Outside the mainstream of Islamic thought, there are some groups of Muslims who permit the making and displaying of pictures. These marginal factions, however, are few in number and consistently persecuted by majority groups within Islam.
For this reason, art historians consistently report that the vast majority of Islamic artworks are nonrepresentational, especially in the Muslim cultures of northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia. Of the representational pieces created over the centuries, few survive. Those which do survive often do so in hiding, or in non-Muslim nations.
The main source for the prohibition of images is the text of the Hadith, the collected sayings of the prophet Muhammad. Historians Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra and Gordon Govier report:
In 2001 in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Taliban destroyed thousands of artifacts that resembled humans or animals. But museum employees hid statues in obscure storerooms and kept the fragments of pieces smashed by the Taliban. In recent years, 300 have been restored.
The proscription of images centers of God, extending to Muhammad, then to Muhammad’s family and officers, then to humans generally, next to animals, and finally to plants and inanimate objects. While the Sunni are more stringent in the opposition to representational art than the Shia, in practice, any imagery or portraiture is extremely rare in both groups.
It is in fact, relatively easy to find examples of Muslim clerics who have approved the concept of representation art, even up to and including portraits of human beings. It is also easy to find examples of individual Muslim artists who made such artwork, and patrons who’ve funded or bought them. But numerically, these are exceptions. Historically, they are outliers. Geographically, they tend to be found outside historically Islamic nations.
Several early Islamic rulers approved of coinage bearing human images. Some later rulers had their palaces decorated with sculpture and paintings. In the twentieth century, two films were made by Muslim cinematographers the about prophet Muhammad. But the coins were melted down, the paintings and sculptures removed, and the films banned.
Although these exceptions exist, the overriding trend within Islam is against art. As the researchers at the David Collection, an art museum in Copenhagen, write:
The non-figurative character of religious decoration has remained a fundamental principle throughout the history of Islam. At no point have images found their way into the interiors of mosques; as far as we know, no Muslim artist has endeavored to depict God; the Koran has never been illustrated; and depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are rare. With the reform of coinage carried out by the caliph Abd al-Malik in 696, even the portraits of rulers were removed from Islamic coins and replaced by calligraphic decoration.
What do art historians and museum curators do when faced with Islamic attacks on art? The terrorist group known as the “Islamic State” has destroyed artworks, both in museums and elsewhere.
Brave preservationists have accomplished heroic feats, preserving some pieces of art from Muslim attacks. Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra and Gordon Govier write:
“The unsung heroes in these situations are people like librarians or museum directors who do their best to hide things in advance of trouble or as trouble arrives,” Stewart said. One of his colleagues smuggled thousands of manuscripts out of Qaraqosh, Iraq’s “Christian capital,” in advance of ISIS last summer.
The “Islamic State” group seeks to destroy the artistic, historical, anthropological dimensions of culture and civilization. Their efforts are designed to impoverish the human race in every sense possible - intellectually and economically.
Historians and curators around the world are eager to lend assistance in any way possible to those who are trying to preserve bits of art and history inside the Islamic world.
Still, the loss is enormous. “Our understanding of the past is made up of little specks we find and put together,” said Hershel Shanks.
Shanks, who edits an archeological periodical, assess the losses, the pieces which have been totally destroyed: “Much of what we don’t know is gone. It’s heartbreaking.”
