This introductory course presents a general survey of basic concepts and terms in the arts of Islamic people and lands including architecture, script and ornament, focusing especially on the ways of looking at Islamic artworks and interpreting their subtler meanings. The course covers the Islamic arts of all media from its formative period of creation of unique visual language, upon the background of Persian-Sassanian, Central-Asian, and Byzantine artistic traditions (7-11 centuries), through the emergence of the united Abbasid caliphate, and until the ascendance of Turko-Mongol dynasties across Islam (11-15 centuries).

As a sequel to this general introduction, it is recommended that the students take in semester B the course "Figural Image in Islam", focusing on the arts of painting and manuscript illumination in Islam until the modern periods.