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Arabic miniature

Various examples of pages from Arabic illuminated manuscripts.

Arabic miniatures (Arabic: ٱلْمُنَمْنَمَات ٱلْعَرَبِيَّة, Al-Munamnamāt al-ʿArabīyyah) are small paintings on paper, usually book or manuscript illustrations but also sometimes separate artworks that occupy entire pages. The earliest example dates from around 690 AD, with a flourishing of the art from between 1000 and 1200 AD in the Abbasid caliphate. The art form went through several stages of evolution while witnessing the fall and rise of several Islamic caliphates. Arab miniaturists absorbed Chinese and Persian influences brought by the Mongol destructions, and at last, got totally assimilated and subsequently disappeared due to the Ottoman occupation of the Arab world. Nearly all forms of Islamic miniatures (Persian miniatures, Ottoman miniatures and Mughal miniatures) owe their existences to Arabic miniatures, as Arab patrons were the first to demand the production of illuminated manuscripts in the Caliphate, it wasn't until the 14th century that the artistic skill reached the non-Arab regions of the Caliphate.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Despite the considerable changes in Arabic miniature style and technique, even during their last decades, the early Umayyad Arab influence could still be noticed. Arabic miniature artists include Ismail al-Jazari, who illustrated his own Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices,[7] and the Abbasid artist, Yahya Al-Wasiti, who probably lived in Baghdad in the late Abbasid era (12th to 13th-centuries), was one of the pre-eminent exponents of the Baghdad school. In 1236-1237, he is known to have transcribed and illustrated the book, Maqamat (also known as the Assemblies or the Sessions), a series of anecdotes of social satire written by Al-Hariri of Basra.[8] The narrative concerns the travels of a middle-aged man as he uses his charm and eloquence to swindle his way across the Arabic world.[9]

With most surviving Arabic manuscripts in western museums,[10] Arabic miniatures occupy very little space in modern Arab culture.[11]

  1. ^ Mihram, Danielle. "Research Guides: Medieval Studies and Research: Manuscripts: Art & Techniques". libguides.usc.edu. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  2. ^ "Miniature Painting". The David Collection. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  3. ^ "Islamic Miniature Painting and Book Illumination" (PDF). Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 28 (10): 166–171. October 1933.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Dutton, Yasin (2016). "Review of Qur'ans of the Umayyads: A First Overview (Leiden Studies in Islam & Society), François Déroche". Journal of Qur'anic Studies. 18 (1): 153–157. doi:10.3366/jqs.2016.0227. ISSN 1465-3591. JSTOR 44031130.
  6. ^ Richard Ettinghausen, La Peinture arabe, Genève, Skira, 1977, 209 p.
  7. ^ al-Jazari, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices: Kitáb fí ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya, transl. & anno. Donald R. Hill. (1973), Springer Science+Business Media.
  8. ^ "Baghdad school – Islamic art". Britannica. www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  9. ^ Esanu, Octavian, ed. (2017-11-22). Art, Awakening, and Modernity in the Middle East. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315121970. ISBN 978-1-315-12197-0.
  10. ^ "الكنوز الضائعة.. هكذا انتقلت أشهر المخطوطات العربية إلى مكتبات العالم المختلفة". ساسة بوست. 2017-08-30. Archived from the original on 2022-10-05. Retrieved 2022-05-27.
  11. ^ Thābit, Mahmūd; Albin, Michael W. (1977). "The Tragedy of Arabic Manuscripts, (1)". MELA Notes (12): 16–19. ISSN 0364-2410. JSTOR 29785032.

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