Depictions of Muhammad
Encyclopedia
The permissibility of depictions of Muhammad
, the founder of Islam
, has long been a concern in the history of Islam. Oral and written descriptions are readily accepted by all traditions of Islam
, but there is disagreement about visual depictions.
The Quran does not explicitly forbid images of Muhammad, but there are a few hadith
(supplemental teachings) which have explicitly prohibited Muslims from creating visual depictions of figures. Most Sunni Muslims believe that visual depictions of all the prophets of Islam
should be prohibited and are particularly averse to visual representations of Muhammad. The key concern is that the use of images can encourage idolatry
. In Shia Islam, however, images of Muhammad are quite common nowadays, even though Shia scholars historically were against such depictions. Still, many Muslims who take a stricter view of the supplemental traditions, will sometimes challenge any depiction of Muhammad, including those created and published by non-Muslims.
The question of whether images in Islamic art
, including those depicting the Prophet, can be considered as religious art remains a matter of contention between scholars. They appear in illustrated books that are normally works of history or poetry, including those with religious subjects; the Qu'ran is never illustrated: "context and intent are essential to understanding Islamic pictorial art. The Muslim artists creating images of Muhammad, and the public who beheld them, understood that the images were not objects of worship. Nor were the objects so decorated used as part of religious worship". However, scholars concede that such images have "a spiritual element", and were also sometimes used in informal religious devotions celebrating the day of the Mi'raj. Most visual depictions only show Muhammad with his face veiled, or symbolically represent him as a flame; other images, notably from before about 1500, show him fully. However, depictions of Muhammad were rare, never numerous in any community or era throughout Islamic history, appearing almost entirely in the private medium of Persian and other miniature
book illustration. The key medium of public religious art in Islam was and is calligraphy
.
. In Judaism, one of the Ten Commandments
forbade "graven images". In Byzantine
Christianity during the period of Iconoclasm in the 8th century, and again during the 9th century, visual representations of sacred figures were forbidden, and only the Cross
could be depicted in churches. Even in modern times, different groups of Protestant Christians have had disputes about the appropriateness of having religious icons of saints. The concern generally boils down to the concept of whether or not the image is becoming more important than what is being represented. In Islam, although nothing in the Qur'an
explicitly bans images, some supplemental hadith
explicitly ban the drawing of images of any living creature; other hadith tolerate images, but never encourage them. Hence, most Muslims avoid visual depictions of Muhammad or any other prophet
such as Moses
or Abraham
.
Athar Husain gives a non-pictorial description of his appearance, dress, etc. in "The Message of Mohammad". According to Husain, Muhammad was a little taller than average, sturdily built, and muscular. His fingers were long. His hair, which was long, had waves, and he had a thick beard, which had seventeen gray hairs at the time of his death. He had good teeth and spare cheeks, and brownish-black eyes. His complexion was fair and he was very handsome. He walked fast with firm gait. He always kept himself busy with something, did not speak unnecessarily, always spoke to the point and without verbosity, and did not behave in an emotional way. He usually wore a shirt, trousers, a sheet thrown round the shoulders, and a turban, all spotlessly clean, rarely wearing the fine clothes that had been presented to him. He wanted others to wear simple, but always clean, clothes.
The Arabic term for a written description of Muhammad is a hilya
(Turkish: hilye, pl. hilyeler), and in the Ottoman period such texts may be surrounded by an elaborate frame of illuminated decoration
, either in books or, more often, muraqqa
s or albums, or sometimes placed in wooden frames so that they can hang on a wall. The elaborated form of the calligraphic tradition was founded in the 17th century by the Ottoman calligrapher Hâfiz Osman
. While containing a concrete and artistically appealing description of Muhammad's appearance, they complied with the strictures against figurative depictions of the Prophet, leaving his appearance to the viewer's imagination. The Ottoman hilye format customarily starts with a basmala
, shown on top, and is separated in the middle by : "And We have not sent you but as a mercy to the worlds". The four circles often contain the names of the Rightly-guided Caliphs
, Abu Bakr
, Umar
, Uthman
, and Ali
, each followed by "radhi Allahu anhu" ("may God be pleased with him").
in roughly circular form, often given a decorated frame. Such inscriptions are normally in Arabic, and may rearrange or repeat forms, or add a blessing or honorific, or for example the word "messenger" or a contraction of it. The range of ways of representing Muhammad's name is considerable, including ambigram
s.
The more elaborate versions relate to other Islamic traditions of special forms of calligraphy such as those writing the names of God, and the secular tughra
or elaborate monogram of Ottoman rulers.
Throughout Islamic history, depictions of Muhammad in Islamic art were rare. According to Christiane Gruber, there exists a "notable corpus of images of Muhammad produced, mostly in the form of manuscript illustrations, in various regions of the Islamic world from the thirteenth century through modern times". Depictions of Muhammad date back to the start of the tradition of Persian miniature
s as illustrations in books. The illustrated book from the Persianate
world (Warka and Gulshah, Topkapi Palace
Library H. 841, attributed to Konya
1200-1250) contains the two earliest known Islamic depictions of the Prophet. This book dates to before or just around the time of the Mongol invasion of Anatolia
in the 1240s, and before the campaigns against Persia and Iraq of the 1250s, which destroyed great numbers of books in libraries.
Gruber traces a development from "veristic" images showing the whole body and face, in the 13th to 15th centuries, to more "abstract" representations in the 16th to 19th centuries, the latter including the representation of the Prophet by a special type of calligraphic reresentation, with the older types also remaining in use. An intermediate type, first found from about 1400, is the "inscribed portrait" where the face of Muhammad is blank, with "Ya Muhammad" ("O Muhammad") or a similar phrase written in the space instead; these may be related to Sufi thought. In some cases the inscription appears to have been a underpainting that would later be covered by a face or veil, so a pious act by the painter, for his eyes alone, but in others it was intended to be seen. According to Gruber, a good number of these paintings, however, underwent later iconoclastic
mutilations, in which the facial features of the Prophet were scratched or smeared" as Muslim views on the acceptability of veristic images changed.
