Message about the culture of Arab countries. Abstract: Arab culture of the Middle Ages as a middle culture

There are various fortune telling for Epiphany on January 19, which have been used since ancient times. It is believed that this day has enormous power, so all predictions will be as truthful as possible. You can guess about love, money, the future, and so on.

Tradition of fortune telling for Epiphany on January 19

There are a number of rules, signs and traditions associated with this day. Since ancient times, it has been believed that fortune telling performed on Epiphany on January 19 will be as truthful as possible, which is why many people like to predict their future on this holiday. There are other traditions associated with this day:

Fortune telling from January 18 to 19 Baptism

If you want to perform a ritual to predict the future, then it is important to know a number of rules necessary to obtain the most accurate results.

Fortune telling for Epiphany on January 19th

To find out what fate has prepared for the future, you can perform a very simple fortune telling, which is called “7 glasses”. Prepare seven identical vessels into which you should put objects that have different meanings. After this, you need to close your eyes and swap the vessels so that it is impossible to understand where each object lies. To finish fortune telling for Epiphany on January 19, mentally ask the question: “What has fate prepared for me?” and choose one of the glasses at random. Its contents will be the interpretation:

• salt – , sadness;
• sugar - sweet and cheerful life;
• bread - satiety;
• coin - financial well-being;
• ring - marriage proposal;
• matches - the birth of a baby;
• grain - difficult workdays.

Fortune telling on Epiphany January 19 for love

More often than not, girls use different methods of prediction to understand issues related to their personal lives. Fortune telling for the betrothed on Epiphany on January 19 with needles is considered interesting. To carry out the ritual, you need to prepare two needles and rub them with any fat, for example, oil or lard. It is important that the entire surface of the needles is slippery. Fill a regular glass with water, place it on the table and lower the needles into it. After this, you can ask a question about your relationship with a specific person. Interpretations are carried out based on the behavior of the needles:

1. If the needles go to the bottom, this is a bad sign, foreshadowing trouble. This behavior may also be due to the fact that the needles were poorly lubricated.
2. If the needles come together, this indicates a warm relationship and sincere feelings.
3. If the needles “freeze” and no rapprochement is observed, then this indicates a cool relationship. Fortune telling for Epiphany on January 19 indicates that the fortuneteller leaves the room, and another person turns the containers upside down and puts a coin under one, a crumpled bill under another, and leaves the third empty.
4. If the needles come apart, then the relationship will end, so you shouldn’t waste time and hope that everything will work out.

Fortune telling with money for Epiphany January 19

There are different methods of prediction that will help you learn about the situation in the financial sector. A simple fortune telling for Epiphany on January 19 for prosperity is carried out according to the following scheme:

1. Take containers that should not be transparent, a handful of coins and one bill that should be crumpled. For prediction you need an assistant.
2. The fortuneteller leaves the room, and another person turns the containers upside down and puts a coin under one, a crumpled bill under the other, and leaves the third empty.
3. The fortuneteller, without looking, selects any cup and looks at the contents. If coins were found, then this bodes well; an empty cup indicates that there will be no changes in the financial sector, but a crumpled bill means that damages and losses should be expected.

Fortune telling for Epiphany on January 19 for the future

Many people seek to learn about their future in order to know about possible problems and trials. There are simple fortune telling for Epiphany on January 19, thanks to which you can learn about future events and understand whether your wish will come true soon or not.

1. Before going to bed on the eve of the holiday, you need to write your wishes on 12 pieces of paper and put them under your pillow. It is important to leave one piece of paper blank. In the morning, lying in bed, take out one note at random and see which wish comes true. If the piece of paper is blank, then this indicates that nothing will change in the near future.
2. To conduct fortune telling before Epiphany on January 19, you need to prepare a mirror on which you need to write your dream with your finger. Place a reflective surface under the bed with small spruce branches around it. If the next morning the inscription has disappeared, then the desire will become real.

Fortune telling for Epiphany on January 19 for children

On Epiphany night, you can perform a simple ceremony to find out how many children there will be in the future and what gender.

1. It is necessary to thread a red thread into the wedding ring to make a pendulum. Hold it over your right hand and take a few deep breaths. Fingers should be spread out.
2. First, the ring should be passed between the index finger and thumb, and then place it above the center of the palm.
3. To find out the meaning of fortune telling on Epiphany Eve on January 18, look at the movement of the ring. If it starts to rotate in a circle, then expect a girl first, and if in the opposite direction, a boy.
4. After this, lower the jewelry between your fingers three times and repeat the steps. Carry out such manipulations until the ring stops moving altogether. The number of repetitions will show the number of children.

Fortune telling methods for Epiphany on January 19

There are many fortune tellings that use different available items. It is important to consider that such magical rituals attract not only good but also bad spirits, so home protection is needed. For this purpose, draw crosses on the window frames and doors with chalk. After the fortune telling for Epiphany on January 18 is carried out before going to bed, it is recommended to wash your face with holy water or at least take a shower.

Fortune telling on cards for Epiphany January 19

To predict fate, cards are often used that give detailed answers to various questions. You can make different layouts, and here are the simplest fortune telling for Epiphany on January 18 on cards:

1. Take a simple deck that has not been used for gaming before. First, make a wish, and then make a layout. Shuffle the deck and place it into four piles. In the first, and then in the others, you need to find aces. The interpretation shows that the more aces in the first pile, the higher the likelihood that the desire will become real and so on.
2. If there are gypsy cards, the meaning of which can be understood from the picture, then distribute them into four rows of nine cards. Find the “Unexpected Joy” card, which is the personification of a fortuneteller. The card on the left side is the past, and on the right is the future, the row located on top is thoughts, and on the bottom are obstacles.
3. When describing what fortune-telling for Epiphany on January 19 can be done with cards, it is worth mentioning the option with Tarot. Arrange nine cards in three rows: the first is what was, the middle is what is, and the bottom is what will be. Tarot meaning can be found here.

Fortune telling for Epiphany January 19 on paper

To find out about events in the near future, you can use a simple ritual. It must be done alone so that nothing interferes. For fortune telling on the night of Epiphany, January 19, crumple up a blank sheet of paper, put it in a saucer and set it on fire. If all the paper is burned and only ashes remain, all problems will soon end, and a white streak of life will begin. When pieces of paper remain, then expect trouble.

Fortune telling for Epiphany January 19th on wax

Most popular Epiphany fortune telling are rituals using candles. To predict the future on wax, you need to take a bowl of water, and also prepare a spoon and a couple of candles. Fortune telling for Epiphany on January 18 on wax is carried out according to the following scheme:

1. One candle needs to be broken or rubbed to form shavings for easy melting. Place it in a spoon and start heating it over the second lit candle.
2. When the wax becomes liquid, quickly pour it into the water to form a figure. It will be the interpretation of fortune-telling, for which you need to include.

Already in the Early Middle Ages, the Arabs had rich folklore traditions; they valued the spoken word, a beautiful phrase, a successful comparison, and a well-placed saying. Each tribe of Arabia had its own poet, praising his fellow tribesmen and branding his enemies. The poet used rhythmic prose; there were many rhythms. It is believed that they were born in a camel's saddle, when the Bedouin sang on the way, adapting to the progress of his “ship of the desert”1.

In the first centuries of Islam, the art of rhyming became a court craft in large cities. Poets also acted as literary critics. In the VIII-X centuries. Many works of pre-Islamic Arabic oral poetry were recorded. So, in the 9th century. two collections were compiled Hamas(“Songs of Valor”), which included poems by more than 500 Old Arabic poets. In the 10th century writer, scientist, musician Abul-Faraj Al-Isfahani a multi-volume anthology “Kitab al-Aghani” (“Book of Songs”) was compiled, including works and biographies of poets, as well as information about composers and performers.

The attitude of the Arabs towards poets, for all their admiration for poetry, was not unambiguous. They believed that the inspiration that helps them write poetry comes from demons, the devils: they eavesdrop on the conversations of angels, and then tell priests and poets about them. In addition, the Arabs were almost completely uninterested in the specific personality of the poet. They believed that little should be known about the poet: whether his talent was great and whether his ability to clairvoyance was strong.

Therefore, not all the great poets of the Arab East have been preserved complete and reliable information.

An outstanding poet was Abu Nuwas(between 747-762 - between 813-815), masterfully mastering the form of verse. He was characterized by irony and

frivolity, he sang of love, merry feasts and laughed at the then fashionable passion for old Bedouin poems.

Abul Atahiya looked for support in asceticism and faith. He wrote moral poems about the vanity of all earthly things and the injustice of life. Detachment from the world was not easy for him, as evidenced by his nickname - “without a sense of proportion.”

Life Al-Mutanabbi passed in endless wanderings. He was ambitious and proud, and either praised the rulers of Syria, Egypt, and Iran in his poems, or quarreled with them. Many of his poems became aphorisms and turned into songs and proverbs.

Creation Abu-l-Ala al-Maari(973-1057/58) from Syria is considered the pinnacle of Arab medieval poetry, and the magnificent result of the synthesis of the complex and variegated culture of Arab-Muslim history. It is known that at the age of four he suffered from smallpox and went blind, but this did not stop him from studying the Koran, theology, Islamic law, ancient Arabic traditions and modern poetry. He also knew Greek philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, traveled a lot in his youth, and his poems reveal colossal erudition. He was a seeker of truth and justice, and in his lyrics there are several clearly dominant themes: the mystery of life and death, the depravity of man and society, the presence of evil and suffering in the world, which was, in his opinion, an inevitable law of existence (book of lyrics “The Obligation of the Optional ", "Message of Forgiveness", "Message of Angels").

In the X-XV centuries. the now world-famous collection of Arabic folk tales gradually emerged "Thousand and One Nights". They were based on revised plots of Persian, Indian, and Greek legends, the action of which was transferred to the Arab court and urban environment, as well as the Arabian tales. These are fairy tales about Ali Baba, Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, etc. The heroes of fairy tales were also princesses, sultans, merchants, and townspeople. The favorite character of medieval Arabic literature was the Bedouin - daring and cautious, crafty and simple-minded, the keeper of pure Arabic speech.

Brought lasting world fame Omar Khayyam(1048-1122), Persian poet, scientist, his poems are philosophical, hedonistic and free-thinking Ruby:

A gentle woman's face and green grass

I will enjoy it while I'm alive.

I drank wine, I drink wine, and I probably will

Drink wine until your fatal moment.

In medieval Arab culture, poetry and prose were closely intertwined: poetry was most naturally included in love stories, medical treatises, heroic stories, philosophical and historical works, and even in the official messages of medieval rulers. And all Arabic literature was united by the Muslim faith and the Koran: quotes and phrases from there were found everywhere.

Orientalists believe that the heyday of Arabic poetry, literature, and culture in general occurred in the 8th-9th centuries: during this period, the rapidly developing Arab world stood at the head of world civilization. From the 12th century the level of cultural life is declining. Persecution of Christians and Jews begins, which was expressed in their physical extermination, secular culture is oppressed, and pressure on the natural sciences increases. Public burning of books became common practice. The main scientific achievements of Arab scientists thus date back to the Early Middle Ages.

The contribution of the Arabs to mathematical science was significant. Lived in the 10th century. Abu-l-Wafa derived the sine theorem of spherical trigonometry, calculated a table of sines with an interval of 15°, and introduced segments corresponding to the secant and cosecant.

Poet, scientist Omar Khayyam wrote "Algebra" - an outstanding work that contained a systematic study of equations of the third degree. He also successfully worked on the problem of irrational and real numbers. He owns the philosophical treatise “On the Universality of Being.” In 1079 he introduced a calendar more accurate than the modern Gregorian calendar.

The outstanding scientist of Egypt was Ibn al-Haytham, mathematician and physicist, author of famous works on optics.

Much success medicine has achieved - it has developed more successfully than in Europe or the Far East. Arab medieval medicine glorified Ibn Sina - Avicenna(980-1037), author of the encyclopedia of theoretical and clinical medicine, summarizing the views and experience of Greek, Roman Indian and Central Asian doctors "Canon of Medical Science". For many centuries, this work was a mandatory guide for doctors. Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Razi, famous Baghdad surgeon, gave a classic description of smallpox and measles, and used smallpox vaccination. Syrian family Bakhtisho gave seven generations of famous doctors.

Arab philosophy largely developed on the basis of the ancient heritage. Scientists and philosophers were Ibn Sina, the author of a philosophical treatise "Book of Healing" Scientists actively translated the works of ancient authors.

Famous philosophers were Al-Kindi, who lived in the 9th century, and al-Farabi(870-950), called the “second teacher,” that is, after Aristotle, whom Farabi commented on. Scientists united in a philosophical circle "Brothers of Purity" in the city of Basra, compiled an encyclopedia of philosophical scientific achievements of its time.

Historical thought also developed. If in the VII-VIII centuries. Historical works had not yet been written in Arabic and there were simply many legends about Muhammad, the campaigns and conquests of the Arabs, then in the 9th century. Major works on history are being compiled. The leading representatives of historical science were al-Belazuri, wrote about the Arab conquests, al-Nakubi, at-Tabari And al-Masudi, authors of works on general history. It is history that will remain virtually the only branch of scientific knowledge that will develop in the XIII-XV centuries. under the dominance of a fanatical Muslim clergy, when neither exact sciences nor mathematics developed in the Arab East. The most famous historians of the XIV-XV centuries. were Egyptian Makrizi, compiled the history of the Copts, and Ibn Khaldun, the first Arab historian to try to create a theory of history. As the main factor determining historical process, he highlighted the natural conditions of the country.

Arabic literature also attracted the attention of scientists: at the turn of the 8th-9th centuries. An Arabic grammar was compiled, which formed the basis of all subsequent grammars.

