Islam / Art History

Titus Burckhardt
The author of over 20 books on art, religion, and spirituality, Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984) worked
for many years as a UNESCO expert, helping to preserve the historic old city of Fez, Morocco. His
masterpiece, Art of Islam: Language and Meaning was originally published in London in 1976 and is
presented by World Wisdom in a fully revised edition with new illustrations.

❖ This edition commemorates the 100th birthday of the author,

Titus Burckhardt;
❖ Features over 350 color and black-and-white illustrations; and
Art
❖ Includes a new Introduction by Burckhardt’s friend and

of Islam
collaborator, Jean-Louis Michon.

@!

“This work stands alone. Nothing of comparable importance has appeared before, and it is hard to
imagine that it will ever be surpassed. Titus Burckhardt’s book provides a spiritual key to the art
forms in which the religion of Islam has found a particularly striking and compelling expression.… In
consequence, this book must be of profound concern not only to those who are interested in the specific
art forms of a particular culture, but to all who are interested in the religion of Islam and, ultimately, in
Language and
religion as such.”
—Charles Le Gai Eaton, author of Islam and the Destiny of Man Meaning

Art
“Titus Burckhardt looks at Islam … with the eyes of a scholar who combines deep spiritual insight with
the love of eternal Truth.” Commemorative Edition
—Annemarie Schimmel, Harvard University, author of Mystical Dimensions of Islam

of
“[This is] the definitive work on Islamic art as far as the meaning and spiritual significance of this art are
concerned.… Burckhardt brings together a lifetime of outward and inward experience to produce a peer-

Islam
less work, one in which Islamic art is at last revealed to be what it really is, namely the earthly crystalliza-
tion of the spirit of the Islamic revelation as well as a reflection of the heavenly realities on earth.”
—Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The George Washington University, author of Islamic Art and Spirituality

“Those who can do, and know why they do, will always hold positions of dignity and true knowledge in
the realm of the traditional arts. Titus Burckhardt is one such authority. My recollection of meeting with
him is unforgettable. For the newcomer to the Islamic arts, my assurance is that you could not be in better
hands than those of the great ‘eternalist’ Titus Burckhardt: he will take you to the very core and heart, if
you are willing.”
—Keith Critchlow, The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, author of Islamic Patterns: An Analytical
and Cosmological Approach

“Burckhardt’s last major work was his widely acclaimed and impressive monograph Art of Islam. Here
the intellectual principles and the spiritual role of artistic creativity in its Islamic forms are richly and
generously displayed before us.”
—William Stoddart, author of Sufism: The Mystical Doctrines and Methods of Islam

World Wisdom
World
Titus Burckhardt
Wisdom
$ 32.95 US
Foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr Introduction by Jean-Louis Michon
220 The City
established along the roads leading towards the
central sūq which continues to be reserved for
more precious commodities such as silks and
jewels. Surrounded by walls, with doors which
can be closed at night, this qaysariyyah plays the
role of a kind of forum, and its name could well
have an imperial or “Caesarian” origin.
In any event, neither the qaysariyyah nor
the rest of the city have in general any great
open squares—it is the mosques with their
courtyards which serve as points of assembly
for the citizens—and the traffic in goods and
people, which flows from the city-gate to the
center and back, becomes gradually slower as
it approaches the heart of the city. The net-
work of commercial and artisan road­ways be-
comes increasingly dense; often covered with
reed trellises or archways in rough brick, they
are not made to facilitate transport but to pro­
liferate points of contact between merchants,
craftsmen, and clients. The principle of the sūq
or bāzār is to eliminate every superfluous inter­
mediary.
The conveyance and distribution of pri­
mary craft materials and basic produce are as-
sured by the system of caravanserais (khān or
funduq) which mark off the main highways and
serve both as hotels and exchanges of merchan-
dise. They usually take the form of vast court-
yards surrounded by porticos, where mounts
and beasts of burden can be made ready, with
guest-rooms on the upper storey.
Craftsmen were organized in corporations,
as they still are in certain countries. For this
reason, there are whole streets and quarters re-
served for particular callings, as in the towns of
mediaeval Europe. Organization into corpora-
tions facilitates the supply of basic materials and
pre­cludes dishonest competition. And since pro­
fessional rivalry is by no means forbidden but,
on the contrary, stimulated by a sense of honor,
the system ensures a good balance between in-
dividual initiative and the solidarity of the oc-
cupational group. Every corporation possessed,
or still possesses, its amīn, or trustee, whose ar-
bitration was never disputed in cases of litiga-
tion between members of the same profession.
The prices and quality of all merchandise were,
moreover, subject to the control of the inspector
of markets, the muḥtasib.
The craft corporations are a typically ur-
ban institution, which has no analogy among
the Bedouins. Among all the social groups, it is
indubitably the corporations who best defend
the specific interests of the city, while the mili-
tary aristocracy, which is generally of Bedouin
origin, gravitates round the Palace. But contrary
to what occurred in Europe at the end of the
Middle Ages, the corporations never aspired
to political power. It was inconceivable for
them to over­reach the authority of the body of
ʿulamāʾ, doctors of the Koranic sciences, who
normally represent the community of believers
in the pact of allegiance which each new sover-
eign must conclude with his people. Now the
community is at once the city and something
more than the city, which thus remains without
any well-defined individu­ality, being an image,
inevitably provisional, of the city par excellence,
which is none other than the Dār al-Islām, “the
Abode of Islam”, a term which designates the
entire territory of Islam as a haven of order and
peace.
2 Art and Contemplation
The divorce between “art” and “craftsman­ship”
is a relatively recent European phenomenon
which parallels the scission between “art” and
“science”. Formerly, every artist who produced
an object was called a “craftsman”, and every
discip­line which demanded not only theoretical
know­ledge but also practical ability was an “art”.
This remains true of the Islamic world wherev-
er—and such places are becoming increasingly
rare—there has been no Western influence. Art
(fann) always involves technique (ṣanʿah) and
science (ʿilm), and it is hardly necessary to add
that this technique is a manual one and not that
 Art and Contemplation 1