A number of extant Persian manuscripts representing Muhammad date from the Ilkhanid period under the new Mongol rulers, including a Marzubannama
dating to 1299. The Ilkhanid MS Arab 161 of 1307/8 contains 25 illustrations found in an illustrated version of Al-Biruni
's The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries
, of which five include depictions Muhammad, including the two concluding images, the largest and most accomplished in the manuscript, which emphasize the relation of Muhammad and `Ali according to Shi`ite doctrine. According to Christiane Gruber, other works use images to promote Sunni Islam, such as a set of Mi'raj illustrations (MS H 2154) in the early 14th century, although other historians have dated the same illustrations to the Jalayrid period of Shia rulers.
Depictions of Muhammad are also found in Persian manuscripts in the following Timurid
and Safavid
dynasties, and Turkish Ottoman
art in the 14th to 17th centuries, and beyond. Perhaps the most elaborate cycle of illustrations of Muhammad's life is the late 16th century copy of the 14th century biography Siyer-i Nebi
commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Murat III for his son, the future Mehmed III
, containing over 800 illustrations.
Probably the commonest narrative scene represented is the Mi'raj; according to Gruber, "There exist countless single-page paintings of the meʿrāj included in the beginnings of Persian and Turkish romances and epic stories produced from the beginning of the 15th century to the 20th century". These images were also used in celebrations of the anniversary of the Mi'raj on 27 Rajab
, when the accounts were recited aloud to male groups: "Didactic and engaging, oral stories of the ascension seem to have had the religious goal of inducing attitudes of praise among their audiences". Such practices are most easily documented in the 18th and 19th centuries, but manuscripts from much earlier appear to have fulfilled the same function. Otherwise a large number of different scenes may be represented at times, from the Prophet's birth to the end of his life, and his existence in Paradise.
In the earliest depictions Muhammad may be shown with or without a halo
, the earliest halos being round in the style of Christian art,, but before long a flaming halo or aureole in the Buddhist or Chinese tradition becomes more common than the circular form found in the West, when a halo is used. A halo or flame may surround only his head, but often his whole body, and in some images the body itself cannot be seen for the halo. This "luminous" form of representation avoided the issues caused by "veristic" images, and could be taken to convey qualities of the Prophet's person described in texts. If the body is visible, the face may be covered with a veil (see gallery for examples of both types). This form of representation, which began at the start of the Safavid period in Persia, was done out of reverence and respect. Other prophets of Islam
, and the Prophet's wives and relations, may be treated in similar ways if they also appear.
T. W. Arnold
(1864-1930), an early historian of Islamic art, stated that "Islam has never welcomed painting as a handmaid of religion as both Buddhism and Christianity have done. Mosques have never been decorated with religious pictures, nor has a pictorial art been employed for the instruction of the heathen or for the edification of the faithful." Comparing Islam to Christianity, he also writes: "Accordingly, there has never been any historical tradition in the religious painting of Islam – no artistic development in the representation of accepted types – no schools of painters of religious subjects; least of all has there been any guidance on the part of leaders of religious thought corresponding to that of ecclesiastical authorities in the Christian Church."
Images of the Prophet remain controversial to the present day, and are not considered acceptable in many countries in the Middle East. For example in 1963 an account by a Turkish author of a Hajj
pilgrimage to Mecca
was banned in Pakistan
because it contained reproductions of miniatures showing the Prophet unveiled. However in Iran depictions have considerable acceptance to the present day, and may be found in the modern forms of the poster and postcard
.
Two well-known fatwa
s from Al-Azhar University and Shiite Council of Lebanon were issued about The Message.
A more severe case occurred in Egypt in 1926, around the anticipated production of a film about the grandeur of the early days of Islam. Upon learning of this plan, the Islamic Al-Azhar University
in Cairo alerted Egyptian public opinion, and published a juridical decision (fatwa
), stipulating that Islam categorically forbids the representation of Muhammad and his companions on the screen. King Fauad sent a severe warning to actor Youssef Wahbi
, threatening to exile him and strip him of his Egyptian nationality.
Other contemporary Shi'a scholars, outside Shi'a majority Iran
, have taken a relaxed attitude towards pictures of Muhammad and his household, the Ahlul Bayt. A fatwa given by Ali al-Sistani, the Shi'a marja
of Iraq, states that it is permissible to depict Muhammad, even in television or movies, if done with respect. A devotional cartoon called Muhammad: The Last Prophet was released in 2004.
. A frieze including major historical lawgivers places Muhammad alongside Hammurabi
, Moses
, Confucius
, and others. Because of a 1997 controversy surrounding the frieze, tourist materials have been edited so they call the depiction "a well-intentioned attempt by the sculptor to honor Muhammad" that "bears no resemblance to Muhammad." In 1955, a statue of Muhammad was removed from a courthouse in New York City after the ambassadors of Indonesia
, Pakistan, and Egypt
requested its removal.
There have also been numerous book illustrations showing Muhammad.
Dante
, in The Divine Comedy: Inferno, placed Muhammad in Hell, with his entrails hanging out (Canto 28):
This scene is frequently shown in illustrations of the Divina Commedia
. For example it is represented in a 15th century fresco
in Bologna, Italy, in the Church of San Petronio, and artwork by Salvador Dalí
, Auguste Rodin
, William Blake
, and Gustave Doré
.
, which contains a 15th century fresco
depicting an image of Muhammad. In 2005, worldwide media attention focused on the controversy surrounding a dozen editorial cartoons published in the Jyllands-Posten
.
In 2005, a Danish newspaper published a set of editorial cartoons, many of which depicted Muhammad. In late 2005 and early 2006, Danish Muslim organizations ignited a controversy
through public protests and by spreading knowledge of the publication of the cartoons. According to John Woods, Islamic history professor at the University of Chicago, it was not simply the depiction of Muhammad that was offensive, but the implication that Muhammad was somehow a supporter of terrorism. On 12 February 2008 the Danish police arrested three men alleged to be involved in a plot to assassinate Kurt Westergaard
, one of the cartoonists.
