Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World (2011) User Reviews

Review on Islamic Art: I rate 6/10

[daniyarfaizullayev · 6/10 · 11 April 2021]

Islamic Art Mirror is a documentary film with a huge amount of information about Islamic Art. It was interesting to know more about Islamic Art and different parts of it. Nevertheless, at the end of the movie, people usually forget important information said at the beginning. Therefore, it is necessary to take notes on film or rewatch it one or two times more, which forces me to rate it 6 out of 10. It is known that the category of this film is documentary,while documentary film is not required to be in such form. It is stuffed with a lot of information and all parts of Islamic Art, which were born during explanation of one topic. Usually, in the process of reading the history of one country, historians divide the history of this country depending on chronologically to few parts. It makes it more informative and easy to understand or remember.

It contains important details about Islamic Art, which makes it interesting. However, this topic is not a small topic, which might be explained in one short documentary film. In this movie, actors tried to explain this topic as much as possible. In the process of explaining parts of Islamic art, discussions about other aspects of Islamic Art were opened and actors started to explain new topics. In my point of view, It will be more useful to discuss each part of the Islamic Art separately. For example, explaining calligraphy, textile, buildings, gardens separately will be more informative and interesting for people. It will be informative because people will know more about one category, which is interesting for them. If someone wants to research Textile Art of Islamic Art, they will watch documentary movies with deep knowledge on textile.

In this documentary film, it was mentioned about sightseeings of the World connected with Islam religion. For example, Dome of the Rock with earliest Quran words, Alhambra with its poetry written at eye level, Great mosque of Djenne with poor exterior compared with Asian mosques and Hagia Sophia the bridge connecting christians and muslims. All these places were mentioned in the film, but I want to know more about them: about constructions of them, people constructed them and other important information. It is interesting to know more about calligraphy in different parts of the Islam Caliphate. I think that calligraphy is not the same in India, Africa and Central Asia. Additionally, it was mentioned about interference of local culture into Islam, which might be seen from different mosques in different parts of the world. Abd-Al Rahman founded his dynasty in Cordoba and used some local techniques in construction of mosque in Cordoba. It is known that different aspects of local culture like this were included into Islamic Art and it was different due to the regions.

This movie is not a failure and contains a lot of information that will be useful for people. The team working on this documentary film tried to include all important information of Islamic Art, which might spoil its structure. Additionally, the aim of this documentary film was not to provide ordinary people with structured and clarified information, and was including all information collected about all parts of Islamic Art. In this film, even the process of making colors were mentioned. According to this information, the idea of blue and white ceramic creation in Iran was proven. Therefore, it will be disrespectful to not mention the importance of the information said in the film. According to content choosing part of the film, the producing team succeeded in their aim. All the information in this film was interesting and informative. It also includes some important information about the importance of Quran around of which Islam religion is based. It is the gift from God, which is the direct speech of God to us.

According to the cinematography part of the film, it meets the requirements of the documentary film. There were no effects like sounds and pictures not connected with the topic, which helped to concentrate during the watching process. I want to mention about successful choosing of background music in all episodes, which makes it better. It was a descriptive documentary film, which might be improved simply by changing the title. It will be better, if the title of the film will get the audience interested immediately. There is a possibility to start with a general intriguing question and give information during the film to analyse and find the answer for the question.

To conclude, Islamic Art Mirror is a descriptive documentary film with a huge amount of information that might be very useful for researchers, but is very difficult to remember and understand all information in the film. It would be better to present such a huge amount of information in several documentary films. This is practising in explaining the history of the countries with smaller chronological range. It makes it more informative and easy to understand. All of these arguments were born through my analysis of this documentary film and contains only my opinion about this film. It is not the best documentary film, but might be very helpful for many people. Therefore, I will rate this fill 6/10.

"Islamic Art Mirror" is a beautiful documentary

[sholpannurzhan · 7/10 · 5 April 2020]

"Islamic Art Mirror" is a beautiful documentary film produced by Robert Gardner in 2011. Documentary targets a general audience who are unaware of Islamic art in our world and who perhaps feel skeptical about Islam. The main purpose of the film is to show the embellished exquisite art that Muslims brought to world architecture, literature, and humanity in general and to invoke respect and worship to Islam as religion and philosophy. The authors try to deliver a message that early Islamic art was something cutting-edge, with writing styles and geometrical figures, and delicate, created by use of new tools to make unusual colors, which was made by Muslims and that all writings were based on Qur'an manuscripts. Therefore, directors want the audience to appreciate this art and fall in love with it. Before watching this documentary, I had a knowledge about the structure of Islam as a religion only. Islam originated from Arabian Peninsula and spread to all parts of the world since then. From the documentary, before watching I expected a history of origination of art and wanted to reach an answer to questions like what the meaning of the beautiful designs of mosques is. Overall the documentary starts with origination of Islam and its artistry of architecture that shows the wealthiness of Muslim rulers in different parts of world such as Damascus, Turkey, Africa. The main events in the documentary are the different types of artistries that construct Islamic Art. One of the first forms of art is calligraphy. In Islam the words are everything, God is not painted, God is written, therefore, to show their most respect they developed special tools for this writing style. One of the speakers in the film, Zaccharia says that learning this craft is hard and every little detail is important as writing becomes a readable ornament with meaning. For example, Alhambra is a 14th century building that has a poetry inscription written or beautifully crafted on its walls. Another thing that added exquisiteness to Islamic Art is use of geometrical designs in buildings. Great Mosque of Damascus is one of the earliest mosques that maintained its early design. Use of mosaics, dynamic floral ornaments, unusually intense glowing colors and images are also demonstrated in the film as part of Islamic art. Film also demonstrates the importance of water as a separate theme in Islam. The documentary shows different mosques all around the world and emphasizes on their differences and unique styles. Therefore, the documentary was shot in different places. Moreover, the interviews with different authorities take different places too. The speech of authorities add reliability to the documentary, and they were informative to the audience. The sound was narrated by famous actress Susan Sarandon whose voice is very pleasant to hear. The images were very captivating and of good quality. There are also historical video segments and maps that make it easier to imagine what is being narrated. Considering my personal comments, I think the film has achieved its main goal to persuade audience that Islamic Art is beautiful and worth corresponding attention. The part that I liked the most is the images of art pieces, colorful architecture and calligraphy. From the interviews I noted one good phrase from one of the speakers, who said that in Qur'an God says "To know me, look at my creations". The phrase seemed very thought-provoking to me. Personally, from the film I learned that I didn't know much about the Islamic art and that it is very delicate and meaningful. In addition, I saw mosques that I never seen before such as Djenne mosque that surprised me by its complete difference from other mosques. It is simple, it has no colorful ornaments and it needs constant maintenance works. Another surprising thing was how Islamic people developed vivid colors when their surrounding landscape was all dust colored. Their use of vivid neonic colors in design of mosques is very clever strategy to encourage or bring people to the mosque and to make life as pleasant as possible. Moreover, they colored not only mosques, but also metalware like bronze on silver, making it colorful and attractive. Speaking of the drawbacks of the documentary, I would say that it is biased, because all the speakers have a predilection towards Islamic art and there were not much skepticism or criticism towards Islamic art. Moreover, usually documentaries investigate the true history as it is without any comments and use of subjective adjectives. This documentary uses lots of adjectives such as exquisite, embellishing, beautiful, extraordinary, stunning, garish, blossom, and so on making it seem like there is more admiration than analysis of Islamic art. However, despite this criticism I would recommend this film to other people, because it shows artistry of Islam which is very unknown among ordinary people. Film might feel boring to watch, however it bears good amount of information, and the images and pleasant voice of the narrator make it a nice-to-watch documentary.

Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World

[aslanakarzhaubay · 7/10 · 1 November 2020]

One of the things that unite history from around the globe is art. No matter whether or not you are familiar with the concept and history behind it, you still can appreciate the beauty and the glory of the art just by looking at how elegantly one object is made. This movie, directed by multiple Emmy winner Robert H. Gardner, tells us a story of Islamic art and how Islamic art is closely intertwined with other religions and cultures. I think that this is one of the rare, not theological, movies which so accurately depicted Islam and its history by narrating it using its art. I also strongly believe that each person who wants to truly understand and appreciate Islam should watch this film to get a grasp of how seemingly new and distant to the West religion incorporated fines qualities of the different cultures where this religion is situated. First of all, let me give you a short summary of what this movie is about. As I mentioned earlier, this movie is about the beauty of Islamic art. In order to explain how this art emerged, the movie narrates not only about the art itself but the story behind it. This film also takes its audience on a journey to nine different countries to show how the word, space, ornaments, and water are combined all together to produce glorious art and architecture. In order to make it easier to comprehend, the movie was divided into several parts that make the Islamic culture and art so unique, and those are word, space, ornaments, color, and water. In addition to that, the richness of Islamic art was shown on the examples of different objects starting from the little and ordinary pieces like plates or pen cases and ending with monumental mosques and palaces. This movie opens us a window through which we can observe how diverse and varied Islamic art is and how Islam culture gave a rise to many beautiful things that pushed our civilization forward. Lastly, I think that the way the movie was filmed to show objects from 360 degrees and the way that its context is supported and analyzed by the art historians makes this movie insightful and trustworthy. So, now as you have the background of this movie is about, let me tell you what aspects of Islamic religious tradition the film highlights and explains. The first thing to focus on is Arabic inscriptions all over the perimeter of the mosque. Those inscriptions are words from the Quran, which is a central holy book for Muslims as it is considered to be the direct speech of God and the eternal source for them to regulate their lives (Islam lecture 2). As it is said in the 1st revelation "read, for your Lord is the Most Generous, the One who taught the use of the pen, taught man what he did not know". As opposed to Christianity where God gave his son as a gift to humankind, God in Islam gave Qoran as a gift, that is why writing becomes a central feature of this religion. You can see it all over the objects in Islamic culture, starting from jugs, ending with gold inscriptions in mosques. This movie highlights the Quran as making Islam different from all the other religions. The importance of writing was so high, it led to the emergence of calligraphy, which is the art of beautiful writing. Calligraphy is even considered to be a spiritual experience, because when a person transfers words of God to the paper, God speaks through the pen, making the person connected to him even more. In addition to that, Arabic inscriptions showed in the film, respond to Christian presence by opposing the main doctrine of Christianity that God is three persons, but one God, as it is described in Nicene Creed, by writing inscriptions saying that God is one, not three, and referring to monotheistic nature of Islam (lecture Orthodoxy and Empire). The movie tries to highlight those differences between religions and explains their effect on Islamic art. Continuing the theme of inscriptions, we can now talk about the pictures and images used in Ismalic art. Calligraphy was used as the visualization of the Quran, and we can say that as opposed to Christianity, the Islamic religion was against icons and idols. Both Christians and Muslims used mosaic to decorate churches and mosques respectively, but due to fear of idolatry in Islam, no pictures of people are allowed to draw in Islam. Instead, Muslims used nonfigural designs (as ornaments, patterns) and the holy words of the Quran. For example, in Islamic art, there was an abundance of images depicting flora and fauna. Since God cannot be portrayed, Muslims felt connected to him via those images of nature, because as God once said that in order to know him, you need to know and consider his creatures. The opposition of idolatry, then, can be considered as something that gives a person freedom to interpret God in different ways by not limiting himself to one and only image of God (as in Christianity), because different Muslims felt differently at different times of the history. The last thing that I consider to be phenomenal is geometry all over Islamic art. Geometry, indeed, played a central role in Islam. For example, how geometry is used in religious practice. For example, you need to orient mosques by looking at the stars to make calculations based on geometry to know the proper direction and time of prayer, or you need geometry to navigate as you move through the deserts. Let's say, at the early ages when there was no such thing as a compass, people relied solely on the geometry of stars to know if they were on the direction to Mecca when they were performing pilgrimage (Islam lecture 1). Concluding everything mentioned before, I can truly say that this movie opened Islam from a completely new perspective by explaining these details that compromise Islamic art and their emergence. I would strongly recommend everyone to watch because it sheds light on the shared history between western and Islamic culture.

Great movie

[ilyas_s · 10/10 · 17 April 2021]

The movie Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World , which is directed by Robert Gardner, is an documentary film of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The film was originally released in 2012, on July 7. The movie Islamic Art is not very long movie that has running time only 90 minutes and have been produced in DVD. The film has various awards, and at the International Family Film Festival was voted as the best film. It is known that the Islamic art is very diverse, and this film demonstrates it in all its glory. Throughout the movie the viewer can watch the whole beauty of the Islamic art, and the culture of the Islam, that had significant role in the world civilization's growth. And there is some historical events about the Islam religion's spread around the world. The film is very interesting and can be looked in one breath, it is easy to follow narrator's speaking and different scenes of the movie. The film will awaken in you a desire to visit these places that were shown in the film, namely the beautiful architectures of Islamic world.

