138 Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, V I,V (2018) Haft Aṣl: The Seven Modes of Ornamentation in Islamic Art Masooma Abbas* Abstract There are specialists for dating Persian paintings but it is surprising that such precession is missing in the field of Islamic non-figural ornament which isstrange because from the second half of the sixteenth century there are several treatises that provide the names for the major ―motifs‖ – the haft asl (the seven modes). Although several modern scholars have suggested meanings for one or more of the seven terms – islīmī, khatā’ī, band-i rūmī, dāgh, nīlufer, abr, faṣṣālī and firangī– no one heretofore has presented an explanation for them that intergrades the wordsinto a comprehensive statement of Islamic design. This research includes a new historical sequence for the motifs. Beginning in the ninth century with the mis-named ―arabesque‖, now rightfully termed the islīmī aṣl; the first combination occurs in the tenth century with the addition of the ―band-irūmī” a process for knotting and braiding vines taken from Byzantine art. In the eleventh to twelfth century, with the invasions of the Seljuqs into Persia and Turkey, the wāqwāq asl was joined to the previous two. Wave of Chinese influence supplanted the wāqwāq aṣl, with cloud bands (abr) and khatā’ī, another type of more delicate vine with flowers, buds and leaf motifs. Combination of islīmī with khatā’ī generated the aṣl, faṣṣālī. Lastly, firangī the Persian word used to indicate the Franks or Europeans in general, is a type of design organization with larger motifs overlapping smaller ones, deriving from designs on Venetian textiles of the fourteenth century popularly imported into Islamic cities. Not only does this research, which was carried out on both a theoretical level – tracing the meanings of terms through the centuries -but also on empirical basis with interviews of contemporary craftsmen in Pakistan and Iran, add clarity to descriptions of Islamic ornament but also aids art historian in verifying dates and schools of Qur‘an illumination and so forth. Keywords:islīmī, khatā’ī, band-i rūmī, dāgh, nīlufer, abr, faṣṣālī,firangī, motifs, decoration, patterns, Islamic, ornamentation. This article can be cited as: Abbas M., (2018). Haft Aṣl: The Seven Modes of Ornamentation in Islamic Art Journal of Arts and Social Sciences V (1), 138-163. * Masooma Abbas, Associate Prof. Institute of Designe and Visual Arts Lahore College for Women University, Lahore [email protected]
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138 Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, V I,V (2018)
Haft Aṣl: The Seven Modes of Ornamentation in Islamic Art
Masooma Abbas*
Abstract
There are specialists for dating Persian paintings but it is surprising that such precession is
missing in the field of Islamic non-figural ornament which isstrange because from the
second half of the sixteenth century there are several treatises that provide the names for
the major ―motifs‖ – the haft asl (the seven modes). Although several modern scholars
have suggested meanings for one or more of the seven terms – islīmī, khatā’ī, band-i rūmī,
dāgh, nīlufer, abr, faṣṣālī and firangī– no one heretofore has presented an explanation for
them that intergrades the wordsinto a comprehensive statement of Islamic design. This
research includes a new historical sequence for the motifs. Beginning in the ninth century
with the mis-named ―arabesque‖, now rightfully termed the islīmī aṣl; the first
combination occurs in the tenth century with the addition of the ―band-irūmī” a process
for knotting and braiding vines taken from Byzantine art. In the eleventh to twelfth
century, with the invasions of the Seljuqs into Persia and Turkey, the wāqwāq asl was
joined to the previous two. Wave of Chinese influence supplanted the wāqwāq aṣl, with
cloud bands (abr) and khatā’ī, another type of more delicate vine with flowers, buds and
leaf motifs. Combination of islīmī with khatā’ī generated the aṣl, faṣṣālī. Lastly, firangī
the Persian word used to indicate the Franks or Europeans in general, is a type of design
organization with larger motifs overlapping smaller ones, deriving from designs on
Venetian textiles of the fourteenth century popularly imported into Islamic cities. Not only
does this research, which was carried out on both a theoretical level – tracing the
meanings of terms through the centuries -but also on empirical basis with interviews of
contemporary craftsmen in Pakistan and Iran, add clarity to descriptions of Islamic
ornament but also aids art historian in verifying dates and schools of Qur‘an illumination
decoration, patterns, Islamic, ornamentation. This article can be cited as: Abbas M., (2018). Haft Aṣl: The Seven Modes of Ornamentation in Islamic Art Journal of
Arts and Social Sciences V (1), 138-163. * Masooma Abbas, Associate Prof. Institute of Designe and Visual Arts Lahore College for
158 Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, V I,V (2018)
or Ottoman‖ but does not explain rūmī in its modern definition perhaps indicating that the
modern Turkish illustrator has introduced the confusion. These authors (Aytürk, 2004; Perry,
1985; Fortna, 2000) mention that dictionaries written before and after Mustafa Kemāl
Atātürk‘s reform movement and the ―establishment of the Turkish Language Institute (Türk
Dil Kurumu) in 1932‖ have differences. The mission of ―Türk Dil Kurumu was to replace the
Perso-Arabic words with more familiar native equivalents‖ of Turkish words.
