Angels in art and architecture - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Milstein, Rachel
Leiden
Brill
(1,644 words)
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/