The word, color, water, ornament and space are the five sections of film ton which the film was divided. Throughout the film, different architectures were demonstrated. And I think that the point of this is that Muslims by building those beautiful architectures expressed their faith. So the faith was expressed by the Muslim people with the help of art. In the film Islamic art importance of design, colors, arches, geometry, paintings and carpets of and in Islamic architectures such as the Shaykh Lutfallah mosque, Alhambra palace, the mosque of Damascus, the mosque of Cordoba and other great Islamic architectures were demonstrated in details. As it was stated in the class lecture on the Spread of Islam, Islam religion was spreading fast around the world, and different regions converted to the Islam differently. And in the movie Islamic Art, show us the diversity of Islamic art in different regions around the world, and its considerable contribution to the world art and culture. In addition, everyone who saw the mosques in real life noticed that they are built in strange direction, and the film explains the importance of geometry in the Islam why mosques are in build in those direction. And this is due to the fact that the mosques are constructed in such way and direction so that the mosque is oriented towards Mecca, so that Muslims who come to pray are oriented and are praying towards Mecca. Also, Muslims used geometry to know the time when they need to pray. Furthermore, most of the things in mosque and mosque itself are symmetric. And this is considered as the Islamic art. Inside mosques as was shown in the film, the beautiful ornaments in mosques and Arabic inscriptions can be seen everywhere and they are considered as one of the elements of the Islamic art and in addition those Arabic inscriptions are the God words because they were taken directly from the Qur'an. So, calligraphy was transformed into masterpiece by the Islamic art. Moreover, in of the sections of the film "water", it can be seen that the water supply and pools used by Muslims was a one of the forms of art. Beautiful pools such as in the in the Islamic world were form of art, and in some places they were used by Muslim people to wash up before the pray.

The film Islamic Art was narrated by the narrator, Susan Sarandon. And one of the things I like most in that film is the beautiful and clear voice of the narrator, which accompanies the viewer throughout the film in a combination of nice and very suitable background music. Moreover, I like the quality of the film, namely that the quality of the picture is of high quality, and the smooth transitions between scenes. The Islamic architectures, mosques, calligraphies and palaces were demonstrated and accompanied with the interviews with the scholars throughout the film.

To conclude with, this is one of the most beautiful documentary films that I have ever watched. It was so interesting and breathtaking to watch the whole beauty of the Islamic art and its diversity, so that I didn't even understand how 90 minutes of the film passed so quickly. After watching this film I really want to visit all astonishing places that were shown in the film such as the great Mosque of Cordoba and see all the beauty of Islamic art by my own eyes. I highly recommend this film to all, regardless which religion person has or how many years he old, everyone will like this movie and none of those who watched the Islamic art movie will definitely regret the time spent. Therefore, I give 10/10 to this great movie!

Islamic Art: Mirror of the invisible world

[zhanerkeshaktybek · 9/10 · 3 April 2020]

The seventh century was a changing point of history. At that time once great empires of Byzantium and Persia were weakened by continuous wars and new power and culture were born in the Arabian Peninsula united by Islam religion. It was the beginning of the Islamic culture. In this movie, we can see the epic journey across several cities which are the main centers of Islamic development. This documentary film explores the breathtakingly beautiful art of the Islamic world and its history over 1400 years. It gives a chance to see Islamic culture which has an important influence on world history from a different perspective. Art does not belong to one particular culture, art is common to all. Art is a window to the past times. To see and appreciate the masterpiece done by another civilization, it is not necessary to understand it. However, by looking at their meaning we can understand their life, believes, hopes and feelings. The film explores the richness of Islamic art which was created in that civilization. The creation of masterpieces starting from small objects like box for a pen to changes of colors in monumental mosques depending on light is the great work of masters in that civilization. In the film, we can also see admirable beauty of ceramics, painting, textile, metallic tools and an extraordinary array of architecture. The unique thing in Islamic art is that Arabic words are everywhere. They are not just words; they are sign from God, belief and the sacred world from Koran which would always make a reminder about religion. They are written beautifully and it calls calligraphy. According to Sheila Blair, these inscriptions always say about the fact that God is one, not three as in Christianity. That is one of the key differences of Islam. Calligraphy is an art of writing. Muslims always tried to write Koran as beautiful as possible. According to Mohamed Zachariya who is the well-respected calligraphers in the world, it is a magical art. He says that every detail of art such as a quality of paper and angle of reed pen's cutting is important. Calligraphic writings are very accurate, spiritual and breathtaking. That is the voice of God everywhere around. So we cannot even imagine how they did it, and it is a great piece of art. The next is the architecture of buildings. In the video we can see the Alhambra which was built in the 14th century by the last Muslim rulers of Granada in Spain, mosques are in Damascus, Syria, the mosque in Africa and Sultan Suleiman's creative endeavors including the Topkapi Palace. Let's begin with their similarities. All of them are a great example of architectural art. All mosques have designed the mihrab wall which is placed to direct prayers to Mecca. Buildings are adapted to have many people at one moment like on Friday namaz. Also, they have a specific side for the person who invites and reminds about time to pray, azan riders. Also, some of the mosques have tribune for speakers during meetings. The building could show the power and wealthiness of its creator. The designed several hallways before the main hall, geometric ornaments, and calligraphic writings show the elite life. The luxury was in that courtyards open to the sky, but still inside. According to the Ruba Kanaan the light and its play with color, even smell was important and creates a spiritual effect. Interesting fact, figurative art does not exist in Islamic culture. Even if we can see some paintings and sculptures, they are not idols. All over the Islamic world, the textile plays an important role in purpose making comfort. Textile is very useful and comfortable, we can use it to separate us from dirty, to warm up, to decorate, to sit on it, sleep on it and they are easy to roll up and keep it. The carpet weaving was initially developed in Persia and come to India in 16 century. Weaving is a geometric technique that is easier to make horizontally in one direction and circled weaves were even more complex to do. So, the prints on carpets can be ornaments and figures, also a beautiful view of fauna and flora. In Islam God says "To know me, know my creations". So, they do not paint God, we cannot see it. But we can see it through the beauty of creations. That makes the belief even more spiritual and magical. While talking about Islamic art, it is impossible to not mention colors. Colors of metalware work, buildings or in the textile are amazing. All pigments were derived from nature. It is not hard to colorize silk and cotton. Metallic tools were colorized by inlaying, for example, gold or silver to bronze. One way they used to make colors in grinding. For example, grinding of copper gives blue color and cobalt gives white color. Another part of Islamic Art is related to water supply techniques. Most of the Islamic world is placed in deserts and in dry landscape where rainfall is very low. So, they have developed complex engineering techniques to supply the city with water, for example, qanats and wheels. So coming from this reason, gardens mostly placed in enclosed places. It makes easier to take care of the garden. Garden in Islam with a variety of fruit trees and beautiful flowers is associated with paradise. Islamic culture is rich in fascinating creations. We need to know not only about the history of wars and catastrophes; we need to know about treasure coming thought centuries. The same attitude should be modulated with Islamic culture's greatest gifts to our world which are an outpouring of creativity and intelligence. Islamic art is a combination of engineering skills and knowledge with deepest emotions that believes and loves to the beauty of their creators.

Islamic Art

[daniyar961 · 7/10 · 12 April 2020]

The documentary film demonstrates how art complements and identifies the ideas of Islam. The narrative is divided into parts, each of which covers an important aspect of Islamic art: Word, Space, Ornaments, Color and Water. The narrative of the movie is both descriptive because it shows some fascinating facts about Islam, and argumentative simultaneously because it has some implicit claims about both religion and art. I will try to elaborate on the claims and construct the arguments. On the one hand, the film conveys the idea that art has a communicational function because it is a universally understood language. Thus, Islamic art may spread its ideas to people from outside and help to unite all Muslims using universal symbols. On the other hand, the film destroys orientalist myths by explaining that Eastern culture is not inferior to the Western one and was not developed in its shadow. The movie develops a contrary message that although the culture of the Near East has its uniqueness, different cultures and religions develop together by influencing each other. If Jesus is the center of the Christian tradition, the center of Islam is oral revelations and art can be considered as the media to appreciate and spread Qur'an and its oral revelations. I think that the most important idea of the movie is that art is the best form of communication for religion, as historian D. Fairchild Ruggles says in the film, 'art is universal and you do not need to learn to appreciate it to get it'. The language of art is beauty, which is an understandable language even for people who do not speak Arabic and read Qur'an. This beauty takes different universal forms like calligraphy, architecture, sculpture, textile, etc. to create symbolic meaning and spread ideas of Islam so people can relate to this art. One of the movie narrators, American calligrapher, who found the beauty of Arabic scriptures and then became one of the most influential Islamic calligraphers. That supports the argument that religious ideas can spread through art as a medium. Secondly, because the end purpose of Islam is the recitation of the holy scriptures, Islamic art also adapts to this goal. Through some pieces of art, Muslims may express and perceive the state of prayer. For instance, the calligrapher can meditate and recite Qur'an through the process of writing, a wanderer may appreciate Islam by reciting surahs on a mosque's walls. Thus, art unites these experiences of people and creates a network between people of the same faith. Moreover, art expresses spirituality and helps to repeat the experience of different generations of people and unite them using universal symbols. Even though Islam is younger than Christianity and Judaism, it has left no less heritage and influence on the global culture. The film carries the message that Islamic art cannot be regarded as something exotic and isolated from world culture because art, as a reflection of the culture of that time, is a bridge between different worlds: Western and Eastern, religious and secular, rich and poor. Art allows us to understand that Islam was both subject to influence from outside, and often itself influenced and even was a pioneer in some respects. For instance, the construction of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba was inspired by the Great Mosque of Damascus but was built based on the local Spanish church, therefore it is an impressive merger of Roman architectural influence and Islamic symbolic narratives from Syria. Another great example is the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, which architectural style was influenced by both Byzantine and Islamic elements. And there are a ton of similar examples in architecture, paintings, sculptures, etc. when Islamic culture influenced European ones and vice versa. Moreover, some artistic inventions were created in the Islamic world and influenced the West. It is a fact that the first irrigation system was invented on the territory of modern Iran, and it is called a qanat. Then this system reached the other parts of the world. The film tells us interesting though that this invention was partly born at the expense of Islam, so we can say that the aesthetics and art of Islam have significantly influenced the modern Western world in different aspects. An interesting for me was that once religious art can become part of something mundane and secular. It is fascinating how people generated intertextual language as art and how certain universal symbols were developed. I think that art as a tool of intertextuality for religion, society, and politics, helped to make stronger connections between people because they have a common sense of unity and one faith. Of course, we cannot reduce art to this function alone, however, it was interesting to look in this context while watching the movie. Moreover, we cannot make assumptions researching only one religion or one form of art independently because this intertextuality permeates through and connects all religions and cultures, thus we need to see the bigger picture, a phenomenon. Although the film could not fully understand this phenomenon, it made a good small step in this big direction

what a load of shi#

[marklondon-17294 · 1/10 · 25 April 2021]

Boring none interesting rubbish. Muslims art is garbage.