The centers of medieval Arab science were cities Baghdad, Kufa, Basra, Harron. The scientific life of Baghdad was especially lively, where it was created "House of Science" - a unique association of an academy, an observatory, a library and a board of translators:

By the 10th century Secondary and higher Muslim schools have appeared in many cities - madrasah. In the X-XIII centuries. In Europe, a signed decimal system for writing numbers became known from Arabic writings, called "Arabic numerals".

It should be said that medieval Arab architecture developed on the basis of the processing by the Arabs, primarily of Greek, Roman and Iranian artistic traditions.

Most famous monuments architecture of that time Amr Mosque in Fustat And cathedral mosque in Kufa, created in the 7th century. The famous temple "Dome of the Rock" in Damascus, decorated with mosaics and multi-colored marble. From the 7th-8th centuries. the mosques had a rectangular courtyard surrounded by galleries and a multi-columned prayer hall. Later, monumental portals appeared on the main facade.

From the 10th century buildings begin to be decorated with elegant floral and geometric patterns, which included stylized inscriptions - Arabic script. This kind of ornament, the Europeans called it arabesque, was built on the principle of endless development and rhythmic repetition of the pattern.

The object of Hajj1 for Muslims was Kaaba - temple in Mecca, shaped like a cube. In its wall there is a niche with a black stone - as modern researchers believe, probably of meteorite origin. This black stone is revered as a symbol of Allah, representing his presence.

Islam, advocating strict monotheism, fought against the tribal cults of the Arabians. In order to destroy the memory of tribal idols, sculpture was prohibited in Islam, and images of living beings were not approved. As a result, painting did not receive significant development in Arab culture, being limited to ornaments. From the 12th century art began to develop miniatures, including bookstore

In general, fine art has gone into carpeting, its characteristic features were floweriness and patterning. The combination of bright colors, however, was always strictly geometric, rational and subordinated to Muslim symbolism.

The Arabs considered red the best color for the eyes - it was the color of women, children and joy. As much as red was loved, gray was despised. White, black and purple colors were interpreted as the colors of mourning, rejection of the joys of life. The color green, which had exceptional prestige, stood out especially in Islam. For many centuries it was forbidden to both non-Muslims and the lower classes of Islam.

16.3. Life and customs of the Arabs

The Koran, in addition to sermons, prayers, spells, edifying stories and parables, contains both ritual and legal regulations that regulate various aspects of the life of Muslim society. In accordance with these instructions, family, legal, and property relations of people were built. A set of norms of morality, law, cultural and other guidelines regulating the entire public and personal life of a Muslim, called Sharia1 is the most important component of the Islamic system.

Sharia was formed during the 7th-8th centuries. By the 9th century. Based on Sharia norms, a rating scale was developed for all actions of believers.

TO obligatory actions included those whose failure to comply was punished during life and after death: reading prayers, observing fasting, and various rituals of Islam. In number desirable actions included additional prayers and fasting, as well as charity, this was encouraged during life and rewarded after death. Indifferent actions - sleep, food, marriage, etc. were neither encouraged nor prohibited. Disapproved although not punishable actions, actions were called those caused by the desire to enjoy earthly goods: the culture of the medieval Arab East, prone to luxury, was sensual. This was especially evident in food. In the cities, expensive Indian pistachio kernels soaked in rose water, apples from Syria, sugar cane stalks, and edible clay from Nishapur were held in high esteem. Incense used in life played an important role: fragrant oils were prepared from lotus, daffodils, white jasmine, lilies, cloves, roses, baths made of violet oil, etc. prohibited actions included those who were punished both during life and after death: for example, it was forbidden to drink wine, eat pork, gamble, engage in usury, perform witchcraft, etc. Despite the prohibitions of Islam, many residents of the medieval Arab East continued to drink wine (especially this was typical for cities), but all other prohibitions - on pork, blood, meat of any animal killed not according to Muslim rites - were strictly observed.

Based on the Koran and taking into account pre-Islamic traditions, the law of inheritance, guardianship, marriage and divorce was developed. Marriage was seen as the most important event in the life of a man and a woman. The union of a cousin and sister was considered ideal, and the number of legal wives was limited to four. The subordinate position of women in the family and society was confirmed, and kinship was kept strictly on the paternal side.

The man was recognized as the absolute leader. God's blessing, as was believed in the Arab East, lay precisely on the sons, and therefore only after the birth of a son was a person here considered full-fledged. A real man was distinguished by generosity, generosity, the ability to love and have fun, valor, and loyalty to his word. The man was required to constantly assert his superiority, to be persistent, patient and ready for any adversity. He was responsible for caring for the elders and the younger; he had to know his genealogy and family traditions.

Islam had a beneficial influence on society's attitude towards slaves: freeing a slave was now seen as a humane and desirable act for a pious Muslim. However, throughout the Middle Ages, the number of slaves almost did not decrease, slave trading was a common activity for merchants, and slaves were one of the most popular goods in eastern markets: stable traditions changed slowly.

Traditional norms of behavior of Eastern society were combined with traditional thinking. It, in turn, was largely determined by mythology.

Its most important component was ginnology - doctrine of jinn2. Islam defined their place in the world this way: jinn-demons, created from

pure fire, were inferior to man, created by Allah from clay, and, of course, to angels created from light. All of them - humans, angels, and demons - are submissive to the will of Allah.

Demon genies are in some ways similar to people: they are mortal, although they can live for a very long time, many hundreds of years, they need food, and can marry each other or with people. In many ways, however, they were superior to humans: they were able to fly, penetrate deep into the earth and water, become visible and invisible, turn around by different people, animals, plants.

Jinns could be good or evil; the good ones accepted Islam, the evil ones remained infidels, but a person should be wary of both. The most ferocious demon-shaitans were called marids, they had to be especially careful. In addition, they were bloodthirsty and malicious ifrits, - either evil spirits or ghosts of the dead. Hairy werewolves lived in cemeteries and other abandoned desert places. ghouls, always ready to devour a lonely traveler.

In general, in the Arab East they believed that jinn lie in wait for a person at every step. Therefore, even in everyday everyday life one had to be on guard: for example, before lighting a fire in the hearth or getting water from a well, one should ask Allah for protection from demons and demonesses.

Provided some protection from evil forces amulets. The most important amulet was a palm made of copper with a blue bead - it was the “palm of Fatima” - named after the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. It was believed that the “palm of Fatima,” as well as other amulets - flat silver twin frogs, silver brooches, cowrie shells - protected a person from the evil eye.

They were very afraid of the evil eye and they explained many phenomena in life - from illness to crop failure. It was believed that the power of the evil eye increases many times over if it is accompanied by unkind or, on the contrary, too flattering speeches. This is how evasiveness in speech was brought up, a tendency to constantly make reservations: “By the will of Allah,” the desire to hide one’s private family life from strangers behind a blank wall. This also influenced the style of clothing, primarily for women: women wore blank face coverings and rather shapeless dresses that almost completely hid their figure.

In the Arab East, great importance was attached to dreams; they believed in prophetic dreams, and already at the beginning of the 11th century. Ad-Dinawari composed the first dream book in Arabic. It was not allowed to invent and speculate on dreams: “Whoever lies about his dreams will answer on the day of the rising of the dead,” says the Koran.

Divination dreams were a means of looking into the future. In addition, they guessed by birds, primarily by the flight of ravens and eagles, and were sure that the kite, ostrich, pigeon and owl foreshadowed misfortune. The desire to look into the unknown led to the practice of magic and divination. The attitude towards magic was ambiguous: it was allowed white, or high magic, which pious people resorted to for noble purposes. In this they were helped by heavenly angels and good genies who converted to Islam. Black magic believed in the Arab East, dishonest people were engaged in it, and their assistants were evil devils.

The penchant for fortune telling, like many other features of the mentality of the inhabitants of the Middle East, appeared long before the adoption of Islam there and survived the Middle Ages, moving into the New Age, and then into the Modern Age.

Arab medieval culture developed in those countries that underwent Arabization, embraced Islam, and in which classical Arabic dominated for a long time as the language of government institutions, literature and religion.

The entire medieval Arab culture, everyday life and way of life of people, moral norms in society developed under the influence of the Islamic religion, which arose among the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century.

The greatest flourishing of Arab culture occurred in the 8th-11th centuries. At this time, poetry developed successfully, which gave the world Omar Khayyam and which was characterized by secular, cheerful and at the same time philosophical character; the famous fairy tales “A Thousand and One Nights”, which are still famous throughout the world, were compiled; Many works of other peoples, primarily ancient authors, were actively translated into Arabic.

The Arabs made significant contributions to world mathematical science, the development of medicine, and philosophy. They created such unique architectural monuments as mosques and famous temples in Mecca and Damascus, giving significant originality to the buildings, decorating them with ornaments - Arabic script.

The influence of Islam determined the underdevelopment of painting and sculpture in Arab culture, predetermining the departure of fine art into carpeting.

Islam is the youngest of the three world religions, the importance of which is steadily increasing. IN modern world Islam is the second most followed world religion.

Arab culture

medieval culture that developed in the Arab Caliphate in the 7th-10th centuries. in the process of cultural interaction between the Arabs and the peoples of the Middle and Middle countries they conquered. East, North Africa and South-West Europe. In the scientific literature the term “A. To." is used both to denote the culture of the Arab peoples themselves, and when applied to the medieval Arabic-speaking culture of a number of other peoples that were part of the Caliphate. In the latter sense, the concept “A. To." is sometimes identified with the concept of “Muslim culture” (i.e., the culture of Muslim peoples) and its use is conditional.

On the territory of the Arabian Peninsula, Arabia was preceded by the culture of the pre-Islamic Arabs - a nomadic and agricultural population that was in the stage of transition to an early form of class society. Its bearers were mainly polytheists. In the 4th-6th centuries. it was influenced by the ancient Yemenite, Syro-Hellenistic, Jewish, and Iranian cultures. A characteristic element of the pre-Islamic culture of this period (the so-called jahiliyya) was a developed oral folk literature. The formation of A.K. proper dates back to the period of the emergence of Islam. (7th century) and the creation of the Caliphate, which as a result of the Arab conquests (See Arab conquests) turned into a huge state. The state-political community founded by the Arabs, supplemented by religious and, in most areas, linguistic community, created the conditions for the emergence of common forms of cultural life of the peoples of the Caliphate. On early stages The formation of academia was mainly a process of assimilation, revaluation, and creative development in new ideological and sociopolitical conditions (Islam and the Caliphate) of the heritage of the cultures of conquered peoples (ancient Greek, Hellenistic-Roman, Aramaic, Iranian, etc.). The Arabs themselves gave A.K. such components as the religion of Islam, the Arabic language, and the traditions of Bedouin poetry. A significant contribution to the Arab world was made by peoples who, having converted to Islam, retained national and then revived state independence (the peoples of Central Asia, Iran, and Transcaucasia). An important role was also played by the part of the population of the Caliphate that did not accept Islam (Christian Syrians, Jews, Zoroastrian Persians, representatives of the Gnostic sects of Western Asia); Their activities (especially the Nestorian Syrians and the Sabians of Harran) are associated, in particular, with the spread of philosophical and ethical ideas and the scientific heritage of antiquity and Hellenism. In the 8th-9th centuries. Many scientific and literary monuments of antiquity were translated into Arabic, including Greek, Syrian, Middle Persian and Indian. In translations and adaptations, they became part of the Arabic written language and contributed to the establishment of a continuous connection with the culture of the Hellenistic world, and through it - with ancient and ancient Eastern civilization.

From the end of the 7th century. until the middle of the 8th century. Along with Damascus, the capital of the Umayyads (See Umayyads), the main centers that determined the formation of AK were Mecca and Medina in Arabia, Kufa and Basra in Iraq. Religious and philosophical ideas, the first achievements of science, the canons of Arabic poetry, examples of architecture, etc. received distribution and further development in the provinces of the Umayyad Caliphate, over a vast territory from the Pyrenees to the river. Ind.

With the formation of the Abbasid Caliphate (See Abbasids) (750) the center of Egypt in the east of the Caliphate moved from Syria to Iraq, to ​​Baghdad, founded in 762, which for almost three centuries was the focus of the best cultural forces of the Muslim East. In the 9th-10th centuries. A.K. reached its peak. Her achievements enriched the culture of many peoples, in particular the peoples of medieval Europe, and made an outstanding contribution to world culture. This applies primarily to the development of philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, geographical knowledge, philological and historical disciplines, chemistry, and mineralogy. Remarkable monuments mark the development of material culture and art (architecture, artistic crafts). The division of branches of knowledge in academia is conditional, because for it, as for other cultures of the Middle Ages, the absence of a clear differentiation of sciences and the encyclopedic nature of the education of most of the figures of the Academy were typical. The philosopher and mathematician was often also a major historian, physician, geographer, poet and philologist.

An important factor in the flourishing of Arab culture was that the development of science and literature was the property of all the peoples of the Caliphate (both Arabs and non-Arabs). The enrichment of the Arab world was facilitated by ample opportunities for communication and the exchange of cultural achievements between the peoples of the Muslim East, as well as lively ties with many countries of the East and Europe.

The collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate (mid-10th century) due to the formation of independent states on its territory led to a narrowing of the sphere of distribution of ancient culture and a gradual decrease in its role in the overall development of world culture. In Muslim Spain, which separated from the Abbasid Caliphate back in the 8th century, the so-called independent development began. Arab-Spanish culture. In the eastern provinces of the Caliphate at the end of the 9th century. centers of the Iranian cultural and national revival are being formed. The Persian language displaces the Arabic language, first from literature and poetry, and then from some humanities (history, geography, etc.). Arabic retained its significance here as the language of the Koran, religious canonical (law, theology) and a number of natural science disciplines (medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry), as well as philosophy. AK centers move to Syria, Egypt, and Spain.

