I accidently stumbled upon
this site. It contains images "spanning all historical periods, cultures and genres" depicting the Prophet. I found the two sections titled 'Islamic Depiction of Mohammed in Full' and 'Islamic Depictions of Mohammed with Face Hidden' particularly interesting because I had always thought that drawings of the prophet were forbidden in Islam. Is this new to you guys as well?
Also as I went through the illustrations I realised how much easier it would be for muslims to realise the superstition and myths embedded within their religion if drawings weren't forbidden. The illustrations of the different events differ according to the artist's interpretation of the situation and so with many depictions the religious events lose their sort of untouchable, unreachable mystique that I once felt as a muslim. Visual illustration is really powerful and I think that might have been one of the reasons that it was banned/forbidden. What does everyone else think?
Medieval Muslim artists often created paintings and illuminated manuscripts depicting Mohammed in full. Several examples are presented here. Other artists of the era drew Mohammed, but left his face blank so as to technically comply with a sporadically enforced Islamic ban on depicting the Prophet; these faceless images are shown in the second section of the Archive.
In 1999, Islamic art expert Wijdan Ali wrote a scholarly overview of the Muslim tradition of depicting Mohammed, which can be downloaded here in pdf format. In that essay, Ali demonstrates that the prohibition against depicting Mohammed did not arise until as late as the 16th or 17th century, despite the media's recent false claims that it has always been forbidden for Muslims to draw Mohammed. Until comparatively recently in Islamic history, it was perfectly common to show Mohammed, either in full (as revealed on this page), or with his face hidden (as shown on the next page). Even after the 17th century, up to modern times, Islamic depictions of Mohammed (especially in Shi'ite areas) continued to be produced.
Here a few examples (you can see the rest
here):
In order to sidestep the prohibition against actually depicting Mohammed, artists in Muslim societies sometimes showed him with his face blank or hidden. This way it could be claimed that they never actually drew Mohammed -- only his clothes.
(Note: Several art historians and scholars have written in to say that some of the faceless Mohammeds shown here were likely to have been originally drawn withfaces that were later scratched out.)
Some more with his face scratched out (more
here):
Topic: Islamic depictions of Mo