Mohammed-The Sacrilege Of Early Islamic Art

It seems there is actually a long tradition of Islamic artistic representations of the prophet Mohammed, as explained here by zombietime, which has on this page a large collection of such artwork. In fact, supposed Islamic injunctions against such displays actually go back no more than three or four centuries or so.

Granted, most of the images displayed on this page are of Shi’ite origin. Yet, evidently, there are Sunni examples as well.

The pictures are interesting. They depict various episodes of the life and myth of Mohammed, from his birth to his death, and everything (supposedly) in between. Most curious is his constant association with what is called a “buraq”-an animal with the body of a horse, the head of a woman, and the tail of a peacock.

There are also images of him visiting both heaven and hell-the latter in which he views various women tortured by demons for various sins, including inspiring lust in men by failing to cover their hair, bearing illegitimate children and falsely claiming they belong to their husbands, and for ridiculing their husbands and leaving home without permission. In heaven, he is seen viewing, and in at least one case cavorting with, the houris-those divine, heavenly virgins we are now so familiar with.

The one above is a portrayal of Mohammed receiving the Quran from the Archangel Gabriel.

One thing that is most striking about this collection is the marked similarity shared among most of these paintings of the Prophet. Evidently, not only was it at one time acceptable within Islamic culture and tradition to display the image of Mohammed in art, it seems to have been such a widespread endeavor that his image and features pretty much became as standardized among Muslim artists as the now more familiar images of Christ are among most Christians today.