All in. In Africa, under the Fatimids (See Fatimids) (10th-12th centuries) and the Ayyubids (See Ayyubids) (12th-13th centuries), the development of the best traditions of AK in the field of science, literature, art and material culture continued, although with less influence on the overall progress of the culture of the peoples of the Muslim East than in the 8th - 1st half of the 10th centuries. By the end of the 10th century. Baghdad ceded the leading role to Cairo.

The meaning of A. k. 8-10 centuries. in the history of world culture was determined by the discovery by its creators of new means of scientific, religious, philosophical and artistic knowledge of the world and man. The main efforts of AK figures in subsequent periods were directed mainly at systematizing and detailing this heritage.

Although the scientific and aesthetic traditions of A.K. were not interrupted, from the 2nd half of the 13th century. In the work of academic figures, the epigonic direction, compilative in science and imitative in literature, prevailed. Individual exceptions could not affect the general state of spiritual stagnation and the increasingly noticeable lag in the development of ancient culture from the pace of cultural progress in other countries of the Muslim East (Iran, Middle Asia in the 14th and 15th centuries, Ottoman Turkey in the 16th century. ) and in Europe.

The Arab-Spanish civilization experienced a brilliant flourishing in the 10th-15th centuries. Its centers were Cordoba, Seville, Malaga and Granada. The greatest successes were achieved in astronomy, mathematics, chemistry and medicine. The development of the progressive line of Arab philosophy continued here [al-Farabi, about 870 - about 950; Ibn Sina (Avicenna), 980-1037], represented by the works of Ibn Rushd a (Averroes, 1126-1198). In poetry and literature, works were created that were among the best artistic monuments of A.K. Monuments of Spanish-Moorish architecture and applied art became world famous (see Moorish art).

A major achievement of the AK of the late Middle Ages was the creation by the historian and sociologist Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) historical and philosophical theory of social development.

In the 16th century Arab countries became provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Egypt fell into decline, although even during this period the old cultural centers of Syria, Iraq and Egypt traditionally retained an attractive force for Muslim scholars.

A qualitatively new period in the development of AK began in the first half of the 19th century. In the context of the economic and political revival of the Arab countries in modern times, in the conditions of the beginning of the development of the national liberation movement and, finally, the formation of independent Arab states, the formation of a modern academia is taking place, mainly within each of the Arab countries. (See relevant sections in articles about individual Arab countries.)

Exact and natural sciences. The center for the development of natural sciences in the Caliphate was initially the territory of Syria and part of the South-West. Iran. Here the beginning of translations into Arabic and commentary on the works of ancient authors was laid. Translations from Greek and Syriac, which introduced scholars of Islamic countries to a significant part of ancient scientific literature, were in many cases the only sources, according to which Zap. Europe could become acquainted with ancient science. For example, Heron’s Mechanics and many of Archimedes’ treatises have come down to us only in Arabic translation. Through the carriers of the AK, many technical innovations (compass, oblique sail, etc.) entered European use; some of them were adopted from China and India.

9th-11th centuries - a period of rapid development of science in the Caliphate. Baghdad is becoming a major scientific center with schools and libraries. Along with the creation of a huge translated literature and commentaries on it, a scientific direction, closely related to the solution of applied problems and practical problems of construction, land surveying, and trade. Astronomy and mathematics, mineralogy, and descriptive geography are intensively developing.

In connection with the collapse of the Caliphate into separate states (10th century), new scientific centers emerged along with Baghdad: Damascus and Aleppo (Aleppo) in Syria, Cairo in Egypt, Maragha in Azerbaijan, Samarkand in Middle East. Asia, Ghazni in Afghanistan, as well as the centers of Spanish-Arab culture - Cordoba, and then Seville and Granada. At various times, major scientific centers were Bukhara and Isfahan, where from the end of the 11th century. Persian and Tajik poet and scientist Omar Khayyam worked at the observatory (about 1048 - after 1122), who wrote his scientific treatises in Arabic. In Cairo from the beginning of the 11th century. the “House of Knowledge” functioned, in which astronomer Ibn Yunus worked (950--1009) and the mathematician and physicist Ibn al-Haytham (about 965-1039); in 1004 an observatory was built here.

In addition to the Greek heritage, the formation of mathematics in Islamic countries was greatly influenced by the Indian scientific tradition. The decimal positional number system using zero, which originates from Indian mathematics, has become widespread. The first work in Arabic devoted to arithmetic is a treatise by the largest representative of the Baghdad school, al-Khwarizmi (9th century). In the 15th century Samarkand scientist al-Kashi introduced decimal fractions into use and described the rules for operating them. In the writings of Abu-l-Vefa (940-998), the Central Asian scientist al-Biruni (973-1048, according to other sources - after 1050), Omar Khayyam, Nasireddin Tuei (1201-80, according to other sources - 1274 or 1277), Methods for extracting roots with natural indicators were developed and systematized. The role of Khorezmi and Omar Khayyam in the creation of algebra as an independent mathematical discipline was extremely great. Khorezmi's algebraic treatise contains a classification of quadratic equations and methods for solving them; treatise by Omar Khayyam - theory and classification of cubic equations. The computational techniques of Viruni, Kashi, and others were significantly improved.

Of great interest are the geometric treatise of the brothers “sons of Musa” (“Banu Musa”) of the 9th century, the works of Abu-l-Vefa on practical geometry, the treatises of Ibn Kurra (See Ibn Kurra) (about 836-901), the treatise of Ibn al- Haytham on the quadratures of conic sections and the cubatures of bodies obtained from their rotation, studies by an-Nayrizi (9th-10th centuries), Ibn Kurra, Ibn al-Haytham, Omar Khayyam, Tuey and others on the theory of parallel lines.

Mathematicians from Islamic countries turned plane and spherical trigonometry from an auxiliary branch of astronomy into an independent mathematical discipline. In the works of Khorezmi, al-Marwazi, al-Battani, Biruni, Nasireddin Tuya, all six trigonometric lines in a circle were introduced, dependencies between trigonometric functions were established, all cases of solving spherical triangles were studied, the most important theorems of trigonometry were obtained, various trigonometric tables were compiled, which were distinguished by great accuracy.

Astronomy has achieved significant success. First, translation and commentary on the works of Ptolemy and Indian astronomical works - siddhantas - were carried out. Center translation activities there was a “House of Wisdom” and an observatory attached to it in Baghdad. Translations of Indian astronomical treatises were made by al-Fazari - father (died about 777) and son (died about 796), and Yaqub ibn Tariq (died about 96). Starting from Greek methods of modeling the movement of celestial bodies and Indian calculation rules, Arab astronomers developed methods for determining the coordinates of luminaries on the celestial sphere, as well as rules for transitioning from one of the three coordinate systems used to another. Even treatises on astrology contained elements of important natural science knowledge. Zijs - collections of tables and calculation rules of spherical astronomy - have become widespread. About 100 zijs from the 13th to 15th centuries have reached us. About 20 of them were compiled on the basis of the authors’ own observations in the observatories of many cities: Biruni in Ghazni, Battani in Raqqa, Ibn Yunus in Cairo, Nasireddin Tuei in Maragha, Kashi in Samarkand, etc. Arab astronomers achieved significant accuracy in measuring the inclination of the ecliptic. Under Caliph Mamun (9th century), the meridian degree was measured to determine the size of the globe.

Further development of the heritage of ancient mechanics continued [Ibn Kurra's treatise on lever scales - korastun; treatises of Biruni, Omar Khayyam, al-Khazini (12th century) on the determination of the specific gravities of metals and minerals]. The cycle of works on general issues of mechanics originates from the translation and commentary of the works of Aristotle. Among the commentators on Aristotle's natural science works were Biruni and Ibn Sina.

Many scientists worked in the field of mineralogy [works of Biruni, Khazini, scientist and physician al-Razi].

Information on physics, in particular atmospheric physics and geophysics, is contained in the “Canon of Masud”, “Mineralogy” by Biruni, and in the “Book of Knowledge” by Ibn Sina. Ibn al-Haytham's "Optics" was widely known in the West. Europe.

Great strides have been made in medicine. Ibn Sina’s “Canon of Medicine” has long been the main guide to medical practice both in the medieval East and in the West. Europe. Among Biruni's works there is a treatise on pharmacology. Al-Razi's body of medical knowledge is known (864-925). Issues of surgery, ophthalmology, therapy, and psychiatry were developed.

Geography. In terms of the abundance of geographical information, the variety of genres and the number of works of Arab geography, literature has no analogues in medieval geography. Arab geographers and travelers left a description of the entire Muslim East, as well as a number of countries, including Europe, the North. and Center. Africa, East coast. Africa and Asia up to Korea, the islands of the Malay Archipelago. Their works are the most important, and sometimes the only evidence about many peoples of the Middle Ages. A characteristic feature of Arab geographical science is that in its theoretical constructions it proceeded, despite the real information it had accumulated about the geography of the Earth, from the Ptolemaic picture of the world and its geographical theory. Cartographic material usually reproduced Ptolemaic maps or schematic maps that went back to ancient Iranian prototypes.

The geographical ideas of the pre-Islamic Arabs are reflected in ancient poetry and the Koran. Appearance at the turn of the 8th-9th centuries. translations and processing of astronomical and geographical works of ancient authors, especially Ptolemy, marked the beginning of Arab scientific geography, which applied calculation rules and tables of spherical astronomy. The highest achievement of this branch of Arab geography, along with the works of Battani and Khorezmi, are the astronomical, geographical and geodetic works of Biruni. In the 9th century The first examples of descriptive geography also appeared [the works of Ibn Khordadbeh a (about 820 - about 912/913), Qudama ibn Jafar (1st half of the 10th century), al-Yaqubi (died 897 or 905)], as well as travel stories , containing fantastic and real information about countries and peoples outside the Caliphate (collection of Abu Zaid al-Sirafi, early 10th century; op. Buzurg ibn Shahriyar, etc.). The genre of travel descriptions developed subsequently (notes of Ibn Fadlan a, 10th century, Abu Dulafa, 10th century; travel diaries of Abu Hamid al-Garnati, died 1170, Ibn Jubair a, died 1217, and Ibn Battuta (See), 1304-1377, description of the journey to Russia of Patriarch Macarius of Antioch, etc.).

The heyday of Arabic geographical literature falls in the 10th century. Particularly significant were the works of representatives of the classical school of Arab geography, devoted to the description trade routes and regions of the Muslim world and containing the richest geographical, historical and cultural material (works of al-Istakhri, Ibn Haukal, 10th century, al-Muqaddasi, 946/947 - about 1000). B 11-14 centuries genres of geographical dictionaries and general descriptions of the Universe arose - cosmographies, summarizing the previously accumulated geographical material (dictionaries Yakut a, 1179-1229, al-Bakri, died 1094, cosmographies al-Qazwini, died 1283, ad-Dimashki, died 1327, Abul -Feeds). In Europe, al-Idrisi (1100-1165 or 1161) received the greatest fame. His works with 70 maps were considered the best geographical treatise in the Middle Ages. In addition to a description of the Muslim East, it contains various information about the countries and peoples of the West. and Vost. Europe. The subsequent development of geography proceeded mainly through the creation of extensive compilations, especially cosmographies and historical and topographical descriptions of individual cities and countries (for example, the works of al-Maqrizi). The geographical sections in the works of al-Nuwairi, al-Umari, al-Kalkashandi and others are of great value. A major contribution to Arab geographical science were the works of the pilot Vasco da Gama - Ibn Majid a (15th century) and al-Mehri (16th century). ), summarizing the theory and centuries-old practice of Arab navigation.

Philosophy. The main content of the history of medieval Arab philosophy was the struggle between the Eastern Peripatetics (see Peripatetic school), who proceeded from the Hellenistic heritage, and supporters of religious idealistic teachings. Prehistory of the emergence in the Arab East itself philosophical thought dates back to the 2nd half of the 8th century. and is associated with the Mu'tazilites (See Mu'tazilites), early representatives of rational theology (kalam), who, starting with a discussion of questions about the divine Attributes and free will, ended with the development of concepts that not only went beyond the scope of religious issues, but also undermined faith in some basic tenets of Islam. Thus, consistently pursuing the idea of ​​Monotheism, the Mu'tazilites rejected the presence of positive attributes in God that complemented his essence; Denying in it, in particular, the attribute of speech, they rejected the idea of ​​​​the eternity of the Koran and on this basis concluded that its allegorical interpretation was admissible. The Mu'tazilites developed the concept of reason as the only measure of truth and the position of the inability of the creator to change the natural order of things. The idea of ​​the atomic structure of the world was widespread among the Mu'tazilites. Thus, on the one hand, they laid the foundation for rational geology, and on the other, they cleared the ground for the emergence of purely philosophical free-thinking of the Peripatetics.

As a reaction to the ideas of the Mu'tazilites, the doctrine of the Ash'arites (followers of al-Ash'ari, 873 or 874 - 935/936) developed, who directed rational theology into the mainstream of philosophical defense of the dogmas of divine providence and miracles (it is with this doctrine that the term “kalam” is often associated and the main thus its representatives are called mutakallim). According to the teachings of the Ash'arites, nature turned out to be a heap of atoms and their qualities, unrelated to each other and instantly recreated by God; in the world, they argued, there are no cause-and-effect relationships, for the Almighty is able at any moment to give any object any shape and any movement.

In contrast to both the speculations of theologians and the teachings of the Peripatetics, Sufism developed. Using, together with elements of the Muslim worldview, the ideas of Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, Sufis developed a doctrine of the paths leading a person through renunciation of worldly passions and thought of God to the contemplation of God in mystical intuition and the final merger with him. At the same time, at some stages of their development, Sufi ideas were subject to interpretation in the spirit of naturalistic pantheism.