In 2005, an episode of 30 Days with Morgan Spurlock
, titled "Muslims and America," depicted Muhammad twice, in a cartoon explaining the origins of the Islamic faith. There was no outcry over this. In 2006, the controversial American animated television comedy program South Park
, which had previously depicted Muhammad as a superhero
character in the July 4, 2001 episode "Super Best Friends
" and has depicted Muhammad in the opening sequence since that episode, attempted to satirize the Danish newspaper incident. In the episode "Cartoon Wars Part II
", they intended to show Muhammad handing a salmon helmet to Peter Griffin
, a character in the Fox
animated television show Family Guy
. However, Comedy Central
, the parent company
of South Park, rejected the scene, citing concerns of violent protests in the Islamic world. The creators of South Park reacted by instead satirizing Comedy Central's double standard
for broadcast acceptability by including a segment in which American president
George W. Bush
and Jesus
defecate on the flag of the United States
.
The Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy
began in July 2007 with a series of drawings by Swedish
artist Lars Vilks
which depicted Muhammad as a roundabout dog
. Several art galleries in Sweden declined to show the drawings, citing security concerns and fear of violence. The controversy gained international attention after the Örebro
-based regional newspaper Nerikes Allehanda
published one of the drawings on August 18 to illustrate an editorial
on self-censorship
and freedom of religion
.English translation: While several other leading Swedish newspapers had published the drawings already, this particular publication led to protests from Muslims in Sweden
as well as official condemnations from several foreign governments including Iran
, Pakistan
, Afghanistan
, Egypt
and Jordan
, as well as by the inter-governmental Organisation of the Islamic Conference
(OIC). The controversy occurred about one and a half years after the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
in Denmark in early 2006.
Another controversy emerged in September 2007 when Bangladesh
i cartoonist Arifur Rahman was detained on suspicion of showing disrespect to Muhammad. The interim government confiscated copies of the Bengali
-language Prothom Alo
in which the drawings appeared. The cartoon consisted of a boy holding a cat conversing with an elderly man. The man asks the boy his name, and he replies "Babu". The older man chides him for not mentioning the name of Muhammad before his name. He then points to the cat and asks the boy what it is called, and the boy replies "Muhammad the cat". The cartoon caused a firestorm in Bangladesh, with militant Islamists demanding that Rahman be executed for blasphemy
. A group of people torched copies of the paper
and several Islamic groups protested, saying the drawings ridiculed Mohammad and his companions. They demanded "exemplary punishment" for the paper's editor and the cartoonist. Bangladesh, however, does not have a blasphemy law, although one had been demanded by the same extremist Islamic groups.
. The photo series was intended to highlight the hypocrisy the artist saw, of Muslim married men engaging in sexual relations with other men
. The Hague Municipal Museum
expressed interest in buying the series, but refused to display it, citing fear that it could "offend certain groups". Dutch politician Geert Wilders
, leader of the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom
), excoriated the museum's decision, saying it was "based on fear".
.
An online petition claims to have collected over 450,000 signatures in three months (December 2007 to February 2008). The petition was started by Faraz Ahmad of Daska, Pakistan
, resident in Glasgow
, formerly editing Wikipedia as "Farazilu".
The petition specifies opposition to a reproduction of a 17th century Ottoman copy of a 14th century Ilkhanate
manuscript image (MS Arabe 1489) depicting Muhammad as he prohibited Nasīʾ, a special form of intercalary months practiced in Arabia.
Jeremy Henzell-Thomas of The American Muslim
deplored the petition as one of "these mechanical knee-jerk reactions" which, "are gifts to those who seek every opportunity to decry Islam and ridicule Muslims and can only exacerbate a situation in which Muslims and the Western media seem to be locked in an ever-descending spiral of ignorance and mutual loathing".
Wikipedia considered but rejected a compromise that would allow visitors to choose whether to view the page with images. The Wikipedia community has not acted upon the petition. The site's answers to frequently asked questions about these images state that Wikipedia does not censor itself for the benefit of any one group.
in January 2010 confirmed to the New York Post
that it had quietly removed all historic paintings which contained depictions of Muhammad from public exhibition. The Museum quoted objections on the part of conservative Muslims which were "under review."
The museum's action was criticized as excessive political correctness
, also apparent in other recent decision, including the renaming of the "Primitive Art Galleries" to the "Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas" and the projected "Islamic Galleries" to "Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia".
in forbidding the broadcast of the South Park
episode "201"
in response to death threat
s against some of those responsible for the segment. Observance of the day began with a drawing posted on the Internet
on April 20, 2010, accompanied by text suggesting that "everybody" create a drawing representing Muhammad, on May 20, 2010, as a protest against efforts to limit freedom of speech
.
Controversial depictions
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, the founder of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, has long been a concern in the history of Islam. Oral and written descriptions are readily accepted by all traditions of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, but there is disagreement about visual depictions.
The Quran does not explicitly forbid images of Muhammad, but there are a few hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
(supplemental teachings) which have explicitly prohibited Muslims from creating visual depictions of figures. Most Sunni Muslims believe that visual depictions of all the prophets of Islam
Prophets of Islam
Muslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...
should be prohibited and are particularly averse to visual representations of Muhammad. The key concern is that the use of images can encourage idolatry
Idolatry
Idolatry is a pejorative term for the worship of an idol, a physical object such as a cult image, as a god, or practices believed to verge on worship, such as giving undue honour and regard to created forms other than God. In all the Abrahamic religions idolatry is strongly forbidden, although...
. In Shia Islam, however, images of Muhammad are quite common nowadays, even though Shia scholars historically were against such depictions. Still, many Muslims who take a stricter view of the supplemental traditions, will sometimes challenge any depiction of Muhammad, including those created and published by non-Muslims.
The question of whether images in Islamic art
Islamic art
Islamic art encompasses the visual arts produced from the 7th century onwards by people who lived within the territory that was inhabited by or ruled by culturally Islamic populations...
