CAIRO — Islamic art is not the product of one country or one people, writes Tharwat Okasha in his book, “The Encyclopedia of Islamic Photography.” Rather, it is the merger of the arts of several civilizations that flourished before Islam, including the Persian, Roman and Byzantine civilizations, due to the geographical expansion of the Islamic state. 

Mukhtar al-Kasbani, a professor of Islamic and Coptic antiquities at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor, “Religious tolerance in Egypt instilled harmony between religion and art. Egyptian rulers had focused on the competences and skills of artists or architects without discrimination based on religion. This prompted Muslim architects to learn the decorative features of Coptic art. They subsequently developed these stylistic features and gave them an Islamic identity, turning them into what became known as Islamic art.” 

He pointed out that Islamic art in Egypt is characterized by abstraction, simplicity and the use of geometric and vegetal forms, while rejecting the depiction of living beings. “All these characteristics are inspired from Coptic art. This appears clearly in the decorations covering the walls, facades and doors of mosques. Egyptian mosques and churches are simple in terms of architectural composition and design, unlike the Pharaonic temples, which are grandiose and dazzling.” 

Kasbani commented on the marble columns topped by crosses that are found in the mosques of Historic Cairo. “These were brought from ruined buildings. No church was demolished to build a mosque since the Islamic conquest of Egypt. The crosses decorating the tops of the columns, or capitals, are a manifestation of Coptic art. There was no religious objection to using and preserving remnants of Coptic or Pharaonic monuments in building mosques.”