The mysticism of the Sufis, which at first was persecuted by the orthodox clergy, was legitimized by al-Ghazali (1059-1111), the largest representative of religious-idealistic philosophy. In his criticism of the “heretical” and “anti-religious” views of the Peripatetics, Ghazali defended the position of the Ash’arites along with mystical Sufism, refusing, however, to accept their atomistic theory. Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) can also be considered one of the influential representatives of Sufism.

Eastern Peripatetism was based on the philosophy of Aristotle, which was passed on to the Arabs through Syrian translators, partly in the interpretation of the Athenian and Alexandrian schools, as well as other ancient teachings, in particular the political theory of Plato. The interpretations of Aristotle by the Eastern Peripatetics opened up the possibility of atheistic and even materialistic concepts. Thus, the position of dual truth, already contained in a hidden form in the teachings of the Mu'tazilites, suggested allegorical interpretations of the dogmas of Islam.

The founder of Eastern Peripatetism was al-Kindi (about 800 - 879), who was the first in Arab philosophy to set out the content of the main works of Aristotle. He was the first to present (based on the classification of intellects going back to Alexander of Aphrodisias) rational knowledge as the introduction of the individual’s mind to the universal, the deity, the mind. Kindi's deism, his idea of ​​God as a faceless "distant cause", developed within the framework of al-Farabi's Neoplatonic theory of emanation. Farabi's ontological and epistemological ideas were deepened and detailed by the greatest thinker of the Middle Ages, Ibn Sina, who affirmed the eternity of matter and the independence of private phenomena of life from divine providence.

In the 12th century the center of philosophical thought moved to the west of the Muslim world - to Spain. Here in Andalusia, similar humanistic themes are being developed by Ibn Baj, reflecting on man’s ability through purely intellectual improvement, without mystical insight, to achieve complete happiness and merge with the active mind, and Ibn Tufail, in a philosophical Robinsonade describing the history of the development and knowledge of nature by mankind, setting out at the same time in allegorical form the concept of dual truth. However, Andalusian, and with it the entire medieval Arab philosophy, reaches its peak in the work of Ibn Rushd, who defended the ideas of peripatetism from the attacks of the Ash'arites and Ghazali and created an independent philosophical doctrine. Rejecting the teaching of Ibn Sina about the introduction of forms into matter from the outside, Ibn Rushd came up with a thesis about the immanence of forms in matter itself. He also denied the immortality of individual souls, considering eternal only the human intellect, which joins the active divine mind, which embodies the ultimate goal of human knowledge. Ibn Rushd’s development of the concept of dual truth played a major role in the history of medieval philosophy.

Another major thinker of the Arab West was Ibn Khaldun, rightfully considered one of the founders of the philosophy of history.

Arabic philosophy found a second life in Europe - in the activities of the Averroists (followers of Ibn Rushd, see Averroism) and other fighters against the official ideology of Catholicism.

Historical science. Arabic (Arabic-language) historiography as an independent discipline emerged at the turn of the 8th-9th centuries. The first historical records date back to the end of the 7th century. The material for the early monuments of historical literature in Arabic was the historical and genealogical legends of Arab tribes, semi-legendary reports about pre-Islamic states in the South. Arabia and the Arab principalities in Syria (Ghassanids) and Iraq (Lakhmids), as well as religious and historical legends about the emergence and spread of Islam, especially about the activities of Muhammad and his companions. The scheme of world history accepted in Arab historiography was formed under the influence of the Koranic idea of ​​the past as a successive series of prophetic missions, and the constructions of Muslim genealogists and exegetes of the 7th-8th centuries, who connected the family tree of the Arabs with the biblical “table of nations.” A significant role in the creation of historiography was played by the development of astronomical knowledge (establishing the chronology of world history) and the use of materials from Iranian historical and epic traditions (translations of the “Book of Kings” of Sasanian Iran), as well as apocryphal Judeo-Christian traditions. Medieval Arab historiography proceeds from the theological interpretation of the course of world history as the implementation of the divine plan for the human race. At the same time, she recognizes the responsibility of man for his actions and sees the task of the historian in teaching through historical experience. The idea of ​​the didactic value of history, accepted by most Muslim historians, was especially clearly formulated by Ibn Miskawaih (died 1030). Arab historians did not go beyond narrative history, and only Ibn Khaldun made an attempt to move on to the presentation of historical events in their causal relationship, developing an original doctrine of the general laws of development of human society.

The predecessors of professional Arab historians were experts and collectors of genealogies and oral tribal traditions. These materials were systematized by Muhammad al-Kalbi (died 763), expanded and recorded by his son Hisham (died c. 819). In addition to Hisham al-Kalbi's monumental collection of Arab genealogies, similar collections were compiled by Muarrijas-Sadusi (died 811), Suhaim ibn Hafs (died 806), Musab al-Zubayri (died 851), Zubair ibn Bakkar (died 870), Ibn Hazm (died 1030), al-Qalqashandi (1355-1418), etc. The largest figure in the initial period of Arab historiography was Muhammad al-Zuhri (died 741/42), who combined the collection of genealogies and tribal traditions with an interest in the political history of the Caliphate. He owns one of the first records of legends about the military campaigns of Muhammad (the so-called magazi). The first major historical work in Arabic (the history of the ancient prophets and the biography of Muhammad) by Ibn Ishaq (about 704-768 or 767) served as a model for subsequent works on this topic. The most significant works are the works of al-Waqidi (747-823), Ibn Sad (died 845), the later compilations of Ibn Said an-Nas, Nuraddin al-Halabi and others. Adjacent to them are hagiographic literature popular in the Middle Ages, mostly fantastic stories about the prophets and Muslim saints.

For the 2nd half of the 8th - mid 9th centuries. characterized by the predominance of historical works devoted to individual events, mainly from the history of the Arab conquests and civil wars in the Caliphate of the 7th - early 8th centuries. [Abu Mikhnaf (died 774), Abu Ubaidah (died about 824) and especially al-Madaini (died about the middle of the 9th century)]. Iraq became the center of Arab historiography for a long time. From the 2nd half of the 9th century. works appear that combine the accumulated material into a coherent historical narrative. The most significant were the works of al-Belazuri (about 820 - about 892); Abu Hanifa ad-Dinaveri (See Abu Hanifa ad-Dinaveri) (died about 895) and al-Yaqubi on general history, which became the leading genre of historiography during its heyday (9th - 1st half of the 11th centuries). Compiled more often in the form of annals, they contained an overview of world history from the creation of the world, the initial history of the Muslim community, a description of the Arab conquests and the political history of the Caliphate (the rule of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties). The largest work of this genre is the multi-volume “History of Prophets and Kings” by at-Tabari (838 or 839-923). The general history of al-Masudi (died 956 or 957), Hamza al-Isfahani (See Hamza al-Isfahani) (died in the 2nd half of the 10th century), Ibn Miskawaih, and later Ibn al-Athir ( 1160 - 1233 or 1234), Ibn Khaldun and other historians of the 9th-10th centuries. distinguished by their breadth of outlook, reflecting the encyclopedic nature of their interests and knowledge (especially Yaqubi and Masudi, who collected material on the history and culture of peoples outside Muslim countries).

In connection with the formation of local political identity in the states that emerged on the territory of the Abbasid Caliphate, in historiography from the 2nd half of the 10th century. dynastic and local chronicles predominate, the authors of which were mainly court historiographers (usually official secretaries, viziers, etc.), rather than scholarly historians. Biographical chronicles were developed devoted to the history of secretaries, viziers (for example, al-Azhakhshiyari, died 943; Hilal al-Sabi. 969-1056), judges (Waqi al-Qadi, died 918; al-Kindi, died 961; al-Khusani , died 971). Local historiography is represented by works on the history of individual cities, regions and provinces, for example the history of Mecca - al-Azraqi (died about 858), Baghdad - Ibn Abu Tahir Taifur (819/20 - 893), Egypt - Ibn Abd al-Hakam (about 798 -871), Muslim Spain - Abd al-Malik ibn Habib (about 796-853). The historical encyclopedia of the Yemeni historian al-Hamdani (died in the 2nd half of the 10th century), which contains information on genealogy, history, archeology, geography and literature of the South, deserves special attention. Arabia. At a later time, in works of this kind, the main attention was given to the biographies of local political, religious and cultural figures, and many of these biographical works are characterized by a combination of annals with political biography. This is the history of Baghdad - al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (1002-71), Damascus - al-Qalanisi (died 1160) and Ibn Asakir (1105-1176), Aleppo (Aleppo) - Ibn al-Adim (1192-1262), Granada - Ibn al-Khatib (1313-1374). Dynastic history, begun by the works of Ibrahim al-Sabi (died 994) on the history of the Buyids (See Buyids) and al-Utbi (961-1022, according to other sources, died 1036 or 1040) on the history of the Ghaznavids (See Ghaznavids), received special development in the 12th-13th centuries, mainly in Syria, where the center of historical science moved. The local Zengid and Ayyubid dynasties found their historiographers in the persons of Imad-ud-din al-Isfahani (1125-1201), Ibn Shaddad (1145-1234), Abu Shama (1203-1268) and especially Ibn Wasil (1207-1298). General histories were also created here (Abu-l-Fida, 1273-1331; al-Zahabi, 1274-1353 or 1347; Ibn Kathir, around 1300-1373, etc.). In the 15-16th centuries. leading place in Arab historiography were occupied by Egyptian historians, authors of works on the history of the Mamluks (See Mamluks), historical encyclopedias (al-Nuwayri, 1279-1332) and general chronicles (Ibn al-Furat, 1334-1405) and especially a galaxy of polyhistorian historians, such , like al-Makrizi (1364-1442), al-Ayni (1361-1451), Abul-Mahasin Ibn Tagriberdi (1409 or 1410-1470) and al-Suyuti (1445-1505), who left multi-volume works on political, socio-economic and cultural history of Egypt.

One of the main places in Arab historiography is occupied by biographical literature itself: general biographical dictionaries of Yakut, Ibn Khallikan (1211-1282) and al-Safadi (1296/97 - 1363), collections of biographies of figures in the field of philosophy, medicine and natural sciences of Ibn al- Qifti (1172-1248) and Ibn Abu Usaybi (1203-1270), etc. Historical works in Arabic were written not only in Arab, but also in other countries of the Muslim East, including India, Iran, Turkey and the East. Africa. The era of Turkish rule (16th - early 20th centuries) is represented mainly by epigonian compilations on general and local history, biographical and historical-bibliographical collections. The most valuable are the history of Andalusia al-Makkari (1591/92 - 1632) and the biographical work of the Egyptian historian al-Khafaji (died 1659).

Literature. Arabic literature has its roots in the oral literature of the tribal society on the territory of the Arabian Peninsula. Early records (8th-10th centuries) include: co. “Selected” or “Strung” (“Mullaqat”), compiled by Rabbi Hammad (694/695 - 772) (includes 7 masterpieces by seven poets); "Mufaddaliyat" and "Asmaiyat" by the philologists al-Mufaddal (died 786) and al-Asma'i (died about 830); two anthologies “Valor” (“Ha-masa”) belonging to Abu Tammam u (about 796-845) and al-Bukhturi (821-897); the divan of poets from the Khuzail tribe - “The Book of Criticism of Poetry” by Ibn Qutayba (died 889); “The Book of Explanation” by al-Jahiz; anthology “Book of Songs” by Abu-l-Faraj al-Isfahani (See Abu-l-Faraj al-Isfahani) (897-967); sofas of individual poets and collections of proverbs.

Ancient Arabic literature is original, foreign influences in it are negligible. Most of all, it was cultivated among nomadic pastoralists (Bedouins), but it also became widespread among the semi-nomadic and sedentary population of agricultural oases and cities. The leading role in it was played by poetry, the origins of which can be traced to labor, lullabies, hunting, and caravan songs; The genres of vilification of the enemy (hija), boasting (fakhr), songs of revenge (cap), mourning lament, or elegy (risa), as well as elements of love and descriptive lyrics (nasib and wasf) developed very early on. The beginnings of artistic prose go back to ancient times: oratory, stories about tribal battles (ayyam al-Arab) and other memorable events.

Poetry of the 5th-7th centuries, when it flourished, became a kind of standard in Arabic literature poetic language, metrics and aesthetic ideals, long defining the themes and artistic techniques.

The central figure in pre-Islamic poetry is the poet himself, who acts as a Bedouin, a patriot of his tribe. The idealized image of the Bedouin poet is revealed against the backdrop of real pictures of nomadic life, battle and hunting scenes, and views of the Arabian desert. The main literary forms of ancient Arabic poetry were qasida and amorphous fragment (qita, muqatta). A characteristic feature of Arabic poetry is the monorhyme; each verse, as a rule, consists of one sentence and is an independent semantic aesthetic unit. The language of ancient Arabic poetry is characterized by a colossal vocabulary, flexibility of syntactic structures, and a variety of specific visual means.

Arabic tradition has preserved the names of about 125 pre-Islamic poets (late 5th - 1st half of 7th centuries): Imru-ul-Qais, who is credited with creating the classical type of qasida; Tarafa, author of the wonderful qasida-muallaqa; Antara ibn Shaddad, singer of military valor and love; Zuhair and Labid, considered the best exponents of the life wisdom and ethical ideals of Bedouin society; Shanfara and Taabbatha Sharran, who sang the free life of a lone robber in the desert; Alqama, Urwa ibn al-Ward, Harith ibn Hillisa and Amr ibn Kulthum, acting as heroes and singers of their tribes; the first court panegyrists were an-Nabiga, Abid ibn al-Abras and Hatim; the wandering poet al-Asha, famous for his satires and bacchanalian poems; poetess al-Khansa; Jewish poet Samaual and Christian Adi ibn Zaid, whose poems combine cheerful motifs about wine with sad thoughts about the vanity of the world, etc.

