Colour, Light and Wonder in Islamic Art

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The experience of colour in Islamic visual culture has historically been overlooked. In this new approach, Idries Trevathan examines the language of colour in Islamic art and architecture in dialogue with its aesthetic contexts, offering insights into the pre-modern Muslim experience of interpreting colour.

The 17th-century Shah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, represents one of the finest examples of colour-use on a grand scale. Here, Trevathan examines the philosophical and mystical traditions that formed the mosque's backdrop. He shows how careful combinations of colour and design proportions in Islamic patterns expresses knowledge beyond the corporeal world, offering another language with which to know and experience God. Colour thus becomes a spiritual language, calling for a re-consideration of how we read Islamic aesthetics.

Reviews

This book is an important contribution to the study of Islamic art, revealing the deeper symbolic significance of the use of colour and light. Idries Trevathan brings out with admirable clarity the metaphysical and cosmological meanings of colour and light beyond their decorative function.’ --Seyyed Hossein Nasr, George Washington University

Every student of Islamic art should read this book. It brilliantly brings together pre-modern Islamic theories on colour with contemporary theories and scholarship. Much more than mere art history, this tour de force breaks the artificial boundaries between disciplines. Rather, it compares the theoretical literature on colour with the process of creating colour and the application of colour in art. Highly recommended. --Samir Mahmoud, Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture & Interior Design, Lebanese American University

Idries Trevathan is a curator and conservator of Islamic art collections. He regularly works on conservation projects and has conducted technical colour studies on a range of Islamic art objects, including the Malay Qur'an manuscripts and Ottoman porticoes in the grand mosque in Mecca.