Editing Muhammad (section)

====<!--Please leave the following "anchor" here, as a number of pages link to this section using it (see WP:ANCHOR):--><span class="anchor" id="Islamic depictions of Muhammad"></span> Appearance and depictions====
{{Main|Depictions of Muhammad}}
Various sources present a probable description of Muhammad in the prime of his life. He was slightly above average in height, with a sturdy frame and wide chest. His neck was long, bearing a large head with a broad forehead. His eyes were described as dark and intense, accentuated by long, dark eyelashes. His hair, black and not entirely curly, hung over his ears. His long, dense beard stood out against his neatly trimmed mustache. His nose was long and aquiline, ending in a fine point. His teeth were well-spaced. His face was described as intelligent, and his clear skin had a line of hair from his neck to his navel. Despite a slight stoop, his stride was brisk and purposeful.{{sfn|Bennett|1998|p=36}} Muhammad's lip and cheek were ripped by a slingstone during the [[Battle of Uhud]].{{sfn|Gabriel|2014|p=120}}{{sfn|Rodinson|2021|p=181}} The wound was later [[Cauterization|cauterized]], leaving a scar on his face.{{sfn|Gabriel|2014|p=121}}

However, since the [[Aniconism in Islam|hadith prohibits the creation of images of sentient living beings]], Islamic religious art mainly focuses on the word.<ref name="Wagtendonk1987" />{{sfn|Esposito|2011|pp=14–15}} Muslims generally avoid [[depictions of Muhammad]], and instead decorate mosques with calligraphy, Quranic inscriptions, or geometrical designs.<ref name="Wagtendonk1987">{{Cite book |last=Wagtendonk |first=Kees |title=Effigies dei: essays on the history of religions |publisher=Brill |year=1987 |isbn=978-90-04-08655-5 |editor-last=van der Plas |editor-first=Dirk |pages=119–124 |chapter=Images in Islam |access-date=1 December 2011 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ops3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA120}}</ref>{{sfn|Peters|2010|pp=159-161}} Today, the interdiction against images of Muhammad—designed to prevent worship of Muhammad, rather than God—is much more strictly observed in Sunni Islam (85–90% of Muslims) and [[Ahmadiyya]] Islam (1%) than among Shias (10–15%).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Safi |first=Omid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s63i21E9dr8C |title=Memories of Muhammad |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-06-123135-3 |page=32 |access-date=29 December 2011}}</ref> While both Sunnis and Shias have created images of Muhammad in the past,<ref name="Safi2011" /> Islamic depictions of Muhammad are rare.<ref name="Wagtendonk1987" /> They have mostly been limited to the private and elite medium of the miniature, and since about 1500 most depictions show Muhammad with his face veiled, or symbolically represent him as a flame.{{sfn|Peters|2010|pp=159–161}}<ref name="Bakker2009" />
[[File:Muhammad destroying idols - L'Histoire Merveilleuse en Vers de Mahomet BNF.jpg|thumb|Muhammad's entry into Mecca and the destruction of idols. Muhammad is shown as a flame in this manuscript. Found in Bazil's {{tlit|ar|Hamla-i Haydari}}, [[Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)|Jammu and Kashmir]], India, 1808.]]
