Aniconism in Islam

Overview

Avoiding the depiction of living beings in official Islamic art, especially in worship. This principle shaped the course of Islamic art towards calligraphy and ornament. ¹

Tasweer (making and keeping images, and the view on living beings)

Tasweer is making an image; a likeness is what matches a thing and reproduces its form, three-dimensional or flat, and may be fleeting, like a reflection or a shadow. Making images of man-made objects is lawful by agreement; of inanimate creation, lawful unless made for worship; of plants, lawful by the majority (Mujahid alone forbade fruit-bearing trees). The prohibition concerns images of living beings. On images of humans and animals the jurists give three views; one permits them except a worshipped idol, another permits flat images but forbids three-dimensional ones with shadow when complete in limbs, and the entry proceeds to the third.

At a glance

Overview

People and things also explored

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Objects

Tasweer (making and keeping images, and the view on living beings)