Year 5IF - Ancient city of baghdad

Unlike other religions and faiths Islamic art tends to be without images of people. Visual symbols are avoided. Islam forbids the creation of Mohamed (pbuh) to prevent his followers from worshipping idols. There are no pictures of people or animals in mosques.

 

In the ancient city of Baghdad people researched mathematics and science so a lot of art from this time used shapes and repeated patterns as decoration instead of pictures of people.

 

According to the Muslim faith,  art that depicts the human form is disrespectful to God, as he created humanity in his image, and depictions of that image are against the religion. This gave birth to one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world -- the practice of mosaic art where pictures are geometric and abstract, rather than representing a human or animal.

 

Circles play an important role in Islamic art as they have no end reminding Muslims that Allah is infinite. We created our own patterns using the instructions on the next page- would you like to have a go? We have given you instructions and also some questions as a challenge!