Angels in art and architecture - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
General Material Designation
[Article]
First Statement of Responsibility
Milstein, Rachel
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Leiden
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Brill
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
(1,644 words)
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Angels represent a motif that was adopted into Islamic art borrowing from various artistic traditions, including, in the early centuries, from the Christian and Sāsānid traditions. Later centuries saw the incorporation of Chinese and Buddhist motifs, as well as Iranian and Turco-Mongolian ones. Hardly depicted during the first centuries of Islamic civilisation, flying jinn or angels were known, however, through Christian manuscripts and Sāsānid silver vessels and rock carvings. A relief of two winged victories holding diadems above a scene of investiture in Tāq-i Bustān, a late sixth/