Beauty and Aesthetics in Islam

Since its outset, Islamic art followed a selective process that favoured certain motifs and styles to others. This process was undertaken by the artists themselves, many of whom were converts to the new religion and, thus, compliant with the new ethical and aesthetic criteria and to the new patrons' needs to which art, hence forward, had to comply. Among these needs, those of worship played a predominant role. It was in religious architecture that Islamic art first expressed its genius for integrating pre-existing artistic traditions and adapting them to its own scopes and demands. The best examples of this kind of early integrations are the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem - the first monument of Islam (688-692 CE) - and the Umayyad Great Mosque in Damascus (ca. 706-716 CE).

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Figure 1: An Abru (marbling) sample from Dr. Mehmet Kileci. (Source). FULL ARCHIVE