Islamic art is known for its architecture, with mosques and palaces as the most important buildings. Due to Koranic rules, Islamic art features little sculpture or painting but highly decorative architecture. The key parts of a mosque include the minaret, courtyard with ablution fountain, prayer hall facing Mecca, mihrab niche, and mimbar pulpit. Ornate arabic calligraphy, geometric patterns, and glazed tilework decorated the interiors, while architectural styles included horseshoe arches, lobulated arches, and mocárabe domes.

1. Islamic art

2. General characteristics
- Islamic art is especially famous for its
architecture.
- There are very few paintings and sculptures,
because the Koran did not allow the
representation of Muhammad, Allah, people or
animals.
- However, islamic art is very fine.

3. Representative buildings
The most important buildings were:
● Palaces (for the caliphs)
● Mosques (temples for praying)

4. Palaces
They usually had
gardens and
fountains. This
courtyard is the Patio
de los Leones of the
Alhambra (Granada)

5. Palaces
And these gardens
are the Generalife
gardens, also in
Granada

6. Palaces
Palaces consisted of two areas:
- Public area (used for welcoming the
ambassadors who went to visit the caliph)
- Private area (the residence area of the
caliph and his family)

7. Mosques
Mosques were the
buildings for praying
in public, especially
on Fridays.
This is the umayyad
mosque of
Damascus.

8. Parts of a mosque
The muezzin called to
prayer from the
minaret.
The Giralda in Seville
was the minaret of
the old mosque. The
mosque was
destroyed, and now
the plant is occupied
by the catholic gothic
cathedral.

9. Parts of a mosque
Some minarets had
funny shapes. This
one is helicoidal, and
it's in Samarra (Irak)

10. Parts of a mosque
After going through a
door, we find a
courtyard or patio.
There is an ablution
fountain which is
used for ritual
washing and spiritual
purification before
prayer.

11. Parts of a mosque
The prayer hall is a
covered area with
columns. Muslims
pray here.
This is the interior of
the Córdoba mosque.

12. Parts of a mosque
The quibla is the wall
muslims face when
they pray.
The quibla is
orientated towards
the holy city of
Mecca.

13. Parts of a mosque
The mihrab is a small
niche in the quibla
where the Koran is
kept.

14. Parts of a mosque
The mimbar or pulpit.
The imam (the
muslim priest) leads
prayers from here.

15. Pics of a few important mosques

16. Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem

17. Mosque of Cairo, Egypt

18. Cordoba mosque, Spain

19. Blue mosque, Istambul

20. A summary of the parts of a mosque
●
Mimbar
●
Minaret
●
Courtyard (with an ablution
fountain)
●
Prayer hall
●
Quibla
●
Mihrab

21. Decoration of islamic buildings

22. The interiors of islamic buildings
were richly decorated

23. Decoration
● Muslims used arabic
calligraphy symbols
as decoration.
● Usually, they sculpted
verses from the
Koran.

24. Callygraphy decoration

25. Decoration
They also decorated
the walls with
beautiful vegetal
designs called
ataurique.

26. Decoration
Or geometric designs

27. Decoration
● Sometimes, the materials they used were not
very rich: simple bricks, plaster, etc.
● But they also used noble materials, like glazed
tiles or hard wood like oak or birch (especially
for the mimbars).

28. Decoration (glazed tiles)

29. Archs

30. Different types of archs

31. Archs
● Lobulated arch

32. Archs
A horseshoe arch, the
most typical islamic
arch.

33. Domes

34. Domes
● Mocárabes (as if they
were forming
stalactites)

35. Domes
● Caliphal crossing
dome.