West & Central Asian Art Study Guide

Aniconic: decoration with no human figures or animals

Arabesque: a flowing, intricate, and symmetrical pattern deriving from floral motifs

Calligraphy: decorative and beautiful handwriting

Caravanserai: roadside inns and towns along trade routes; often sites of cultural diffusion and exchange

Gandharan: diverse culture that emerged in Afghanistan, influenced by Alexander the Great’s Greek empire and Buddhism from the Silk Roads and Indian kingdoms

Hajj: Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that is required according to the Five Pillars of Islam

Iwan: In Islamic architecture, a vaulted room opening to a courtyard

Kiswa: black cloth that covers the Kaaba

Koran/Qur’an: the Islamic sacred text, dictated to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel

Kufic: highly ornamental and geometric Islamic script

Mihrab: a niche in a mosque on the qiblah wall; indicates the direction to Mecca

Minaret: a tall, slender tower used to call people to prayer

Minbar: short flight of steps used as a platform by a preacher in a mosque

Mosque: a Muslim house of worship

Muezzin: the person at a mosque who calls people to prayer on the minarets

Muqarnas: decoration inside a vault; 3D shapes that resemble intricate stalactites which are layered over one another in a complex pattern

Ogival arch: Islamic pointed arch

Parchment: sheep or goat hide that has been soaked in lime, dried and scraped until it can be cut into pages

Pishtaq: a rectangular frame around an arched opening, usually associated with an iwan

Qiblah: the direction toward Mecca which Muslims face in prayer, indicated by a wall

Sura: verse or section of the Koran

Tessellation: decoration using polygonal shapes with no gaps

Urna: red dot on the forehead of Buddhist figures

Ushnisha: top-knot on the top of Buddha’s head (references a humble crown)

Vairocana: the universal Buddha, a source of enlightenment