The first monument of Arabic writing was the Koran, which contains the religious sermons of Muhammad, stories in biblical stories, edifying speeches and laws of the Islamic community and state. The influence of the Koran is felt in all subsequent Arabic literature. Muhammad and his followers initially opposed poetry as a common form of expression of pagan ideology. For a short time, the development of poetry was weakened, only its traditional, artistic conventions were preserved, and the ideological content underwent slight changes under the influence of the new faith - Islam. Syria and Iraq became the center of poetry. Outstanding poets worked at the Umayyad court - al-Akhtal, al-Jarir, al-Farazdak and others.

New phenomena in poetry of this period are observed in the aristocratic environment of the large urban centers of the Caliphate, where love lyrics in the form of short poems developed. A prominent representative of this genre was Omar ibn Abi Rabia of Mecca (641 - about 712 or about 718). Other poets are also known in Mecca (Ibn Qays ar-Rukayat, Abu Dahbal), Medina (Ahwas) and Damascus (Caliph Walid II). In the Bedouin environment in Arabia, a galaxy of singers of ideal, or “Uzrit” (from the Uzra tribe) love emerged. The poet and his beloved formed a constant couple, dying of unquenched love. Later, romantic stories were written about famous couples (Jamil and Busaina, Majnun and Leila, Qusayir and Azza, etc.). The story of Majnun and Layla gained worldwide fame.

From the middle of the 8th century. Representatives of the conquered peoples are increasingly taking part in the creation of Arabic literature, along with the Arabs. In the Caliphate, interest in the study of Arab antiquity increased, theories of language, style and metrics were developed, and translations of the most important works of antiquity into Arabic were carried out. For the development of prose special meaning had translations from the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) language. Ibn al-Muqaffa (executed around 759) translated “Kalila and Dimna (See Kalila and Dimna),” which goes back to the Indian collection “Panchatantra,” and the Middle Persian collection of epic legends and chronicles “Khvaday-namak” (“Book of Kings”). Aban Lahiki (died 815) translated into Arabic verses “Kalila and Dimna”, books about Mazdak (see Mazdakism) and about Sinbad, etc. The influence of the Near Asian civilization, primarily Iranian, was also felt in poetry, which became predominantly urban. There was some renewal of Arabic poetry, expressed in a preference for the cumbersome qasida of short elegant poems with independent topic and in the “new style” (badit), the main feature of which was the use of previously unknown images, tropes and comparisons. The founder of the “new style” was the poet and freethinker Bashshar ibn Burd (died 783). Love lyrics were continued in an erotic-hedonistic direction by a group of poets at the Abbasid court (Muti ibn Iyas, Waliba ibn Khubab, Ibrahim al-Mausili and his son Ishaq, Dibil, etc.). Among them, the magnificent master of verse Abu Nuwas (762-815) stands out. The innovator was Abul-Atahiya (died 825), who deliberately avoided traditional poetic conventions in poems imbued with ascetic sentiments and reflection. Gradually, the “new style” gained recognition and found its theoretician in the person of Ibn al-Mutazz (861-908). But even then there were poets who supported the qasid tradition, which was also influenced by the “new style”: Marwan ibn Abi Hafsa (721-97), Muslim ibn al-Walid (died 803) and especially the poets of the 9th century. Abu Tammam and al-Bukhturi.

Great successes in the 8th-9th centuries. reached Arabic prose, the ground for which was prepared by records of folklore, the study of the Koran, translations of scientific fiction from Syriac, Middle Persian and Greek languages. Nascent at that time historical literature included traditions, legends and descriptions of individual events, and geographical works contained stories of merchants and travelers about distant countries. Literary prose was also enriched by epistolary and speech styles: in business correspondence, oratory and sermons, some authors achieved great expressiveness and skill. A mixture of stories on various subjects and colorful educational and didactic material is represented by numerous works of the great Arab prose writers al-Jahiz a (767-868) and Ibn Qutayba (828 - about 889), who systematized a large literary material in “Sources of News” (10 books) according to thematic principle: about power, about war, about friendship, etc. This work became the subject of imitations. In the 9th century An Arabic translation of the Persian collection “A Thousand Tales” (“Khezar Afsane”), the prototype of the collection “A Thousand and One Nights,” appeared.

The collapse of the Caliphate contributed to the decentralization of literature. The most important of the local literary centers of the 10th century. became the city of Aleppo (Aleppo). Here, at the court of Hamdanid Sayf ad-Daula, the poet-panegyrist al-Mutanabbi (915-965) lived. His laudatory and satirical qasidas are full of stylistic embellishments, exquisite metaphors, hyperboles and comparisons; in the finishing of verse he achieved sophisticated skill. In the 11th century The poet and thinker Abu-l-Ala al-Ma'arri (973-1057) lived in Syria. Starting by imitating Mutanabbi, he further improved the technique of verse by introducing complicated double rhymes. Prominent prose writers of the 10th century. were Abu Hayyan at-Tawhidi (died 1009) and at-Tanukhi (940-994). Rhymed prose became widespread in secular literature. Abu Bakr al-Khwarizmi (died 993) wrote witty “Epistle” (“Rasa’il”) in this form, and Badi al-Zaman al-Hamadani (died 1007) created an original genre - the maqama, which is considered the highest achievement of Arabic prose. Hamadani's maqams compiled a cycle of 50 picaresque short stories, or stories about the adventures and reincarnations of a quirky tramp. Maqams entered literature from urban folklore. However, if Hamadani's Arabic prose retained its liveliness and spontaneity, then among his numerous imitators (including al-Hariri, 1054-1122) it degenerated into stylization.

Arabic literature stood apart in Andalusia (Arab Spain), closely connected with the Maghreb. In the 8th-10th centuries. Culturally, Andalusia remained a province of the Caliphate; the norm for its poetry was the patterns that developed in the east of the Caliphate. Andalusian poetry was represented by: a sophisticated lyricist and author epic poems about the conquest of Spain by the Arabs al-Ghazal (770-864); compiler of the popular anthology “The Only Necklace” and author of the anacreontic poems of Ibn abd Rabbihi (860-940); author of about 60 qasidas Ibn Hani (died 972), etc. However, gradually in Andalusian lyric poetry not only local color appeared, but also the strophic forms muwashshah (belted) and zajal (melody), until then alien to Arabic poetry, arose. They were born into the common people as a result of the interaction of the culture of Arabs, Berbers and the local Romanesque population. Muwashshah, first mentioned at the end of the 10th century, penetrated into literature, spread to the east of the Caliphate, and by the 13th century. took on frozen forms, becoming the subject of formalistic exercises. Zajal avoided stylization and remained a favorite folk genre in Muslim and Christian Spain, found its way into other Arab countries and appears to have influenced the development of early Provençal poetry. The divan of the largest representative of this genre, Ibn Kuzman (about 1080-1160), has been preserved. Andalusian poetry in literary Arabic flourished in the 11th century, when the Cordoba Caliphate split into several emirates. Court literary circles arose in each of them. Panegyric, erotic and Bacchanalian poetry prevailed everywhere. Seville became a major center with its poet-patrons al-Mu'tadid (1012-1069) and al-Mu'tamid (1040-1095). The latter ended his life in Morocco while in captivity; his voluntary companion in captivity was the famous lyric poet from Sicily Ibn Hamdis (1055-1132). The last major Arab poet of Cordoba, Ibn Zaydun (1003-1071), lived in Seville. Many Andalusian poets of the 11th-13th centuries. became famous for their elegies on the fall of Arab dynasties and cities under the blows of the Reconquista (See Reconquista) (Ibn Abdun, al-Wakashi, Ibn Khafaja, Salih ar-Rondi, etc.). In prose, Ibn Hazm stands out, who created “The Necklace of the Dove” - a kind of treatise on love, and Ibn Tufail (about 1110-1185), the author of the philosophical novel “Living, Son of the Awake.”

Since the mid-11th century, despite quantitative growth, Arabic literature bears the stamp of decline. Mysticism begins to predominate in poetry, and didactics in prose. Mystical poetry is characterized by a combination of bacchic and erotic motifs with ecstatic appeals to the deity. Its prominent representatives were the Andalusians Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240), al-Shushtari (died 1269) and the Egyptian Omar ibn al-Farid (1182-1235). The Sicilian Ibn Zafar (died 1169) took timid steps towards creating a historical novel. The Syrian emir Osama ibn Munkyz (1095-1188) wrote the only artistic autobiography in medieval Arabic literature, “The Book of Edification.” Ibn Arabshah (1392-1450), taken by Timur from Baghdad to Samarkand, in his didactic anthology “Pleasant Fruit for the Caliphs.” reworked Northern Iranian fairy tales in florid style.

With the decline of written literature, which served the cultural and aesthetic needs of large feudal lords and a narrow circle educated people, the flowering of oral and poetic creativity began. In Egypt and Syria, where after the Mongol invasion (13th century) the center of Arabic literature finally moved, the genres of muwashshah and zajal spread. Sufi poets and even the court poet Bahaaddin Zuhair (1187-1258) sought to write in a language close to the folk one; Ibn Daniyal (13th century) in Egypt recorded popular prints for the shadow theater. They became widespread in the 13th-15th centuries. and later, peculiar folk works in the genre of sira (literally - “biographies”), i.e. cycles of stories on heroic and love plots associated with historical and fictional persons and events. European terminology classifies them as romances of chivalry. These works were performed by storytellers and actors in the streets and squares. The most important sires: about the poet-warrior of the 6th century. Antara and his beloved Abla, about the Mamluk Sultan Baybars, about the resettlement of the Banu Hilal tribe to Egypt and the North. Africa, about Dhu-l-Khimma. Some of them began to take shape, apparently, very early. Folk memory carried them through the centuries, and storytellers of each generation layered new episodes and details, introducing anachronisms and contradictions into them. The events of the era were reflected in the sirahs crusades(heroes usually perform feats in battles against “infidels” - “Franks” or “Rums”). The same type of folk literature includes the collection of fairy tales “A Thousand and One Nights”, which, along with folklore and literary materials, completely included the sira about Omar ibn al-Numan.

Arabic literature of the 16th-18th centuries, constrained by scholasticism and traditional frameworks, had limited significance; What is important is the continuous handwritten tradition, which has preserved many monuments of the past to this day.

Architecture, fine and decorative arts. The art of Arab countries is complex in its origins. In southern Arabia they go back to the cultures of the Sabaean, Minaan and Himyarite states (1st millennium BC - 6th century AD), associated with the Mediterranean and East. Africa. Ancient traditions can be traced in the architecture of the tower-shaped houses of Hadhramaut and the multi-story buildings of Yemen, the facades of which are decorated with colored relief patterns. In Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Maghreb the styles are medieval Arabic art were also formed on a local basis, experiencing some influence from Iranian, Byzantine and other cultures.

Architecture. The main religious building of Islam became the mosque, where the followers of the prophet gathered for prayer. Mosques consisting of a fenced courtyard and a colonnade (which laid the foundation for the “courtyard” or “column” type of mosque) in the 1st half of the 7th century. were created in Basra (635), Kufa (638) and Fustat (40s of the 7th century). The Arab column mosque received a high artistic design in Damascus, the capital of the Umayyads: the builders of the Damascus mosque (early 8th century) made excellent use of local Hellenistic and Syro-Byzantine architectural traditions and decorated the building with polychrome mosaics depicting the architectural landscape. The mosques in Kairouan (Sidi Okba, 7-9 centuries) and Cordoba (8-10 centuries) are majestic. The columnar type remained the main one for a long time in the monumental religious architecture of Arab countries (mosques: Ibn Tulun in Cairo, 9th century; Mutawakkilya in Samarra, 9th century; Hassan in Rabat and Koutoubia in Marrakesh, both 12th century; Great Mosque in Algeria, 11th century, etc.) and influenced the Muslim architecture of Iran, the Caucasus, Wed. Asia, India. Domed buildings also developed in architecture, an early example of which is the octagonal Qubbat al-Sakhra mosque in Jerusalem (687-691). Later, various religious and memorial buildings are completed with domes, most often crowning mausoleums over the graves of famous people.

Under the Umayyads, great secular construction was carried out: cities were fortified, country palaces and castles of the caliphs were erected (Mshatta, Quseir Amra, Qasr al-Kheir al-Gharbi and Qasr al-Kheir al-Sharqi, Khirbet Al-Mafjar), decorated with circular sculpture, carvings, mosaics and wall paintings.

Under the Abbasids, large urban planning works were carried out. Baghdad, founded in 762, like Hatra and Ctesiphon, was a city with a round plan; in its center there was a palace and a mosque, and the perimeter was surrounded by a double ring of defensive walls. In Samarra (the capital of the Caliphate in 836-892), stretching along the river. Tiger, rectilinear layout prevailed; the ruins of huge palaces and houses of the nobility built of brick, which had rectangular courtyards and vaulted reception halls, the walls of which were covered with carved ornaments and polychrome painting, have been preserved. The mosques of Samarra had ziggurat-shaped minarets.

A special school of Arab architecture is represented by the buildings of Fatimid Cairo (founded in 969). The city walls, built of stone, form a square in plan; Several 11th-century gates have been preserved, to which the main streets of the city led. Fortress architecture was distinguished by the expressiveness of simple monumental forms. Fatimid Cairo was decorated with palaces, caravanserais, baths, shops, residential buildings, as well as mosque buildings, of which the grandiose al-Hakim and al-Azhar, as well as al-Aqmar and al-Salih-Talai, decorated with elegant stone carvings, have come down to us .