, including those depicting the Prophet, can be considered as religious art remains a matter of contention between scholars. They appear in illustrated books that are normally works of history or poetry, including those with religious subjects; the Qu'ran is never illustrated: "context and intent are essential to understanding Islamic pictorial art. The Muslim artists creating images of Muhammad, and the public who beheld them, understood that the images were not objects of worship. Nor were the objects so decorated used as part of religious worship". However, scholars concede that such images have "a spiritual element", and were also sometimes used in informal religious devotions celebrating the day of the Mi'raj. Most visual depictions only show Muhammad with his face veiled, or symbolically represent him as a flame; other images, notably from before about 1500, show him fully. However, depictions of Muhammad were rare, never numerous in any community or era throughout Islamic history, appearing almost entirely in the private medium of Persian and other miniature
Persian miniature
A Persian miniature is a small painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works called a muraqqa. The techniques are broadly comparable to the Western and Byzantine traditions of miniatures in illuminated manuscripts...
book illustration. The key medium of public religious art in Islam was and is calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
.
Background
Some major religions have experienced times during their history when images of their religious figures were forbiddenAniconism
Aniconism is the practice or belief in avoiding or shunning images of divine beings, prophets or other respected religious figures, or in different manifestations, any human beings or living creatures. The term aniconic may be used to describe the absence of graphic representations in a particular...
. In Judaism, one of the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
forbade "graven images". In Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
Christianity during the period of Iconoclasm in the 8th century, and again during the 9th century, visual representations of sacred figures were forbidden, and only the Cross
Christian cross
The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...
could be depicted in churches. Even in modern times, different groups of Protestant Christians have had disputes about the appropriateness of having religious icons of saints. The concern generally boils down to the concept of whether or not the image is becoming more important than what is being represented. In Islam, although nothing in the Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
explicitly bans images, some supplemental hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
explicitly ban the drawing of images of any living creature; other hadith tolerate images, but never encourage them. Hence, most Muslims avoid visual depictions of Muhammad or any other prophet
Prophets of Islam
Muslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...
such as Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
or Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
.
Verbal descriptions
In one of the earliest sources, Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, there are numerous verbal descriptions of Muhammad. One description sourced to Ali ibn Abi Talib is as follows:- The Apostle of Allah, may Allah bless him, is neither too short nor too tall. His hair are neither curly nor straight, but a mixture of the two. He is a man of black hair and large skull. His complexion has a tinge of redness. His shoulder bones are broad and his palms and feet are fleshy. He has long al-masrubah which means hair growing from neck to navel. He is of long eye-lashes, close eyebrows, smooth and shining fore-head and long space between two shoulders. When he walks he walks inclining as if coming down from a height. I never saw a man like him before him or after him.
Athar Husain gives a non-pictorial description of his appearance, dress, etc. in "The Message of Mohammad". According to Husain, Muhammad was a little taller than average, sturdily built, and muscular. His fingers were long. His hair, which was long, had waves, and he had a thick beard, which had seventeen gray hairs at the time of his death. He had good teeth and spare cheeks, and brownish-black eyes. His complexion was fair and he was very handsome. He walked fast with firm gait. He always kept himself busy with something, did not speak unnecessarily, always spoke to the point and without verbosity, and did not behave in an emotional way. He usually wore a shirt, trousers, a sheet thrown round the shoulders, and a turban, all spotlessly clean, rarely wearing the fine clothes that had been presented to him. He wanted others to wear simple, but always clean, clothes.
The Arabic term for a written description of Muhammad is a hilya
Hilya
A hilya , hilye is a text describing the physical appearance of the Prophet Muhammad, often carried in a breast pocket...
(Turkish: hilye, pl. hilyeler), and in the Ottoman period such texts may be surrounded by an elaborate frame of illuminated decoration
Ottoman illumination
Turkish or Ottoman illumination covers non-figurative painted or drawn decorative art in books or on sheets in muraqqa or albums, as opposed to the figurative images of the Ottoman miniature. In Turkish it is called “tezhip”, an Arabic word which means “ornamenting with gold”...
, either in books or, more often, muraqqa
Muraqqa
A Muraqqa is an album in book form containing Islamic miniature paintings and specimens of Islamic calligraphy, normally from several different sources, and perhaps other matter...
s or albums, or sometimes placed in wooden frames so that they can hang on a wall. The elaborated form of the calligraphic tradition was founded in the 17th century by the Ottoman calligrapher Hâfiz Osman
Hâfiz Osman
This article is about a 17th century calligrapher. For the Singaporean footballer, see Hafiz Osman.Hâfiz Osman was an Ottoman calligrapher.Hâfiz Osman was a Dervish; he was born in Istanbul...
. While containing a concrete and artistically appealing description of Muhammad's appearance, they complied with the strictures against figurative depictions of the Prophet, leaving his appearance to the viewer's imagination. The Ottoman hilye format customarily starts with a basmala
Basmala
Basmala or Bismillah is an Arabic noun used as a collective name for the whole of the recurring Islamic phrase b-ismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi, It is sometimes translated as "In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful"...
, shown on top, and is separated in the middle by : "And We have not sent you but as a mercy to the worlds". The four circles often contain the names of the Rightly-guided Caliphs
Rashidun
The Rightly Guided Caliphs or The Righteous Caliphs is a term used in Sunni Islam to refer to the first four Caliphs who established the Rashidun Caliphate. The concept of "Rightly Guided Caliphs" originated with the Abbasid Dynasty...
, Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr was a senior companion and the father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He ruled over the Rashidun Caliphate from 632-634 CE when he became the first Muslim Caliph following Muhammad's death...
, Umar
Umar
`Umar ibn al-Khattāb c. 2 November , was a leading companion and adviser to the Islamic prophet Muhammad who later became the second Muslim Caliph after Muhammad's death....
, Uthman
Uthman
Uthman ibn Affan was one of the companions of Islamic prophet, Muhammad. He played a major role in early Islamic history as the third Sunni Rashidun or Rightly Guided Caliph....
