival of ceramic art. The porcelain imports could not be duplicated,
but ways were found to imitate its whiteness. They succeeded in developing many
original decorative techniques including lustre ware and a method of polychrome
painted ware called Minai. These same decorative techniques were utilized in
tile making, in which Muslims were unsurpassed.Whether produced in a courtly
or an urban setting or for a religious context, Islamic art is generally the
work of anonymous artists. A notable exception is in the sphere of the arts
of the book. The names of certain calligraphers are well known, which is not
surprising given the primacy of the written word in Islam, as are those of a
number of painters, most of whom were attached to a particular court. The identification
of these artists has been based on signed or attributed examples of their works
and on textual references. Given the great number of extant examples, comparatively
few signatures are found on metalwork, pottery, carved wood and stone, and textiles.
Those signatures that do occur, combined with rare evidence from contemporary
textual sources, suggest that families of artists, often over several generations,
specialized in a particular medium or technique.Often time the artist was an
artisan whose stock of patterns and technical skills were handed down from generation
to generation within specialised families. Learning the techniques, the firing
or glazing of the pottery, the weaving of the cloth etc., and learning the particular
shapes and designs to be used, formed a single process in training the young.
- The inner wisdom of craft
"He who knows himself, knows His Lord"
(Saying of the Prophet, pbuh)
The least artisanal work, such as woodwork, pottery, weaving,
and so forth includes, beyond its material technique, a certain transmitted
science, sometimes reduced to some very simple rules but always bearing an aspect
of wisdom, which the artisan will more or less penetrate, according to the degree
of his contemplative intelligence and his experience.
 It
has been said that work with ones hands allows one to know oneself. In this
way, manual art can be a means through which man is better able to contemplate
on his Lord. Not only by recognising the bounty of materials that God has provided
him/her with, but also, more importantly through recognition of ones own capabilities
and limitations as an artisan, when comparing his work to the Greatest of Crafters.
From an Islamic perspective art consists in fashioning objects
in a manner conformable to their nature, for that nature has a virtual content
of beauty, since it comes from God; all one has to do is release that beauty
in order to make it apparent. According to the most general Islamic conception,
art is no more than a method of ennobling matter. And since there is no better
action than the remembrance of God, according to the sayings of the Prophet
(pbuh), a craft can be good only to the degree to which it aids in this remembrance,
directly or indirectly.
Just as knowledge of Qur'an and hadith, according to traditional
Islamic teaching, needs to be passed down through an unbroken golden chain from
teacher to student leading back to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Similarly this
wisdom and baraka (spiritual blessing) is recognised and permeates many aspects
of the conscientious Muslim's life even in the domain of craftsmanship. This
is best encapsulated by the following account found in Titus Burckhardt's in
his book "Fez: City of Islam"
"I knew a comb-maker who worked in the street of his guild,
called Abd al-Aziz (slave of the Almighty). He obtained the horn for his combs
from ox skulls, which he bought from butchers. He dried the horn skulls at a
rented place, removed the horns, opened them lengthwise, and straightened them
over a fire, a procedure that had to be done with greatest care, lest they should
break. From this raw material he cut combs and turned boxes for antimony (used
as an eye decoration) on a simple lathe; this he did by manipulating with his
left hand a bow which, wrapped around a spindle, caused the apparatus to rotate.
In his right hand he held the knife, and with his foot he pushed against the
counter-weight. As he worked he would sing the Koranic suras in a humming tone.
I learned that as a result of an eye disease which is common in Africa, he was
already half blind and that, in view of long practice, he was able to 'feel'
his work rather than see it. One day he complained to me that the importation
of plastic combs was diminishing his business: 'It is not only a pity that today,
solely on account of price, poor quality combs from a factory are being preferred
to much more durable horn combs,' he said; 'it is also senseless that people
should stand by a machine and mindlessly repeat the same movement, while an
old craft like mine falls into oblivion. My work may seem crude to you; but
it harbours a subtle meaning which cannot be explained in words. I myself acquired
it only after many long years, and even if I wanted to, I could not automatically
pass it on to my son, if he himself did not wish to acquire it-and I think he
would rather take up another occupation. This craft can be traced back from
apprentice to master until one reaches our Lord Seth, the son of Adam. It was
he who first taught it to man, and what a Prophet brings-for Seth was a Prophet-must
clearly have a special purpose-both outwardly and inwardly. I gradually came
to understand that there is nothing fortuitous about this craft, that each movement
and each procedure is a bearer of an element of wisdom. But not everyone can
understand this. But even if one does not know this, it is still stupid and
reprehensible to rob men of the inheritance of Prophets, and to put them in
front of a machine where, day in and day out, they must perform a meaningless
task."
