Recently an article — “Look at art for the deep connection between Europe and Islam” — appeared in the Guardian. The author, Kenan Malik, sometimes a critic of, and sometimes a sly apologist for, Islam, claimed that there was a deep respect in Renaissance Europe for the world of Islam. “Embodied in the Renaissance view is certainly a sense of Islam as the other. But it is intertwined with curiosity, respect, even awe. There is a willingness, too, to reach beyond the otherness of Islam and to see the Muslim world not as demonic or exotic but as a variant of the European experience.” He states this; he does not prove it. Do “curiosity, respect, even awe’’ adequately describe what the people of Western Christendom felt about the world of Islam as they watched, in horror, as the Muslim Turks steadily conquered all of Byzantium, including, on May 29, 1453, what had been for 500 years the largest and most splendid city of Christendom, Constantinople?
Malik offered as his sole evidence of this “deep connection between Europe and Islam” in art a single painting by Gentile da Fabriano, “The Adoration of the Magi,” from 1423, or rather, he offered a single detail in that painting, in which, the author claimed, he could detect Arabic writing in the halos of Joseph and Mary. But as Robert Spencer has pointed out, this Arabic “writing” was not “writing” at all, but merely the use of what is called Pseudo-Kufic, a script that the Europeans of that time believed was also used in the time of Jesus. Pseudo-Kufic was used as a decorative element, in non-Arabic contexts, usually associated with the Holy Family, especially with Mary. And far from being a sign of respect for Islam and the Arabs, it appears that the artists who painted in a bit of Pseudo-Kufic wished to express a cultural universality for the Christian faith, by blending together various written languages, at a time when European Christians entertained hopes for converting the Muslims.
But Gentile da Fabriano’s painting is significant in a different way. It points out not what connects, but what separates, Islam and Western Christendom. It is a work of art that by what it depicts could never have been produced by Muslims. Not just because it is an example of high Renaissance Christian art, with its subject the birth of Christ. No, it could not have been produced by Muslims because it shows sentient beings. In Islam, the depiction of living creatures in paintings was considered to be forbidden, haram. This prohibition on such depictions comes from the hadith in which Muhammad says an angel will not enter a dwelling that has a dog or images (of living creatures), and from still others where he himself refused to enter a house that contained such images (including those found on curtains and cushions), thus demonstrating in his own behavior, as a Model of Conduct, what all Muslims must emulate. And from this comes the paucity of painting and sculpture in the Islamic tradition. No portraits, no scenes of domestic life, no scenes taken from history, no animal paintings, no religious paintings, no mythological paintings, no statues. Uninhabited landscapes are okay, though rarely produced. Geometric patterns as an ornamental element are best of all.
Set Gentile da Fabriano’s masterpiece, or a hundred thousand other paintings by European artists, beside examples of Islamic art — the geometric patterns of tiles in mosques, the Iznik tulips, the Qur’anic calligraphy — and you will understand the difference between the richness of the European artistic tradition and the deep impoverishment of Islamic art, because of some hadith that long ago prohibited images of living creatures. Muslim artists have been the first victims of this prohibition, that diminished their permissible modes of expression.
Kenan Malik might have written a different kind of article. He might have used the Gentile da Fabriano painting as the occasion for an appreciation of Western art, and to take Islam to task for not allowing the human form and face to be depicted at all. He could have written that it was time for Muslim artists to allow themselves the artistic freedoms that non-Muslim artists have always enjoyed, and to slip off the mind-forged manacles that have so limited what their talents, as artists, were allowed to produce during the last 1400 years. But that would have meant criticizing Islam, in an important matter, that challenges the example of Muhammad himself, and that is something that Kenan Malik, though he has in the past taken issue with aspects of Islam, is not prepared to do.
gravenimage says
Hugh Fitzgerald: Kenan Malik and the Art that Connects Europe and Islam
…………………………..
What tripe from Kenan Malik. As noted, Pseudo-Kufic was used as a visual reference not to Arabic, but to the language of Jesus.
I’ve written on this painting in coillege–he might have instead used the example of the second King, who is shown in the process of kneeling–he wears a turban. Now, this figure–probably Melchior–tended to be more a reference to the ancient Persians than to contemporary Muslims–but still, one could by a stretch make that link.
Only one problem there–far from this figure expressing “curiosity, respect, even awe”, what it shows is that all the peoples of the world come to Jesus. The awe this figure inspires is of Christ–and by extension, Christianity–not Islam at all.