, and Ali
Ali
' |Ramaḍān]], 40 AH; approximately October 23, 598 or 600 or March 17, 599 – January 27, 661).His father's name was Abu Talib. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661, and was the first male convert to Islam...
, each followed by "radhi Allahu anhu" ("may God be pleased with him").
Calligraphic representations
The most common visual representation of the Prophet in Islamic art, especially in Arabic-speaking areas, is by a calligraphic representation of his name, a sort of monogramMonogram
A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a...
in roughly circular form, often given a decorated frame. Such inscriptions are normally in Arabic, and may rearrange or repeat forms, or add a blessing or honorific, or for example the word "messenger" or a contraction of it. The range of ways of representing Muhammad's name is considerable, including ambigram
Ambigram
An ambigram is a typographical design or art form that may be read as one or more words not only in its form as presented, but also from another viewpoint, direction, or orientation. The words readable in the other viewpoint, direction or orientation may be the same or different from the original...
s.
The more elaborate versions relate to other Islamic traditions of special forms of calligraphy such as those writing the names of God, and the secular tughra
Tughra
A tughra is a calligraphic monogram, seal or signature of an Ottoman sultan that was affixed to all official documents and correspondence. It was also carved on his seal and stamped on the coins minted during his reign...
or elaborate monogram of Ottoman rulers.
Figurative visual depictions
Persian miniature
A Persian miniature is a small painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works called a muraqqa. The techniques are broadly comparable to the Western and Byzantine traditions of miniatures in illuminated manuscripts...
s as illustrations in books. The illustrated book from the Persianate
Persianate
A Persianate/Persified society is a society that is either based on, or strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art, and/or identity....
world (Warka and Gulshah, Topkapi Palace
Topkapi Palace
The Topkapı Palace is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years of their 624-year reign....
Library H. 841, attributed to Konya
Konya
Konya is a city in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. The metropolitan area in the entire Konya Province had a population of 1,036,027 as of 2010, making the city seventh most populous in Turkey.-Etymology:...
1200-1250) contains the two earliest known Islamic depictions of the Prophet. This book dates to before or just around the time of the Mongol invasion of Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
in the 1240s, and before the campaigns against Persia and Iraq of the 1250s, which destroyed great numbers of books in libraries.
Gruber traces a development from "veristic" images showing the whole body and face, in the 13th to 15th centuries, to more "abstract" representations in the 16th to 19th centuries, the latter including the representation of the Prophet by a special type of calligraphic reresentation, with the older types also remaining in use. An intermediate type, first found from about 1400, is the "inscribed portrait" where the face of Muhammad is blank, with "Ya Muhammad" ("O Muhammad") or a similar phrase written in the space instead; these may be related to Sufi thought. In some cases the inscription appears to have been a underpainting that would later be covered by a face or veil, so a pious act by the painter, for his eyes alone, but in others it was intended to be seen. According to Gruber, a good number of these paintings, however, underwent later iconoclastic
Iconoclasm
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
mutilations, in which the facial features of the Prophet were scratched or smeared" as Muslim views on the acceptability of veristic images changed.
A number of extant Persian manuscripts representing Muhammad date from the Ilkhanid period under the new Mongol rulers, including a Marzubannama
Marzubannama
The Marzubannama by Sa'ad ad-Din Varavini is a collection of 10th century fables in Persian dialect, translated into Arabic around 1220....
dating to 1299. The Ilkhanid MS Arab 161 of 1307/8 contains 25 illustrations found in an illustrated version of Al-Biruni
Al-Biruni
Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-BīrūnīArabic spelling. . The intermediate form Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī is often used in academic literature...
's The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries
The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries
The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries also known as Chronology of Ancient Nations or Vestiges of the Past, after the translation published by Eduard Sachau in 1879) by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, is a comparative study of calendars of different cultures and civilizations, interlaced with mathematical,...
, of which five include depictions Muhammad, including the two concluding images, the largest and most accomplished in the manuscript, which emphasize the relation of Muhammad and `Ali according to Shi`ite doctrine. According to Christiane Gruber, other works use images to promote Sunni Islam, such as a set of Mi'raj illustrations (MS H 2154) in the early 14th century, although other historians have dated the same illustrations to the Jalayrid period of Shia rulers.
Depictions of Muhammad are also found in Persian manuscripts in the following Timurid
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...
and Safavid
Safavid dynasty
The Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia and established the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning...
dynasties, and Turkish Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
art in the 14th to 17th centuries, and beyond. Perhaps the most elaborate cycle of illustrations of Muhammad's life is the late 16th century copy of the 14th century biography Siyer-i Nebi
Siyer-i Nebi
The Siyer-i Nebi is a Turkish epic about the life of Muhammad, completed around 1388, written by Mustafa son of Yusuf of Erzurum, known as al-Darir, a Mevlevi dervish on the commission of Sultan Berkuk, the Mamluk ruler in Cairo...
commissioned by the Ottoman sultan Murat III for his son, the future Mehmed III
Mehmed III
Mehmed III Adli was sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death.-Biography:...
, containing over 800 illustrations.
Probably the commonest narrative scene represented is the Mi'raj; according to Gruber, "There exist countless single-page paintings of the meʿrāj included in the beginnings of Persian and Turkish romances and epic stories produced from the beginning of the 15th century to the 20th century". These images were also used in celebrations of the anniversary of the Mi'raj on 27 Rajab
Rajab
Rajab is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar. The lexical definition of Rajaba is "to respect", of which Rajab is a derivative.This month is regarded as one of the four sacred months in Islam in which battles are prohibited...
, when the accounts were recited aloud to male groups: "Didactic and engaging, oral stories of the ascension seem to have had the religious goal of inducing attitudes of praise among their audiences". Such practices are most easily documented in the 18th and 19th centuries, but manuscripts from much earlier appear to have fulfilled the same function. Otherwise a large number of different scenes may be represented at times, from the Prophet's birth to the end of his life, and his existence in Paradise.
In the earliest depictions Muhammad may be shown with or without a halo
Halo (religious iconography)
A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes...
