The Global Influence of Islamic Culture
It may come as somewhat of surprsie
to most people that there is virtually no aspect of contemporary life that has
not be touched by Islamic culture.
From the earliest years of its inceptiom, Islam asserted itself as
as a religious as well as a political and cultural force on national cultures extending from Europe to China.
In the area of education, for instance, universities and colleges
today owe their presence and their curiculums
to the models of higher education to the maktabs or mosque schools, and great centers of learning that arose following the death of Muhammad. One of the earliest
centers of higher education, the prototype of the modern idea of the university was
the Bait al-hikmah or House of Learning that was established in Baghdad between 200-800C.E.
Arab-Islamic scholars, philosophers, mathematicians and scientists have also left a legacy of their work to the modern world.
In the field of medicine, figures such as Avicenna or Ibn Sina and
Abu Raihan al-Biruni, pioneered
the work of healing while physicists such as Ibn al-Haitham and Al-Khazini laid the foundations for modern optics, mechanics and hydrostatics.
Virtually every discipline that is pursued today--medicine, physics, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy--has foundations
in the scholarship of early Islamic scholarship. The pursuit of learning were strongly rooted in vision that
the exploration of God's world constituted a part of one's desire to know of his workings, and hence a part of one's reverence for him.
ilm or knowledge is given a very high priority in Islam and it's nourishing value to humans has been likened to the body's need for food.
Muhammad himself declared that "he who leaves the home in search of knowledge" in effects "wals in the way of God." Unlike modern scienticism, however,
the search for knowledge was not vested in objectivity but in the desire to be aligned with God's truth.
Islamic Art and Architecture
Calligraphy
Islamic artis unique in its scriptural rather than iconic nature, i.e., the fact that much of Islamic art is based on the integration of Arabic
writing rather than on the use images. This is base primarily on the Qu'ranic injunction against the
making of images and idols. The prophet himself was said to have once upbraided his wife
for some tapestries which she had hung up depicting birds and animals. She supposedly ripped up the tapestries and made them into cushions. the prophet incidentally did not seem to have objected
to this. The calligraphythat appears in most Islamic art is in
the form of verses from the Qur'an. These calligraphic forms may be seen in texts as well as on walls of buildings, tapestries, pottery and rugs.
Despite the injunction against images, Islamic art is not entirely devoid of representative figures of humans, birds or animals. However, while illustrations
were permitted in some texts, particularly scientific manuscripts,or narratives. The word of God itself, however, can never be illustrated. Manuscripts of the Qur'an are generally
surrounded by side panels richly decorated with abstract designs.
Architecture
When the prophet Muhammad came to Medina he built a house which became the focal point of the nascent religion he founded. THe site has since become a sacred location
but little is known about the appearance of the house itself. Descriptions of Muhammad's house are those of a much later date but scholars hypothesize that it was
probably akin to many of the structures that were built in the region during Muhammad's day. The house was probably built of sun-dried mud bricks with an open central courtyard.
In all probability it had surrounding porches whose column were made from the trunks of palm trees. Historians think that Muhammad's house had three features that would become
common in all Islamic edifices used for congrational prayer. These buildings or mosques would have a praying space, a, device to show the direction of Mecca known as the qibla,
and an overhead covering to protect the faithful from the elements. Early mosques were not decorated. The word mosque, derived from the Arabic masjid meaning "the place
of prostration" indicates the strictly functional intent of such structures. It was only during the later Umayyad dynasty that the caliph Abd al-Malik that architecturally
splendid buildings were erected in Damascus, Syria the new seat of Islamic power. However, it is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem built in 692 that can be claimed as the first example of
Islamic architecture. Borrowing elements from earlier Byzantine elements in Syria and Palestine the structure encloses a naturally occuring rock outcrop. This location has been
variously identified as the site of Adam's birth, the place where Abraham offered to sacrifice his son and the place of Muhammad's night journey. Structurally, the Dome of the Rock consists of
an octagonal building enclosing a central space. There is a lead-roofed wooden dome whose exterior is gold plated. The entire dome spans the rock, and there are four entrances to the central space.
The entire interior is magnificently arrayed with intricate mosaic work. Calligraphy done in gold and blue with quotations from the Qur'an ar inscribed for over eight hundred feet along
the arcade of the building.
Islamic Home Page
Web Sites on Islam