Fine piece from Hugh Fitzgerald, and more proof that Muslims are trying to appropriate our culture, including our art.
But–as Mr. Fitzgerald notes–this is only a reference of convenience, since Islam completely rejects figurative art as Gentile da Fabriano’s great painting. In fact, pious Muslims want to destroy such great art–and will, if we allow them to.
JMB says
+1
gravenimage says
Thank you, JMB.
Westman says
Well said, Graven.
Curiously, the art by Muslims that peacefully connects Islam and the West is the American jazz idiom. The group, The Jazz Messengers, were mostly Muslims who didn’t buy into Muhamad’s dislike of music or much of Islam’s practices – yet found a home together in Islam.
I have no doubt that Islam cheated the Arab culture out of a great legacy in all the arts and the world is poorer for it.
gravenimage says
With all respect, Westman, while Jazz has some African roots they do not appear to have been Islamic. As for those who created Jazz in America, most of them came from a Christian background. In fact, traditions in the Black Church were very important in the development of Jazz.
There were a few Muslim Jazz musicians later on, but these were mostly Black Muslims who traced their faith to 1930s Detroit more than Islamic Africa.
As for the Jazz Messengers group, some of them were Black Muslims, such as Art Blakely–also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina. He has an obscure Qur’an-reading Jazz band called the 17 Messengers–but many of the much better known group the Jazz Messengers were not Muslim.
I do very much agree with you about Islam strangling creativity of most kinds for the millions of those born under its oppressive heel over the centuries.
Westman says
Oh, I agree there were few and most were converts. It shows the paucity rather than the abundance of art in Islam. Hundreds of millions of humans never developed art because of Islam.
It’s seems obvious that Muhammad didn’t want any “touchy-feely” men who would think for a moment that killing unbelievers might be wrong; and the arts would have been counter-productive to mayhem. The Qur’an and Hadith are licensing agents that clearly specifiy who may be killed without conscience.
Perhaps this is the great dichotomy – the hypersensitive Left, who have been bombarded by music and artistic free expression for their entire lives, are inviting an artless culture into their midst. A culture which contains a significant proportion of individuals, raised in jihadi anger and aggression, who, when in a position of power, will have little concern about persecuting or eliminating the host.
gravenimage says
True, Westman.
StellaSaidSo says
Excellent response from Hugh Fitzgerald to the latest pretentious nonsense from Kenan Malik, aptly described by Fitzgerald as a ‘sly apologist for Islam’. Like others of his ilk, Malik tries to have his cake and eat it, feigning a ‘reasonable’ position in the centre of the debate, while never fully committing to either side. Fitzgerald’s concluding paragraph deftly exposes Malik’s intellectual cowardice.
gravenimage says
He’s an apologist for Islam, all right. Here are a couple of his recent articles pushing for untrammeled invasion of Muslims into Europe:
“Hostility to migrants is not born of rising numbers but a failure of hope”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/01/european-union-migration-crisis-survey-on-attitudes-to-migrants
“How we all colluded in Fortress Europe”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/10/sunday-essay-how-we-colluded-in-fortress-europe-immigration
Calling concern over Muslims raping and murdering us “a failure of hope”, and describing any actions to curb that invasion “Fortress Europe” is just sickening, and intended to guilt trip Westerners into suicidal behavior.
StellaSaidSo says
+1
Thanks, GI – yes, I am familiar with Malik’s output (I once got booted off the Guardian for calling him out), and agree entirely with your assessment.
gravenimage says
Thank you, Stella. And your being censored by the Guardian is appalling, but grimly not surprising.
StellaSaidSo says
Indeed, the Guardian was one of the first to banish dissenting voices. Now, the censorship is everywhere. The Left cannot tolerate criticism.
gravenimage says
True, Stella–not only do a lot of papers ban peaceful dissenting voices, but they often do not allow any comments on articles involving Islam.