, the earliest halos being round in the style of Christian art,, but before long a flaming halo or aureole in the Buddhist or Chinese tradition becomes more common than the circular form found in the West, when a halo is used. A halo or flame may surround only his head, but often his whole body, and in some images the body itself cannot be seen for the halo. This "luminous" form of representation avoided the issues caused by "veristic" images, and could be taken to convey qualities of the Prophet's person described in texts. If the body is visible, the face may be covered with a veil (see gallery for examples of both types). This form of representation, which began at the start of the Safavid period in Persia, was done out of reverence and respect. Other prophets of Islam
Prophets of Islam
Muslims identify the Prophets of Islam as those humans chosen by God and given revelation to deliver to mankind. Muslims believe that every prophet was given a belief to worship God and their respective followers believed it as well...
, and the Prophet's wives and relations, may be treated in similar ways if they also appear.
T. W. Arnold
Thomas Walker Arnold
Sir Thomas Walker Arnold was an eminent British orientalist and historian of Islamic art who taught at MAO College, Aligarh Muslim University, then Aligarh College, and Government College University, Lahore. He was a friend of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, and wrote his famous book "The preaching of Islam"...
(1864-1930), an early historian of Islamic art, stated that "Islam has never welcomed painting as a handmaid of religion as both Buddhism and Christianity have done. Mosques have never been decorated with religious pictures, nor has a pictorial art been employed for the instruction of the heathen or for the edification of the faithful." Comparing Islam to Christianity, he also writes: "Accordingly, there has never been any historical tradition in the religious painting of Islam – no artistic development in the representation of accepted types – no schools of painters of religious subjects; least of all has there been any guidance on the part of leaders of religious thought corresponding to that of ecclesiastical authorities in the Christian Church."
Images of the Prophet remain controversial to the present day, and are not considered acceptable in many countries in the Middle East. For example in 1963 an account by a Turkish author of a Hajj
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
pilgrimage to Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
was banned in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
because it contained reproductions of miniatures showing the Prophet unveiled. However in Iran depictions have considerable acceptance to the present day, and may be found in the modern forms of the poster and postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
.
Cinema
Very few films have depicted Muhammad. The only modern one to do so was the 1976 The Message, also known as Mohammad, Messenger of God. The movie focused on other persons and never directly showed Muhammad, or most members of his family. When Muhammad was essential to a scene, the camera would show events from his point of view.Two well-known fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
s from Al-Azhar University and Shiite Council of Lebanon were issued about The Message.
- "It is certainly probable that this is not the result of the creativity of the filmmakers but of the rules announced by the Islamic scholars of the Azhar and the Shiite Council of Lebanon, who prohibited any representation of Muhammad's wives as well as of the Prophet himself."
A more severe case occurred in Egypt in 1926, around the anticipated production of a film about the grandeur of the early days of Islam. Upon learning of this plan, the Islamic Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University
Al-Azhar University is an educational institute in Cairo, Egypt. Founded in 970~972 as a madrasa, it is the chief centre of Arabic literature and Islamic learning in the world. It is the oldest degree-granting university in Egypt. In 1961 non-religious subjects were added to its curriculum.It is...
in Cairo alerted Egyptian public opinion, and published a juridical decision (fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
), stipulating that Islam categorically forbids the representation of Muhammad and his companions on the screen. King Fauad sent a severe warning to actor Youssef Wahbi
Youssef Wahbi
Youssef Wahbi was an Egyptian stage and film actor and director, a leading star of the 1930s and '40s and one of the most prominent Arab stage actors of any era. He was born to a high state official in Egypt but renounced his family's wealth and traveled to Rome in the 1920s to study theatre...
, threatening to exile him and strip him of his Egyptian nationality.
Other contemporary Shi'a scholars, outside Shi'a majority Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, have taken a relaxed attitude towards pictures of Muhammad and his household, the Ahlul Bayt. A fatwa given by Ali al-Sistani, the Shi'a marja
Marja
Marja , also known as a marja-i taqlid or marja dini , literally means "Source to Imitate/Follow" or "Religious Reference"...
of Iraq, states that it is permissible to depict Muhammad, even in television or movies, if done with respect. A devotional cartoon called Muhammad: The Last Prophet was released in 2004.
Depiction by non-Muslims
Muhammad figures frequently in depictions of influential people in world history. Such depictions tend to be favourable or neutral in intent; one example can be found at the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. A frieze including major historical lawgivers places Muhammad alongside Hammurabi
Hammurabi
Hammurabi Hammurabi Hammurabi (Akkadian from Amorite ʻAmmurāpi, "the kinsman is a healer", from ʻAmmu, "paternal kinsman", and Rāpi, "healer"; (died c...
, Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
, Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
, and others. Because of a 1997 controversy surrounding the frieze, tourist materials have been edited so they call the depiction "a well-intentioned attempt by the sculptor to honor Muhammad" that "bears no resemblance to Muhammad." In 1955, a statue of Muhammad was removed from a courthouse in New York City after the ambassadors of Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Pakistan, and Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
requested its removal.
There have also been numerous book illustrations showing Muhammad.
Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
, in The Divine Comedy: Inferno, placed Muhammad in Hell, with his entrails hanging out (Canto 28):
- No barrel, not even one where the hoops and staves go every which way, was ever split open like one frayed Sinner I saw, ripped from chin to where we fart below.
- His guts hung between his legs and displayed His vital organs, including that wretched sack Which converts to shit whatever gets conveyed down the gullet.
- As I stared at him he looked back And with his hands pulled his chest open, Saying, "See how I split open the crack in myself! See how twisted and broken Mohammed is! Before me walks AliAli' |Ramaḍān]], 40 AH; approximately October 23, 598 or 600 or March 17, 599 – January 27, 661).His father's name was Abu Talib. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661, and was the first male convert to Islam...
, his face Cleft from chin to crown, grief–stricken."
This scene is frequently shown in illustrations of the Divina Commedia
The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature...
. For example it is represented in a 15th century fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
in Bologna, Italy, in the Church of San Petronio, and artwork by Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
, William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, and Gustave Doré
Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...