- The Role of futuwwah in Craftsmanship
In light of Islamic history, the role of futuwwah in
craftsmanship guilds cannot go unmentioned. With the expansion of the Islamic
Empire and increasing urbanisation, craftsmen were often organised into guilds,
which normally formed military contingents charged with the defence of the city.
These guilds were often initiatic in nature and were permeated by the ideals
held among the medieval brotherhoods of futuwwah.
The term futuwwah is derived from fata or youth and is
used in the Qur'an concerning Abraham (pbuh) after he broke the idols of the
idol worshippers in an attempt to convince them of their powerlessness and thus
the futility in worshipping them: "So he broke
them to pieces, (all) but the biggest of them, that they might turn (and address
themselves) to it. They said, who has done this to our gods? He must be indeed
some man of impiety! They said: We heard a youth (fata) make mention
of them, who is called Abraham" <Qur'an Al-Anbiyaa 21:58-60>
Thus the fata is he who breaks an idol, and the idol of each man is his
ego. Futuwwah being, on the highest level, the art by means of which we
become ourselves and gain full awareness of our primordial nature. This is essentially
subservience to God in recognising and acknowledging the covenant made between
God and man when, according to the Qur'an, God asked man: "Am I not your Lord?"
and man replies "Yea!"
<Qur'an A'raf 7:172>
 This
could perhaps explain to an extent the anonymity of much of Islamic art and
in particular the arts related to craft, as was mentioned earlier. In this way
the artisan in recognising his skill, sees it only as a gift from God, rather
than an intrinsic characteristic that somehow classes him above others, and
thus uses his craft as a means not only to glorify is Creator but also to share
that awareness with others who come across his craft.
Futuwwah became the spirit and guiding principle of many
guilds in Persia, Anatolia, Syria, and other regions of the Islamic world. Through
it, the activities of the artisan were integrated into the religious life, and
the outward activity of craftsmen became the support for the "inner work."
By penetrating the everyday activities of Islamic society, art became integrated
into the spiritual dimension of Islam, not only theoretically but also in practice,
transforming the soul of those who in turn transformed and ennobled matter in
that universal activity which is art in its traditional sense.
In one of the most famous episodes in the Mathnawi, Rumi has summarised
in immortal Persian poetry what lies at the heart of futuwwah, namely
selfless generosity, courage, and detached action combined with sincerity (iklhas)
and dedication to God. The account involves the battle between 'Ali (RA) and
a warrior who had engaged him upon a battlefield:
"Learn how to act sincerely
[ikhlas] from 'Ali:
know the Lion of God ('Ali) was purged of (all) deceit.
In fighting against the infidels he got the upper hand of (vanquished)
a certain knight, and quickly drew a sword and made haste (to slay him).
He spat on the face of 'Ali, the pride of every prophet and every saint;
He spat on the countenance before which the face of the moon
bows low in the place of worship.
'Ali at once threw his sword away and relaxed (his efforts) in fighting him.
That champion was astounded by this act and by his showing
forgiveness and mercy without occasion.
He said, "You lifted your keen sword against me:
why have you flung it aside and spared me?
What did you see that was better than combat with me,
so that you have become slack in hunting me down?
What did you see, so that such anger as your abated,
and so that such a lightning flashed and (then) recoiled?……….
He ['Ali] said, "I am wielding the sword for God's sake,
I am the servant of God, I am not under the command of the body.
I am the Lion of God, I am not the Lion of Passion:
my deed bears witness to my religion…..
I have removed the baggage of self out of the way,
I have deemed (what is) other than God to be non-existence."
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History of Islamic Art 
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