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Byzantine Art under Islam
Page from an Illuminated Gospel [Ethiopia, Lake Tana region] Processional Cross [Ethiopia, Tigray region; Amharic] Batrashil [Syria]


The Byzantine empire's interaction with Islamic culture had a profound effect on its art. Islam's rise and military success were the greatest threat to the stability of the empire and its territories. Mirroring the political climate, art became a medium of confrontation and cooperation between the two sides. The exchange and adaptation of motifs and genres became a common expression of power and individuality in the face of constantly changing relations between the two groups.

Islamic leaders were impressed by Byzantine mosaics and invited mosaicists to work on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Islamic artists used Christian models for iconography. Meanwhile, Byzantine artists adapted Islamic motifs for their own use. The First Church of the Monastery of Hosios Loukas, in Phokis, Greece, is decorated with patterns based on the Arab kufic script. The words do not mean anything, they are purely aesthetic, but they are clearly a nod to Islamic art. The batrashil (14.137), a silk liturgical vestment, shows an understanding of Syriac and Arabic, this time in its legible form—the artist even used Arabic to sign her name. The writing is embroidered onto the garment. A processional cross (1999.103) from Ethiopia is a fusion of wood sculpture and metalwork clearly inspired by Islamic shapes and patterns, which were most likely learned from textiles, ceramic vessels and tiles, and glass developed in the Muslim world. The illuminated gospel (1998.66) from Ethiopia also employs a design inspired by Islamic ornamentation known as harag, which means the tendril of a climbing plant.


Religious Art, Christianity, Religious Art, Islam, Religious Art, Christianity, Book, Religious Art, Christianity, Textile, Book, Manuscript, Book, Manuscript, Christian, Mosaic, Europe, geography, Byzantium, Europe, period, Medieval Europe, West Asia, Byzantium, Regalia, Byzantine art, Africa (including Egypt), Byzantine art, West Asia, Islamic Art in the Medieval Period, Islamic Art in the Later Period

Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters

Abbasid Period, African Christianity in Ethiopia, Almoravid and Almohad Period, Animals in Medieval Art, Art of the Book in the Middle Ages, Birth of Islam, Byzantium, Constantinople after 1261, Courtly Art of the Ilkhanids, Europe and the Islamic World, 1600-1800 , Fatimid Period, Frescoes and Wall Painting in Late Byzantine Art, Glass from Islamic Lands, Hagia Sophia, Icons and Iconoclasm in Byzantium, Ilkhanid Period, Mendicant Orders in the Medieval World, Monasticism in Medieval Christianity, Private Devotion in Medieval Christianity, The Roman Empire, Abridged List of Rulers: Islamic World, Roman Glass, Saints and Other Sacred Byzantine Figures, Takht-i Sulayman and Tile Work in the Ilkhanid Period, The Age of Süleyman "the Magnificent", The Crusades, The Cult of the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages, The Legacy of Genghis Khan, The Safavid Period, The Mamluk Period, Abridged List of Rulers: Byzantium, Trade and the Spread of Islam in Africa,

Anatolia and the Caucasus, 1000-1400 A.D., Arabian Peninsula, 1000-1400 A.D., Balkan Peninsula, 1000-1400 A.D., Central Europe (including Germany), 1000-1400 A.D., Eastern and Southern Africa, 1000-1400 A.D., Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, 1000-1400 A.D., Egypt, 1000-1400 A.D., France, 1000-1400 A.D., Iberian Peninsula, 1000-1400 A.D., Iran, 1000-1400 A.D., Iraq, 1000-1400 A.D., Italian Peninsula, 1000-1400 A.D., The Eastern Mediterranean, 1000-1400 A.D., Western North Africa (The Maghrib), 1000-1400 A.D., Iraq (Mesopotamia) 500-1000 A.D., The Eastern Mediterranean, 500-1000 A.D., Iberian Peninsula, 500-1000 A.D.,

West Asia, 1000-1400 A.D., Europe, 1000-1400 A.D.