In the film “Islamic Art: Mirror of an Invisible World,” one of the scholars noted that (paraphrasing) architecture is seemingly timeless, for no matter who steps into a mosque, or another grand building, the sheer awesome power goes unnoticed, regardless of religious or cultural background. One city in particular for which I feel this sentiment holds true is Istanbul, shown in the picture above. As evident, the mosques–The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia among them–dominate the cityscape and even at a distant are truly intimidating in stature. I have selectively chosen for the mosques to remain in color while the rest of the cityscape is converted to black and white; in doing so, I have artistically chosen to illuminate the already stark contrast between the mosques and their surrounding buildings. In addition, I have intended for the color in the mosques to represent the necessity of Islam to the culture in Istanbul: the Islamic art and architecture in Istanbul defines the particular culture found there.
The grandeur of these mosques against the city skyline seems to coincide with Faurqi’s minimalist view of Islamic art and architecture. While grand, the mosques exhibit many repeating patterns, and show a nonexplicit form of God’s sheer power:
“Instead, all products of artistic creativity manifest such fundamental characteristics of arabesque as abstraction, modular composition, repetition, intricacy, dynamism, and successive combination all of which imply or hint at the divine attributes of unity and transcendence.” (Renard, Seven Doors to Islam, p. 129)
Even from a far, these buildings are striking in beauty and the intricacy of the architectural design is apparent; however, in line with Faruqi’s definition, the details serve to illuminate God, rather than represent some aspect of Islam, similar to the way in which the lamb represents Jesus in Christianity, or the way in which a lamp can represent a prophet in Islam. While I have never been to Istanbul, I am still in awe of the greatness and opulence displayed by these mosques. They not only are indicative of a great omnipotent deity, but they also go to show the great lengths human will undergo to express that sheer power which is shown but never fully encapsulated in art as such.