.
Recent controversies
The start of the 21st century has been marked by controversies over depictions of Muhammad, not only for recent caricatures or cartoons, but also regarding the display of historical artwork. In 2002, Italian police reported that they had disrupted a terrorist plot to destroy a church in BolognaBologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, which contains a 15th century fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
depicting an image of Muhammad. In 2005, worldwide media attention focused on the controversy surrounding a dozen editorial cartoons published in the Jyllands-Posten
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
.
Cartoons
In 2005, a Danish newspaper published a set of editorial cartoons, many of which depicted Muhammad. In late 2005 and early 2006, Danish Muslim organizations ignited a controversy
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
through public protests and by spreading knowledge of the publication of the cartoons. According to John Woods, Islamic history professor at the University of Chicago, it was not simply the depiction of Muhammad that was offensive, but the implication that Muhammad was somehow a supporter of terrorism. On 12 February 2008 the Danish police arrested three men alleged to be involved in a plot to assassinate Kurt Westergaard
Kurt Westergaard
Kurt Westergaard is a Danish cartoonist who created the controversial cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb in his turban. This cartoon was the most contentious of the 12 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, which met with strong and sometimes violent reactions from Muslims worldwide...
, one of the cartoonists.
In 2005, an episode of 30 Days with Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and journalist best known for the documentary film Super Size Me...
, titled "Muslims and America," depicted Muhammad twice, in a cartoon explaining the origins of the Islamic faith. There was no outcry over this. In 2006, the controversial American animated television comedy program South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
, which had previously depicted Muhammad as a superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
character in the July 4, 2001 episode "Super Best Friends
Super Best Friends
"Super Best Friends" is the third episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 68th episode of the series overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on July 4, 2001. The episode depicts several religious figures, including Muhammad,...
" and has depicted Muhammad in the opening sequence since that episode, attempted to satirize the Danish newspaper incident. In the episode "Cartoon Wars Part II
Cartoon Wars Part II
"Cartoon Wars Part II" is the fourth episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 142nd episode overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 12, 2006...
", they intended to show Muhammad handing a salmon helmet to Peter Griffin
Peter Griffin
Peter Griffin is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated comedy series Family Guy and the patriarch of the Griffin family. He is voiced by cartoonist Seth MacFarlane and first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family in the 15-minute short on December 20, 1998....
, a character in the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
animated television show Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
. However, Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
, the parent company
Parent company
A parent company is a company that owns enough voting stock in another firm to control management and operations by influencing or electing its board of directors; the second company being deemed as a subsidiary of the parent company...
of South Park, rejected the scene, citing concerns of violent protests in the Islamic world. The creators of South Park reacted by instead satirizing Comedy Central's double standard
Double standard
A double standard is the unjust application of different sets of principles for similar situations. The concept implies that a single set of principles encompassing all situations is the desirable ideal. The term has been used in print since at least 1895...
for broadcast acceptability by including a segment in which American president
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
defecate on the flag of the United States
Flag of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
.
The Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy
Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy
The Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy began in July 2007 with a series of drawings by Swedish artist Lars Vilks that depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a roundabout dog . Several art galleries in Sweden declined to show the drawings, citing security concerns and fear of violence...
began in July 2007 with a series of drawings by Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
artist Lars Vilks
Lars Vilks
Lars Endel Roger Vilks is a Swedish artist. He is best known for his drawings of Muhammed, prophet of Islam.- Personal background :...
which depicted Muhammad as a roundabout dog
Roundabout dog
A roundabout dog is a form of street installation, that began occurring in the autumn of 2006, and continued for the rest of the year with sporadic occurrences since then. The phenomenon consists of anonymous people placing homemade dog sculptures, typically made of wood in roundabouts...
. Several art galleries in Sweden declined to show the drawings, citing security concerns and fear of violence. The controversy gained international attention after the Örebro
Örebro
-Sites of interest:Örebro's old town Wadköping is located on the banks of Svartån . It contains many 18th and 19th century wooden houses, along with museums and exhibitions....
-based regional newspaper Nerikes Allehanda
Nerikes Allehanda
- External links :* *...
published one of the drawings on August 18 to illustrate an editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
on self-censorship
Self-censorship
Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own work , out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities of others, without overt pressure from any specific party or institution of authority...
and freedom of religion
Freedom of religion
Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...
.English translation: While several other leading Swedish newspapers had published the drawings already, this particular publication led to protests from Muslims in Sweden
Islam in Sweden
Islam in Sweden is the religion of around 450,000 to 500,000 citizens and residents, as of 2009, around 5% of the total population.-History:Islam begins to have a noticeable presence in Sweden with immigration from the Middle East beginning in the 1970s....
as well as official condemnations from several foreign governments including Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
, as well as by the inter-governmental Organisation of the Islamic Conference
Organisation of the Islamic Conference
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Upon the groups's renaming, some sources provided the English-language translation "Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation", but and have since indicated the preferred English translation omits the "the". is an international organisation consisting of 57...
(OIC). The controversy occurred about one and a half years after the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...
in Denmark in early 2006.
Another controversy emerged in September 2007 when Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
i cartoonist Arifur Rahman was detained on suspicion of showing disrespect to Muhammad. The interim government confiscated copies of the Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
-language Prothom Alo
Prothom Alo
Prothom Alo is a major daily newspaper in Bangladesh, published from Dhaka in the Bengali language.-History:Prothom Alo was founded on 4 November 1998. As at January 2009, it had an average circulation of 435,000...
in which the drawings appeared. The cartoon consisted of a boy holding a cat conversing with an elderly man. The man asks the boy his name, and he replies "Babu". The older man chides him for not mentioning the name of Muhammad before his name. He then points to the cat and asks the boy what it is called, and the boy replies "Muhammad the cat". The cartoon caused a firestorm in Bangladesh, with militant Islamists demanding that Rahman be executed for blasphemy
Blasphemy
Blasphemy is irreverence towards religious or holy persons or things. Some countries have laws to punish blasphemy, while others have laws to give recourse to those who are offended by blasphemy...