Islamic Art

[manattugelbay · 10/10 · 12 April 2020]

Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible world is a documentary film, throughout which you will be able to explore the diversity and richness of Islamic art across various continents and over different periods of history. The film was produced by Alex Kronomer and Michael Wolfe in 2011. It is directed by Robert Gardner and includes explanations, stories and thoughts of great historians and experts in Islamic art such as Oleg Graber and Arabic calligrapher Mohamad Zakariya. Islamic art is itself mesmerizing and marvelous, pictures of them are captivating, but when their stories are narrated by an amazing actress Susan Sarandon, watching the film becomes even more enjoyable and makes you watch it in one breath. Art is a reflection of who we are and what we are, with the help of it we can express our emotions, feelings, therefore it is indeed like a mirror that shows our reflection. Moreover, art can represent the culture, environment, civilization and explain the history without words. Another feature of art is that it can be appreciated by anyone, even who does not understand its true meaning. I think most importantly producers of the documentary wanted to deliver this message to the audience. This documentary does not include whole lifetime and history of Islam or does not explain all the Islamic art and architecture, however it managed to show the variety and diversity of them via 5 themes: word, space, ornament, color and water.From the lecture we know that the story of Islam begins with Prophet Muhammad receiving the words of the God in 610 AD. The Holy book of Koran, which is the collection of God's words is the God's gift for Muslims. So, Koran is a big part of Islam and the writing is the central feature of Islamic art. When paper was delivered from China to Arabic land, the copying the words of the Koran became an art. Despite the fact that the Koran is in Arabic and the process seems hard, for Muslims the act of writing itself is like a meditation. They say during the process it feels like God is talking to you through pen, and hard things look easy. These words are not only on papers, many Islamic architectures have them engraved on the walls and it feels like they speak from the walls with God's voice. One of them is Alhambra, that was built in the 14th century in Spain and has poetry written on their walls. Moreover, sometimes you are not even expected to read them until you can relate to them in some way. The next segment about space portraits clearly the diversity of Islamic buildings, starting from plain mosques ending with some astonishing palaces. Historic Islamic architecture demonstrates noteworthy feature of Islamic society, which is openness to other religions and societies. There are lots of buildings, which are product of mixed cultures, different building techniques and styles, that are taken from local traditions. For example, the great mosque of Cordoba is a result of mixed Byzantine and Roman techniques with Islamic style. Moreover, its hypostyle, arches and techniques of mosaics were the same as in the great mosque of Demascus in Syria. Another example is the mosque of Djenna, that is located in Africa. It was built by using natural resource of that region, from plain mud bricks. There is no ornament or anything extraordinary, mosque from outside represents local traditions and culture, but inside you can find all the elements of Islam, like in other mosques, and most importantly it provides Muslims with space for praying. On the other hand, there are also fascinating and incredibly designed palaces such as Topkapi palace in Istanbul or Grenada's Alhambra palace. Topkapi palace was built to display Ottoman empire's preeminence and power at that time. Its space shows the hierarchical feature of the Ottoman empire. Muslims believe in the idea of heaven, which is described as beautiful garden with all kinds of flora and fauna. This promise of afterlife is represented through ornaments in Islamic world. Moreover, God says to Muslims: "To know me, know my creatures." Therefore, there are many patterns of animals and flowers on most of the pieces of Islamic art. One example is textile. The land where Muslims was dry, so they just needed something to sit that protects them from the dust. Therefore, carpets are used like furniture in Islamic culture and they are also portable, which makes them an essential object in traveling. Islamic textiles show the exchange between cultures, even today Persian rugs are popular among all countries, and their knotting skills are also used and valued in India. The next part of film argues that color played an important role in Islamic art. Color makes things more pleasant, so that even the hardest objects seem soft after they have been dyed. Although in the past color was very rare and did not spread well across the world, Muslims bothered to color different objects. Muslims used colors in different ways from coloring ornaments to painting epic tales. Water is essential to everything in this world and the last segment describes the importance of water in the life of Muslims. They say, "God made everything alive through water", and many Islamic art portrays it. There are many buildings which have a pool of water, which reflects the building itself. One example is a palace of 40 columns in Iran, which in fact has only 20 columns, but other 20 can be seen in its reflection from the water. Furthermore, Muslims have a proper ritual of ablution before approaching the God. Therefore, all mosques have special place where you can cleanse yourself with water. Many gardens of the palaces also have the system that runs the water over the garden. Overall, the film tells us about the large variety of heritage of Islamic culture across the world, and the connection of societies and how Islamic culture influenced others and vice versa like Berkey says in his book. Moreover, Islamic art and architecture explain lots of uncertainties, that western societies have about them and the documentary proves that art is like a bridge between one world and another. In the end they make a good point that art can be appreciated by anyone, regardless of who you are. During the film I was mesmerized by all the pieces of art and architecture that were demonstrated, most of them were new for me and I acquired a great amount of knowledge about them, so I definitely recommend it to everyone.

Islamic Art: Review the concepts of word and space

[aigerimzholdas · 6/10 · 1 November 2020]

This documentary, directed by Robert Gardner, depicts art in the Islamic world. It mainly focuses on different techniques used in Islamic Art throughout history. This documentary includes the commentary of different scholars on famous mosques. They divided the documentary into five themes such as word, space, color, ornament, and water. The documentary successfully captures the diverse Islamic world and the effect of religion on the local civilization. They explained this idea through perfectly made shots and narrative. The most fascinating detail of the documentary is that they managed to explain the diverse Islamic world and inform about core Islamic concepts that have been preserved in every region. I will focus on the concepts - words and space - to explain their role in Islamic Art and argue that the concepts successfully preserved the Islamic culture in this complex world. According to the documentary, "words" are used widely in Islamic Art. They are on the surface of walls, jars, and plates. They look very elegant, making writing a central feature of this religion. There are two reasons why these words play a significant role in art. Firstly, because those words are the direct speech of God, they are the gift to mankind. Therefore, people tried to make the last from generation to generation by reciting them. Their attempt to capture the divine pushed them to depict the words on all the things in the surroundings, from day to day things to mosques. Secondly, writing those words everywhere gives believers the feeling as if God is everywhere. These Arabic scriptures made the religion stood out from other religions because it was a unique concept. For example, it is believed that the Quran, the words in the Quran reflect the magnificent beauty of this world, and its uniqueness cannot be matched (Lecture). As the result, Arabic scripture can appeal to a lot of people. The idea that you do not need to know Arabic, to appreciate the beautiful and very detailed work that was put into those words was mentioned in the documentary. So, it is safe to assume that those inscriptions depicted the strong faith of the people who are ready to pay huge respect to their religion by writing verses from the Quran on the buildings and making their environment profane, hence they can feel connected to God. In this way, these "words" preserved the tradition that turned into calligraphy and recitation competition that helped to memorialize the extent the Islam penetrated cultures. Another concept that helped Islam to be preserved in this diverse world is the correct usage of space. Space is important in Islam because it allows capturing a holy place, Mosque. The way civilizations built Mosques reflects the region's materials, economic prosperity, and traditions. For example, one of the most famous mosques is Suleiman's imperial mosque completed in 1558. This mosque is a great example of effective usage of architecture. The building contains several domes that enlarge the space in the mosque. One of the scholars in the documentary says that "Ornaments in the mosque used to emphasize the structure but not overwhelm it" (29.46 min). This is a good comment that depicts both the talent of the architecture, Mimar Sinan and the way space reflects the religion through ornaments and scriptures. The Mosque in Djenna, Mali serves the same purpose as Allah's sacred home. Yet the building is drastically different from Suleiman's Imperial Mosque. The mosque in Djenna is a simple Islamic architecture that also effectively used the space and the shortage of materials. Even though the mosques preserved core Islamic details, they are still different due to the adaptation of the building to the local community. As a result, it is clear that the beauty of mosques and its meaning is worth to renew it every now and then. So, According to the documentary, Islam can successfully survive in a diverse world due to giving flexibility in the usage of space and leaving some room for cultural uniqueness. Overall, I believe that the documentary captures Islamic art quite well. I have visited the mosques in Istanbul last year, and thus, I am sure that the documentary did a good job depicting the beauty of the art in mosques. This documentary made me look at these buildings in a new perspective - paying attention to every detail, every ornament, and cubes in the building. The main idea of the documentary is to show people how religion, Islam managed to use art as a way to appeal to people and survive hundreds of years. Moreover, these arts are the window to history and to who we were and who we are. This art made it easier for the religion to penetrate every aspect of society making the religion a very personal experience with the divine. I recommend this movie to everyone who is interested in how religions shape societies and societies express their beliefs.

Art is Islam, and Islam is an Art

[madinaserikova · 10/10 · 12 April 2020]

As Thomas Merton once said: "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." The quote explains well the whole idea of the Documentary "Islamic Art. Mirror of The Invisible World" and the relationship of Islam and Art. Art has a distinctive place in the world of Islam. At the very end of the film D. Fairchild Ruggles states: "Sometimes material objects can be the bridge between one world and another. That translucent glass is beautiful regardless of your religious background. Mosaic sparkles and dazzles the eye, regardless of what time in history you are in." That is the key point about which the film speaks to us, and in Islam art is accepted as the God's speech as well as his gift for the humanity. People are able to see the beauty of buildings, the geometry used in these buildings, ornaments and even the water is a piece of art and through these beauties, people feel the God. The film itself goes fluent while watching because of the pleasant background music and amazing accompanying visualization. Introducing with the calligraphy, the film underlines an importance of the art of calligraphy in the world of Islam, especially in Qur'anic writings. Mohamed Zakariya, who is an Arabic calligrapher, says that writing Qur'anic texts requires special and careful approach. Trimming the pen and cutting the nib is even more important. The narrator underlines that "the whole process of copying Qur'anic text is a sort of meditation and prayer, as God speaks through the pen." While Christians use the portrait of Jesus as fundamental and main figure, Muslims lay special emphasis on Qur'an, the word of God. That is why calligraphy is accepted as a piece of artwork in Islamic countries. The next section of the movie talks about the "Space", the structure and organization of mosques and palaces. It is important to notice that different cultures had an impact on the construction of these architectures and the complexity of buildings vary starting from humble ones and ending up with large, well-designed, and attractive-decorated constructions. For example, the Great Mosque of Damascus located in Syria has an infinite space that provides large enough space for Friday prayers as well as the minbar, that allows people to see the speaker on Friday sermons. However, the Great Mosque of Djenne does not represent what people are used to see in ordinary mosque architectures such as big domes and tall minarets. These differences are seemed to be the result of different local and cultural traditions. One of the important things is the fact that geometry is very central to Islam. Muslims have to orient mosques by looking to the positions of stars so that they may calculate the geometry for finding proper time and direction of prayer. Thus, it can be said that the organization of architecture is very essential in Islamic world of Art. Another ornamentation is the depiction of flora and fauna on the walls of the buildings, on the textile materials, and on the objects of daily use such as table or small boxes for different objects to put. For Muslims it is significant to know that all of the nature and the whole universe is the creation of God and only, because in Holy Qur'an it is written: "To know me, know my creation." No need to say that in Islam there is only one God and Prophet Muhammad(May the blessings of Allah and peace be upon him) is the messenger of Him, so there is no worship of idolatry. No one knows and even cannot guess how God looks like. Therefore, people use geometrics, different stages of life of flowers, and picture of nature to feel the God by His creations, and never try to make a drawing of Him. The last part of film is dedicated to water. Water is not central only to Islam, but also in Taoism. If Taoism refers to water as "one's path in life", in Islam it is essential for wudu, a type of ritual purification. It is believed in Islam that ablution purifies people's body and soul before their prayer, that is, for instance, by washing your mouth, nose, ears, and face you wash out the sins you've said, smelled, heard, and seen respectively. D. Fairchild Ruggles also mentions that water evaporates and falls back on the earth, thus water is the same all over the time, no matter at which stage of history you are. Thus, according to the claim of the film, you can think of the water in palaces as the Roman or Early Islamic countries' water, and it could be reasonable to think so. The explained above pieces of art are not the only ones mentioned in this movie though. The film also talks about carpets, the vivid colors, textiles, gardens, love, stone arts and other things that stand out in Islamic world. All of these pieces of art are tied up by Muslims true love and worship for their only Creator God. As for myself, living in a country where Islam is the religion of the majority, I did not notice how every detail of architecture was conceived in mosques as well as how even the angle of the writing pen in calligraphy is important while writing Qur'anic texts. Of course, there are many other things in the world of Islam that were not mentioned in this film and that can be filmed about, nevertheless, the passion of interviewers for this field makes you dive into the world of Islamic art and leaves you with breathtaking emotions. To conclude, I can say that Islam is an art itself, because without Islam, there would be no such meaningful and inspiring creations as those shown in this movie.

