APAH West and Central Asia Vocabulary

 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