KWJ says
Gravenimage, thanks for those articles. Both are dishonest by ommission of what Orbán has said and many Europeans and Westetners worldwide. Muslims are responsible for their image and what they do from preaching hate of infidels, trying to push sharia laws, to kids in Germany who teachers say have Salafist views and beating up native Germans. Orbán clearly has said they don’t want their culture changed. President Sisi of Egypt said the same thing when overthrowing Muslim Brotherhood Morsi. Leaving out this elephant in the room is dishonest. What about all the jihadis that have come in mixed with migrants? What a jerk. Islam is full of liars and don’t take responsibility for their actions always making excuses like feckless American politicians-John Kerry, some FBI, et al.
gravenimage says
True, KWJ.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
Mohammadism is virulently aniconic. The theology and sharia rules around it are twisted and complicated but in the end, Mohammadans believe that “breaking the image pleases their god.” And in fourteen hundred years, they’ve done a lot of it.
eduardo odraude says
Part of the purpose in Islam is to suppress the development of images, and hence to suppress imagination, connected as it is with freedom.
Iconoclasm was something completely different among the ancient Jews. That was a much earlier period than Islam. Iconoclasm among the ancient Jews was not about suppression of imagination (which among idol-worshippers in a way did not yet exist, because individualized consciousness had hardly developed among ancient pagans. Among pagans, images did not arise from imagination, certainly not from personal imagination as we have it today). Ancient Jewish iconoclasm was about leaving paganism behind, because paganism’s time was ending, paganism was becoming increasingly decadent, and the time for a more individualized form of awareness and and a more individualizing kind of religion was coming. Ancient Jewish iconoclasm moved toward a self-possessed awareness by rejecting and withdrawing from the comparatively un-self-conscious, participatory awareness of paganism, and thus helped prepare the development of individualized awareness and therefore the future development, not suppression, of imagination.
Wellington says
Islam, like Leftism, is always grasping at straws to validate itself.
Ancient Greek civilization in general, Christendom in general, Western Civilization in general, has never grasped at straws to validate themselves because their very existence has validated them.
Contra Islam. Contra modern Leftism. Methinks the “It” protests too much.
Telling. Damning. Surely.
jewdog says
I had an excellent meal the other day in a Kurdish restaurant in Chicago. I noticed that one wall of the restaurant was covered by a large mural depicting Kurdish urban life with mosques and people. These must have been moderates, as per the prevailing reputation of Kurdish culture. After the meal was over we paid the jizya and went home.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
I hope, for your sake, the chef was also “moderate” in his following of Mohammad’s instructions on hygiene.
Buraq says
I – Inhumane
S – Stultifying
L – Lying
A – Anachronistic
M – Malevolent
FYI says
I-Insane
S-Supremacist
L-Lawless
A-Antisocial
M-Murderous
I.S.L.A.M:
Islam Subverts Love(for) All Mankind
Invariably ,Suspiciously, Logic (is) Always Missing
Infidels Slaughtered (for) Love of Allah’s Murderousnes
In Science & Logic: Allah Misunderstands
I Spy(with my little eye).. Leftards Accomodating Muslims
the Insane,the Stupid,the Leftards(love) Allah’s Message!
Inevitably Science Laughs at Muhammed..{..splitting the moon in half..}
Jennifer King says
Constantinople was in fact ruined by Catholic so-called Crusaders from Europe, who attacked this capital of Orthodox Christianity, looting, killing and destroying. Later, when the Muslims attacked, the city didn’t have the strength to defend itself.
The ban on images of living creatures was in fact imposed in the Ten Commandments of the Lord of Israel for the Hebrews, and adopted by Muhammad for the Muslims.
WPM says
Islam took over Constantinople first in between the 9 and 10 century the “Roman Catholics” did not get involved in it until 2 to 3 hundred years later when they tied of Moslems attacks on eastern and central Europe.. That is when the crusades stated as a defense to push the Moslems out of France .Italy ,and Spain(which they were there till the 1490s}.They took Constantinople and held it till the 1490s when it fell back under siege to the Ottoman Moslems were it has remain till this day .The fairy tale of Islamic tolerance of the Eastern Orthodox church is told many times .
gravenimage says
Jennifer King does not say that Constantinople had been battered by Muslims for seven hundred years before she fell.
And no–Jews are not destroying art and murdering artists, as Muslims are. Ludicrous false moral equivalence.
D. B. says
Let’s pause a moment and consider not the
poor Islamists who have been left out of the celebration of human creativity, but rather mourn the recent wilful destruction of great works of art from antiquity as an expression of Islamic hegemony.
gravenimage says
So true.
dan christensen says
Islam invented everything negative, including the negative numbers. Islam also invented warm water, the square wheel and the flat earth.
