Muhammad's image subject of art in past
Steve Dufour
http://www.washingtontimes.com
Muhammad's image subject of art in past
By David R. Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published February 8, 2006
Lost in the furor over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad is the fact
that his likeness has long been portrayed in the collections of some of
the world's greatest museums and libraries without exciting alarm or
comment.
While rare in the 1,400 years of Islamic art, depictions of
Muhammad are found in the collections of such institutions as New
York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France
in Paris and the Edinburgh University library.
Muhammad has been portrayed in the work of revered Muslim artists
and of such Western figures as William Blake, Auguste Rodin and
Salvador Dali -- as well as the creators of the cable-TV cartoon series
"South Park."
None of those depictions aroused the anger seen in reaction to a
set of satirical cartoons that appeared in Danish and other European
newspapers -- a violent response that continued to roil the Muslim
world yesterday.
Three Afghans were killed and dozens wounded in a firefight with
NATO peacekeepers in southern Afghanistan. Demonstrations also took
place in Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, the Philippines and the
Palestinian territories.
In Washington, President Bush called Danish Prime Minister Anders
Fogh Rasmussen to express "solidarity and support."
Alan A. Godlas, who teaches Islamic studies at the University of
Georgia, said Islam has long frowned on depictions of the prophet out
of a concern that any images of Muhammad or other religious figures
could lead to idolatry and detract from worship of Allah.
But, he said, "The reason these cartoons sparked such a reaction
has more to do with the tensions that were already there between the
Islamic world and the West, and because in the age of the Internet,
what goes on anywhere in the world is heard and seen everywhere."
Many of the best-known Islamic portrayals of Muhammad are
miniatures done in the 14th and 15th centuries by mystical Persian
artists who argued that their small, imperfect efforts could never be
taken for the actual prophet, and thus were not blasphemous.
The famous "Book of the Assumption of Muhammad," thought to have
been painted around 1436 in Herat, Afghanistan, shows Muhammad mounted
on a human-headed horse being led by the Archangel Gabriel on a tour of
Paradise and Hell. The original is in the collection of the French
Bibliotheque Nationale.
Even more plentiful are miniatures showing scenes from the life of
the prophet with his face and hands covered or his features purposely
obscured.
"Nothing in the Koran is as categorical as the condemnation of
imagery in the Hebrew Bible" found in Exodus and Deuteronomy, said
French art scholar Alexandre Papadopoulo in his massive 1979 survey,
"Islam and Muslim Art."
But Islamic art scholars say the prohibition against portraying
Muhammad has hardened over the centuries, based on sayings attributed
to the prophet, on the absence of figurative religious art in the
earliest mosques and on interpretations by Muslim theologians.
"One should not represent any religious image because it would
ridicule the figure of God, and it would be idolatrous to depict the
faces of the prophets and saints of Islam, particularly in mosques,
where they ran the risk of becoming objects of veneration or prayer,"
Mr. Papadopoulo wrote.
Mr. Godlas compared the Islamic opposition to portraying Muhammad
to the reaction of many Protestant churches against the religious
imagery and the worship of saints in the Catholic Church.
The great divide in Islam between Shi'ite and Sunni interpretations
is reflected in attitudes toward art, said to Islamic scholar Ibrahim
Moussawi in Beirut.
"For the most part, Shi'ite Islam has no problem portraying the
prophet Muhammad in a respectful manner," he said. "Much Shi'ite art
depicts the revered Imams Hussein, Ali and others."
But, he said, "More conservative strains of Sunni Islam prohibit
idolatry in any form, including, in some cases, prohibitions of showing
the human form at all."
In Sunni-majority Egypt, television serials recounting the founding
days of Islam will not show Muhammad or any of his closest companions.
"The ultimate problem here is that this [Danish] portrayal was a
cartoon and was perceived as disrespectful," Mr. Moussawi said.
·Mitchell Prothero in Beirut contributed to this report.
A H N A H
> Mr. Godlas compared the Islamic opposition to portraying Muhammad
>to the reaction of many Protestant churches against the religious
>imagery and the worship of saints in the Catholic Church.
So those Methodists, when offended by Catholics, burned down
embassies and shrieked for decapitaion of their leaders?
LOL!!!
stevej...@yahoo.com
> > Mr. Godlas compared the Islamic opposition to portraying Muhammad
> >to the reaction of many Protestant churches against the religious
> >imagery and the worship of saints in the Catholic Church.
>
> So those Methodists, when offended by Catholics, burned down
> embassies and shrieked for decapitaion of their leaders?
Yes. It was called the Thirty Years War.