The influence of Sharia law and religious tendencies on contemporary Iraqi ceramics

Abstract

Religion and art meet in the reality of the soul. Both stem from a world of necessity, both a yearning for perfection, and both a revolution against the mechanism of life.

Islamic art is not necessarily the art that speaks of Islam. It is not preaching and guidance, but rather the art that depicts existence from the perspective of the Islamic conception of this existence. It is the beautiful expression of the universe, life, and humanity through the Islamic conception of the universe, life, and humanity. It is the art that prepares for the complete encounter between beauty and truth. Beauty is the reality of this universe, and truth is the pinnacle of beauty. From here, they meet at the summit where all the realities of existence converge. Islamic art as a whole means all the efforts made by the Islamic world over at least ten centuries in expressing beauty and creating artistic objects. The Islamic peoples established a civilization that extended throughout their vast empire and spread its rays to many countries of the world. Islamic arts are one of the greatest aspects of that civilization. It is no wonder that the language of art satisfies the sense of beauty in man wherever it is found. Therefore, it was the only universal language that humanity was able to reach. It is the most widely spread of all the world’s arts, as its effects extend from the Bay of Bengal in India to Liberia. It is also the longest-lived of the world’s arts, with the exception of Chinese art. Islamic art was born in the seventh century AD (the first Hijri century) and reached its artistic prime in the third and fourteenth centuries (the seventh and eighth Hijri centuries). In addition to this and that, it was the last of the world’s arts to be present before the emergence of modern Western arts since the European Renaissance. Accordingly, this research came to emphasize the meanings of this art, which is imbued with the character of the divine Muhammadan message, with all its meanings and characteristics. To shed light on the general aspects that distinguish this research, the researcher's chapters begin with:

Chapter One: This represents the methodological framework of the research, which begins with the research problem and determines its importance and need, then its objectives, its limits, its problem, and finally, a definition of terminology.

Chapter Two:

The first section: Islamic art between Sharia, origin, and characteristics.

The second section: Characteristics of Islamic art.

After completing the second chapter, the researcher worked on completing the results of the theoretical intellectual discussions and defining the research tools he used in the research procedures.

 The third chapter deals with applications.

After completing the analysis of the samples, the researcher concludes the fourth chapter, which presents the results, the most important of which are:

1. 1. Religious representations in contemporary Iraqi ceramics are diverse, based on the investment of the religious roots that influence the potter's culture and visual memory. Most ceramic models are represented by Islamic religious vocabulary.

The conclusions, the most important of which are:

1. 1. Given the importance this art has placed on decoration, and the classifications and ramifications that its compositional and abstract manifestations have led to, there is a description of the art of Islamic decoration in particular, along with recommendations and suggestions.

Then follows a list of Arabic and foreign sources, a bibliography, and a summary in English.