14.0: Chapter Introduction
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- 180561
Introduction: Christian Images on an Islamic Vessel?
In the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery, there is an object simply called “Canteen.” With its rounded body and narrow neck framed by looped handles, its silhouette is remarkably like a modern canteen—at least from the front. From the side, its shape is more unusual: domed on one side, and flat on the other, with a well-like depression in the center. Its shape is not the only unusual thing about it, though. Made from hammered brass and covered in elaborate silver inlay decoration, the Canteen weighs more than 10 pounds, empty—not exactly a practical travel flask. The decorations, which combine apparently Christian imagery with Arabic calligraphy and secular scenes, further deepen the mystery of the object’s purpose, patron, and usage.
The central image on the domed side, contained within a round, meander-like border, features a woman seated on an elaborate throne, holding a child on her lap. Especially since both have halos—the latter with a cross—they are recognizable as the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. Surrounding it, other rondels contain scenes from the life of Jesus, such as the Nativity, Presentation at the Temple, and Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. However, other imagery on the Canteen is distinctly more secular: men on a lively hunt with their birds and dogs, and scenes of princely pleasures, as seen around the Islamic world and in Norman Sicily. Inscriptions in Arabic calligraphy bestow wishes upon the owner for wealth, safety, and good fortune. On the flat side of the Canteen, the outer ring of decoration features standing figures who resemble Christian saints. At their feet, silver horsemen circle an opening, wielding lances, swords, and crossbows.
The Canteen was probably made in Mosul, Syria, between 1202 and 1250, when Muslims of the Ayyubid dynasty ruled the town. Because it was made under Muslim rule, it fits the definition of Islamic art, even though it features imagery used by Christians. The same is true of manuscripts made for the Syriac Christians who lived under the same rule. This overlap—between Christian and Islamic art, between geographical regions, and between sacred and secular imagery—characterizes much of the art of this period.
One reason for this hybrid aesthetic is travel: pilgrimage continued to draw the faithful to various sacred sites, the most prized of which for Christians were in the so-called Holy Lands, the parts of the Middle East where Jesus was born, had his ministry, and died. The shape of the Canteen is similar to (much smaller) “pilgrim flasks,” vessels used to transport holy liquids from revered sites on these pilgrimage journeys, and one theory is that the Canteen was made as a souvenir to commemorate the wealthy owner’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the surrounding area.
The Holy Lands were not only sacred to Christians, however, but also to Jews and Muslims; recall that the Islamic Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem occupies the site of Solomon’s Temple, one of the holiest sites in Judaism as well as an important site in the life of Jesus. The desire by Christians in the Latin West to “reclaim” the Holy Lands from the Muslims led to a series of so-called holy wars known as the Crusades, beginning in the late 11th century. The Christians were ultimately unsuccessful in holding control of Jerusalem long-term, and along the way, they killed many Jews, fellow Christians, and Muslims. Nonetheless, from this idea of holy war emerges the figure of the Christian knight, a warrior defending not his liege lord or chieftain, but the very glory of God. Another theory holds that the Canteen was made not for a pilgrim, but a Crusader, for whom a “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem was a primary goal.
As discussed in the last chapter, there is significant overlap between the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Mary and Jesus, featured on the Canteen, are holy figures who are revered in the Qu’ran. It is important to remember that sacred Islamic art, as distinct from secular art of the Islamic world, rarely ever depicts animate beings (people or animals), considering that to be idolatry. The prohibition on depicting animate beings in sacred Islamic art does not extend to secular objects, nor to figurative representations of inanimate objects such as plants or buildings; recall the vine and jewel motifs that, along with calligraphic and geometric elements, decorate the interior of the Dome of the Rock.