From the 13th century until the beginning of the 16th century. the architecture of Egypt and Syria was closely interconnected. Large fortress construction was carried out: citadels in Cairo, Aleppo (Aleppo), etc. In the monumental architecture of this time, the spatial principle that dominated the previous stage (the courtyard mosque) gave way to grandiose architectural volumes: towering towers rise above the smooth surface of powerful walls and large portals with deep niches. tall drums supporting domes. Majestic buildings of four aivan are being built (see Aivan) type (known before in Iran): maristan (hospital) of Qalaun (13th century) and the Hassan mosque (14th century) in Cairo, mosques and madrassas (theological schools) in Damascus and other cities of Syria. Numerous domed mausoleums are being built, sometimes forming a picturesque ensemble (Mamluk Cemetery in Cairo, 15-16 centuries). To decorate walls outside and inside, along with carvings, inlay with multi-colored stones is widely used. In Iraq in the 15th-16th centuries. colored glaze and gilding are used in the decoration (mosques: Musa al-Kadim in Baghdad, Hussein in Karbala, Imam Ali in Najaf).

It experienced high prosperity in the 10th-15th centuries. Arabic architecture of the Maghreb and Spain. In large cities (Rabat, Marrakech, Fez, etc.) kasbahs were built - citadels fortified by powerful walls with gates and towers, and medinas - trading and craft quarters. The large columned mosques of the Maghreb with multi-tiered, square minarets are distinguished by an abundance of intersecting naves, a wealth of carved ornaments (mosques in Tlemcen, Taza, etc.) and are magnificently decorated with carved wood, marble and mosaics of multi-colored stones, like numerous madrassas 13-14 centuries in Marocco. In Spain, along with the mosque in Cordoba, other outstanding monuments of Arab architecture have been preserved: the La Giralda minaret, erected in Seville by the architect Jeber in 1184-96, the gate to Toledo, the Alhambra Palace in Granada - a masterpiece of Arab architecture and decorative art of the 13th century. 15th centuries Arab architecture influenced the Romanesque and Gothic architecture of Spain (Mudejar style), Sicily and other Mediterranean countries.

Capture of Arab countries by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century. brought forms of Ottoman architecture, especially into religious architecture. But local construction and artistic traditions continued to live and develop in secular architecture.

Decorative, applied and fine arts. In Arab art, the characteristic artistic thinking the Middle Ages, the principle of decorativeness, which gave rise to the richest ornament, special in each region of the Arab world, but connected by general patterns of development. Arabesque (See Arabesque), dating back to ancient motifs, is a new type of pattern created by the Arabs, in which mathematical rigor of construction is combined with free artistic imagination. Epigraphic ornament also developed - calligraphically executed inscriptions included in decorative pattern.

Ornament and calligraphy, which were widely used in architectural decoration (stone carving, wood carving, knocking), are also characteristic of applied art, which reached its peak and especially fully expressed the decorative specificity of Arab artistic creativity. Ceramics were decorated with colorful patterns: glazed household dishes in Mesopotamia (centers - Raqqa, Samarra); vessels painted with golden luster of different shades, made in Fatimid Egypt; Spanish-Moorish luster ceramics of the 14th and 15th centuries, which had a great influence on European applied art. Arabic patterned silk fabrics - Syrian, Egyptian, Moorish - were also world famous; The Arabs also made pile carpets. Bronze artefacts (bowls, jugs, incense burners and other utensils) are decorated with the finest embossing, engraving and inlay made of silver and gold; Products from the 12th to 14th centuries are distinguished by their special craftsmanship. Mosul in Iraq and some craft centers in Syria. Syrian glass coated with the finest enamel painting and Egyptian products made of rock crystal, ivory, and expensive wood, decorated with exquisite carved patterns, were famous.

Art in Islamic countries developed in complex interactions with religion. Mosques, as well as the holy book Koran, were decorated with geometric, floral and epigraphic patterns. However, Islam, unlike Christianity and Buddhism, refused to widely use fine art to promote religious ideas. Moreover, in the so-called Reliable hadiths, legitimized in the 9th century, contain a prohibition on depicting living beings and especially humans. Theologians of the 11th-13th centuries. (Ghazali and others) declared these images to be the gravest sin. However, artists throughout the Middle Ages depicted people and animals, real and mythological scenes. In the first centuries of Islam, while theology had not yet developed its own aesthetic canons, the abundance of realistically interpreted paintings and sculptures in the Umayyad palaces testified to the strength of pre-Islamic artistic traditions. Subsequently, figurativeness in Arab art is explained by the presence of essentially anti-clerical aesthetic views. For example, in the “Epistle of the Brothers of Purity” (10th century), the art of artists is defined “as the imitation of the images of existing objects, both artificial and natural, both people and animals.”

Fine art experienced a high flourishing in Egypt in the 10th-12th centuries: images of people and genre scenes adorned the walls of buildings in the city of Fustat, ceramic dishes and vases (master Saad and others), and were woven into the pattern of bone and wood carvings (panels of the 11th century. from the Fatimid palace in Cairo, etc.), as well as linen and silk fabrics; bronze vessels were made in the form of figures of animals and birds. Similar phenomena took place in the art of Syria and Mesopotamia of the 10th-14th centuries: court and other scenes are included in the exquisite embossed and inlaid ornament of bronze items, in the pattern of paintings on glass and ceramics.

Arabic book miniatures occupy a prominent place in the history of world art. In Egypt miniature 9-10 centuries. (originating from Fayoum) and 11th-12th centuries. stylistically related to Coptic art. Byzantine influence is noticeable in the painting of Syrian miniatures. The art of book miniatures reached great heights in Iraq in the 12th and 13th centuries. There were several styles here. One of them (possibly northern Iraqi) is distinguished by lush and colorful court scenes; the other is represented by laconic illustrations in scientific treatises (for example, leaves from the “Pharmacology” of Dioscorides, rewritten by Abd Allah ibn Fadl in 1222, stored in various museums around the world). The real pride of the Iraqi school of miniaturists are full of live observations, conveyed in expressive figurative language, sonorous in color painting illustrations to the “Maqams” of Hariri, which survived in several manuscripts (the miniatures of the manuscript of 1237 stand out, the artist Yahya ibn Mahmud of Wasit, the Paris National Library, and the manuscripts of the beginning 13th century, belonging to the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies). Miniature painting in Iraq experienced a new rise at the end of the 14th century, when the outstanding artist Junaid Sultani, the author of miniatures with a manuscript of “Khamsa” by Khaju Kermani 1396 (British Museum, London), worked in Baghdad.

The visual element was less developed in the art of the countries of the Arab West. However, here too, decorative sculpture in the form of animals, patterns with motifs of living creatures, as well as miniatures were created (manuscript “History of Bayad and Riyadh,” 13th century, Vatican Library).

Arabic art as a whole was a bright, original phenomenon in the history of world artistic culture of the Middle Ages. His influence extended throughout the Muslim world and went far beyond its borders.

Music. Arabic music was formed as a result of the fusion of Arab art itself with the art of conquered countries. The early, “Bedouin” period in its development is characterized by the unity of music and poetry. Information has been preserved about ancient Arab professional singer-poets (shairs), about song genres - hida (caravan songs), habab (horsemen's songs), about musical instruments - duff (small square tambourine), mizhar (primitive lute with a leather soundboard), rebab (a type of one-string violin).

After the conquest of Iran, part of Byzantium and the establishment of dominance over Sr. Through Asia and Egypt, the Arabs assimilated the traditions of more developed cultures (the foundations of Greek musical theory were adopted; under the influence of Persian and Byzantine melodic music, the Arabic scale expanded to two octaves; some Arabic modes and instruments were influenced by Iranian influences). The flourishing of classical Arabic music begins at the end of the 7th century. It is based on 7-step modes, in which, along with the main sounds, intermediate intervals are used - commas (less than 1/8 of a whole tone). The modal features of Arabic music have determined a unique style of singing, in which glissanding (sliding from sound to sound) is widely used. Arabic music is characterized by flowery melismatics, giving the music an original flavor. Classical Arabic music is predominantly vocal. The most common genre is the vocal-instrumental ensemble, in which the leading role belongs to the singer. The largest singers of the Umayyad period were Ibn Musajih, Muslim ibn Muhriz, and the singer Jamileh and her students were also famous. During the Abbasid dynasty, musicians Ibrahim al-Mausili (742-804) and his son Ishaq al-Mausili (767-850), the founder of the Baghdad school, as well as Mansur Zalzal, stand out. Arabic musical science has reached a high level. Among the outstanding musical theorists of the Middle Ages: al-Kindi, who developed and applied to Arabic music the metaphysical doctrine of the “harmony of the Universe” of the Neoplatonists; al-Isfahani (897-967), author of the “Big Book of Songs”; Safi ad-din Urmavi (about 1230-1294), who wrote a treatise on acoustics and harmonic connections “Esh-Sharafiyya” - an outstanding work of medieval eastern science of music. The most important information about the music of the East is contained in the works of al-Farabi, the author of the Great Treatise on Music, Ibn Sina and others. In the Middle Ages, Arabic music influenced musical art Spain, Portugal, on the formation of some European musical instruments.

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P. A. Gryaznevich (introductory section, historical science, geography), M. M. Rozhanskaya (natural and exact sciences), A. V. Sagadeev (philosophy), A. B. Khalidov (literature), B. V. Weymarn (architecture and fine arts).

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Kazakh Head Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Essay

On the topic of:“The emergence of Arab culture, features and trends in Islamic architecture”

Completed by: master's student gr. MArkh 14-2 Kadyrova R.

Checked by: Assoc.Prof. Zhamalov K.Zh.

Almaty 2015

Art of Medieval Egypt

Architecture

art

Conclusion

Culture and art of Arab peoples

The peoples of the Arab East have an important place in the cultural history of mankind. It is no coincidence that medieval geographers called the Arab East the breast of the world: the heart of world civilization beat here for many centuries. Arab medieval culture developed in Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa, as well as in Southern Spain during the existence of the Cordoba Caliphate and Arab principalities there. Medieval Arab culture at one time was a major step forward in the progressive development of mankind. The great merit of the peoples of the Arab East was that they preserved (especially in the field of science) and passed on to subsequent generations many valuable achievements of antiquity.

In historical science, the correct idea of ​​​​Arab culture was not immediately developed. In the last century, and even now, among many bourgeois scientists there was a widespread erroneous opinion that in all countries that were part of the Arab Caliphate in the 7th-9th centuries and adopted Islam, there was a single “Arab” culture. This understanding of Arab culture, uncritically following the medieval Muslim tradition, leads to the denial of the independent development of the culture of Iranians, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Tajiks and many other peoples in the Middle Ages. In fact, in countries with a non-Arab population that were part of the caliphate, they developed, based on ancient traditions, local cultures, which, like the culture of the Arabs, were a valuable contribution to the development of medieval civilization. Of course, between the peoples of the Near and Middle East in the Middle Ages there was a complex and important interaction for their culture, which gave rise to common features.

The culture of the peoples who inhabited the Arabian Peninsula has been known since ancient times. Ancient geographers called southern, agricultural Arabia “happy.” Here from the middle of the first millennium BC. there were rich states: Minaan, and later Sabaean. In the first millennium BC. In the northwestern part of the peninsula (the so-called “rocky Arabia”) the Nabataean state arose. The prosperity of these kingdoms was determined by their favorable economic position on world routes of communication and extensive intermediary trade with Egypt, Western Asia and India.

The architecture and art of the ancient South Arab states, which have not yet been sufficiently studied, are by their type included in the circle of cultures slave societies Western Asia. The remains of powerful fortifications, dams and cisterns, as well as works of sculpture and applied art have been preserved. On the stone steles covered with writings there are images of people, animals and ornaments.

Since ancient times, the bulk of the population of Arabia were nomads engaged in cattle breeding in the steppes and semi-deserts of the peninsula. The deep and complex process of class stratification within Arab society and the political situation associated with the struggle between Iran and Byzantium created the conditions for the emergence of a medieval Arab state. The political unification of the Arabs at the beginning of the 7th century took place under the auspices of a new, which soon became a world religion - Islam. The original place of residence of the founder of Islam and the head of the Arab state - the Prophet Muhammad and his successors - the caliphs (hence the name of the state - caliphate) were the Arabian cities of Medina, and then Mecca.

In the 7th century, the Arabs conquered Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Iran. In 661, Muawiyah, the Arab governor of Syria, seized power and began the Umayyad dynasty. Damascus became the capital of the Umayyads. At the end of the 7th and beginning of the 8th century, a gigantic territory was annexed to the caliphate, which included the Iberian Peninsula and all of North Africa in the west, Transcaucasia and Central Asia to the borders of India in the east.

The Arab Caliphate became a large early feudal state, although in some of its areas slavery and even primitive communal relations persisted for a long time. The Arab nobility brutally exploited the peasants and artisans of the conquered countries. Victorious military campaigns and the successes of the new religion could not hide the growth of class contradictions. The struggle of the broad masses of people against feudal oppression resulted in powerful uprisings and often went under the slogan of liberation from foreign yoke. Already in the 9th-10th centuries, social upheavals essentially caused the disintegration of the caliphate into separate states.

At the same time, the creative forces of the peoples that were part of the Arab Caliphate, awakened by the liberation and class struggle, led to a high rise in the medieval culture of the Near and Middle East; its flourishing continued even when the caliphate as a single whole actually no longer existed.

The Arab Caliphate included countries at different levels of social development and with different cultural and artistic traditions. However, the similarity in the forms of development of feudalism in the Near and Middle East gave rise to common features in ideology and other superstructural phenomena. These deep socio-economic reasons, and not the spread of religion - Islam - lie at the basis of the unity that also takes place in the medieval culture of the Arab countries.