Wāq has been mentioned by two of our authors Qutb al-Din Qiṣṣa Khvān and Qāḍī
Aḥmed Qummī but not by Ṣadīqī Bayg who refers to another aṣl, dāgh which means design
transference (Dickson and Welch, 1981).
The geographical location of Wāqwāq Island or islands is also disputable. The
thirteenth century dictionary Lisān al-‘Arab mentions wāqwāq as a land beyond China
whereas the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Tibbetts and Toorawa, 2002, s.v. ―Wāḳwāḳ.‖) suspects
Madagascar, Sumatra, and Southeast Asian locations (Al Baheth al-Arabi (wāk, n.d.).
Abbott (1949) says that the Pehlavi Hazār Afsanāh was translated during the early
Abbasid Period probably ninth century into Arabic. Abbott quotes Ibn-Nadīm‘s Fihrist
describing the literary formation of the Thousand and One Night.
The scrolling vine represents the wāqwāq tree is similarly seen in another early
thirteenth century tray from Khurasan, which shows harpies flanking braided vine with split
leaves (Baer, 1965). These harpies called murgh-i ādamī by Baer (1965) are human-headed
birds with a crown similar to the Hindu and Buddhist deity kinnārī. According to Rachel
Ward (1993) contact between Ghurid Khurasan and India and probable presence of Indian
craftsmen at local workshops may be one of the sources for wāqwāq designs.
See Wilman-Grabowska (1996) figure 5 for makārā in relief carving.
Marchal (1996) says that the ―Hindu deity Kāla is an emanation of Shīvā,
personifying time with a full face, bulging eyes, enormous nose, thick eyebrows, very
conspicuous fangs, and no lower jaw.‖ According to him makārā is a ―marine monster similar
to a crocodile with tremendous jaw, whose snout is elongated into a trunk.‖ Both these were
imported from India in Javanese art (Marchal, 1996).
Frick (1993) says that the lion‘s head placed on the scrolling vines is related to the one
found in Buddhist stone reliefs. Frick brings to attention the presence of Buddhists during the
Haft Aṣl: The Seven Modes of Ornamentation in Islamic Art 159
early Abbasid Period and ―periodic evidence of exchanges of ambassadors and of Chinese
artists at Muslim courts between the tenth and fourteenth century‖ and more specifically after
the Seljuk‘s arrived in Persia; Ölçer (2005) also mentions that royal palaces ―from the
Qarakhanid to the Ghaznavids‖ were ―decorated with reliefs influenced by Buddhists culture.‖
According to Sheila Canby, the claim of modern illuminators that islīmī ‘s
superimposition on khatā’ī shows symbolic supremacy of islīmī is ―a historicizing fantasy‖
(Discussion with Sheila Canby in the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, NY on April 01, 2013).
Wardwell (1987 figures 17 and 28) believes that the grapevine and its leaves are an
Italian influence but placing a rosette within a leaf is not observed in Italian silks. However
Italian textiles, often do present combination of two or three motifs.
According to Lewis, (1986, s.v. Ifrandj) this term in medieval times is not normally
applied to the Spanish Christians, Slavs or the Vikings.‖
Wardwell (1987) says that Clavijo, the Spanish Convoy ambassador brought
Florentine textile as a gift for Emperor Timur when he visited his court in Samarqand;
According to Asimov and Bosworth (1998) items were imported from Europe.
Tākistānī (2002) believes ‗firangī’ should not be used because nowadays this Persian
word is used for the English but earlier it meant just ―foreign;‖ Steingass (2000, s.v. firangī) is
a large branch lopped off, in order that smaller ones may shoot forth.
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