Among the newest trends in the home, décor is modern Islamic wall art for sale. Be it in the form of economical wall decals or colorful digital prints on canvas or paper, Islamic wall art hangings are seeing a revival of sorts in the online marketplace globally.
We used the words ‘revival of sorts’ because Islamic calligraphy is an art form of old, having emerged in the 7th century AD, shortly after the Prophet’s death.
As the new religion prohibited animal or human imagery, artists began finding expression in text instead of images. And the primary text they relied upon was the Quranic itself. They started writing verses from the Quran, as well as narrations from the Hadith, in calligraphic styles.
Islamic calligraphy flourished in the medieval era during which Muslims ruled large swathes of the world – from Spain in the west to Turkey and Persia in the Middle East to India in the east. Islamic calligraphy was used to adorn the walls and domes of monuments such as the Taj Mahal in India or the Blue Mosque in Turkey, to name just two big examples. It was also used to enhance the artistic appeal of ceramic pottery, marble work, and silk carpets as well as being used to pen court papers.
Over time, the scale and grandeur of Islamic calligraphy declined on account of various factors — from the colonization-led defeat of Muslim empires to general apathy towards promotion of arts.
After the Internet revolution, and its varied byproducts– social media and e-commerce – coupled with globalization-fuelled rising incomes, Islamic calligraphy has made a comeback in a new form. A new market is being explored for modern Islamic wall art for sale.
Modern Islamic wall art blends traditional, handwritten calligraphy with digital coloring and printing technologies. Handwritten black-and-white pieces are digitally enhanced and colored, after which they are printed on color or paper in any size. These are also transferred to a stencil sheet to pull out a wall sticker, or etched on a glass to produce a souvenir.
Because these Islamic wall art hangings are replicated from originals, they are often affordable and sold widely via e-commerce websites, from generic malls like Amazon to arts-and-crafts platforms like Etsy.
More significantly, however, it is important to understand that modern Islamic wall art for sale consists of works of art that are not just simply reproductions or copies of the original, handwritten Arabic calligraphy. In fact, a lot of value addition goes into these original works in the form of digital coloring, the addition of decorative elements, enlarging of their sizes, and printing on high-quality canvas or matte finish fine art paper. These can also be reproduced as oversized wall decals or towering metal frames or even handy glass souvenirs – they can be entirely resized according to the demands of the patrons. Most certainly, Islamic wall art hangings have grown from traditional, classic golden Arabic text on black velvet or silk fabric, embroidered wall carpets and ceramic wall plates to the several new, modern varieties just discussed.