On the flat side of the Canteen, nine figures on horseback ring the central depression. They carry lances or crossbows, and sit astride heavily-draped horses. Earlier scholars identified these as Crusaders, which is in keeping with the ostensibly Christian imagery elsewhere on the Canteen. More recently, however, David Nicolle, a historian of medieval warfare, has argued that these images instead accurately illustrate equipment and techniques used by the Ayyubids—in keeping with the Arabic inscriptions on the canteen. For art historians Heather Ecker and Teresa Fitzherbert, regardless of which group is portrayed, the figures “suggest the ideals of the warrior saints venerated by crusaders and Muslims alike as supporters in the ongoing battle of good against evil and the quest for salvation.” Nuha Khoury has pointed out that an Islamic text popular during the Crusades, called The Merits of Jerusalem, has Jesus seeking Ayyubid help in ridding his city of Crusaders. She proposes that the Canteen and related objects with imagery perhaps derived from Christian Syriac sources can be read as part of the counter-Crusade that united Christians and Muslims of the Holy Land. Throughout this chapter, there will be numerous examples of art that visually documents the influence various groups have on one another, as their cultures come into contact—sometimes violently, but often peaceably, as well.
An object very much like the canteen that opens this chapter must have made its way to China, where it inspired another impractically large canteen—this one made in porcelain. The connections between the Islamic world and China, via the Silk Road, were particularly strong. This porcelain canteen visually displays the hybrid connections and cross-cultural influences between China and the Islamic world on multiple fronts.
As the National Museum of Asian Art describes, the eight-pointed star featured in the center of the porcelain canteen is a symbol often used in Islamic art, here appropriated for aesthetic purposes. And although the shape, size, and design of the canteen was likely copied from a canteen such as the Freer canteen, discussed earlier, the museum writes that “the technique used to create this canteen reflects its origin in China. The material of white porcelain decorated with cobalt (blue) designs was a Chinese invention. The heavy weight of the canteen seems to suggest that it was made for decorative or ornamental purpose rather than for actually carrying water. It may have been hung on the wall or placed on a flat surface in a wealthy patron’s residence.”
Historiography (Writing History)
As discussed in the last chapter, there are many possible ways to approach the art of the Middle Ages, and history does not naturally fall into distinct chapters. Art history survey texts often address the art of Byzantium and of Islam separately, which has the tendency to privilege the cultures of northern and western Europe over their neighbors. This textbook instead treats the Middle Ages chronologically, dividing the period into Early, Middle, and Later Medieval and addressing not just northern and western Europe, but concurrent developments and exchanges to the south and east. This, the second of these three chapters, addresses art of the Middle Byzantine Empire, Abbasid Caliphate, Ottonian and Romanesque periods, as well as art of the Crusades. An effort has been made to balance the attention given to each of these separate but interconnected cultures.
As a reminder, this is the way the three Medieval chapters are broken down:
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Chapter |
13 |
14 |
15 |
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Title |
Medieval I: The Reorganization of the Roman World & the Rise of Islam |
Medieval II: Contested Empires, Christian and Islamic |
Medieval III: Reorganization of the East |
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Dates |
333-843 |
843-1260 |
1260-1453 |
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Material covered |
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Islamic Iconoclasm?
It is sometimes mistakenly claimed that Islam does not allow for images of people, or entirely lacks a tradition of figurative imagery. Although art in sacred contexts, such as Qur’ans and mosques, rarely ever contains images of animate beings (people or animals), secular art of the Islamic world abounds with those representations. Readers have already encountered the statue of a caliph at Khirbet al-Mafjar and figures riding and climbing in ivories from Muslim palaces in Spain. Other examples of figural imagery include the earliest Umayyad coins featuring images of the rulers, illustrations of humans and animals in early Arabic manuscripts, and Abbasid lusterware depicting people. As Christiane Gruber explains: “The Koran does not prohibit figural imagery. Rather, it castigates the worship of idols.” Episodes of iconoclasm have occurred in both Islam and Christianity, and efforts to eliminate images of particular persons have an older history, including Roman damnatio memoriae and the attempt to erase Hatshepshut from Egyptian history.
Terminology
Saxon, in this chapter, refers to a group of people living in what is now Germany rather than to Saxons discussed in Chapter 13. Both groups originated in the same area of northern Germany.
