“In the Islamic world … the pen of a calligrapher has been referred to as the ambassador of intelligence”
June 28th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Says curator Alison Darnbrough, who was surprised to discover Pakistan has a “buzzing” art scene. But then comes the gross generalization that plagues so many articles on Islamic art:
While calligraphy was praised in the Islamic world, paintings were less so. This is because the religion forbids depictions not only of Allah and Mohammed, but of human figures.
I’ve dealt with this question in “Are drawing and painting haraam?” (in The Arab American News). It continues to surprise me that people, even educated curators and historians, write off a long tradition of representational Islamic art for no reason.
See an example here, where Mohammed sits in the top left corner, as an angel presents him with a map of the Holy Land. This patronizing nonsense about Islam being anti-art has to stop.
