Examination of Persian Miniature during the Islamic Middle Centuries Compared with Contemporary Visual Works: The Importance of Praying in the Holy Quran

Abstract

In order to enrich the Quranic themes in art not only the conditions of the artwork creation should be taken into consideration, but also the place of the intended theme in the Quran needs to be studied. In order to do so, first, pray-related Quranic verses were classified in terms of explanatory, preaching and law-giving attitudes. Then, pray-themed visual artworks were studied. The extent to which such attitudes have been attended to was mainly on focus in artworks during the past Islamic centuries compared with contemporary artworks. Among the golden ages of Islamic artworks, two miniatures from Timurid and Safavid eras were selected. Also, among the contemporary artworks, two artworks by non-Iranian Muslim painters and three artworks by the Iranian painters were examined. The research mainly aimed to identify the extent the visual works, since the past to the present, have been under influence of Quranic themes whether implicitly or explicitly. The theme of praying in the holy Quran and its reflection on the form and content of the visual artworks of the Islamic middle centuries as well as on those of contemporary ones was examined systematically considering the three predetermined attitudes. The methodology was descriptive-analytic. The results were based on a thematic approach towards Quranic verses and visual works.

Keywords

• miniature
• contemporary
• visual artworks
• quran pray