Ottonian refers to the kingdom established by Otto I in 936 and recognized by the pope in 962 as the Holy Roman Empire.
In this chapter, you will also read about pilgrims and pilgrimages, referring to people going on religious journeys, often to religious sites in distant cities. The journey itself, often long and arduous, contributes to the traveler’s personal and spiritual growth. As explored above, the Freer Canteen could have been an elaborate vessel made to both commemorate a pilgrimage and enable the owner to return home with holy liquids from a sacred site.
Chapter Overview
This chapter presents objects and buildings made across a vast terrain, spanning as far apart from one another as the British Isles and Afghanistan; Spain and Iran; and Egypt and Norway. Religious and linguistic differences are as broad as the rift in geography. The Islamic world stretched from what is now Spain to India, including the east coast of Africa in addition to the south coast of the Mediterranean and, at times, major islands like Sicily. The Christian world was also large, reaching from Iceland to Ethiopia. In both the Christian and Islamic world of this period, political and sectarian divisions are easier to define than they were in the Early Middle Ages.
Islamic Divisions
As soon as Islam spread out of Arabia, it attracted multi-lingual adherents, but it is not until the Abbasid dynasty that other languages—especially Farsi, the language of Persia—began to be used in government and literature, though never for the Qur’an. Major political and sectarian rifts appeared. The Umayyad dynasty, deposed by the Abbasidss in most of the Islamic world, survived in Spain. Both were Sunni Muslims. The Fatimids in Egypt were the first powerful Shiite rulers.
Christian Divisions
In the Christian sphere, Europe west of the Adriatic used Latin as the language of the church and, often, of the law. The Latin church recognized the Pope as its leader.The Bible and the liturgy had been translated into Latin in the Early Middle Ages, and the church insisted on its use, rather than that of any of the many local languages. In contrast, the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire always accepted local languages for religious use. Copts, Syrian Christians, Armenians, Georgians, and others continued to use their own languages and alphabets. Some Christians living under Muslim rule began to use Arabic for their Christian texts. The spread of new alphabets and new translations continued as missionaries devised alphabets for Slavic languages in the ninth century. Patriarchs led the church, coming together to resolve issues, although in practice close connections with the imperial court gave the Patriarch of Constantinople more power. Divisions dating back to the fifth century divided Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, and some Syrian Christians from the Orthodox church. By the eleventh century, the Latin and Greek churches were firmly opposed to one another’s beliefs about the Pope. In 1204, Crusaders captured Constantinople.
Christian Eras
Products of the Byzantine Empire from 843 (when iconoclasm ended) to 1260 (when the Crusader occupation of Constantinople ended) are generally classed as Middle Byzantine. This was a period of relative stability, during which Byzantine influence extended among Slavic people to the north and west, embracing them in a worldview in which Christianity was the conduit for connections with the Greco-Roman world, especially in art. These dates roughly bracket a period of expansion and confidence in the Latin West, as the Vikings adopted Christianity (becoming the Norse in Scandinavia and the Normans elsewhere), Otto and his descendants organized into a new Holy Roman Empire, pilgrimage flourished in England and what is now France and northwest Spain, and armies formed into crusades to reconquer lands held by Islam.
Islamic Diversity
A fruitful fragmentation of Islamic rule characterizes roughly the same period in the Islamic world. With the Abbasid overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty in 750, ethnic, philosophical, and linguistic diversity expanded in Muslim lands. Instead of the predominantly Arab Umayyad elites, Abbasid elites included local populations in Egypt and Syria. They moved their capital east, creating the city of Baghdad, a city of libraries where scholars merged Arab thought with the cultural traditions of Greece, India, and Persia. What is now Spain and Portugal remained under Umayyad control, and other Islamic states arose in central Asia. Islamic Turkmen migrated out of central Asia, adopting Persian as their administrative language and eventually ruling much of what had been the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire under what was called the Sultanate of Rum (Rome). This Golden Age of Islam ended in 1258, when Mongol armies sacked Baghdad. What appeared then as an unmitigated disaster for Islam had a very different effect starting in 1305, when the Mongols in Islamic and neighboring lands chose Islam as their religion.
