Divine Vision: Islamic Arts and Horizontal Thought

Islamic arts are often identified by their abstract compositions based on geometric principles and spiritual concepts. Using artworks from different eras, this paper highlights the presence of a particular model of thought in Islamic arts in which the hierarchy of perspectival vision is abolished. The main argument is based on the ability of some artworks to be looked at from any angle while maintaining a unified meaning and value. This work proposes that such arts possess the principle of horizontality, which can be evaluated much like other more familiar principles of Islamic arts. Through different examples and via simulative research methodology, this paper elaborates how the principle of horizontality is the resultant of an abstract view from above in which the limits of perspectival vision are surpassed in order to communicate meanings of higher order. It is through this distant, parallel vision from above that the artist and his audience re-experience the divine act of creation and their interpretations become components of a sophisticated world of symbols.