Aniconism in Islam - Causes

Causes

It is equally important to stress that, wherever it surfaced, Islamic aniconism is partially due to the special historical relationship between images and Muslim identity. In the early days of Islam, for example, it was critical to distinguish the customs of the nascent Ummah from those of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and pagans. Therefore, emphasizing calligraphy and abstract decoration over figurative painting and sculpture set the Qur'an apart from the Bible, the mosque from the church and — after a certain period of using Byzantine and Sassanid coins — the Muslim dinar from the Christian solidus. After the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, there were lively debates in Persia about the merits of (Islamic) calligraphy and (Chinese influenced) painting. In modern times, the image-producing technologies of print, photography, movie, television and, more recently, the Internet, were all imports from a world outside the Muslim community, and thus easily perceived as threats to its integrity. These changes also came through difficult contexts for the Islamic world: colonization, modernization, authoritarian regimes, economic difficulties, and wars. Quite naturally, a paradoxical mix ensued, of an aniconist Islamic discourse propagated through representational mass media.