Arabesque
Topic: Turkic Invasions and the Delhi Sultanate · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Arabesque is a type of decoration made of flowing, curling plant shapes and repeating geometric patterns that weave into each other. It came to India with Indo-Islamic buildings from the time of the Delhi Sultanate. It was often used along with Quranic calligraphy (verses from the Quran in decorative writing). Islamic tradition discouraged images of humans and animals in religious places, so builders decorated walls with patterns and writing instead.
Example
The early 13th-century monuments of the Qutub Minar complex in Delhi have bands of carved calligraphy and climbing leaf-and-vine patterns. Indian craftsmen, who had long carved temple stone, cut these patterns into it.
Don't confuse with
- Pietra dura: a later Mughal method of setting coloured stones into marble. Arabesque is a style of pattern, while pietra dura is a way of inlaying stone.
Related concepts
- Delhi Sultanate
- Mamluk dynasty
- Iltutmish
- Turkan-i-Chahalgani
- Sultan Ghari
- Raziya Sultan
- Ghiyasuddin Balban
- Theory of kingship of Balban
- Sijda and paibos
- Sayyid dynasty