Arabesque and its Nabatean Origin

Subject Areas : The Journal of Islamic History and Civilisation

Negar Zeilabi ¹ , Hadi Alemzadeh ²

1 - Assistant Professor, Department of History & Civilization of Islamic Nations, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Emeritus Professor, Department of History & Civilization of Islamic Nations, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2023-06-13 Accepted : 2023-09-10 Published : 2023-09-20

Keywords: Arabesque, Arabaneh, Nabatean Art, Nabatean Plant Motifs, Islamic art,

Abstract :

Arabesque (stylized plant and geometric motifs) is sometimes considered as a feature of Islamic art and one of the innovations of Islamic civilization; On the other hand, some art historians, in addition to the characteristics of the Islamic period, have pointed out its pre-Islamic sources, especially the Sassanid and Byzantine sources and the transfer of previous cultural traditions. In this research, in addition to these two sources, Nabatean culture as a rich treasure of ancient pictorial themes has been included as another source in the field of Islamic arabesque plant motifs. The main question of this research is what were the motifs and plant motifs in Nabatean works and based on the similarities between Nabatean and Islamic motifs, to what extent can Nabatean motifs be considered as a source for Islamic arabesque? In this research, with an approach based on cultural history and various evidences, especially material artifacts and reports of archaeologists and obvious cultural similarities, we have shown that the Nabataean motifs can also be counted among the descendants of Arabesque, and on this basis, and considering the multitude of descendants The history of arabesque, the essentialist and mystical views of traditionalists in limiting the scope of interpretation of these motifs to Islamic art, are subjected to a serious revision. 

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