Art is about culture, culture is about religion

[kanatissabek · 7/10 · 12 April 2020]

The movie by Robert H. Gardner called "Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World" impressed me with its deep, sophisticated and context-based understanding of art. This kind of approach allows to not only get visual pleasure from fascinating mosques and other architectural designs but to see the cross points in culture as well as the differences that can be viewed through the lens of art. "Islamic art - a reflection of the people and the in which it was produced". By these words, authors show that art is important firstly because of the fact that it reflects us, our values and culture. Since religion is a major part of most cultures, culture is hugely affected by religions as well as religions are affected by culture. So this relationship cannot be called one-way. Throughout the documentary, the roles of words, space, ornament, colors and water in Islamic art are emphasised. At the beginning of the movie, the parallel between Islam and Christianity is drawn. The authors highlight that both religions were firstly based on oral revelation. In "The Formation of Islam" Berkey also discusses that there are many cross points between Islam and Christianity. Also, both the movie and the reading discuss the differences these religions have. In the movie, we can see that inscriptions in mosques and other Islamic buildings arguing that God is one, not three, appealing to trinity in Christianity. Interesting thing is that these inscriptions mostly made in gold cubes, which shows how important for Muslims was the rebuttal to Christianity. Another thing that was discussed in the movie is a non-figural design that is mostly used in mosques. The reason for that is that Muslims wanted to avoid idolship and therefore drawing and sculpturing the prophet Muhammed was strongly forbidden. However, because of that, the calligraphy in Islam developed substantially. Different types of manuscripts can be found in mosques and other Islamic building. The words of God depicted in the Quran could make any building sacred for Muslims. The movie discusses different techniques that Muslims used to integrate the words of God to different buildings. The beauty of such writings, make these inscriptions piece of art, which attracts people from all over the world and from different religions. Furthermore, the writing process can be something special for caligrapher, by making him/her closer to the divine, as it was told by Mohammed Zachariya, an American master of Arabic calligraphy. Another important thing about calligraphy in mosques is that some of them are located in a place, which is far from the human eye and cannot be read. However, seemingly the words' depicted main goal is not to be read, mostly they are there for their beauty and for the sense of divinity. Furthermore, the illumination of inscriptions also takes an important role in Islamic art. Mostly it is applied to names of surahs and used to navigate the reader. Another thing that I found interesting in the movie is how it connects the usage of flora and fauna with the concept of heaven for Muslims. The role of water in this is also enormous. It is connected to the scarcity of water in most of the part of the Islamic world, especially when it started spreading. The heaven where it was said a lot of garden, flora and fauna, or "paradise" otherwise called was a good motivation for Muslims. Also, the water was given a huge role in the Quran. Every mosque has space where people can wash up since before every prayer Muslims are required to wash up. Furthermore, not favourable conditions with water in Muslim countries motivated them to invent different ways to lighten their life. Another important in the movie was about space. It showed how the interaction of different cultures and religions can create amazing beauty. The mosque of Cordoba in Spain, constructed by the interaction of Byzantine and Roman techniques mixed with Islamic mosque style. Another mosque discussed in the movie is Djenne. This mosque with its West African structure, at first sight, does not resemble us a mosque we used to see. However, say the authors, it is important to keep in mind about diversity, when we talk about Islamic architecture. The reason for that is the fact that because of the mixture with a different culture, as with Byzantine and Roman in the first case and West African in the second. It shows the tolerance of Islam to other cultures and its openness to interact with them. Overall, the movie shows the beauties of transcendental to different culture the Islamic art. It helps us understand the underlying logic of Islamic art by contextualizing it to a different time and places. The sentence with which the movie ends leaves the best impression since it concludes what authors wanted to say in a perfect manner. I hope it will end my review in that way too. "A translucent glass is beautiful regardless of your religious background, mosaic sparkles regardless of what time in history you are in, monuments are awesome whoever you are, whether you walk in there to pray or walk in there with a camera as a tourist".

Movie is not about religion, it is more about reflection on culture

[arystanbakyt · 9/10 · 6 April 2020]

"A translucent glass is beautiful regardless of your religious background, mosaic sparkles regardless of what time in history you are in, monuments are awesome whoever you are, whether you walk in there to pray or walk in there with a camera as a tourist" - this is how the movie ended. And this is exactly what the movie is about... The Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World done by Robert H. Gardner was able to illustrate the heritage of Islamic world, specifically influence of Islam on art. The movie is divided into subtopics such as Word, Space, Ornaments, Color and Water. It, in its turn could immerse me to the other side of Islam, the side which not every person could observe, by providing deeper insights towards how religion might look through different perspective. Moreover, accompaniment by commentaries of academic researchers on Islamic art made the movie more of an objective product. It demonstrates Islam not only as a religion but also as a way of living. The movie is not theological. It is more about philosophy of Islam or influence of this youngest world religion to the life of its followers as well as people from non-Muslim communities. The film was set out in a concise way that made it possible to understand for almost anyone and quite fascinating even to people who are not good at artistry. It brings a valuable sense of Islamic art which is unknown not only among ordinary people but also among Muslims. First of all, the movie showed the importance of calligraphy in Islam. Writing becomes central feature of Islam and use of the word is the one aspect that separates Islam from all others. This might be mainly, due to the fact that the first revelation came to prophet Muhammed was about reading as mentioned in the second lecture "Quran and Tafsir". In some sense, "Koran became a focus of devotion but it also became a focus of art" From his memories, the calligrapher, Mohamed Zakaria, mentioned in the film, after his first visit to Istanbul to learn Islamic calligraphy, he had to forget all things that he learned before. In my opinion it should not be taken into consideration that there were not art before Islam but rather audience should concentrate on how Islam shaped the culture of art. It turns out that it really does! Secondly, all the architecture that is taken into consideration such as the exact space left open to provide sun to the room, all the geometrical calculations in providing water tubes all along the deserts (most Muslim countries were not water-riched one) and estimation of how people would pray while building the palace or other buildings is astonishing. It kind of awakened me in the way of architecture. From now on, I started to look at my religion through different lenses. I knew about Muslim architectures in our country, Kazakhstan, but personally, have never thought about the way how they were built. Now thinking about them, I am surprised that X, XI, XII century built constructions still preserve their beauty even up to nowadays. It definitely shows the quality of work and how passionately it had been constructed. Third, I would like to mention the philosophical idea behind the existence of water. But before, let's look at interesting similarity between Islam and Daoism. In both cases, water is considered as central to their religion. "Water is here for all stages of life. I literally understood that water in palaces that are currently pouring are water of Romans, Islamic countries and etc. Because water is presented in the world at every stage of its creation" Thinking for a while about this quote that is taken from the movie, one would understand its rationality to think so. Because water evaporates and falls back to the ground and this circulation is repeated dozens of times. And one can understand that the speaker has a strong argument in believing it. All these above mentioned Islamic Art beauty is depicted in the movie but not only listed ones. There are also various documented materials mentioned about ornaments, carpentry, poetry, love between two people, stone art, textile and many many other things that brings spectators into delight. However, in my opinion, the key element that unites and forces Muslim people to produce such kind of amazing art is passion and pure love of God. From the movie, I could see that these two things combined could do/make astonishing products. To conclude, I hope I did my best to demonstrate all the beauty of this movie. I would strongly recommend it absolutely for everyone despite his/her religious background because as I have already mentioned it is not about religion but rather it is about reflection of religion on culture. Of course, stating that the movie filmed all the aspects of Islamic art would be wrong but it would be a perfect beginning in that direction.

Review on Islamic Art

[mukhtarametov · 10/10 · 11 April 2021]

"Islamic art: Mirror of the Invisible World" is a documentary film of an American filmmaker and producer Robert H. Gardner that was released in 2011. This documentary film, as its name suggests, is about the interesting and, at the same time, very beautiful art of Islamic world. Since an art has different concepts to analyze, and includes different parts to consider, this film was able to fully explain and convey Islamic art by dividing the whole film to five major parts: the word, space, ornament, color, and water. Firstly, one might think that Islamic art or a mosque or anything related to this religion, which was emerged in the Arabian Peninsula, namely in the holy city of Mecca, should not differ from its original Arabic form that it was during the life of the Prophet, or his Sahabah (companions). However, this film demonstrated that it is not always the case, and it slightly differs from country to country, from place to place, as well as from culture to culture. Secondly, this documentary, along with illustrating Islamic art, could also introduce some basic and important concepts in Islam.

Political activities of states, in the forms of battles and conquests, can be considered as one of the main reasons why Islamic art, especially the design and architecture of mosques, slightly differ one from another that appear in other parts of the Islamic world. The Hagia Sophia mosque can be a good example for this. As depicted in the film, in the episode where "space" was explained, Hagia Sophia, which was initially the Byzantine church built in the sixth century, was converted to the mosque during the period of Ottoman Empire, who first appeared in the stage in 1299, and who captured Constantinople from the Byzantine Empire in 1453. It was the command of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who changed this beautiful construction to the place where Muslims could come to pray. Without any doubts, looking to this mosque, we can say that it has a noticeable difference from other "classical" mosques that appears in Arab Peninsula and other Muslim countries. For example, inside the Hagia Sophia mosque, there are pictures and images painted on walls, which is commonly practiced in Christian art. Since the religion of Islam prohibits to paint images of people or living beings like animals that have a soul, we cannot see Christian iconography in other classical mosques.

Another reason why mosques, by being one of the important Islamic art and architecture, are differently constructed is that it depends on their place of location and culture of that region. As one of the speakers, namely Jonathan M. Bloom, said, "local cultural traditions, the availability of materials, and, of course, the availability of money and technologies" are the main factors that differ mosques. For example, the mosque of Djenne, located in the West African country Mali, looks like a very old and simple mosque from the Middle Ages or Medieval period: it does not have any beautiful ornaments, bright colors, and classical dome and minarets. Because they do not have such amount of money and technology that would allow them to expand it or construct even better and larger mosque. On contrast, the mosque located in the city of Agra in India, Taj Mahal, because of the availability of money and technology, and, at the same time, the rich culture could build one of the great constructions in the world. It has a large dome, high minarets, and expensive materials that covers its walls. There are even gardens and fountains, which represent "water", inside the area of the mosque.

As it was mentioned before, basic and, mainly, important Islamic concepts are also represented in this documentary. For instance, from one of the episodes of this film, we can notice that the narrator described the process of how the Prophet Muhammad received his first revelations sent from the Almighty God. As we were introduced in the lecture materials during the week on Islam, the Prophet Jibril (Gabriel) came and was seen to Muhammad when he sat in the cave Hira and said "iqra" (read). The Prophet Muhammad was very shocked because he could not write and read in those times. In the holy book, Quran, this sentence "iqra" or "read" comes in the sura Al-Alaq in the fifth verse. It is considered as the very first revealed verse in Islam. Other important concepts that we can see from the film are the words like "mihrab" (direction), "Friday namaz" (Friday sermon), and "minbar" (a pulpit). These are some basic and important parts of any mosque in Islam.

Overall, I liked the film of Robert H. Gardner, "Islamic art: Mirror of the Invisible World" and give a rate this film a 10 out of 10. It was not only well structured and organized but also included many researchers and professors who have a deep knowledge in their fields that makes film very credible. I highly recommend this documentary to people who are interested in Islam and Islamic art, or to those who are interested in art in general.

Islamic art is a reflection of the creators

[aigerimsatvaldiyeva · 10/10 · 9 April 2020]

The movie ends with the concluding phrase "A translucent glass is beautiful regardless of your religious background, mosaic sparkles regardless of what in history you are in...", which is the point speakers make throughout the movie. According to them, art is a universal human experience. It transcends through time, and culture and space. Therefore, the same goes for the Islamic art culture. The 7th century was the turning point in human history when Persian and Byzantium empires weakened, while Arabic people united under Islam. As a result, Arabic civilization spread throughout the world, while also spreading the Islamic culture. The discovery and study of Islamic art can be a kind of a mirror as it the reflection of people and the context in which it was made. Through this movie, we can discover the uniqueness of Islamic art in different places of the world, while also understanding the universality of it. As we can see, the movie does that by studying different spheres of art such as words, space, ornaments, color and water themes. The movie indicates how words in Islamic culture are a form of art in themselves. This was because of the revelations prophet Muhammad received from God in a cave and throughout his life in order to direct and enlighten people, very different experience from Christianity. It is evident that Quran in itself became an art form because of the divine presence in the words of God. Bright example of the Arab inscriptions are the words written on walls and domes of mosques in Islamic world. An interesting piece of information on the reflection of context in Islamic art was the example of Arabic inscription on the walls of mosque written in gold, provided in the beginning of the movie. The words meant that there is not three, but only one God, which reflects the presence of Christianity at the place where mosque was located. This corresponds to Berkey's Formation of Islam, in which he explores the connection between Islam and other religions. As Berkey stated, Islam while in some places borrowing elements from other religions, also did respond to fragments of religions. In this case, we can see that the inscription reflected the attitude of Muslims towards the Trinity concept in Christianity. The movie also highlights the use of space by Islamic culture, in which it explored different designs of palaces and mosques. Usually, people expect mosques to be of the same kind as in Arabic peninsula or the ones from Ottoman empire. However, what strikes the most is the representation of mosques from other parts of world such as Djenne. The mosque shows the simplicity of Islamic traditions, where it was made from mud brick. Here, we can sense the mix of West African traditions with Islamic culture. The mosque has flat roofs supported by 99 columns, while having no ornaments and decorations at all. This mosque, as said by the speaker of the movie, redefines our concept of what a mosque is because it does not look like any other mosques from Arabia or Turkey. Moreover, the movie also highlights the role of ornaments and decoration in Islamic art. For instance, the patterns in ornaments signify the role geometry as they employ different geometric sequences. This reflects the importance of geometry not only in art, but in Islam in general. People needed geometry in order to identify the direction of prayer, or the time of prayer. The patterns of flora and fauna are also present in different pieces of art such as decorations of everyday things (bowls and plates), the walls of palaces and mosques, and etc. Considering that the main lands of Arabia were deserted, this might reflect the ideas of Heaven in Islam, or specifically the theme of abundance. Another explanation for the prevalence of flora and fauna were the words said by God in Quran, that is "to know my creatures is to know me". Hence, it might have possible that people depicted the creatures around them so much in order to try to understand God himself. Water also played a great role in Islamic art where we can see water fountains or water pools in many palaces and mosques, which required complex engineering knowledge. Water was the tool with which God made everything alive, so it was sacred. Not only that, but water also played significant role as it allowed people to cleanse themselves before prayers - before approaching God. Thus, it is not surprising that water carriers where present in many Islamic architectures. In general, the movie explores different aspects of Islamic art in order to discover the context of its creation. As stated in the name of movie, Islamic art serves as a mirror in order to discover the cultural and religious ideals. Thus, art is not simply for people to admire its beauty, but also to understand and discover knowledge about those who created them.

