Aniconism in Islam

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In some forms of Islamic art, aniconism (the avoidance of images of sentient beings) stems in part from the prohibition of idolatry and in part from the belief that the creation of living forms is God's prerogative.

The Quran does not prohibit visual representation of any living being. The hadith collection of Sahih Bukhari (sayings attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad) explicitly prohibits the making of images of living beings, challenging painters to "breathe life" into their images and threatening them with punishment on the Day of Judgment.^[1][2] Muslims have interpreted these prohibitions in different ways in different times and places. Religious Islamic art has been typically characterized by the absence of figures and extensive use of calligraphic, geometric and abstract floral patterns. Historically, the hadith might reflect an aniconistic atmosphere at the time in the Middle East. Only a few decades early to Bukhari nothing this hadith, Christian authorities of Byzant opposed depictions of figurative arts, as statues and images were believed to be inhabited by devils. This sentiment might have been adapted by Muslim authors at that time, explaining the different attitudes towards images throughout Islamic history.^[3]

However, representations of Muhammad (in some cases, with his face concealed) and other religious figures are found in some manuscripts from lands to the east of Anatolia, such as Persia and India. Other forms of figurative arts existed since the formative stage of Islam.^[4] These pictures were meant to illustrate the story and not to infringe on the Islamic prohibition of idolatry, but many Muslims regard such images as forbidden.^[1] In secular art of the Muslim world, representations of human and animal forms historically flourished in nearly all Islamic cultures, although, partly because of opposing religious sentiments, figures in paintings were often stylized, giving rise to a variety of decorative figural designs. There were episodes of iconoclastic destruction of figurative art, such as the temporary decree by the Umayyad caliph Yazid II in 721 CE ordering the destruction of all representational images in his realm.^[2][5] A number of historians have seen an Islamic influence on the Byzantine iconoclastic movement of the 8th century, though others regard this is as a legend that arose in later times in the Byzantine empire.^[6]