Islamic Art: Where are the Women?

[Kraxis]

There is no actual hadith or verse from the koran i think, but rather scholars agreed that depictions of living things should be avoided using anecdotes from the koran, for example when the isrealites disobeyd moses' and started worshipping a golden statue of an animal, or when the arabs built idols for their heroes and started worshipping them. I think you get the idea.

Ah... so it has more to do with the idolation rather than the images themselves? Sort of 'keep the temptations away from the people, then all will be right."

[Aenlic]

Ah... so it has more to do with the idolation rather than the images themselves? Sort of 'keep the temptations away from the people, then all will be right."

That was my understanding, anyway; that it had to do with idolatry. I just wasn't sure if the prohibition extended to all depictions. There's the story of Mohammed having all the religious icons destroyed except for one he deemed acceptable, which was a depiction of the Virgin and Child. Most of the early depictions of Mohammed, many of them Persian in origin, always show him with no face, or veiled in white. I've been discovering a lot of interesting things wandering about the internet looking into this whole issue.

[The Wizard]

Ah... so it has more to do with the idolation rather than the images themselves? Sort of 'keep the temptations away from the people, then all will be right."

Precisely. The same goes for Judaism. It is all to avoid idolatry from resurfacing.