Performing arts

Many Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic rulings relating to the performing arts

Performing arts

The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...

 are gender and event specific.

Music

There is no clear position in Islam regarding Music.

Certain schools of Sunnis

Sunni Islam

Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....

 as well as some Shiites hold that music is forbidden with the sole exception being that women can play the Daf

Daf

A daf is a frame drum used as a musical instrument in popular and classical music. The term daf is used in Iran / Kurdistan for a large drum that has a series of four interlinked rings in the frame. Daf is mostly used in Middle East, Iran, Armenia, Pakistan, Turkey, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and ...

, a traditional one sided drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

, at celebrations and festivals. However some Islamic groups and denominations deem music permissible including many Sufi orders who use music as part of their worship.

Islam does allow singing without musical accompaniment within prescribed circumstances - namely that the performer be of the same gender as the audience.

However, the general consensus is that music is permitted in Islam provided that the lyrics are not obscene or vulgar.

Dance

Gender based rulings are also evident in Islam's position on dance. Dance is permissible for women within a female only environment and is often performed at celebrations. Dancing is prohibited for men. Again, some Sufi orders are the exception to this rule. They include the whirling dervishes who use dance as a means of worship.

However, in South East Asia, Islam provided new influences on local dance. The most famous of these include the zapin

Zapin

Zapin is a dance form that is popular in Malaysia and in Indonesia, especially in Malay-populated provinces in Sumatera and West Kalimantan...

 of Malaysia and Saman

Saman (dance)

Saman is one of the most popular dances in Indonesia. Its origin is from the Gayo ethnic group from Gayo Lues and is normally performed to celebrate important occasions....

, or 'dance of a thousand hands' 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...

 (specifically the Islamic stronghold of Aceh

Aceh

Aceh is a special region of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Daerah Istimewa Aceh , Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam and Aceh . Past spellings of its name include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin...

).

Theatre

Whilst theatre is permitted by Islam, Islam does not allow for any performances to depict Allah

Allah

Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...

, the Prophet Muhammad

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...

, his companions, the angels or matters detailed in the religion that are unseen.

Poetry

Poetry and the spoken word have a strong heritage within Islam as it places a special significance on the word. Many Muslim poets and writers explore issues of faith and belief in their work.

Visual arts

Public 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...

 is traditionally non-representational, except for the widespread use of plant forms, usually in varieties of the spiralling arabesque

Arabesque

The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements...

. These are often combined with Islamic calligraphy

Islamic calligraphy

Islamic calligraphy, colloquially known as Perso-Arabic calligraphy, is the artistic practice of handwriting, or calligraphy, and by extension, of bookmaking, in the lands sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage. This art form is based on the Arabic script, which for a long time was used by all...

, geometric patterns

Islamic geometric patterns

Islamic decoration makes great use of geometric patterns which have developed over the centuries. Many of these derived from various earlier cultures: Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Central Asian, and Persian. They are usually distinguished from the arabesque, the term for decoration in Islamic art...

 in styles that are typically found in a wide variety of media, from small objects in ceramic or metalwork to large decorative schemes in tiling on the outside and inside of large buildings, including mosques. However there is a long tradition 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...

 of the depiction of human and animal figures, especially in painting and small anonymous relief

Relief

Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...

 figures as part of a decorative scheme. Almost all Persian 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...

s (as opposed to decorative illuminations

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”...

) include figures, often in large numbers, as do their equivalents in Arab, Mughal and Ottoman miniature

Ottoman miniature

Ottoman Miniature or Turkish miniature was an art form in the Ottoman Empire, which can be linked to the Persian miniature tradition, as well as strong Chinese artistic influences. It was a part of the Ottoman Book Arts together with illumination , calligraphy , marbling paper and bookbinding...

s. But miniatures in books or 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...

 albums were private works owned by the elite. Larger figures in monumental sculpture

Monumental sculpture

The term monumental sculpture is often used in art history and criticism, but not always consistently. It combines two concepts, one of function, and one of size, and may include an element of a third more subjective concept. It is often used for all sculptures that are large...

 are exceptionally rare until recent times, and portrait

Portrait

thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

ure showing realistic representations of individuals (and animals) did not develop until the late 16th century in miniature painting, especially Mughal miniatures. Manuscripts of the Qu'ran and other sacred texts have always been strictly kept free of such figures, but there is a long tradition of the depiction of Muhammad and other religious figures in books of history and poetry; since the 16th century the Prophet has mostly been shown as though wearing a veil hiding his face, and many earlier miniatures were overpainted to use this convention.

Depiction of animate beings

Some considered that Islam prohibits the depiction of animate beings in paintings and drawings. One possible reason for this is that it removes the risk of idol worship

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...

. Islam teaches that Allah alone should be worshipped, and banning pictures of Muhammad or any other creature reduces the risk that they will be worshipped in his place.

However, some others argue that the depiction of animated beings is permissible if the art was not meant to be worshipped, and the creator did not intend to rival God (or intended any heresy) in the creation. This is due to the hadith that mentioned the Prophet had once asked his wife to move a picture of two birds in the room in which he prays, to somewhere. However, he didn't ask the picture to be destroyed. This, along with other hadiths, made some believe that pictures of animated beings that is not worshipped or to be considered heresy, is permissible (although using it as a form of luxury, such as hanging them in the wall, is discouraged).