Overview - Focal Points of the Site
Islam began to spread into northern Africa by the mid-seventh century A.D., just a few decades after the Prophet Muhammad moved with his followers from Mecca to Medina on the neighboring Arabian Peninsula. The spread of Islam throughout the African continent was neither simultaneous nor uniform, and it followed a gradual and adaptive path. Islam brought a variety of things over to Africa including the art of writing, new techniques of weighting, and a variation of different artistic styles, which is what our group has chosen to focus on. The nature of Islam’s interaction with the visual arts in Africa was one in which Islamic customs were accommodated and modified as a result of its resistance to the representation of animals and people. Islam reinforced the African partiality to geometric design and repetitive patterns on the surfaces of various crafted objects and textiles. Islam's coexistence with representational art forms continues today in many areas of Africa and has influenced a wide variety of artistic practices there. With the geographic spread and long history of Islamic art, it was inevitably subject to a wide range of regional and national African styles and influences as well as changes within a variety of its progressive periods. This website will allow you to explore the history of the Islamic influence on African art and will provide examples of what this type of art might look like as well as what characteristics it might have.