. A group of people torched copies of the paper
Book burning
Book burning, biblioclasm or libricide is the practice of destroying, often ceremoniously, books or other written material and media. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been ceremoniously burned, torched, or shredded...
and several Islamic groups protested, saying the drawings ridiculed Mohammad and his companions. They demanded "exemplary punishment" for the paper's editor and the cartoonist. Bangladesh, however, does not have a blasphemy law, although one had been demanded by the same extremist Islamic groups.
Sooreh Hera
In December 2007, controversy erupted in the Netherlands when Iranian artist Sooreh Hera exhibited photos of two Iranian gay men in a series of sexually provocative positions, wearing masks depicting Muhammad and his son-in-law AliAli
' |Ramaḍān]], 40 AH; approximately October 23, 598 or 600 or March 17, 599 – January 27, 661).His father's name was Abu Talib. Ali was also the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661, and was the first male convert to Islam...
. The photo series was intended to highlight the hypocrisy the artist saw, of Muslim married men engaging in sexual relations with other men
Men who have sex with men
Men who have sex with men are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, regardless of how they identify themselves; many men choose not to accept sexual identities of homosexual or bisexual...
. The Hague Municipal Museum
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
The Municipal Museum is an art museum, located in The Hague, Netherlands.The museum was built by the Dutch architect H.P. Berlage. It is renowned for its large Mondrian collection, the largest in the world...
expressed interest in buying the series, but refused to display it, citing fear that it could "offend certain groups". Dutch politician Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders
Geert Wilders is a Dutch right-wing politician and leader of the Party for Freedom , the third-largest political party in the Netherlands. He is the Parliamentary group leader of his party in the Dutch House of Representatives...
, leader of the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom
Party for Freedom
The Party for Freedom is a Dutch right-wing political party. Founded in 2005 as the successor to Geert Wilders' one-man party in the House of Representatives, it won nine seats in the 2006 general election, making it the fifth largest party in parliament, and third largest opposition party. It...
), excoriated the museum's decision, saying it was "based on fear".
Wikipedia article
In 2008, several Muslims protested against the inclusion of Muhammad's depictions in Wikipedia's Muhammad articleMuhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
.
An online petition claims to have collected over 450,000 signatures in three months (December 2007 to February 2008). The petition was started by Faraz Ahmad of Daska, Pakistan
Daska
Daska is a growing industrial city with a population of around 440,200 in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The town is the capital of Daska Tehsil one of four tehsils of Sialkot District. It is located at 32°19'60N 74° 20' 60E-Name:The name Daska is said to be a distortion of "Dah Kos"...
, resident in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, formerly editing Wikipedia as "Farazilu".
The petition specifies opposition to a reproduction of a 17th century Ottoman copy of a 14th century Ilkhanate
Ilkhanate
The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate , was a Mongol khanate established in Azerbaijan and Persia in the 13th century, considered a part of the Mongol Empire...
manuscript image (MS Arabe 1489) depicting Muhammad as he prohibited Nasīʾ, a special form of intercalary months practiced in Arabia.
Jeremy Henzell-Thomas of The American Muslim
The American Muslim
The American Muslim began as a quarterly print journal, in print from 1989 to 1995. Founded by Editor Sheila Musaji, The American Muslim featured original art, Islamic calligraphy, diverse articles and prose...
deplored the petition as one of "these mechanical knee-jerk reactions" which, "are gifts to those who seek every opportunity to decry Islam and ridicule Muslims and can only exacerbate a situation in which Muslims and the Western media seem to be locked in an ever-descending spiral of ignorance and mutual loathing".
Wikipedia considered but rejected a compromise that would allow visitors to choose whether to view the page with images. The Wikipedia community has not acted upon the petition. The site's answers to frequently asked questions about these images state that Wikipedia does not censor itself for the benefit of any one group.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in January 2010 confirmed to the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
that it had quietly removed all historic paintings which contained depictions of Muhammad from public exhibition. The Museum quoted objections on the part of conservative Muslims which were "under review."
The museum's action was criticized as excessive political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
, also apparent in other recent decision, including the renaming of the "Primitive Art Galleries" to the "Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas" and the projected "Islamic Galleries" to "Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia".
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day was a protest against those who threatened violence against artists who drew representations of Muhammad. It began as a protest against the action of Comedy CentralComedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
in forbidding the broadcast of the South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
episode "201"
201 (South Park)
"201" is the sixth episode of the fourteenth season of South Park, and the 201st overall episode of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 21, 2010. The episode continued multiple storylines from the previous episode, "200", in which a group of angry...
in response to death threat
Death threat
A death threat is a threat of death, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or groups of people. These threats are usually designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behavior, thus a death threat is a form of coercion...
s against some of those responsible for the segment. Observance of the day began with a drawing posted on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
on April 20, 2010, accompanied by text suggesting that "everybody" create a drawing representing Muhammad, on May 20, 2010, as a protest against efforts to limit freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
.
See also
- Qadam RasulQadam RasulQadam Rasul is a type of veneration of Muhammad. It comes from the belief started early in Islam that when Muhammad stepped on a rock his footprint left an imprint...
- The Satanic VersesThe Satanic VersesThe Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism and relied on contemporary events and people to create his characters...
by Salman Rushdie
Controversial depictions
- Idomeneo controversyIdomeneo (controversy)On September 26, 2006, the Deutsche Oper Berlin announced the cancellation of four performances of Mozart's opera Idomeneo, re di Creta, planned for November 2006, citing concerns that the production's depictions of the severed head of the Islamic prophet Muhammad raised an "incalculable security...
External links
- Devotion in pictures: Muslim popular iconography, University of BergenUniversity of BergenThe University of Bergen is located in Bergen, Norway. Although founded as late as 1946, academic activity had taken place at Bergen Museum as far back as 1825. The university today serves more than 14,500 students...
- "Religious" Paintings in Islamic Art
- Mohammed Image Archive: Depictions of Mohammed Throughout History
- Mohammed in Virgil's Inferno 28
