Why was there sucj a focus on mosaics and poetry in the muslim world?
Was it persian influence?
>>1161130
>Was it persian influence?
Yes. Bedouins were also pretty big on poetry too though.
>>1161130
>mosaics
Well you can't depict anything natural, so the only thing left is to fall back to drawing geometrical patterns
Islamic architecture used mosaic technique to decorate religious buildings and palaces after the Muslim conquests of the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire. In Syria and Egypt the Arabs were influenced by the great tradition of Roman and Early Christian mosaic art. During the Umayyad Dynasty mosaic making remained a flourishing art form in Islamic culture and it is continued in the art of zellige and azulejo in various parts of the Arab world, although tile was to become the main Islamic form of wall decoration.
The first great religious building of Islam, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, which was built between 688–692, was decorated with glass mosaics both inside and outside, by craftsmen of the Byzantine tradition. Only parts of the original interior decoration survive. The rich floral motifs follow Byzantine traditions, and are "Islamic only in the sense that the vocabulary is syncretic and does not include representation of men or animals."
>>1161130
Islam forbids portraits of humans so artists had to express themselves differently by becoming geometry nerds.
>>1161142
What would desert nomads do poetry about ?
>>1161177
Bragging, my tribe is the best, tales of the tribes founders, sleeping with other tribes women etc
>>1161338
Do you have an example it sounds really funny.
>>1161343
I have the full poem in some book but here is part with commentary http://parnassusreview.com/archives/408
Two of the women mentioned have Umm in their name, meaning mother I.e they are married to another man.
>>1161338
So literally like modern day trap music?
Really makes you think.
Muslims didn't really have a problem with depicting humans, but there was less of a focus on human scenes in their art and there were no devotional images like the ones that covered Western and Byzantine churches. Floral and geometric designs were thus a much more attractive design from early on, whether in the form of mosaic or stonework or painting or whatever. Arabesque was derived from Byzantine art in the Umayyad period and quickly diversified throughout the Islamic world and became much more elaborate over time, coming to dominate almost every medium.
