Titus Burckhardt

Art of Islam, Language and Meaning

Safiya 

There isn't any treatise about Islam art equivalent to what Burckhardt wrote in this book. It's not some well-known vulgar treatise full of essence-emptied figures and words, that impoverishes art and squeeze it in a purely materialistic comprehension. Far than this what Burckhardt tries to explain in his essay is the power of sacred arts in enclosing different influences and synthesizing them into one "objet d'art" be it architecture, calligraphy, ornaments, rugs,... Starting by analyzing the Kaaba as the first shrine to be built on earth, Titus tries to anchor the reader in a full consciousness of the Islamic values (which are narrowly linked to the Abrahamic revelation) that gave birth to its own art. Tracking the Muslim empires history from the very beginning to the Umeyyads, and to the ottoman empire afterwards. Obviously, and this is my own personal point of view, the sacred arts 'fall' started way earlier than the fall of the Ottoman empire. The deviation I believe had been prevalent during the Umeyyads empire, and according to one of my Professors, it is particularly identified in one of the buildings of Quçair Amra, where, art instead of using the flourishing abstract art, went back to the pagan practices and drew figures(as the use of Images is prohibited in Islam, where aniconism is at its best)... A differentiation that Titus had made between Arab art and Islamic art, makes things even clearer for those still confusing the two, the latter is related to the essence of sacred art, whilst the first is let's say is a product of some sort of ethnical group. It should be known that Islam art is 'abstract' not as the contemporary artists define it, but is abstract from any figure however rich of symbols, which could be considered to some extent as a universal language pattern : Vine ornaments that are well rooted in different primordial civilizations and share the same meaning...and even common to both sedentary and nomadic peoples (The example of calligraphy and its different styles Kufic, Naskh, Ruqaa, Diwani,... as a verbal and mental arabesque) 
Titus implicitly justifies that the genius of Islam was to interpellate the human kind as two distinct groups : Nomads who are dynamic, and sedentary people, who are static. Islam in its course tried to establish some sort of equilibrium between the two states, that are complementary and represent something close to the Ying-Yang principle. ( La complémentarité entre un mouvement 'spatial' centripète 'nomade' et un autre centrifuge 'sédentaire' )
There are a lot of precious explanations enfolded in these beautifully composed prose, related to poetry, calligraphy, artistic weapons, languages patterns ( Chinese as opposed to Arab), and so much more related to esoteric teachings in Islam put in practice.
The book contains not less than 300 breathtaking pictures, and more than 50 high quality figures of sections and plans.
This is without contest one of the best books I've read this year (quenched some of my curiosities), hopefully, that'll have enough time to read the rest of his works, and be back with a concise review.
Highly recommended to Arts and Architecture students.

Art of Islam, Language and Meaning

Reviews