An important role in the development of Arab culture was played by its interaction with the high medieval culture of Iran, Central Asia and Transcaucasia. Arabic was not only the language of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, but, like Latin in Western Europe, it was used by many scientists, writers and poets in all parts of the multilingual caliphate. Vivid examples creative interaction has been preserved by the history of the literature of the peoples of the East. The artistic creativity of many peoples was embodied in the famous poem “Leila and Majnun”. Romantic image dying of love, Majnun and his beloved Leila - the Romeo and Juliet of the East - born at the dawn of feudalism in the Arab environment, inspired the creation of wonderful works by the best poets of medieval Azerbaijan, Iran and Central Asia.

However, not only interaction and a certain commonality are important, but also the high level of culture of the peoples of the Near and Middle East for that time. In the 9th-13th centuries, Arab, as well as Iranian, Azerbaijani and Central Asian cities were the largest centers of learning, famous for their libraries, schools, universities and other educational institutions. Popular sayings of that time are typical: “The greatest adornment of a person is knowledge” or “The ink of a scientist is as worthy of respect as the blood of a martyr.” It is not surprising, therefore, that the 12th-century Syrian writer Osama ibn Munkyz, the author of the “Book of Edification,” assessed the morals of the modern Franks, which he had to deal with not only in the military field, but also in peaceful life, from the perspective of a person of immeasurably greater culture.

Religion had a certain influence on the development of medieval art of the Arabs, as well as other peoples who professed Islam. The spread of Islam marked the abandonment of old, pre-feudal religions and the establishment of monotheism - the belief in one God. The Muslim idea of ​​the world as a single whole created by God was important for the formation of the aesthetic idea of ​​a certain, albeit abstract, harmony of the universe, characteristic of the medieval era. At the same time, Islam, like all medieval religions, ideologically justified and consolidated feudal exploitation. The dogmas of the Koran darkened the consciousness of man and hindered his development. However, the views of the people of the medieval East on the world, including their artistic views, cannot be reduced to religious ideas. The worldview of the Middle Ages man contradictorily combined idealistic and materialistic tendencies, scholasticism and the desire to understand reality. One of the greatest scientists and philosophers of the medieval East, Abu Ali ibn Sina (Avicenna), recognized the divine origin of the universe and at the same time argued that scientific and philosophical knowledge exists independently of religious faith. Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ferdowsi, Navoi and many other outstanding thinkers of the medieval East, in whose works and poetic works the progressive features of the era were especially clearly manifested, affirmed the power of human will and reason, the value and wealth of the real world, although, as a rule, , did not openly speak from an atheistic position.

When it comes to the influence of Islam on the visual arts, they usually point to the prohibition of depicting living beings under pain of religious punishment. There is no doubt that from its very inception the teachings of Islam contained an iconoclastic tendency associated with the overcoming of polytheism. In the Koran, idols (most likely sculptural images ancient tribal gods) are called “the obsession of Satan.” Religious tradition resolutely rejected the possibility of depicting a deity. It was also not allowed to place images of people in mosques and other religious buildings. The Koran and other theological books were decorated only with ornaments. However, initially in Islam there was no prohibition on depicting living beings, formulated as a religious law. Only later, probably in the 9th-10th centuries, the iconoclastic tendency of Islam was used to prohibit a certain category of images on pain of punishment in the afterlife. “Misfortune to him,” we read in the comments to the Koran, “who will depict a living creature! On the day of the last trial, the persons whom the artist presented will leave the picture and come to him demanding that he give them a soul. Then this man, who cannot give souls to his creatures, will be burned in eternal flame”; “Beware of depicting gentlemen or people, and paint only trees, flowers and inanimate objects.”

History has shown that these restrictions, which left their mark on the development of certain types of art, did not matter in all Muslim countries and were strictly carried out only during periods of particularly intensified ideological reaction.

However, the explanation of the main features of the medieval art of the Arab peoples should not be sought in religion, which influenced but did not determine its development. The content of the artistic creativity of the peoples of the Arab East, its paths and features were determined by the pace of new ideological and aesthetic tasks, which were put forward by the progressive development of society that entered the era of feudalism.

The specifics of medieval art in the Arab countries, as well as throughout the Near and Middle East, are very complex. It reflected the living content of reality, but, like the entire culture of the Middle Ages, deeply imbued with a religious and mystical worldview, it did this in a conditional, often symbolic form, developing its own special figurative language for works of art.

The innovation of Arabic medieval literature and at the same time its vital basis is characterized by an appeal to the spiritual world of man, the creation moral ideals that had universal human significance.

The fine art of the Arab East is also imbued with great figurative power. However, just as literature used predominantly a conventional form to embody its images, so in the fine arts the life content was expressed in the special language of decorative art.

The conventionality of the “language” of medieval fine art among most peoples was associated with the principle of decorativeness, characteristic not only of external forms, but also of the structure itself, the figurative structure of a work of art. The wealth of decorative imagination and its masterful implementation in applied art, miniature and architecture constitute an integral and valuable quality wonderful works of artists of that era.

In the art of the Arab East, decorativeness acquired especially bright and original features, becoming the basis of the figurative structure of painting and giving rise to the richest art of pattern, which has a complex ornamental rhythm and often increased coloristic sonority. Within the narrow framework of the medieval worldview, the artists of the Arab East found their way to embody the richness of the life around them. By the rhythm of the pattern, its “carpet-like quality,” the subtle plasticity of ornamental forms, and the unique harmony of bright and pure colors, they expressed great aesthetic content.

The image of a person was not excluded from the attention of artists, although appeal to it was limited, especially during the period of increasing religious prohibitions. Images of people fill out illustrations in manuscripts and are often found in patterns on objects of applied art; Monuments of monumental painting with multi-figure scenes and sculptural reliefs are also known. However, even in such works the human image is subordinated to the general decorative solution. Even when they endowed human figures with many vital features, the artists of the Arab East interpreted them in a flat, conventional way. In applied art, human figures are most often included in the ornament; they lose the meaning of an independent image, becoming an integral part of the pattern.

Ornament - “music for the eyes” - plays a very important role in the medieval art of the peoples of the Arab East. It to a certain extent compensates for the visual limitations of some types of art and is one of the important means of expressing artistic content. Based on classical ancient motifs, the arabesque, which became widespread in the countries of the medieval East, was a new type of ornamental composition that allowed the artist to fill planes of any shape with a complex, woven, lace-like pattern. Initially, arabesque was dominated by plant motifs. Later, girikh became widespread - a linear-geometric ornament built on a complex combination of polygons and multi-rayed stars. In the development of the arabesque, which was used to decorate both large architectural planes and various household objects, the masters of the Arab East achieved amazing virtuosity, creating countless compositions that always combine two principles: a logical, strict mathematical construction of the pattern and the great spiritualizing power of artistic imagination .

The peculiarities of Arab medieval art also include the widespread use of epigraphic ornament - the text of inscriptions organically included in the decorative pattern. Let us note in passing that religion 113 of all arts especially encouraged calligraphy: copying a text from the Koran was considered a righteous deed for a Muslim.

The unique decorative and ornamental structure of artistic creativity was expressed differently in individual types of art. The architectural features common to many peoples of the Near and Middle East were associated with the natural and climatic conditions of the countries and the capabilities of construction equipment. In the architecture of homes, techniques have long been developed for planning houses with courtyards and terraces protected from the heat. Construction technology gave rise to special structures made of clay, brick and stone. The architects of that time created various forms of arches - horseshoe-shaped and especially pointed, and invented their own systems of vaulted ceilings. They achieved exceptional skill and artistic expressiveness in the laying of large domes resting on trumps (a structural system that arose in the pre-feudal period). architecture art culture arabic

Medieval architects of the Arab East created new types of monumental religious and secular buildings: mosques that accommodated thousands of worshipers; minarets - towers from which believers were called to prayer; madrasahs - buildings of Muslim religious schools; caravanserais and covered markets, corresponding to the scale of trading activities of cities; palaces of rulers, fortified citadels, fortress walls with gates and towers.

Arab architects, authors of many masterpieces of medieval art, great attention paid attention to the decorative possibilities of architecture. Therefore one of characteristic features The synthesis of arts in monumental architecture is the important role of decorative forms and the special significance of ornament, which sometimes covers the walls and vaults of buildings with monochrome lace or a colorful carpet.

Stalactites (muqarnas) were widely used in the architecture of the Arab East - decorative filling of vaults, niches and cornices in the form of prismatic figures with a thread-like cutout, arranged in rows protruding one above the other. Stalactites arose from a constructive technique - a special brick laying to create a transition from the square of the walls to the circle of the dome in the corners of the rooms.

Applied art played an extremely important role in the artistic culture of the countries of the Arab East. The economic basis for this was the intensive development of crafts. In artistic crafts, local ancient traditions of art, closely connected with folk life, have found a vivid expression. The Arabs - masters of applied art - were characterized by a high aesthetic “sense of a thing”, which made it possible, without violating the practical functions of the object, to give it beautiful shape and skillfully place a pattern on its surface. In the applied decorative art of the Arab East, the importance of the culture of ornament was especially clearly manifested, and its enormous artistic possibilities were revealed. Ornament brings aesthetic content to perfectly crafted oriental fabrics, carpets, painted ceramics, bronze and glass items. Works of applied art of the Arab East have one more important quality: they usually form a very holistic and expressive decorative ensemble with an architectural interior.

The main type of painting that developed in the Near and Middle East during the Middle Ages was the illustration of secular manuscripts. Arab masters made extensive use of this opportunity, creating, along with the rich ornamental decorations of manuscripts, excellent series of colorful miniatures, giving a poetically imaginative story about the fate of the heroes of a literary work.

In the 16th century, most of the countries of the Arab East were captured by Ottoman Turkey, whose dominance was later replaced by the oppression of Western European colonialists, who hampered development national culture and art. However, even during the period of decline, when foreign invaders implanted forms in architecture and fine arts that were alien to the peoples of the Arab East, truly national artistic creativity did not die. It lived in the works of Arab peasants and artisans who, despite poverty and difficult living conditions, sought to embody their ideas of beauty in patterns on clothes and folk utensils.

Let's take a closer look at the culture of Arab countries using the example of the art of medieval Egypt.

Art of Medieval Egypt

The history of medieval art in Egypt begins with the Coptic period. The art of the Copts - Egyptians professing Christianity - developed in the 4th-7th centuries AD, during the period when Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire. From this time, the basilicas in the White and Red monasteries on the edge of the Libyan Desert and numerous domed tombs have been preserved. The development of architecture was associated with the flourishing of sculptural patterns and wall paintings depicting religious subjects. Works of applied art were distinguished by great originality: carving on bone and wood, and especially fabric.

In the art of the Copts, the desire common to all areas of Byzantium to subordinate late antique artistic traditions to the requirements of the new medieval religious ideology found expression. On the other hand, it turned out to have strong purely local features, rooted in ancient Egyptian culture. The struggle of these trends determined the uniqueness of Coptic art, which developed its own specific artistic language and prepared the ground for the high rise and flowering of Egyptian art in the era of the mature Middle Ages.

In the middle of the 7th century, Egypt became part of the Arab caliphate, but already in the 9th century it was actually an independent feudal state. From the middle of the 10th century, having become the center of the powerful Fatimid state, Egypt began to play a particularly large role in the medieval history of the Middle East. In the 11th-12th centuries he conducted extensive trade with Byzantium and Western Europe; The transit trade of the Mediterranean with the countries of the Indian Ocean also fell into the hands of the Egyptians. Later, in the 13th century, after the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols, the main city of Egypt - Cairo - laid claim to the role of a pan-Muslim capital. However, what was even more important was that Cairo became the center of culture, one of the largest centers for the development of science and art in the Arab world.

Along with the exact sciences, the study of history flourished in Cairo; in the 14th century, Ibn Khaldun, who is called the world's first sociologist, moved from Tunisia to Egypt; Ahmed Makrizi, a prominent medieval historian, also wrote his works in Cairo. Medieval Egypt gave the world excellent literary works: a cycle of Arabic knightly novels and the final edition of folk tales “A Thousand and One Nights”.

Architecture

The best monuments of medieval architecture in Egypt are preserved in Cairo. The city has lived through a great history. In 641, the Arab commander Amr ibn al-As founded Fustat, the ruins of which are located on the southern outskirts of modern Cairo. According to legend, the first mosque was erected on the site of Fustat. The small building was already expanded in 673 by enlarging the colonnade and courtyard. Despite later alterations and repairs, the Amra Mosque is deservedly considered one of the oldest Arab columnar mosques that has preserved the grandeur and simplicity characteristic of early Arab monumental architecture. IN great hall The mosque has over a hundred marble columns topped with carved Corinthian capitals that support tall semicircular arches. The beautiful perspective of columns and arches stretching into the distance makes you feel the grandeur of the space of the hall.

The greatness of early Arab architecture is extremely vividly embodied in the architecture of the great mosque of Ibn Tulun, which perfectly preserved its original appearance, built in 876-879 in the residence of this first ruler of medieval Egypt, independent of the Baghdad Caliphate. A huge square courtyard with an area of ​​almost a hectare (92x92m) is surrounded by pointed arches, which, unlike the Amra Mosque, have not round columns as supports, but rectangular pillars - pylons with three-quarter columns at the corners. Wide passages between the pillars unite the hall in front of the mihrab and the walkways on the other three sides of the courtyard into a single spatial whole. The mosque easily accommodates thousands of Muslims praying. The rhythm of the pillars and arches spanning the perimeter of the courtyard expresses the strict tectonics of the mosque’s architecture, to which decorative motifs are also subordinated.

