Islamic Artistic Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad leads Abraham, Moses, Jesus and others in prayer. Persian miniature.
Lutfi Abdullah. Prophet at Mount Hira. Siyer-i Nebi. 1595.
Ali Beheading Nadr ibn al-Harith in the Presence of the Prophet Muhammad. Miniature from volume 4 of a copy of Mustafa al-Darir’s Siyar-i-Nabi. Istanbul; c.1594
Birth of Muhammad from folio 44a of the Jami‘ al-tawarikh. 1314–15.
The Investiture of Ali at Ghadir Khumm, MS Arab 161, fol. 162r, Ilkhanid manuscript illustration, 1308-1309.
A miraj image, reflecting the new, Safavid convention of depicting Muhammad veiled, dated 1539 – 1543.
Miniature of Muhammad rededicating the Black Stone at the Kaaba. From Jami Al-Tawarikh, c. 1315.
Mohammad (riding the horse) receiving the submission of the Banu Nadir, also Jami Al-Tawarikh. 1314 – 1315.
“Mohammed’s Paradise”, Persian miniature from The History of Mohammed, Kashmir, 1808.
Muhammad’s ascent into the Heavens, a journey known as the Mi’raj, as depicted in a copy of the Bostan of Saadi, 1514.
Muhammad and his wife Aisha freeing the daughter of a tribal chief. From the Siyer-i Nebi, c. 1388.
Muhammad at the Battle of Badr. From the Siyer-i Nebi, c. 1388.
The destruction of idols at the Kaaba. Muhammad is represented as a flaming aureole. From Hamla-i haydarî (“Haydar’s Battle”), Kashmir, 1808.
Muhammad’s Call to Prophecy and the First Revelation; in the Majmac al-tawarikh (Compendium of Histories), Timurid, Herat, Afghanistan, Muhammad is shown with veiled face. c. 1425.
Journey of the Prophet Muhammad in the Majmac al-tawarikh (Compendium of Histories), Timurid. Herat, Afghanistan, c. 1425.
Ascension of the Prophet Muhammad, first half of the 16th century.
Mohammed receiving his first revelation from the angel Gabriel. Illustration on vellum in Jami’ al-tawarikh by Rashid al-Din Hamadani, Tabriz, Persia, 1307.
An image from the Houghton Shahnameh (Metropolitan Museum of Art), dated 1530 – 1535.
Muhammad removes a dragon from the Kaaba. From the Siyer-i Nebi, c. 1595.
“Muhammad at the Ka’ba” from the Siyer-i Nebi. Muhammad is shown with veiled face, c. 1595.
Birth of Muhammad, from Siyer-i Nebi, an Ottoman manuscript, probably by Nakkaş Osman, 1595.
Muhammad and Khadija performing the first wudu, as illustrated in the Siyer-i Nebi, c. 1594.