WPM says
Islam was the original mob protection money paid by non-members jizya for the privilege to not be killed on sight. The stealing of land and resources from non-member, pimping out non-members women and children in sexual slavery. The violence between other mob groups{different sect of Moslems} for control of territory ,the threat of violence to keep members of the mob in line with the bosses plans. The controlling of all resources by the mob bosses, Islam the original mafia. Then you have these idiots who see Islam and Mohammad oily fingerprints on every culture even it is not there. Like the idiots who see Jesus face in a potatoes chip ,or a scar of tree,s bark, the only difference is these Islamic boosters get front page headlines in “legitimate MSM”. Whats next telling people how the black plague was really good for European people at that time because it hand great influence on them?
gravenimage says
+1
WPM says
“had “no hand typo
The European says
Islamic art?
As far as the arts are concerned, everything boils down to this:
I-Iconoclastic
S-Sculpture-destroying
L-Low quality literature
A-Art-despising
M-Music-hating
Islamic “art” has certainly not been an inspiration for Renaissance artists. What a crap!
A few mosques bulit after Roman, Greek, and Byzantine blueprints, a bit of calligraphy, a few geometric patterns, that’s the artistic outpouring of Islam; Nothing that could be compared with Homer, Michelangelo, Dante, J.S. Bach or Shakespeare.
Fred Middleton says
Actually there is a great deal of representational Islamic art, not only depicting people and animals, but even Mohammed. Any book on the history of Islamic art contains examples.
gravenimage says
This is only true in cultures where pre-Islamic image making was very strong–principally Persia and India, and to a lesser extent Turkey.
In every case this tradition was stamped out as Islam became stronger.
The European says
To Fred Middleton,
Sorry, but something needs to be added. Being always associated with blasphemy, idolatry and polytheism, figurative art has been viewed with suspicion in Islam throughout the centuries. Islamic figurative art ( the well-known Persian miniature paintings of the 14th century -the illustrations of the Shah-nameh, for example-or the miniature paintings by the Ottoman Turks from the 15th to the 19th century) – is almost exclusively a private and secular matter, mosques are generally devoid of figurative art ( depictions of animals and humans), whereas this art can be found in Christian churches, playing a pivotal role there in ritual, cult and doctrine.
gravenimage says
Important points.
KWJ says
Kenan Malik says: “A deep respect in Renaissance Europe for the world of Islam…intertwined with curiosity, respect, even awe…to see the Muslim world not as demonic or exotic but as a variant of the European experience.”
This sounds so goopy or as someone else said, pretentious. He is trying too hard. Europeans did see and paint much as exotic and what the explorers and conquered spoke about such as harems, though not completely depicted correctly. The painted Kings such as Delacroix’s “The Death of Sardanapalus,” a Syrian king surrounded by debauchery and soon to die. I have paintings saved of sex slavery markets with the women basically naked. As Europeans painted Chinese art or lierature brouhght back from India and places along the Silk Road, they were curious about everything but not always respect nor accuracy.
Before the Renaissance, the Umayyad’s had already conquered from Spain to India, then later the Ottomans and upwards a million slaves were taken from Europe, whether for ransom, labor and sex slaves. Sure, there’s European experience but it was not all positive, for sure.
Likewise architectural ideas were taken back and replicated in some buildings-iwans, Egyptian revival, Indian tapestries and music. Actually, Cairo was seen as most exotic and Arabia had walled off itself to infidels such that Sir Richard Burton and others disguised themselves. This separation was a cause for falling behind Europe’s rapid industrialization.
I forgot which Hadith mentions Aisha having a pillow with animals on it and then such was forbidden. Was Islam copying the Jews on that or just anti-joy? They destroyed much art, Greek mosaics of living things. I do know of a Turkish painting of Muhammad praying in front of the ka’aba with his face covered by a cloth. Much of Persian art was destroyed and the art that goes with the Shanameh is much later than than the epic poem.
True, Arabians who may have been talented artists were suppressed. A Greek told me the museum in Istanbul is boring and mostly scimitars and the like.
The script on the gold halos is gibberish-it is only style and says nothing.
This overreaching is embarrassing but like the negation and false history of Islam being propagandized, some people will repeat it.
Also, the Ottomans did not allow the Qur’an to be printed in Arabic for many years and the Arabic printing type was invented by two Venetian brothers. Eventually they relented, but non-Qur’anic texts weren’t printed for 100 years! (Bernard Lewis had access to Ottoman archives.)
They should talk about the explorers that went into Arabia, often chased out by Muslim mobs.
Great subject matter and article.
gravenimage says
Great post–thank you.