The archivolts of large and small arches, column capitals and cornices are decorated with stylized floral patterns carved by knock. The soffits of large arches have more complex ornamental compositions. Decorative details, decorating and harmoniously highlighting the main planes and lines of the building, emphasize the tectonics of the whole with their arrangement. Thus, the pattern and architectural elements that make up the appearance of the building are imbued with a single ornamental rhythm. It is interesting to note that the pointed profile of the large and small arches of the mosque seems to be repeated in the pointed bends of the stem, which forms the basis of a continuous ornament running along the outline of the arches and along the pylons.

From the outside, the Ibn Tulup Mosque has the features of austere fortress architecture characteristic of early medieval monumental buildings in the Middle East. The traditions of fortress architecture, and perhaps the real need in the event of an attack on the city, to turn the mosque into a stronghold of defense, gave rise to a peculiar method of surrounding the religious building with an external wall, which created a free, undeveloped wide circle around the mosque. Nevertheless, the monumental surface of the outer walls of the Ibn Tulun mosque is not without decorative treatment: top part the walls are dissected by a peculiar frieze of lancet windows and arches, contrastingly highlighted by chiaroscuro; in addition, an openwork parapet crowns the walls. Decoration with windows and arches of a similar nature was done in the 9th century on the facades of the Amra Mosque. Thus, as in Samarra, the early Cairo buildings show an artistic reworking of the most ancient techniques of monumental fortress architecture.

The minaret, which rises next to the building, between the double walls, plays an important role in the architectural appearance of the mosque. Researchers believe that it originally looked like a stepped round tower, outside of which there was a spiral staircase. With its location and shape, the minaret strongly resembles the Malviya of the great mosque in Samarra. As there, the upward-pointing body of the Minaret was contrasted with the horizontally stretched arcature of the courtyard. The fact that, along with local artistic traditions, Mesopotamian construction techniques also played a certain role in the construction of the mosque is also evidenced by the use of brickwork, which is not typical of Egyptian architecture.

In 1926, a domed pavilion was erected in the center of the mosque courtyard over the ablution pool and, apparently, at the same time the lower part of the minaret was enclosed in a cubic tower.

The earliest surviving monument of civil architecture of medieval Egypt, the Nilometer, built on the island of Roda near Fustat, dates back to the middle of the 9th century. The structure represents a deep well with a high column in the middle, which was used to measure the water level in the Nile. The walls of the well are lined with stone, decorated with decorative niches and friezes with Kufic inscriptions.

art

Research conducted over the past few decades indicates the development of monumental painting in medieval Egypt, as well as miniatures, especially in the 11th-12th centuries. The Cairo Museum of Islamic Art houses a remarkable wall painting found during excavations in 1932 depicting human figures in large lancet frames. In one of these niches there is a figure of a seated man in a colorful robe, with a turban on his head and a goblet in his right hand. His round face is not devoid of lively expressiveness. The painting is executed in a flat manner, in light colors; the contours of the figure are indicated by a wide free line.

A significant number of miniatures dating back to the Fatimid era are collected in the Museum of Islamic Art and in private collections in Cairo. These miniatures have a pronounced originality, which allows us to speak about the existence in Egypt during this period of a completely independent school of miniatures - one of the earliest in the history of medieval art of the Middle East.

Egyptian applied art has long been distinguished by its high artistic perfection and diversity of types. Especially notable were the richly ornamented linen and silk fabrics, items made of rock crystal, glass and metal.

Artistic weaving has ancient traditions in Egypt. The main centers of medieval textile production - Alexandria, Damietta, Tinnis - were famous for their products back in Roman and Byzantine times. The artistic traditions of Coptic textiles from the 3rd-4th centuries continue to live with some changes in Egyptian textiles until the end of Fatimid times. This is not surprising: luxurious fabrics in the workshops of the caliphs were still produced largely by the hands of Coptic craftsmen.

The fabrics of the late 8th--9th centuries are characterized by a simple, strict pattern, usually consisting of narrow stripes filled with Kufic inscriptions containing good wishes and often the name of the ruling caliph, or simple geometric ornament. At the same time, most of the background fabric remained free.

In the fabrics of the Fatimid period (X-XII centuries), the entire wealth of technical and artistic techniques of Coptic weaving is revived, refracted, however, in the spirit of the requirements of the new era: the picturesquely executed compositions and individual figures on mythological subjects, so common in Coptic textiles, disappear. Images of various birds and animals acquire a stylized and ornamental character. Polychrome plays an important role in the artistic structure of decoration.

Already in the early Fatimid fabrics of the turn of the 10th - 11th centuries, the techniques of decorative composition and ornamentation characteristic of this period are clearly revealed. Thus, on one of the silk fabrics, narrow stripes with Kufic inscriptions (black and white letters on a carmine red background) highlight a wide stripe decorated with oval medallions with stylized images of an eagle in the middle and four ducks on the sides. The color of the details changes in each medallion: the field of one of them is red with a thin green border, the bird figures are blue or light blue on a yellow background; inside the figure of an eagle there is a red shield outlined in black with a white pattern. Another medallion has a green background with a red border, red ducks on a white background, a yellow eagle on a red background with a light blue interior design on a black shield. This alternation of colors in a small-scale pattern enhances the impression of the diversity of the ornament and creates a rich and subtle play of color spots. Fabrics of this time are also characterized by stripes with Kufic inscriptions along the edges and images of animals and birds (hares, dogs, ducks) in the middle stripe.

In artistic textiles of later times (12th century), certain changes are observed: instead of angular kufi inscriptions, the inscriptions are written in rounded naskh handwriting, the design becomes more schematic, and a golden background becomes a favorite. At this time, wide decorative stripes were very common, where between narrow borders with a stylized letter pattern there are oval or diamond-shaped medallions in which images of animals and birds alternate. The colors of these fabrics are dominated by a soft yellow-gold pattern on a carmine-red background. Stripes with inscriptions are often separated by thin light blue lines. The ornamental stripes, much wider than in products of the previous period, are located close to each other, leaving little free background.

Along with patterned linen and silk fabrics, various types of embroidery were very common in Egyptian textiles. Precious fabrics were also made, woven with heavy gold and silver threads, with a very thin base, on which lush patterns stood out in relief. Since the 13th-14th centuries, Egyptian artistic textiles have been dominated by fabrics completely covered with narrow multi-colored stripes with a fine geometric pattern formed by combinations of various stars, triangles and other figures.

In the wood carving pattern, along with the development of new decorative trends, old local traditions and technique. This is evidenced, in particular, by the distribution of figured images on many carved panels and boards.

One of the outstanding examples of early Fatimid wood carvings is the iconostasis of the Church of Barbara in Cairo; although it is undoubtedly the work of a Coptic master, it exhibits all the features and motifs characteristic of this period. The panels of the iconostasis are decorated with arabesque scrolls, in which images of birds, animals and superbly executed hunting and genre scenes are arranged. All these plot images are interpreted purely decoratively, and the figures of animals and birds are often placed in a symmetrical, heraldic composition.

Another interesting example are several panels located in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The composition of the pattern decorating them is generally the same, consisting of rounded interlacing of flowering stems, interpreted in the spirit of an arabesque; only the central images change: in some cases these are figures of birds and animals standing in front of each other in a heraldic pose; one panel depicts a seated musician. Thanks to the significant deepening of the background (by about 1.5 cm), a very rich and contrasting play of light and shadow is created, clearly revealing the pattern. Similar features are distinguished by panels with images of horse heads (Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), where a deeply chosen background further emphasizes the contours of the pattern. On some panels there are carvings in several plans.

Outstanding examples of artistic wood carvings that once decorated the Small or Western Palace of the Fatimid caliphs (completed between 1058 and 1065) were discovered in the complex of the Mari-stan of Sultan Qalaun, where these carved boards were reused in the 13th century. Initially they formed a frieze decorated with numerous images of hunters, musicians, dancers, traders with camels, animals and birds. All these images are placed against a background of plant shoots, given in lower relief than the figures. The drawing here is freer and more lively than in early monuments, but much less detailed.

In the carved wood of the 12th century, figured images acquire an increasingly generalized, silhouette interpretation, which was relatively rare in works of the 10th-11th centuries; their execution itself becomes less careful. But the ornamental carving is being improved and enriched. An outstanding monument of this time is the mihrab of the Sayida Nafisa Mosque, executed between 1138 and 1145 (Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo). Its pattern consists of beautifully executed arabesques and vines combined with geometric stripes that form polygons. Another example is the wooden carved tombstone of al-Husayni from the mid-12th century, the entire surface of which is covered with an arabesque consisting of geometric polygonal patterns and plant motifs.

Among the Egyptian artistic products From bronze from the 10th to 12th centuries, decorative figures and vessels in the form of various animals and birds stand out. A typical example is Aquarius in the form of a peacock (X-XI centuries, Louvre); its handle ends with the stylized head of a falcon or gyrfalcon, clutching its beak to the neck of a peacock. Above the rounded body of the bird with volumetric wings, a long, gracefully curved neck rises, carrying a small head with a half-open beak. The plumage is conveyed by a fine chased ornament. In a later monument of this kind - a large winged griffin (XI-XII centuries, museum in Pisa), the ornamental principle dominates over the plastic form - almost the entire surface of the figure is covered with an ornament imitating details of plumage, stripes of Kufic inscriptions, stamps with images of Sirens and various fantastic animals.

In the 13th century, when close ties between Egypt and Syria and Iraq were established, a significant number of artistic products of famous Iraqi, especially Mosul masters appeared in Egypt. The inscriptions engraved on some objects have preserved for us the names of Mosul craftsmen who worked in Cairo and influenced the work of Egyptian artisans. An interesting example artistic bronze products of this time is a spherical slotted incense burner dated 1271 with the name of Emir Beysari (British Museum, London). On the surface of the incense burner, between the inscription belts, there are round medallions with openwork images of double-headed eagles; the field around the medallions is filled with floral arabesque.

A fine example of 113 metal artistry is the hexagonal inlaid table of the Sultan of Qalaun, made by the master Muhammad non Sunkur 113 of Baghdad in 1327 (Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo). Its openwork side walls and doors, as well as the top plane, are decorated with calligraphic inscriptions (arranged in medallions or belts), rosettes and inlaid images of a flock of flying birds. Cut-out tables, incense burners, metal boxes, etc. became very common products in Egypt, Syria and Iraq in the 14th - 15th centuries.

Artistic metal processing was also used in the decoration of monumental buildings. An outstanding example This type are the bronze inlaid doors of the Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo, decorated with masterfully executed multifaceted geometric patterns, openwork carvings and belts of decorative inscriptions.

The art of processing rock crystal was especially developed in X-XI centuries. Jugs, glasses, goblets, bottles, various chess and other pieces were skillfully cut out of large crystals; their surface was often faceted or covered with engraving. The historian Makrizi reports that about two thousand precious crystal vessels were kept in the treasury of the Fatimid caliphs. The products of Egyptian lapidaries were highly valued in medieval Europe. Among the fine works of this kind, two large jugs in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London stand out. On one of them, in relief engraving, among large climbing stems and half-palmettes, large birds of prey are depicted pecking at a fallen doe. The drawing is somewhat schematic and generalized, but very confident and bold and fits perfectly into the space allotted to it. The other jug ​​is devoid of any ornamental decoration; its main advantage lies in the amazing clarity and proportionality of the form and the impeccable quality of the edges, which gave it the radiance of a diamond in the rays of light.

Art glass, which had a long tradition in Egypt, reached its greatest flourishing in the 13th-14th centuries, when painting with gold and colored enamels joined the previously known decoration techniques - cutting, engraving, relief, colored and twisted glass. The main centers for the production of art glass were Fustat, Alexandria, and Fayum. In its forms and the general character of the decoration, Egyptian art glass is close to Syrian glass, but large inscriptions with good wishes are typical for it, often covering almost the entire surface of the vessel with wide belts.

Egyptian artistic ceramic products - earthenware and clay vases, bowls and dishes painted with luster and various paints - are often decorated with images of animals, fish, birds and human figures, along with various plant and geometric motifs. Particularly beautiful are the large greenish-yellow luster dishes from the 11th century with large figured images executed in a free painterly manner. Among the images there are figures of a musician, a man pouring wine into a goblet, a horseman, two- and three-figure genre and battle scenes, as well as real and fantastic animals, motifs of animal fights. The style of painting on 11th century ceramics is very close to the Fatimid wall painting mentioned above.

In the 13th-15th centuries, the art of ceramics in Egypt experienced a resurgence again: vessels were made with fine multi-color paintings depicting animals and birds among plant motifs. The traditions of painted ceramics, as well as other types of applied art, continued to live in Egypt throughout the Middle Ages and now form the basis of folk artistic crafts.

The art of medieval Egypt, which developed over many centuries, represents a large, distinctive school in the history of art in Arab countries, which played a major role in the process of interaction between the artistic cultures of the Middle East and Western Europe.

Conclusion

The contribution of the Arab peoples to the history of world art and architecture can hardly be overestimated. They made a great contribution to the treasury of world artistic culture, creating works of art inspired by a unique and subtle understanding of beauty. However, despite the presence of common features, the art of each region of the Arab world is tightly connected with local artistic traditions, has gone through its own path of development, and has pronounced characteristics. Features of unique originality distinguish the monuments of medieval art in Syria from the monuments of Iraq, Egypt, North Africa and Moorish Spain.

The work of medieval Arab artists had a fruitful impact on the art of many countries, including the art of Europe. Arab or, as it was more often called in Europe, “Moorish” artistic influence can be traced, especially in textiles, ceramics, weapon decoration and other branches of applied art, not only during the heyday of the medieval Arab states, but also many centuries after their fall.

Literature

1. “The Art of Arab Peoples” B. Weymarn, T. Kaptereva, A. Podolsky; “The Red Book of Culture”, ed. V. Rabinovich.

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