About Islamic Art
Geometric and vegetal patterns offer important approaches to design, while the written word can have a central visual role. Figural images also appear in particular secular and manuscript contexts, so a simple opposition between Islamic art and representation is misleading.
Religious use and cultural association are not identical. An object from an Islamic court may have a secular purpose, and artists worked across communities. Use the source record to distinguish a devotional subject, an original function and a broader cultural setting.
