Medieval Window Art of the Islamic World

An architectural style of ornate window in medieval Islamic world. 

Roselight Arabesque tinted glass with floral glow suggesting interplay of patterned marble and floral glass.  A popular and delicate architectural style across the medieval Islamic world.  This ornate hush in tinted light evokes beauty and craftsmanship.  These windows were not for viewing the exterior, the purpose was to admit more light into the interior with lesser glare   🪟🥀

Coffee-shop in Damascus ☕

 

Serene coffee-shop in Damascus, Syria 1870s with a mezzanine floor and lattice balustrade.  Oil on canvas effect.

Visit link to read the history of coffee in the Muslim world; that is where coffee started.

A townscape in north-west Turkiye late 1800s

 

Marmara and western Black Sea region close to Bursa — thr first official capital of the Ottoman Empire in 1326.

Vibrant watercolor, bringing the vision of a marvelous architectural layout of a town on canvas.

Beauty of the Noble Quran exceeds everything 💖

   

Noble Quran Verses on spider web rose style textured woolen embroidery.

Pomegranates

 

Visions of Jannah — glowing with freamy realism, jewel-like aril seeds and gold-green leaves swirling around the pinkish-red pomegranates like a memory in motion 💗

Ethereal art with vibrant water color effect.

Variation —  simple watercolor effect.

Letter Writer Medieval Algeria

 An old scholar and a professional leter writer, drafting a poetic letter for a young lady she wants to send to her fiancé.

This does not suggest that the customers of letter writers were illiterate. Literacy rate particularly within the female population was highest in the Muslim world in the middle ages.  

Letter writing in medieval Muslim society went much beyond the representation of official documents and written communications between office holders and dignitaries.  

Letter writing, on the other hand, was an intellectual profession in this period and a component of the intellectual life of the society.  Every letter writer had their own eloquent flair of artistic prose and decorous metaphors that gave a special rhythm to the text of every personal missive. Even the selection of the pen and its nib was in accordance with the type of paper on which the message was written.   Letter writers in medieval Islamic world were culture-specific professionals.

The rapid shift from oral to written culture within the Islamic world also had another contributing factor, that is, the growing availability of paper with the passage of time.  Writing was the outlining and shaping of letters to indicate spoken words which in turn display the quality of the human soul.   Written messages were enduring while oral communications were far more temporary.  Spoken words take little time to be forgotten.  But written text remain as the thoughts and intents of successive generations leading to the formation of culture and history.

Writing letters was an important sphere of intellectual life in the Middle Islamic period.  It was an excellent source of information for much of the cultural history of medieval Islamic society, exhibiting the concept of "power of the pen."    It also made it easier to discern the differences and similarities of the medieval Islamic culture in comparison to the western values. 

Often referred to as the "Adab" (أدب‎)  literature, it was more or less synonymous with epsitolography reflecting the mind through eloquent writing.   It isn't just the decor of the tongue but also of the fingertips.   

The sizable collections of letters, written mainly in artistic prose, can be categorized as the letter-writing genre in the middle Muslim era.  It surely reveals that Muslim letter-writing in the medieval Islamic era was very culture oriented.                                                      
Without a doubt, the era of letter writing in medieval Islamic world had left a rich legacy to Western societies  📝                           

The Riq 🎶

 

Turkish girl playing the riq while the nightingale sings.  Medieval Ottoman era.

Riq is the modern tambourine that originated in Arab classical music. Traditionally the riq is made with a wooden frame, fish or goat skin head, and brass or copper jingles (zills). Decorations often include intricate mosaics or mother-of-pearl inlay work. Modern versions frequently use synthetic materials like plastic or polyester instead of fish or goat skin.  It features five pairs of jingles and requires a high level of skill to play, involving intricate finger-roll techniques.

In Islamic civilization, the riq became a central and "noble" instrument in court music, serving as the rhythmic foundation for ensembles featuring instruments like the oud (ancestor of the European mandol) and qanun (or the piano of the east). Its name derives from the Arabic word رق.

The culture of riq spread to Europe via the Islamic influence in Spain during the Al-Andalus period; and also through the Ottoman influence in 17^th and 18^th centuries.  Europeans later named this musical instrument "tambour" leading to the name tambourine.

It continues to be an essential instrument in traditional classical and folk music in the Muslim world from Turkiye across North Africa, Northern Middle-East and Iran.

In the Muslim world, the riq is more than just a simple tambourine; it is an instrument that embodies centuries of rich musical tradition and cultural expression.