film review for extra credit

[elmiraospanova · 10/10 · 1 November 2020]

The film Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World is a documentary on the art and architecture of Islam. As is argued in the film itself, it is a unique way for the outsiders to understand more about Islam. The film emphasizes "a continuity rather than a break" that is evident in the comparison between Western and Islamic art. In this review, I will analyze how the film manages to present Islamic religious tradition through the explanations about its art and architecture and connecting them to the Qur'an. The film starts by emphasizing the importance of Qur'an in Islam as the direct word of God, its prevalence in the art produced by Islamic craftsmen and artisans, and its the need for everyone to know it. "Islam Lecture 2: Quran and Tafsir" focused on the recitation of Qur'an being the most important way of preserving the word of God in Early Islam. In contradiction to what was said in the lecture, the film emphasizes the importance of calligraphy as an art of writing the Qur'an. However, the film continues to explain that some writings, for example, the inscriptions on the walls of mosques and palaces, are not even meant to be read. They are the adornments that are understandable because the readers should already know what is written there because they know the Qur'an by heart. The comparison is made in the film between Qur'anic writings in Islam and iconography in Christianity. There are similarities in the two in that the best places, most precious materials and talented artistry were used for their depiction. In Christianity, the film explains, the icons containing Jesus are the most beautiful and devout pieces of art. In Islam, this place is reserved for Qur'an, either in the form of inscriptions or in the way pf rewriting the whole book in the fanciest possible way. Such a comparison, made more evident by saying both Jesus and the Qur'an are the gifts of God, in my opinion, would help the non-Muslim viewer appreciate the importance of such art. This is a good way to simultaneously highlight the reverence of the text and awaken the understanding of it in the viewers. On the example of the Great Mosque of Djenne, the diversity of Muslim architecture is shown in the film. In West Africa, the builders of the mosques had to employ local architectural style and were limited to the locally available materials. However, in the internal elements of the mosque, there are similarities with traditional mosques of countries like Iraq and Saudi Arabia. This implicates the universal spread of Islam and it shows the viewers that the religion evolves and adapts to the different places to which it found its way. This is a good way to de-alienate the viewers from the concept of geographically isolated or exclusionary Islam. Discussing ornaments, the focus of Islamic art is on nature images, floral and vegetable patterns and depictions of animals and birds. Dr Afshan Bokhari argues that such depictions are meant to help Muslims understand God more intimately, because of the Qur'anic line "To know me, know my creations". This follows the Islamic notion that although God is too great to understand or depict him, there is a way to be close to understanding him through faith and art. Once again, highlighting the beauty and enormous care with which the arts were created, the film manages to make Islam more accessible and understandable to the people outside it. Muslims themselves probably do not need the detailed explanations about the symbolism behind the Islamic art. To the people outside the religion, who are used to the depictions of the figure of god, this produces a way to understand that Islam has that too. The film gives off the idea that in Islam all the art is actually made in the worship of god, even though there are no images of him. I believe it is a very useful message to carry. Understanding Islam and its origins as a religion should come together with the understanding the material environment of the people who practice it. Dr Mohammad Al-Asad recalls the line from the Qur'an that "God has made everything alive through water", ie that water is life. Such a notion is explained by the fact that the lands where Islam emerged and is spread the widest are often the regions with sparsely available water resources. The fact that water was not abundant has likely played a role in the fact that water is an important element needed for Muslim prayers. The use of water in Islamic architecture, both for mosques and palaces, is shown in various scenes of the film. Water was used in mosques for washing before prayers and in palaces to enhance and highlight the beauty and magnitude of the buildings. In conclusion, the film Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World expands understanding of Islam through the depiction and explanation of Islamic art. It broadens the understanding of the Islamic traditions by challenging the widespread theories and highlighting the beauty and thoughtfulness of the creations of the Islamic civilization.

cross-culturally developed heritage

[maralpshenbay · 10/10 · 5 April 2020]

Islam, starting from that very time when it appeared, has affected all aspects of human lives from different parts of the world. This the youngest religion influenced tremendously directly participated in the formation of societies in multiple kinds of ways. Wars had broken out, states had been built, some adherents had grown, and Islam spread at an incredible rate. Islam can be seen, heard, felt everywhere were it ever existed. And this film was able to give an overview of Islamic art and culture with a magnificent girth of more than thousands of years and dozens of countries. It made a systematic review, approaching the topic of this width from such aspects of the Word, space, ornaments, color, and water. All of these could whisper to us a lot of unknowns. This movie review tries to emphasize the complexity and versatility of Islamic art again, by pointing to the cross-cultural nature of Islam.

The calligraphy is one of the central topics of the film. This is probably because the only thing that Muslims have to form Allah is his word. Therefore, manuscripts are found everywhere, the architecture of mosques, palaces all over the world. Seemingly totally different buildings from different parts of the world with their own architecture, techniques, materials, could become a precious part of Islamic art due to the presence of the single verse of God's words. On that account, it has been engraved to the places where Muslims were from the very beginning in the 7th century and became crucial for Islamic art studies. Nothing can show the intertwined nature of Islamic art better than the calligraphy. Muslim architects integrated Quranic words to the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem using local techniques (e.g. inscription in gold cubes). Another thing that makes Islamic inscriptions cross-cultural phenomena is that it attracts non-Muslim people just because of its beauty. This makes Quranic writings not just religious writing, but a piece of art. For example, Mohamed Zakariya, an American master of Arabic calligraphy, who only later became an American Muslim convert.

Space. Buildings, besides religious aspect, tend to perfectly reflect economic, social, cultural contexts of the time of construction. Having this in mind and also that the Muslim world extends through three continents, we could assume that buildings of the Islamic world will certainly differ across time and space. Starting from simple mud-brick mosques in Africa to the Suleimanie mosque. The latter being a symbol of cultural and political dialogue with Christian traditions prevailing in Istanbul before the conquer of Ottomans...

In my opinion, filmmakers decided to pay separate attention to the aspect of water, first of all, due to the scarcity of it in most of the part of the Islamic world. These tough conditions did push Muslims to develop in different ways. Engineering inventions of mass use can be a great example. Dozens of enormous water wheels in Syria, Qanats in Iran, reservoirs in Tunisia moving huge amounts of water from one place to another, definitely took part in the acceleration of flourishing agriculture and residential life conditions. All of those "devices" are another example of developing creativity and intelligence in the context of Islam. And the last reason why to include it was its religious role. It was given a sacred meaning to water by the very Holy book, the Quran. It is not allowed to pray without washing before. So water prepares Muslims both physically and mentally to prayer. That is where it intertwines with architecture and things of daily use like ceramic and metal vessels, etc.

The importance of this movie is that it was able to illustrate all the complex and intertwined heritage of the Islamic world. The way how it did spread from East to West and all over the world, accurately implementing the cultural features of the local communities, the latest inventions of engineers and being polished by the local environmental conditions, but still clearly preserving its core concept.

The amazing art of Islamic religion

[zhanarmukhtarova · 9/10 · 11 April 2021]

The Islamic Art Mirror is a documentary film, produced in 2019 and describes the fascinating architecture, art and culture of Islamic people. The film shows five ideas of art: "space", "word", "colour", "ornament" and "water", which show the full perception of people, bounded with the history and spread of Islam. The art in Islam is a sacred aspect, which saves the traditions and ideas of the religion, and after the years people still would be able to "read" this art, to increase their knowledge about the religion and to inherit the whole wealth of Islam. The high emphasis in a film was made on the fact that the art is a significant tool for uniting all Muslims around the world. The use of the universal language as art is a way of communication of all Muslims together, sharing the same patterns, ornaments and techniques. According to the lecture of Professor Beben, it is understood that you do not have to know or even read Quran to be a Muslim, you just have to commit that you believe in Allah. As well in the film all Muslims, who even do not know what Quran is about, could understand the divine power of art on the mosque and palace's walls and feel their relatedness to Islam and other Muslims. In the part about space the narrator argues that whether the style is used in creating the mosque, all of the buildings have the same purpose- to reflect how people receive and understand the prayer. The one idea is represented among the whole world, through different techniques, but serve to one religion of Islam and all Muslims could understand it. In the video, the researcher Oleg Grabar argues that you are not always expected to read, but if you are Muslim, you expected to relate to them, since you see the relatedness to Quran. A good example of such a building in Alhambra, built in the 14th century, where poetry is written on the whole building.

The calligraphy, which mentioned in the video, is one of the central features of Islamic Art. The importance of this art could be explained as a transition of sacred text among all Muslims. The calligraphies have to be so accurate and even hold the breath during the work, which shows how respectfully and patiently people treat everything, connected with their belief. Also, calligraphies are again is a way to communicate with God, through Quran and admire God. The ability to write in Islam was a gift since Islam considers that Quran was received by Prophet Muhammad, when he was forty years old, and it was a divine gift. Muslims write and read for their Lord and feel the presence of God when they could re-write or re-read Quran's texts. There is also the explanation of many ornaments and their history, which appeared in Islamic art. One of them is geometric, which closely related to Islamic practices such as praying and the importance to know to which side and the time Muslim have to pray. Another ornament is connected with the idea of heaven, therefore in many Muslims buildings decorated with flowers, trees and fruits as the representation of infinity and endless life. One of the ideas of image worship, which is described in Ahmad's reading also mentioned in the video. In the Islamic traditions, the have many sculptors of people, who do not exist and were done not for praying and in Islam the divine power also represented through non-figural designs. In Ahmad's article, he denies the relevance of Christianity and Islam by this aspect, saying Muslims do not practice image worship, since God is the only divine power, that could not be imagined. This show one of the differences of Islamic religion between Christianity and Buddhism as Muslims could not portray Allah for worship. It also explains the significance of the wall art and ornaments as the whole wall is a representation of the divine power of God. The art in Islam plays a tool as communication with God and praying with him. God as talking with people through these walls and ornaments, which bounded with sacred texts.

In conclusion, the film emphasizes the uniqueness and power of Islamic religion through the different forms of art. The art in Islam plays a significant role since it used to communicate and admire the Lord. Muslims believe that through sacred texts, ornaments and places they have the presence of God and he could hear them and speak with them. The most important role of the art in Islam is a unification of all Muslims into one big community, who follow one purpose to pray for their God. Muslims around the world do not have to be able to read Quran and understand it, but they feel their relatedness through the art. Also, art demonstrates the history and beliefs of Muslims, such as the appearance of heaven, praying to Mecca, etc.