have translated “perfection”, includes equally

the sense of “beauty” and “virtue”.
In the Islamic world, this maxim represents
the moral and spiritual basis not only of the arts
in the narrow sense of the term but of every
manual skill, no matter how modest. Insofar as
it may be performed with more or less perfec-
tion, it carries a value in itself, independent of
its economic opportuneness. An exception has
to be made, according to a fairly widespread
conviction, for skills employing impure materi-
als or having an element of artificiality about
them, such as the work of the dyer, or of the
goldsmith who “falsifies” metals by covering
291. Large slip-painted bowl with calligraphic inscription,
Samarqand or Transoxiana, 10th century them with an amalgam of gold or silver.
It could be said, on the whole, that the
of a machine, and that the science of use to the Muslim craftsman has never taken pains to per-
artist has nothing in common with the sciences fect his instruments, though applying himself
as taught in universities. The science needed by with much zeal and dexterity to the perfection
a master-mason, for example, is certainly geom- of his work. This attitude is at least partly ex-
etry, but one that has a more practical character plicable by the very acute awareness a Muslim
than that taught in schools—a master-mason has of the ephemerality of things; art has al-
must know how to trace an ogival arc by means ways something provisional about it—“We
of a simple cord—and which, on the other hand, shall surely make all that is upon it [the earth]
is contemplative in its essence. Not only does it barren dust” (Koran 18:8)—and the craftsman’s
enable the parts of a task to be integrated into
a harmonious whole; the schemes or key-pat-
terns which it provides are like the mirror of the
unseen unity which lies in the very seat of hu-
man intelligence. This is to say that the science
transmitted with art always involves, at least
implicitly, an aspect of wisdom (ḥikmah) which
links its rational data with universal principles.
It should be emphasized that expertise, in a tra-
ditional art, concerns both the technical and the
aesthetic solutions to a given problem. Thus—
to take up the example just mentioned—the
procedure which enables the outline of an arc
to be traced guarantees its stability as well as its
elegance. Use and beauty go hand in hand in
traditional art; they are two inseparable aspects
of perfection, as it is understood in this saying
of the Prophet: “God has prescribed perfection
for all things” (inna-ʾLlāha kataba ʾl-iḥṣāna ʿalā
kulli shayʿ), in which the term iḥsān, which we
292. Mosque lamp in glass and enamel made in Syria, c. 1337
222 The City
293. Detail from the interior of the Muḥammad Ghaus Mausoleum,
Gwalior, India, c. 1565, showing the perforated panels on the verandah
294. Wooden screen from the Mausoleum of Shāh Rukn-i ʿAlam in
Mulṭān, Pakistan, 13th century
greatest achieve­ment is the mastery he gains
over himself. It is here that art converges into a
spiritual discipline; the poorness of the instru-
ment is none other than that of the “servitor”
(ʿabd), while the beauty of the work can only be
a reflection of the quality of the “Lord” (rabb).
Art or craftsmanship has, in all, two as-
pects which predispose it to be the bearer of
a method of spiritual realization. Art consists
on the one hand in the frequently laborious
transformation of a relatively shapeless ma-
terial into an object shaped according to an
ideal model. Now this shaping is indisputably
an image of the work which a man aspiring
to contemplation of divine realities must ac-
complish in himself and upon his own soul,
which then plays the part of a rough mate-
rial, confused and amorphous but potentially
noble. On the other hand, the very object of
contempla­tion is prefigured in the beauty that
is appre­hended by the senses, for it is in its
depth none other than Beauty itself, unique
and illimitable in its nature.
Not every artist is a born contemplative, but
the affinity between art and contemplation is
strong enough, in many Islamic cities, for entry
into a craft corporation to coincide with attach-
ment to a spiritual affiliation which goes back to
the Prophet through ʿAlī, who is also the model
of the perfect knight (fatā). The spiritual ideals
of artistic skill and knighthood come together
in a certain way since the one, like the other,
lays stress on the perfecting of human nature.
Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the
craft corporations frequently provided military
contingents for the defense of cities.
A certain category of skills, typified by the
use they make of fire to transform or ennoble
such material as metal or minerals into glass or
enamels, serves as the base for a spiritual tradi-
tion which is linked to Hermes Trismegistus,
whose Egyptian name is Thoth, and whom
many Muslims include in the number of the
ancient prophets. The Hermetic art par excel-
lence, and the most com­monly misunderstood,
is alchemy, because the transmutation at which
 Art and Contemplation 

