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Animals and -esp. in miniatures humans- as well as fantastic or supernatural characters have been widely used. There is no strict reference of any banishment to be found in the Scripture.

One major property of Islamic art is avoiding the exact reproduction or imitation of nature and stylizing it, which can be observed in plastic arts, literature and music. I can refer you to an excellently written article hoping that you find a decent English translation (the original is in French) but have to bookworm around a little bit.


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