Colour, Light and Wonder in Islamic Art

The experience of colour in Islamic visual culture hashistorically been overlooked. In this new approach, Idries Trevathan examinesthe language of colour in Islamic art and architecture in dialogue with itsaesthetic contexts, offering insights into the pre-modern Muslim experience ofinterpreting colour. The seventeenth-century Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, representsone of the finest examples of colour-use on a grand scale. Here, Trevathanexamines the philosophical and mystical traditions that formed the mosque'sbackdrop. He shows how careful combinations of colour and design proportions inIslamic patterns express knowledge beyond that experienced in the corporealworld, offering another language with which to know and experience God. Colourthus becomes a spiritual language, calling for a re-consideration of how weread Islamic aesthetics.