Totally recommend

[aidanakaribzhanova · 10/10 · 1 November 2020]

"Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World" is a documentary film that was created in the format of interviews with historians, professors, engineers and many other professionals who had experience in studying the Islamic culture and art. Beautiful videos of Islamic historical sites and rarities are accompanied with the narrator's voiceover that helps the viewers to fully immerse to the culture and art inherent to the Islamic world. It was said in the documentary that "Art is what makes us humans" implying that material things can be beautiful, full of deep meaning and exciting regardless peoples' religion and culture. Thus, the documentary effectively emphasizes the importance of studying art inherent to the Islamic world in order to gain a broader knowledge about the intricacies of Islam by eliminating some uncertainties that may some people have concerned to it. The film is divided in 5 subparts: "word", "space", "ornament", "color", "water" and each part of the film gives us knowledge about Islamic culture that is gained through the analysis of art. Relying on history, it is known that the tribes of Arabia were united in the 7th century under one widely spreading faith of Islam. The diversity and wealth of Arab rulers gave the rise to that new complex civilization. The first and main aspect that describes Islamic art was the importance of the "word". As Quran is God's words that was sent to Muhammad in the cave in Mecca in 610 as a revelation to guide people "along the straight path" , God's sacred words needed to be well written. That is the reason why writing (calligraphy) is the central feature of Islamic world playing vital role in its art. The words of Quran are written in a beautiful way across the walls of mosques, palaces and even on different daily used objects. That shows that in the Islamic world it was important that objects of art and architecture could actually "speak". Moreover, it was and it is still very important to write these words of Quran without any little marks so that human hands' interaction to God's divinity will not be clearly noticed. The tradition of writing Quran's words in the features of art implies that by this way God speaks through walls. Thus, emphasizing the huge importance and divinity of Quran and God. Furthermore, beautiful calligraphically writings soon became ornaments. It is highlighted in the film that endlessly repeated ornaments on the walls of mosques and palaces, on textiles, or on ceramics imply the infinity, the possibility and promise of heaven. In general, by this way God is never represented and depicted figuratively, thus, there is no place for iconography in Islam , but God is actually seen and felt everywhere. Therefore, divine is non-figurative and not idolized in Islam. Arabic lands due to its dry climate are mostly represented by colors of dust. That is why in order to add notes of brightness shiny, bright colors were often used in a decoration of mosques, palaces and other different pieces of art including textile, ceramics, dishes with complex jewel inserts, etc. In other words, bright colors served as an encouraging bright place like heaven in the middle of dust. When it comes to the importance of space, it is highlighted in the film that Islam was spreading very fast and needed more common space for the believers to pray. That is how architecture in hypostyle form became popular in mosques' construction. The hypostyle form implies the series of columns constructed along the grid making the space open and infinite adding the feelings of spirituality to it. Moreover, such spaces of architecture that required high engineering and geometrical skills were also full of very complex and luxury decorations in terms of mosaics, paintings, frescoes, sculptures, inserts, etc. Especially palaces and mosques of the 16th century show the magnificence, power and richness of the Islam elite, but at the same time there were also simple mosques that perfectly served the same idea of a place to pray. The unusual and captivating example of such mosque is the great mosque of Djenne located in West African Muslim country Mali. Based on available resources as earth, mud and water the unique and diverse object of Islamic architecture was built there in 13th century. There the space for praying and divinity of God is felt by the play of lights and shadows among the 99 columns inside the mosque where 99 columns imply 99 sacred names of God. The outside part of the mosque is also covered with sort of ornament that was gained by the play of lights and shadows showing the beauty and power of God. Moreover, analyzing architectural style of mosques and palaces, it is seen that Islamic world was also in close contact with other religions and cultures. One such example is the mosque of Cordoba which represents the merger of Byzantine and Roman techniques with Islamic ones. Such kind of confluence of religions and their tolerance towards each other is also believed to be rooted to the prophet Muhammad's "Night Journey" where it is believed that he prayed with Abraham, Moses, Jesus . Another vital aspect in Islamic world and art, according to the documentary, is water. Relying on Quran, God made everything alive through water. As climate in Arabian lands is dry the engineering knowledge of providing adequate irrigation was very important. Bathing was also vital in Muslim culture as people had to be clean before praying to God. That is the reason why every mosque had special pools where prayers were able to clean up themselves. Moreover, such pools with water were also used as a beautiful piece of art as they amazingly enhance the architectural buildings playing with lights, reflections and shadows. Taj Mahal mausoleum is one of the greatest examples of such great usage of pool with water as a part of architecture and art. By the help of proper irrigation, Islamic gardens were also considered as a part of art that have deep meaning and role for Muslims. Islamic gardens looked like a box with an incredible amount of flavored plants and flowers that resemble promised paradise for the believers. To conclude, it should be said that Islamic art and architecture represent not only the beauty and magnificence of different unique objects, but they also mirror deep complexity and distinctiveness special to that culture. Complex techniques, creativity and intelligence of people can actually speak through the centuries representing the worship and faith to one God. As it was seen from above art and architecture sufficiently help to emphasize on important features inherent to Islam. Thus, beauty and complexity of art had calming effect on believers promising heaven to them and highlighting the incredible power of God.

Islamic art, the mirror of the invisible world.

[zhaziramustakhim · 10/10 · 3 November 2020]

Islamic art, the mirror of the invisible world.

This documentary can be an amazing introduction into Islamic art and architecture as well as into the basics of Islam as a religion. As it progresses, the film mentions the first article of faith, which is the belief in one God, gives a bit of historical background about the birth of Islam, mentions the importance of Quran and prayer, and connects them all to Islamic art and architecture. Sometimes, the movie juxtaposes western and eastern cultures, or Christianity and Islam to showcase the differences or commonalities in them. The documentary effectively showed how Islamic art incorporated local traditions and adapted, but nonetheless remained within certain boundaries set by the religion and retained some common features. The film gave a brief introduction to Islam and then moved on to discuss 5 different elements that are prolific in Islamic art and architecture.

The five elements mentioned in the film were calligraphy, space, ornament, color, and water. These elements played significant role in Islamic art because of the way they were incorporated into everyday objects and buildings, and set the Islamic art apart from other cultures' art. For each of the elements we could see numerous examples of great Islamic monuments, mosques, and palaces that spanned across the time and space. Looking at the mosque in Djenne, Mali, which is made of mud bricks, or the mosque Suleymaniye, in Turkey, with its multitude of domes and columns, it may seem at first that they have no common ground; however, each of them serves to remind the worshipers of the God and reflects their people's understanding of prayer. Thus, the film showed the diversity within the Islamic art and architecture and was able to impress me with the visual examples it provided.

Out of all the elements of Islamic art, calligraphy seems to be the most recognizable and easily spotted as an aspect of Islamic art. The Arabic verses that are used as part of the ornament are themselves messages from God, and are used to remind the people about the divine. The movie stresses the importance of the words - or writing - by connecting it back to the first revelation received by the prophet Muhammed which said: 'Read'. The Quran and its verses are recited by the believers all over the world, and the fact that Quranic verses are found in the Islamic art and architecture reflects the importance Quran holds for the people. To me, calligraphy is associated with Islamic art just as much as iconography is associated with Christianity, and I think the documentary effectively showed this by giving various examples from writings on the mosques and other buildings to writings on plates and other pottery.

Geometrical and floral patterns that are often seen as ornaments on mosques in East are as much of an element of Islamic art as calligraphy. The film mentioned the strong parallels between the floral patterns used in the architecture and the idea of an afterlife and the promise of paradise. This is another article of belief in Islam - the idea of an afterlife for all human beings. The geometric patterns are also deeply connected to the Islam and its people because they are used for navigation and calculation of the time for prayer. I found this part fascinating, because until I heard this mentioned in the documentary I had not thought about it this way. The documentary showed various examples of geometrical and floral patterns used in different buildings in different times and places, like the Alhambra Palace in Spain, Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, or Hagia Sophia in Turkey. Each of them reflected the culture of a particular time and context.

It was interesting to watch how Islamic art and architecture changed throughout the history and yet adhered to certain principles that are heavily influenced by Islam. The documentary suggested that as Islam spread from Arabia to distant parts of the world it grew and transformed often by absorbing and adapting to local traditions. The same goes not only for the Islamic art and architecture, but also for Islam itself. As the territories that practiced Islam expanded, so did the perceptions and understandings of the people about the religion. Each culture adapted their own ways to practicing Islam and within certain boundaries created the diversity we see today. I think that watching this movie may interest people in learning more about Islam and Islamic art and architecture.

Religious aspects of film

[elnorabdrhmnvq · 10/10 · 1 November 2020]

The film shows that after a long history of Islam and its struggle one of the greatest gifts it has given for civilization is its creativity and intelligence embodied in Islamic art. The nuance and elegance of Islamic art is appreciated regardless of one's belief and religion. The art is used to depict the true and deepest emotions and also aspirations of people who follow Islam. Other from reflecting the essence of Islamic world it also shows the development of Islam throughout the complex world with influence of different traditions. The given film effectively shows the role of art in muslim tradition and how it reflects culture and aspirations of people of that community.

First of all, the great emphasis of Islamic art on writings illustrates the importance of it to Islamic culture. As Jesus Christ, the son of God is a gift of God to Christians, Qur'an is a gift for muslims. Our'an teaches the law and the way of life, but most importantly it is very word of God. So, for muslisms the Qur'an is not just a holy book or poetry but it is word of Allah. As Allah revealed himself through words the art of calligraphy, or beautiful writing is the most important art in Islamic tradition. So the Qur'an is a focus of devotion and also the focus of art as people try to make manuscripts as beautiful as possible. And the use of word everywhere is the distinctive feature of Islam different from other religious traditions. Various breathtaking mosques including Taj Mahal and Alhambra while having enormous territory, are full of scriptures on their walls. These are the words from the holy book that are painted painstakingly with great precision and attention. People also used glass cubes with gold foils, the most expensive kind of cubes. In addition, special minerals as cobalt from Iran were used to create unusual and vivid colors. This also reflects the extraordinary wealth of Islamic leaders. The meticulous attention of people to materials needed to calligraphy as reed pen, tools used to sharpen it, usage of expensive animal skins and also special treatment of paper prior writing on it shows the relation of people to writing and its importance. For muslims, copying Qur'an was the experience of divine presence in those words, and it was a kind of prayer and meditation.

By looking at different objects of Islamic art we can figure out what are the important things for muslims. For example, the symmetry and organization of columns and other objects in mosques illustrates the importance of geometry in religious and also everyday life of muslims. The geometry is required to determine the direction of prayer and also the time of prayer and this constitutes the religious importance of geometry. Moreover, the knowledge of geometry also was needed while traveling as a map in a desert landscape where people lived. So, the importance of geometry was reflected in the design and decoration of mosques that is common in different mosques throughout the world. This shows how Islamic art especially the decoration of mosque's walls reflects important aspects of people who follow Islam. In addition, the decoration as use of ornaments, mosaic paintings were also important as they created a play of light and gave special experience or feeling in a sacred place. So due to light playing people experience differently in summer, winter, sunrise or sunset. And this gives unusual feeling that is accesible to everyone. The special thing about the ornaments is that regardless of who you are muslim or of other religion you'd appreciate the beauty of them. This may bring to conclusion that the beauty of islamic art that reflect people's thought cannot call for hostility. The other important point is the water in Islamic tradition. So there can be a lot of reasons why water is important in Islamic tradition. Firstly, this can be due to scarcity of water in early and also present day Islamic societies. Also, it says «God make everything alive through water» in Qur'an and water is needed prior to prayer. So it is a sign of cleansing in a literal and metaphoric way that helps to put muslims in the right mental framework to approach the divine. So, a common feature of mosques are ablution places with water and also gardens that contain water and plants, too. So, the architectural design shows the importance of water in Islamic culture.

It is clear that islamic art reflects culture and also history of Islam, its development throughout the time and its interaction with other traditions. From the lecture we know that at the very beginning of emergence of Islam there was no clear distinction that this is the new religion, and at first there was believer's movement that included Hebrew and Christians, too. So we don't have clear distinction from the early times. Also the interaction of different traditions are illustrated in designs and architecture of mosques. For example, the earliest Quranic words found in stone building in Jerusalem the Dome of the Rock that borrows the form from Byzantine martyrdom. The Dome covers massive rock where prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven on his mystical night journey. So here we see the coexistence of different religions and their connection with each other. However, the new features are apparent in a way that the Arabic inscriptions are depicted throughout the Dome. This careful and beautiful writing is an indication of new culture. The another depiction of influence of other traditions on Islam is shown in the example of Emperor Jahangir. He collected European and also Christian art, and there is a picture of him with halo, that is a christian item. These findings show that Islam coexisted with other religious traditions in a peaceful environment and in tolerance towards them. And indeed, emergence of Islamic religion was not a breakage of preexisting traditions but their continuation.

The art reflects people's aspirations and deepest feelings. In the film Muhammad al-Asad says that Islam contains different people but need in shelter is common for all muslims. So, people put tremendous effort in what they build and therefore they reflect a great deal about them. Buildings reflect economic, social and cultural values. For example, the ornaments represent heaven that is the promise of God for his people. It is clear that the concept of heaven is important for muslims as they believe in resurrection when people will be judged by their deeds. So for proper behavior and righteousness they were promised with heaven and indeed most muslims carry the image of heaven in their hearts. The other reflection of religious aspirations of muslims by islamic art is representation of flora and fauna in other words the creatures of God. God says: "To know me, know my creatures". And as there is no depiction of God in Islam as in Christianity or Hinduism, muslims believe that they will get closer to God by deeply looking on its creatures and understand their essence. This belief is reflected in art in a form of living paintings on walls and rugs.