Left: 295. Vase from the Alhambra, Granada, Spain,

Nasrid period, 14th or 15th century
Center: 296. Copper and silver top of a cupboard that
houses the Koran, Egypt, Mamluk period
Right: 297. Koran stand, Seljuk period, 13th century

it aims, and which it transmits in craft terms,
is situated in reality on the level of the soul.
There is no reason to doubt that alchemy was
practiced by many craftsmen who worked with
fire; its emblem, a pair of interlaced dragons—a
mediaeval version of the caduceus—appears on
many receptacles in metal or ceramics.
Many craftsmen or artists belonged, or
still belong, to particular Sufi orders, whether
they received initiation simultaneously with
their joining a corporation of craftsmen or not.
Sufism is simply the esoterism of Islam, or its
inward dimension. If the outer face of Islam
is the revealed law and its practice, the inner
face is understanding and the deepening of
understanding. It is not wrong to call Sufism
the mysticism of Islam, provided always that
there is no relativization of the aspect of it
that is wisdom, which is essential because it
responds inwardly to the very first ordinance of
Islam, which is to “witness”, or to “bear witness
to”, Divine Unity.

298. Wooden penbox with mother-of-pearl inlay, Mughal period, in the style of Gujarat, mid 17th century. The lid is inscribed with the basmalah
224 The City
299. Tile decoration in the Masjid-i-Jāmiʿ (Friday Mosque) of Iṣfahān, Persia
One can likewise say that Sufism lies where
love and knowledge meet; now the ultimate and
common object of both love and knowledge is
none other than the Divine Beauty. It will then
be seen that art, in a theocentric civilization like
Islam, is linked to esoterism, the most inward
dimension of tradition.
Art and contemplation: the object of art is
beauty of form, whereas the object of contempla­
tion is beauty beyond form, which unfolds the
formal order qualitatively whilst infinitely sur­
passing it. To the extent that art is akin to con­
templation it is knowledge, since Beauty is an
aspect of Reality in the absolute meaning of the
word. Nor is it the least of its aspects, for it re-
veals the unity and infinity that are immanent
in things.
This brings us back to the first of our ob-
servations, the phenomenon of the scission be-
“God is beautiful and He loves beauty”
tween art and craftsmanship on the one hand
and between art and science on the other, which
has laid its mark profoundly on modern Euro­
pean civilization. If art is no longer considered
a science—that is, a part of knowledge—it is
because Beauty, the object of contemplation
at various levels, is no longer recognized as an
aspect of the Real. The normal order of things
has, indeed, been so far overturned that ugli-
ness is readily identified with reality, beauty
being no more than the object of an aestheti-
cism whose outlines are utterly subjective and
shifting.
The consequences of this dichotomy in the
experiencing of the Real are extremely serious,
for it is finally beauty—subtly linked to the very
source of things—that will pass judgment on
the worth or futility of a world. As the Prophet
said,
300. Dome of the Shaykh Luṭf-Allāh Mosque, Iṣfahān, Persia