Islamic Philosophy and a Challenge: Philosophy of Islamic Art

The relation between Islamic philosophy and art, on the one hand, is the most important and fundamental problem, and on the other hand one of the most complex issues in the realm of philosophy of art in Iran. In past 20 years, several books of art thinkers in Western philosophy have been translated into Persian and made passion for research and study on art philosophy. But after a while, an important question in the design of the courses has become evident: are Western theories to be used for expressing non-Western philosophies of art? Put otherwise, can Islamic art be discussed and analyzed using Western theories? Some has had doubts about this, and for this reason, discussions on the subject of Islamic philosophy toward art have commenced. Since then, traditionalists’ opinions on Islamic art have been widely and seriously criticized, especially by some professors at Harvard University. Hence, this paper tries to tackle the following questions: What is the viewpoint of Islamic philosophy toward art? And, what thoughts, if any, have Muslim philosophers had to offer on art in the course of the history of Islamic philosophy.