To sum up, I think that the purpose of the film was to show how islamic art reflects the people who believe in Islam. And that the art is common for whole humanity, one doesn't need to learn Islam to understand its art, everyone regardless of his religious background can appreciate the beauty of it. It shows who are the people that follow Islam, their religious and cultural aspirations. And their treatment of art and Quranic words with great attention, patience cannot beget violence. The beauty of Islamic art and architecture is universal and it teaches peace and unity of people. Knowing the essence and understanding the different religions are important in our world where we have various prejudice towards religions. The Islamic art is a very way to compehend Islam and its teachings.

Film Review on Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World

[nuriyakuttymuratova · 10/10 · 1 November 2020]

The art, as a social phenomenon, is a window on a culture of population that reveals the social context in which it was produced. Developing this idea, the film "Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World" by Robert H. Gardner effectively explores the religious and cultural ideas embodied in the Islamic objects of art, namely in the Word, Space, Ornament, Colors and Water in cooperation with Mohammad Al-Asad, Sheila S. Blair, Jonathan M. Bloom and others.

The word is, ultimately, one of the most crucial fragments of Islamic art, which was given a veneration and special place not only in the Islamic artwork, but in the day-to-day objects. This is because Quran, the central religious text of Islam, is perceived as a gift from the God, the embodiment of the sacred constituting the divine presence, the very words of God. That is why people carried tiny Quran verses as amulets and most of the religious buildings, serving as places for the worship, had the verses of Quran engraved on the walls of the building, as if the God was speaking through the walls, directly to the worshipper (Lecture). The film explores the Alhambra, as well as the Dome of Rock in Jerusalem, a place, where the earliest dated words of Quran was found. Despite the architectural similarity with Christian martyrium, the Arabic inscription that arounds the circumference of the building is depicted as a feature that makes it uniquely Islamic in nature. Namely, the transcriptions emphasize the God's oneness, as opposed to the Holy Trinity of Christianity, marking the unique feature of Islam as a response to the Christian presence in the local community. The material used in the inscriptions are glass cubes covered in gold, the most expensive material, emphasizing the importance of the object that it was used for, which are also used in the Christian art: the gold cubes are used for halos or behind the figure of Christ, whilst Islamic artwork uses such cubes for the engraving Quran verses. This shows the difference in the religious thoughts, depicted in the works of art. This gave an insight to the conceptions of the Holy in different religions and its reflection in the religious art: there is an aesthetical and material importance given to these beliefs. Thus, the film is successful in explaining the features of Islamic arts, as well as drawing parallels with other religions such as Christianity. The importance of word is even more emphasized in the art of calligraphy. There was a great attention paid to the art of calligraphy, because the documentation of the Holy text played an important role in passing the words of God to people. For this reason, the art of calligraphy demanded a great devotion from the master, special tools and techniques of craft. Mohamed Zakariya, the master calligrapher, explains the delicacy of this artwork, which involves skills for the proper cut of a pen, paper treatment and the process. By so, the film explains the importance of the word, as a divine presence embodied in the body of art that is present in the Islamic artwork.

The organization of space also reveals the reflection of social and religious values in the Islamic art, as the film presents. The film shows the architectural uniqueness of the Islamic religious buildings: to house the Muslim population gathered for the prayer, the earlier mosques had to provide large enough space. For this reason, the mosques were built in the hypostyle form: supported by a series of columns, the building gave a feeling of an infinite space. This echoes the idea of Islam as the religion of Believers: Islam welcomed everyone, who believed that the God is one and followed the words of God. So to fulfil the religious needs of the large population, it demanded a spiritual place of large scales, which led to the adaptation of special architectural techniques. The columns also reflected the main Islamic ideas: for example, the mosque in Djenne, West Africa, has 99 columns, depicting the 99 names of the God. The film also shows how the Islamic architecture was influenced by different cultures, providing an example of the mosque of Cordoba, which mixed Byzantine and Roman techniques in Islamic style; the Dome of Rock, inspired by the local Byzantine martyrdom and the Suleymaniye mosque, inspired by the Dome of the Byzantine Church of Hagia Sophia. This reflects the adaptive and tolerant nature of the Islamic art, intertwined with the culture of its believers. The space also served as a symbol of power and luxury in the Islamic culture, as did the religious scriptures, as explained in the Lecture. The architectural advancement was the key in the art competition of Princes in the 16th century, who constructed expansive courts and palaces such as Alhambra and Topkapi palaces to show political power and wealth. The division of power was also present in the palaces itself, revealing the highly hierarchical structure of the princely community: the procession of the palace space from public to more private and restrictive highlighted the importance of individuals whom the private places belong to. The film explored the Topkapi palace in explaining these ideas, effectively highlighting the importance of space in the Islamic art.

The ornaments, colors, and water also reflected many of the Islamic religious ideas, one of which is the abundant use of flora, fauna and geometry in the works of art. The figurative art is not widely present in the Islamic art, mostly because of the fear of idolatry, which is forbidden in religious culture. It's believed that God said: "To know me, know my creations". For this reason, the artwork included the variety of animals, plants, geometrical patterns, stars, and so on. The film also showed the organization of pleasure palaces, showing the gardens as the model of the promised heaven, characterized by the abundance of flora, water banks, fruits and walled construction.

To sum up, the film provides exploratory insights about the Islamic art not only inspecting the aesthetical components of the artwork, but also linking it with the main religious ideas, political, cultural background and other religious traditions, thus giving opportunity not only to admire the beauty of the Islamic art, but also to look into the meaning behind it.

Uniqueness of Islamic Art

[aminakurmantayeva · 10/10 · 5 April 2020]

The "Islamic Art Mirror" is a documentary film that was directed by Robert Gardner. The documentary explores Islamic art and architecture made at different historical periods in different regions of the world, which made the film very entertaining. The movie was not only entertaining but also informative, because it included commentaries of specialists of Islamic art. The film is arranged by 5 themes that are commonly used in Islamic art: word, space, ornamentation, color, and water. This kind of organization made it more understandable and appealing to me. The main idea of the movie was to show the uniqueness of Islamic art. At the start of the movie, Ruba Kana'n-the specialist in Islamic art says: "It is not only about beautiful things, it is also not only about looking to specific techniques or how a beautiful object looks in the museum, but it is also more like a window on a culture". Robert Gardner did a great job in showing that Islamic art is not only beautiful, but it is also a reflection of the unique Muslim view of life and their spiritual things. The movie also shows that throughout the history Islamic culture was also influenced by foreign cultures. This review will show how Islamic art comprises Muslim beliefs and foreign cultures by focusing on word, space, ornamentation, color, and water. To start with, one of the commonly used components of Islamic art is the word. They are used in the walls of the mosques, Islamic decorations, and objects. Muslims put such emphasis on using words in art because Koran is the central religious texts of Muslims, which is gifted them by God, thus everything written there is of a high value for them. Thr usage of words in art is one more way to glorify God for Muslims. Because the usage of words is connected with God it was very important for Muslims to transmit the words in a formal aesthetic manner. Thus there is a prevalence of calligraphy in Islamic art, which requires a serious amount of dedication. The example of Mohamed Zachariya- a world-renowned master calligrapher, showed that Muslim calligraphy differs from other calligraphy in the sense that it should be carefully learned and mastered because calligrapher transmits God's sacred words. From the second important component of Islamic art- space we can see how different cultures, environments affected the art. The thing is that in the Islamic world space is usually associated with mosques, palaces, mausoleums- sacred places. However, in different regions, these places are constructed in different ways due to different factors. For example, some of them can be complex and large such as The Alhambra- a palace and fortress complex located in Spain and some of them can be as The Grand Mosque of Djenne in Mali, which is a humble building made by mud to erode easier during rainy seasons. As Jonathan M. Bloom- Co-Chair Of Islamic and Asian Art in Boston College says: "The differences between the very simple mosques and the very complex, highly engineered mosques are due to different local, cultural traditions." The third important component of Islamic art is ornaments. Almost all objects made in the Islamic world such as tools, paintings, textile contains ornaments, such as flowers, plants, which is associated with the idea of the sweet life in a paradise, the afterlife in which Muslims believe. Furthermore, geometry played an important role in ornamentation. This is because geometry was important for religion since Muslims used it very often in their religious practices, for instance, to calculate the proper direction of the prayer. Thus it was aestheticized in the art and a lot of objects are made in a geometrical design. This shows how ornamentation were associated with Muslim beliefs The other component of the Islamic shows the influence of Western culture in Islamic art is the color. In some cases, Islamic art and the use of vivid colors were influenced by Western art. For example, Islamic art in India under Jahangir shared a lot of features of Western art. Jahangir was interested in Western paintings and accepted gifts from European countries. Thus, Islamic paintings inherited some features of Western art. The last component used in Islamic art is water. Water is essential for Muslims because it is used to purify them before they pray. Thus, it was important to integrate water into mosques and palaces. This shows how religious practice- use of water- become a part of Islamic art. To conclude, the movie proved that Islamic art is more than just beautiful things, it is an integration of Muslim beliefs and the influence of nearby cultures, which makes the Islamic art so special. Islamic art transcends history, muslim culture and unites people from different historical periods. After watching the film, I will differently perceive Islamic objects, buildings. If by entering the mosque I saw beautiful and sacred place, from now on I will also pay attention to the art inside the mosque and its meaning.

Islamic Art Mirror of the Invisible World

[abilovaaya · 8/10 · 11 April 2021]

The documentary by Rob Gardner "Islamic Art Mirror of the Invisible World" explores the art and architecture of the Islamic world. It shows the profound and versatile nature of Islamic art through the ideas like space, word, color, ornament, and water. This documentary presents that religions do not exist as separate entities in the vacuum but adapt to the local culture, undergo changes due to political, social influence. Prof. Fred Donner claimed that Islam did not emerge "in the full light of history" because there are sparse references and written sources that are attributed to the early events and expansion of the new religion. After watching the documentary, it could be argued that the influence of other religions, political circumstances, and cultural changes are captured in Islamic art. Pieces of art witness transformations in people's values and understanding of rituals and reveal the history of the religion and how it changes through time.

Islam was intertwined with earlier religions like Christianity and Judaism in many aspects. A clear example of this could be the story of the Prophet Muhammad's "Night Journey" as told in the text of Ibn Ishaq. "There he found Abraham the friend of God, Moses, and Jesus assembled with a company of the prophets, and he prayed with them." (Ishaq, p 182). The documentary also draws parallels between Christianity and Islam showing the stone building in Jerusalem Dome of the Rock which bears great significance in the Abrahamic religions. The building's architecture in terms of shape, arches, and techniques was familiar to Christian architecture. However, the documentary highlights the importance of Arabic inscriptions. Writing is considered to be the central feature of Islamic culture and the use of the words everywhere from daily objects to manuscripts is what distinguishes Islamic culture. Sheila S. Blair considers the inscription on Dome of the Rock that God is one as a rebuttal to Christian belief that God is tripartite. The later renovation works conducted under Ottoman Empire show that the Dome of the Rock retained its significance over centuries. Another example of the complex interaction with previous religion could be the Suleymaniye mosque which was influenced greatly by the Byzantine church Hagia Sophia later converted to the mosque. Suleymaniye exceeding in many characteristics its successor was an attempt to outdo what was done before, however, it maintained the same tradition. Muslim princes compared themselves to Christian and Buddhist princes competing in the art thus, creating treasures of the Islamic art.

Another important feature of Islamic art could be argued to be its capacity to adapt and borrow. Islamic architecture was exposed to Roman, Byzantine, Sassanid, and other empires. The documentary shows this on the example of the earliest mosques - The great mosque of Damascus located in Syria build a century after the emergence of Islam in 715. The standard element of the mosques was mihrab, however, mosques were built and expressed in different ways historically. The mosque in Damascus reveals how mosques changed to fulfill the needs of the growing religion. D. Fairchild Ruggles argues that the creation of specializations like the call to prayer places for ablution show that religion becomes more hierarchical. Mosques in different parts of the world adopted local practices the illustration of this could be the great mosque of Cordoba which mixed the Byzantian and Roman techniques and incorporated local traditions in the elements like the architecture of arches. Which then developed into a distinct style of architecture of Muslim Spain by the 14th century. Agra's tomb commissioned by Emperor Jahangir in 1622 reveals Mughal, Persian, and local Indian heritage. Djenne mosque made of simple natural resources emphasizes the diversity of Islamic tradition as well as African local tradition. The capacity to adapt is revealed not only in the architecture but also in art forms like calligraphy which meld into the ornament inscriptions on the religious buildings. Islamic calligraphy was altered after the invention of paper which was introduced due to the interaction between China and the Islamic caliphate. Writing Islamic manuscripts is a popular form of religious art even in today's world.

