In Arab Iraq, as we draw nearer in history, the bountiful springs of art add to the new Islamic-Arab art new dimensions, uniting in the end to flourish in architecture, calligraphy, decoration and painting to lend to all, wealth and beauty laden with spiritual attraction.
Baghdad in the Mansour era lent the art of city-planning a new creativity. Samara excelled in architecture and witnessed the birth of a new decorative style: the arabesque. Mosul developed the arabesque for use in the aesthetics of buildings, niches and vessels.
| This creative civilization found the means of its artistic excellence in the talent that invested Arabic calligraphy with all the feeling and balance that characterize poetry, and all the translucent rhythm of music. |
 Kufic script The script has specific proportional measurements, along with pronounced angularity and squareness. It was created after the establishment of the two Muslim cities of Basrah and Kufah in the second decade of the Islamic era (8th century A.D.). |
 Imam Abbas Mosque - Karbala
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The rich legacy of Islamic architecture can be seen particularly in Iraqi’s mosques, with their detailed mosaics, graceful lines, and beautifully carved golden domes and minarets.
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| Iraq is also famous for its carpets, woven from fine threads in brilliant colors
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 Village flat-woven carpet |
 Artist: Abdel-Atheem Alddamen |
Painting & sculpture have traditionally been the favored visual arts in Iraq, with television and film-making gaining popularity in recent years.
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| Handicrafts are very popular in Iraq, and there are hundreds of arts and crafts fair each year to handle the volume of handicrafts produced. Most crafts are in the form of jewelry, rugs, blankets, leather, and pottery.
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 Head jewlery worn by the bride |
 Kurds |
Poetry is also the traditional literary medium of the Kurds. Kurdish poetry was passed down orally and could be up to 100 verses long. The 17th century epic Mem u Zin is well known. In modern times, Kurdish scholars have written down works and many Kurdish writers have emerged.
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| Popular music in Iraq includes folk music such as songs of Bedouin origin, classical Arabic music, Arab-Western fusion and Western pop music. Traditional instruments include the oud, an Arabic lute; the rebaba, a stringed instrument played with a bow; and the def, a type of tambourine. Classical maqam music is well-known internationally. The maqam is a harmonic system like the Western scale; however, instead of notes existing only at half-step intervals, in maqam notes may be at half, whole or quarter intervals.
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 Munir Bachir - Mosul 1937 |
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