Art is a broad array of human activities comprising the creative use of visual imagination to express physical, aesthetic, historical, cultural, or psychological aptitude. It is known to be the oldest surviving civilization that has left significant imprints in history by the use of different artistic forms. Art includes all the arts related to art including dance, music, visual arts, architecture, printmaking, and sculpture. The term “arts” encompasses a wide variety of creative human activities and is the basis of modern academic language such as aesthetics, culture, construction, digital art, communication, and the arts.
Islamic Art is an example of a branch of fine arts that is focused on Islamic philosophy and practices. Islamic architecture, painting, and jewelry are some of the types of Islamic arts that attract many people. Architectural structures include mosques, minarets, palaces, houses, cemeteries, and gardens. Islamic paintings are part of this genre of art.
Islamic Literature is an example of the use of arts in the transmission of knowledge throughout the ages. This is the most influential and important part of Islamic arts as it contains various genres such as prose, poetry, calligraphy, and technical illustration. Islamic poetry and writing are divided into two categories: the Humorous Arabic Poetry and the Baraka or serious Islamic prose.
Visual arts include all the arts other than photography. These include Graphic Design, Animation, Video, and Installation art. Visual literature includes art that is made for publications, such as children’s books, cookbooks, fairy tales, magazines, and the like.
Music is used in all kinds of arts, both spoken and visual. It is an essential component of literature and is therefore an integral part of any curriculum on Islamic arts and cultures. The two types of music are classical and contemporary. Classical music is the music that has been around for centuries while contemporary music is relatively new.
Islamic Art and Civilisation: A Study by Nader Sadik Al-Hassan and Muhammad Al-Hassan, both from Los Angeles, California, are books which examine the relationship between Islamic and Western aesthetics. They examine different aspects such as applying arts to architecture, fine arts to interior design, carpentry to painting, decorative arts to photography, literature to cinema, dance to sculpture, Islamic and contemporary art to music. They conclude that the relationship between Islamic Art and Civilisation can be studied on the basis of the aesthetics of space, form, technique, and form. The book consists of twelve volumes and was published in 2021. This important book provides a rich insight into the early beginnings of applied arts in Islam and the impact it has had on art styles across the world.
Islamic Architecture and Art: A Study by Noumani and Zahra Tabatabeen is an interesting book on the history of Islamic architecture. It describes the development of Islamic architecture from the seventh century of the Common Era to the nineteenth century. It discusses the types of architecture, period of invention, innovation, and the role of women in the architectural evolution. It then describes how the rise of twentieth century modernism affected the development of Islamic architecture. The book concludes with an extensive analysis of decorative arts and their role in the revival of Islamic architecture.
