Objects associated with the practice of the Muslim faith are often inscribed with Qurʾanic verses specifically chosen to reflect their spiritual functions and project the piety of the patrons who ordered them and the believers who used them. This essay focuses on one such Qurʾanic passage: the invocation of the Prophet Muhammad in Qurʾan 33: 56, a verse saying that God and His angels bless the Prophet and that believers should bless him too and give him greetings of peace. The article analyses the use of this verse on buildings and objects of various media in five different places from early Islamic to pre-modern times to show how words, sounds, and images could be used to elaborate different aspects of Muhammad’s persona, ranging from his unique position as beautiful model to his roles as intercessor, miracle-worker, and protagonist in the miraculous night journey and ascension.
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Invoking the Prophet Muhammad through Word, Sound, and Image
Verbal, Vocal, and Visual Images in the Religious Arts of Islam
Sheila Blair
Series:
Sheila Blair
Inscriptions on buildings are a distinctive feature of Islamic architecture, and this book studies the 79 surviving monumental inscriptions in the Iranian world from the first five centuries of the Muslim era (A.D. 622-1106), the period in which all the major trends of monumental epigraphy in the area were set.
These foundation, commemorative, and funerary texts come from the region between Iraq and Soviet Central Asia. Written primarily in Arabic, they embellished architectural monuments and furnishings whose nature implies the construction of major buildings. An extended introduction discusses such general topics as titulature, patronage, and stylistic development. Each text is then presented individually with photographs, drawings, transcriptions, translations and an extensive commentary, which presents the inscription in its larger palaeographic and historical contexts.
These foundation, commemorative, and funerary texts come from the region between Iraq and Soviet Central Asia. Written primarily in Arabic, they embellished architectural monuments and furnishings whose nature implies the construction of major buildings. An extended introduction discusses such general topics as titulature, patronage, and stylistic development. Each text is then presented individually with photographs, drawings, transcriptions, translations and an extensive commentary, which presents the inscription in its larger palaeographic and historical contexts.
Chapter
In Politics, Patronage and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th - 15th Century Tabriz
Edited by Judith Pfeiffer
- 01 Jan 2014
Series:
Sheila S. Blair
Chapter
In De la figuration humaine au portrait dans l’art islamique
Edited by Houari Touati
- 01 Jan 2015
