Islamic Art

Islamic art has elicited interests from scholars around the world owing to its unique abstract form. These artists have earned their reputation due to their positive contributions in the world of art. Although they have contributed in the field of art is beyond worth, their efforts contained aspects of prejudice because often they applied western elements and standards in judging art produced in the realm of Islamic history. In doing so, artists have not been contributing to the welfare of its society but restricted and undervalued their own artistry and creativity. Judging Islamic art from the perspective of other cultures depicts Islam as obtrusive and debilitating. Certainly, such arguments depict Islam in misconceived views as far as art

In fusion, the two concepts symbolized divinity, in which man and nature were seen as a representation of the divine. Such figurative expressions did not emphasize on the aesthetic (as the Greek) as such, but attempted to interpret Christian concepts such as sacrifice and salvation Saoud (14). As other fields, western scholars tend to connect Islamic art to Greek and Byzantine perceptions. The argument is that Muslim artists heavily borrowed from the above cultures and reproduced them inform of dress and calligraphy and other artistic

Earlier scholars like Roxburgh (39), misconceived Islamic art that it only concentrated on color rather than form as the case of the western art. They claimed that Islamic art is emotional, feminine and dominated by colors. This was unlike western art perceived to be intellectual, masculine and in disregard of color. Nonetheless, such sentiments were culturally biased against the orient, which later proved to be a source of intellectualism. (Ettinghausen et al 657) studied forms of Japanese, Greek, and Islamic art on three categories namely mineral, vegetal, and animal. The results showed that Greek art stressed on proportion and plastic forms and the features of human and animal bodies. On the other hand, the Japanese created vegetal attributes connected to elements of growth and aesthetics of leaves and branches. For Islamic art, there is the creation of analogy that cuts across geometrical design and crystal forms of particular minerals. The main difference between Islamic art and from other culture or religions is that it is based on abstract forms contrary to conventional believe that it formed from natural forms. Consistent with Moores (49), the Islamic art is in various patterns and shapes. Moores (49) classified the shapes and pattern into calligraphic, geometrical, and floral categories. Besides these categories, Roxburgh (50) classified