The documentary presents other forms of Islamic art that included images, illustrated narratives stories like Shahname, poetry, textile. Breaking the myth that images of people were not drawn, and figurative art was not common. However, I believe an important part of the Islamic art, namely music is not included in the documentary. The coexistence of different ethnic and regional music that vary stylistically in Eastern traditions could be traced. Although there is a debate over the sinfulness of music, it is an integral part of the Islamic traditions: azan or call for prayer, reading and recitation of Quran in oral tradition, zikr in Sufi tradition, Sama in dervish tradition included playing music. Moreover, it would be interesting to see what place modern Islamic art and architecture like Sancaklar Mosque in Istanbul take.

All in all, the documentary explores the art and architecture also dives into the history of the large religion with many adherents from different backgrounds. It also discovers the interactions with other religions, highlighting the willingness to borrow and cultural interchange. However, not including the music could be considered as a weakness of this documentary.

Islamic Art: Mirror of the World

[ibragimmyrzaly · 10/10 · 5 April 2020]

"Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World" was filmed by Robert Gardner in 2011. The film displays the essential aspects of Islamic Art and their importance in Art while it is illustrating charming examples of them. The film is also accompanied by commentaries of several professional historians, which add an instructive feature to the film. Thus, the film was entertaining as well as informative for me. The main idea of the film was that pieces of Islamic art are reflections of the people and the context of the time when they were produced. The film explains the development of specific types of Islamic art and relates them to their historical context. In my opinion, we can also see from the film that Islamic art was influenced by local and foreign cultures in different countries during its development in the history while it has always had its uniqueness thanks to its main source that is Islam. The first aspect of Islamic Art was "word", which depicts one of the central topics in Islam. In Christianity, people mostly used the portrait of Jesus as a central figure of their architecture. Whereas Muslims emphasized on "words" of God in Islamic architecture because portraying God was infeasible. In addition, because the Quran was believed to be the primary words of Allah and a gift to humankind, "words" of the Quran was an essential feature of Islamic Art and architecture. Thus, Muslims tried to represent the divine with its words in Islamic architecture. The first sign of this Islamic architecture can be seen from one of the oldest Islamic building, the Dome of Rock. The design of the building reminded people Christian buildings, which design was widespread at the time of its construction. However, the characteristic of the building that make it Islamic construction is the writings on the wall taken from the Quran. Those words are made from expensive gold, while Christians used golds to make a portrait of Christ in their church. Thus, the architecture of Islamic buildings and attempt to represent the God at the central point of Islamic architecture was similar with pre-existing Christian culture, while the difference between Islamic and Christian tradition was in their attitude toward imagery, which arose as a result of differences in their belief to God. The second part of the "word" section of Islamic art contains calligraphy, which is an art of beautiful writing. Some people accepted it as one sort of prayer. Therefore, a reed and parchment, which were used in the process of calligraphy, were specially treated. When China invented paper, it changed the path of development of this Islamic art. From the 8th century, Muslims also started to use paper instead of parchment, which were less convenient to use, in calligraphy. Consequently, Islamic art and architecture seem to be influenced by pre-existing Christian architecture and foreign cultures throughout their development while the uniqueness of them was in their foundation that is Islamic belief. The second section of the film was spared for "space". When "space" is mentioned in Islam, one can recall mosques. Although the purpose of mosques was everywhere the same, providing a place for praying, they were constructed differently around the world. The first mosques were constructed with hypostyle design as the great mosque of Damascus was. While that design reached Spain, hypostyle form experienced new changes according to local Hispanic traditions as well as Byzantine and Roman techniques in the mosque of Cordoba. Through further development of Islamic architecture, Alhambra palace was built with a new design, which was unique to Hispanic Muslims, in the 14th century. Thus, Islamic architecture of mosques was affected by Hispanic traditions and other world cultures during its development in Spain. Whereas, under Ottoman rulers, magnificent palaces, such as Topkapi Palace, were build, which outreach palaces of other world princes in its luxuriousness. In addition, Sultan Suleyman ordered to build his imperial mosque, Suleymaniye under the instructions of architect Sinan. While they built the Suleymaniye mosque, they tried to outdo the architecture of Hagia Sophia that was built as a Byzantine church in the 6th century. Therefore, it implies that Islamic architecture in the Ottoman Empire developed through competing with other cultures. In addition, West African mosques, such as Djenne, had a traditional form of the interior, hypostyle design, while the outlook of the Djenne mosque is distinctive to local African traditions. Thus, Islamic architecture developed differently by being impacted by local and foreign traditions in different countries, although they all served the same purpose, praying. The third section of the film includes "Ornament". Behind the idea of ornamenting stayed a purpose of representing the possibility of heaven and God with worldly opportunities in Islamic art. Patterns, leaves and geometry were important in the ornament. Firstly, Islamic rulers competed with and imitated their comparatives, such as Christian and Buddhist rulers, in the ornamentation of their court. An important distinction was in their attitude toward figural imagery. Islamic art was vulnerable toward figurative art because of its fear of idolatry worship. For example, on the incense burner in the shape of lion (39:40) plant ornaments were used. Thus, it represented only the idea of a lion, but not an image itself. Moreover, on the box found from the palace of Cordoba's caliph, images of princely animals were depicted. However, usage of those types of figural imagery was limited only for the private life of rulers, as the usage of the box was. This implies that they were cautious not to spread the idea of idolatry with figurative imagery while they imitated Western art. Thus, Islamic elite ornamentation was influenced by foreign traditions during its development, while it also paid attention to its precision, figurative art. Secondly, Pietra dure was another technique of ornamentation, which Indian Muslims borrowed from ancient Romans. Thirdly, both Taj Mahal and Djenne's mosques are beautiful in their way, although ornamentation of them are in contrast. This is because they met different local norms of beauty and conditions. Thus, they show that the Islamic art of ornamentation developed differently under the different expectation of beauty. Consequently, the Islamic art of ornamentation developed in contact with other traditions while preserving its essence and precision. The next section of the film was for "color". Colors, especially vivid colors, was attractive for Muslims who lived traditionally in dust-coloured world. They used natural pigments to take different colors, which Muslims included in every aspect of their life. Firstly, different colors were used to depict epic tales, which included many images of people, on the walls of buildings. However, those buildings were intended traditionally for the private use of princes and courts. Therefore, as Oleg Garbar (1:01:34) stated, those images were not made for externalization, public use as Western art was. Secondly, the Islamic art of India was hugely influenced by Western art and flourished under Janhangir. He admired Western paintings, while Portuguese Jesuits made many gifts to Muslim communities. Therefore, Western concepts started to be involved in Islamic paintings, while colors that were used in paintings were successfully taken from natural ingredients some of which were indigenous to India. From later works, such as the memoir of Jahangir, influence of Western art to Islamic paintings and their sophistication in India can be easily seen. As a result, Islamic paintings were influenced by Western concepts during its development while Islamic communities were successful in producing vivid colors. The last section of the film was for water. Water was important in everyday life as well as rituals. Water, which was mostly used in gardens, played also an important role in Islamic architecture. In Africa water was a gift as well as a curse. Most of the buildings including mosques, such as Djenne's, were made with mud. Therefore, after a long period of rain, buildings require maintenance. To conclude, Islamic art was highly influenced by local and foreign cultures during its development in different countries while it still maintained its uniqueness. The distinctive feature of it from Western art was based on its Islamic belief. Islamic tradition may also have an impact on other cultures throughout history. Thus, Islamic art and architecture are an inseparable part of contemporary world civilization. Historical contact between Islamic and non-Islamic traditions might be also the factor behind how art can be a universal value. Because Islamic culture affected by non-Islamic traditions, it shares common values with other cultures. Therefore, people from non-Muslim communities can feel the beauty of Islamic art when they look at specific pieces of art even though they might not understand what is written on them. Existing works of Islamic art reflect a shared history of Islamic and non-Islamic traditions.

A Glorious Islamic Art

[emirkhandemir · 10/10 · 12 April 2020]

Film Review on Islamic Art Mirror of the Invisible World 2019 History of Documentary The producer of this documentary Rober Gardner created one of the immense feelings of Islamic culture in art. The strong connections between history and the art of Islam were shown in this special documentary. Rober Gardner starts this documentary from the emerging point of Islam. The emergence of Islam began in the 7th century when the Byzantine and the Persian empire experienced some massive wars. The Arabic tribes were the epicenter of the emergence of Islam. However, Islam itself and art of Islam was spread to most of the parts of the world. Gardner shows how the revelation of the holy Islamic text Quran played a key impact on Islamic art. Quran was considered as an illumination of Islamic art because Quran was something above the art. The text of God was creating shine to most of the Islamic arts decorated with Quranic texts. The most important Islamic art was considered as mosques. Almost all the mosques were decorated with a Quranic text, and this was giving all the meaning to its holiness and spirituality. However, it is also important to mention that according to Johnathan Berkey, "Muslims leaned heavily on the vocabulary of pre-Islamic art and architecture" (62). We can see that Berkey has a very great connection with Gardner's documentary. By stating this sentence Berkey almost summarizes the beautiful documentary of Rober Gardner. It is important to mention that all these beauties of Islamic were art spread all around the world. Most of the time holy Quranic text was decorated in golden colors and often was decorated with some beautiful mosaics. "They used them to fashion a distinctively Islamic visual language, one which in the religious sphere produced a simple but unambiguously Islamic artifact - the mosque" (Berkey, 62). This shows that Berkey was also witnessed an art of an Islam that was considered as Mosques. The style of writing of the Quran had a very deep meaning. These styles were considered as a turning point in Arabic writings. To learn some of these styles of writing people were spending too much time and effort. It was all magical when a person tried to write these scriptures. The documentary has shown that the Islamic art of writing exists in modern Turkey. Most of the people go and learn how to write Quranic text in a specific and beautiful manner. These special skills of writing connect us to one of the beautiful architecture of the world which was considered the Alhambra mosque in Spain. The special beautiful Quranic texts were covering all the mosque. This mosque was considered one of the concrete pieces of evidence of beauty in Islamic art. Mihrab in mosques considered as the point which emphasizes the Mecca and all Muslims in mosques are praying to that way. Some of the narrators explain the art which Mihrab contains. I also believe that the beautiful mosaics in Mihrab makes a person more respectful to God. Besides, Abdu Rabman or Cordoba mosque believed as a deep art that was designed similarly as the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, Syria. This mosque is known with its own unique wonderful column architecture. The mosques in Islam conations full of meaning because the colorful mosaics which shape the words of God give a feeling of connection to God. Also, Islamic art in mosques helps people to connect to the divine world with God. Most of the time mosaics help people to understand that the world was created from small pieces and these pieces' shape our lives. Rober Gardner points out that the Ottoman empire's Islamic architecture has its own meaning in the art of painting. The Dome of Rock mosque is one of the evidence Ottoman Empire's beautiful handcraft. The Ottoman Empire made this mosque more beautiful by painting it into gold and blue colors. The most unique mosque in Africa is the Djenne mosque which was made out of clay. This mosque was built in the 13th century by the West-African king. The architecture is known as a completely local because it was built out of clay and this gives a more unique atmosphere inside of the mosque. It was built with ninety-nine columns and the king named each one with God's ninety-nine name. Ornaments have a very deep meaning in Islamic art. Most of the time in Islamic art people see ornaments of animals which shows us a message of beauty. Most of the world's art creates ornaments on furniture like chairs or tables. Although Islamic art uses ornaments on carpets. These ornaments mostly connected to flowers. This style of ornaments was a symbol of knowing God and to understand his creatures. Flowers also symbolized the birth and death of a person. The next important type of Islamic art is considered as the art of color. The blue color of mosaics in the Isfahan mosque is a sign of a sky. I think that this is very divine because the sky connects to God and life. I also believe that these colors make people think about the Quran and the divine world. Some of the colors in Persian paintings of Shahname creates a world-famous art and stories. The colors in these paintings make people go deep into the history and mystery of the Persian stories. Water is the last important art in Islam. First of all, water symbolizes cleanness and it is important in Islamic law. Each person should clean themselves before each prayer so that why water symbolizes Islam. In addition, water symbolizes life, continuity and deep history because water doesn't change. Water evaporates and comes back so that why water contains deep history. Especially in mosques, we can see places where people can clean themselves with water. The author also mentions that water is beauty and life which creates some basic needs for survival and comfort.