Objects Overview
This chapter deals with cultures who are both in communication and conflict with one another, all striving to present themselves as the most powerful, the most learned, and the most godly. Christians used religious imagery to reinforce and spread the tenets of the faith. Ornate reliquaries encrusted with precious materials, stone sculpture on church facades, massive and glittering mosaics, and portable icons, all broadcasted the power and message of Christianity—in competition, and sometimes dialog, with its powerful rival, Islam. For its part, Islam continued to spread rapidly within and beyond the Middle East, with leaders constructing massive mosques and madrassas. The city of Baghdad, capital of the Abbassid caliphate, became the largest city in the world, a center of scholarship and study as well as of luxury. Items discussed in this chapter include:
- Four Psalters showing very different ways of relating the Hebrew Psalms to Christianity: The Paris, Khludov, Eadwine and Melisende Psalters.
- Probably the most admired palace of the Middle Ages, the Alhambra, and decorations from three very different palaces: Roger of Sicily’s Palatine Chapel, a Seljuk palace, and one in Afghanistan.
- Churches and mosques with inventive carvings both inside and out in Durham, England; Toledo, Spain; Hosios Loukas, Greece
- Magnificent mosaics in Hagia Sophia, Constantinople and in monastic churches at Daphni and Chios; The Great Mosque of Isfahan, Iran; and the Norman churches of Sicily
- Frescoes in St. Clement, Catalonia; St. Panteleimon, Nerezi, North Macedonia
By the time you finish reading this chapter, you should be able to:
- Explain the significance of Baghdad and Arab interest in pre-Islamic learning
- Give examples of architectural traditions and connections in Islamic art and architecture from across North Africa, the Middle East, and the Al-Andalus
- Compare how the hypostyle and four-iwan mosques, Castillian synagogues, and Romanesque pilgrimage churches accommodated their respective congregations' needs
- Identify the parts of a Romanesque portal and compare differences in representation between the tympana of Conques and Moissac
- Compare the styles and content of the Utrecht, Edwine, and Paris Psalters
- Outline Byzantine arguments for and against the use of religious images
- Compare a depiction of the emperor in a Middle Byzantine mosaic to the one in San Vitale
- Describe how Middle Byzantine art represents Christ and/or figures of authority
Want to Know More?
- Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, Durham Cathedral, for Smarthistory
- Sr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris, Theotokos mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, for Smarthistory
- Sarah J Biggs, Twelfth-Century Girl Power, for Medieval Manuscripts Blog
- Melissa Salpietra, Physics of Stone Arches, for PBS NOVA (interactive arch-building; requires Flash)
- Dr. Ariel Fein, The Cappella Palatina, for Smarthistory
- The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843–1261, for the Met Museum
- Matthieu Aikins, How One Looted Artifact Tells the Story of Modern Afghanistan, for The New York Times (listen to or read the story using the link)
- Dr. Robert G. Ousterhout, Middle Byzantine church architecture, for Smarthistory
- Alex Duval Smith, Timbuktu's Djinguereber mosque: a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 5, for The Guardian
- Jerrilynn Denise Dodds (ed.), Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain, for the Met Museum
- The Norman Sicily Project, Resources for the Study of the Norman State in Sicily, 1061-1194
- Once Upon a Time in the Alhambra: The Thousand and One Stories of the Red Castle, for Google Arts & Culture
- Christiane Gruber, The Koran does not Forbid Images of the Prophet, for Newsweek
- Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, A Taste for Textiles: Designing Umayyad and ʿAbbāsid Interiors, for Dumbarton Oaks
- The Great Mosque of Isfahan, for MIT’s Archnet
- The Utrecht Psalter, with explanations of the imagery, for Utrecht University
- Dr. Robert G. Ousterhout, Regional variations in Middle Byzantine Architecture, for Smarthistory