The earliest extant depictions come from 13th century [[Sultanate of Rum|Anatolian Seljuk]] and [[Ilkhanid]] [[Persian miniature]]s, typically in literary genres describing the life and deeds of Muhammad.<ref name="Bakker2009" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gruber |first=Christiane |title=Muqarnas |publisher=Brill |year=2009 |isbn=978-90-04-17589-1 |editor-last=Necipoglu |editor-first=Gulru |volume=26 |pages=234–235 |chapter=Between Logos (Kalima) and Light (Nur): Representations of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Painting |chapter-url=https://umich.academia.edu/ChristianeGruber/Papers/443477/_Between_Logos_Kalima_and_Light_Nur_Representations_of_the_Prophet_Muhammad_in_Islamic_Painting_ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711133658/http://umich.academia.edu/ChristianeGruber/Papers/443477/_Between_Logos_Kalima_and_Light_Nur_Representations_of_the_Prophet_Muhammad_in_Islamic_Painting_ |archive-date=11 July 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> During the Ilkhanid period, when Persia's Mongol rulers converted to Islam, competing Sunni and Shia groups used visual imagery, including images of Muhammad, to promote their particular interpretation of Islam's key events.<ref name="Elverskog2010" /> Influenced by the [[Buddhist]] tradition of representational religious art predating the Mongol elite's conversion, this innovation was unprecedented in the Islamic world, and accompanied by a "broader shift in Islamic artistic culture away from abstraction toward representation" in "mosques, on tapestries, silks, ceramics, and in glass and metalwork" besides books.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elverskog |first=Johan |url=https://archive.org/details/buddhismislamons0000elve |title=Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8122-4237-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/buddhismislamons0000elve/page/164 164]–169 |url-access=registration}}</ref> In the Persian lands, this tradition of realistic depictions lasted through the [[Timurid dynasty]] until the [[Safavids]] took power in the early 16th century.<ref name="Elverskog2010" /> The Safavaids, who made Shia Islam the state religion, initiated a departure from the traditional Ilkhanid and Timurid artistic style by covering Muhammad's face with a veil to obscure his features and at the same time represent his luminous essence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gruber |first=Christiane |title=The Art and Material Culture of Iranian Shi'ism: Iconography and Religious Devotion in Shi'i Islam |publisher=I. B. Tauris |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84885-168-9 |editor-last=Khosronejad |editor-first=Pedram |pages=46–47 |chapter=When Nubuvvat encounters Valayat: Safavid painting of the "Prophet" Mohammad's Mi'raj, c. 1500–50 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/1176067 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102103545/http://www.academia.edu/1176067/When_Nubuvvat_Encounters_Valayat_Safavid_Paintings_of_the_Prophet_Muhammads_Miraj_ca._1500-50 |archive-date=2 January 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Concomitantly, some of the unveiled images from earlier periods were defaced.<ref name="Elverskog2010">{{Cite book |last=Elverskog |first=Johan |url=https://archive.org/details/buddhismislamons0000elve |title=Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8122-4237-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/buddhismislamons0000elve/page/167 167] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bhxPW9B8s1oC&pg=PA344 |title=Visual sense: a cultural reader |last2=Bhaumik |first2=Kaushik |publisher=Berg |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-84520-741-0 |page=344}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruggles |first=D. Fairchild |author-link=D. Fairchild Ruggles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Te5QRi35W5EC&pg=PA56 |title=Islamic Art and Visual Culture: An Anthology of Sources |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4051-5401-7 |page=56}}</ref> Later images were produced in [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] Turkey and elsewhere, but mosques were never decorated with images of Muhammad.<ref name="Safi2011">{{Cite news |last=Safi |first=Omid |author-link=Omid Safi |date=5 May 2011 |title=Why Islam does (not) ban images of the Prophet |url=http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/05/why_islam_does_not_ban_images_of_the_prophet.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202195337/http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/05/why_islam_does_not_ban_images_of_the_prophet.html |archive-date=2 February 2012 |access-date=27 December 2011 |newspaper=[[Washington Post]]}}</ref> Illustrated accounts of the night journey ({{tlit|ar|mi'raj}}) were particularly popular from the Ilkhanid period through the Safavid era.<ref name="Boozari2010" /> During the 19th century, [[Iran]] saw a boom of printed and illustrated {{tlit|ar|mi'raj}} books, with Muhammad's face veiled, aimed in particular at illiterates and children in the manner of [[graphic novels]]. Reproduced through [[lithography]], these were essentially "printed manuscripts".<ref name="Boozari2010">{{Cite book |last=Boozari |first=Ali |title=The Prophet's ascension: cross-cultural encounters with the Islamic mi'rāj tales |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-253-35361-0 |editor-last=Gruber |editor-first=Christiane J. |pages=252–254 |chapter=Persian illustrated lithographed books on the miʻrāj: improving children's Shi'i beliefs in the Qajar period |editor-last2=Colby |editor-first2=Frederick Stephen |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sjLHirJmvPUC&pg=PA252}}</ref> Today, millions of historical reproductions and modern images are available in some Muslim-majority countries, especially Turkey and Iran, on posters, postcards, and even in coffee-table books, but are unknown in most other parts of the Islamic world, and when encountered by Muslims from other countries, they can cause considerable consternation and offense.<ref name="Safi2011" /><ref name="Bakker2009">{{Cite book |last=Bakker |first=Freek L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4KNSp-uEO18C&pg=PA207 |title=The challenge of the silver screen: an analysis of the cinematic portraits of Jesus, Rama, Buddha and Muhammad|date=2009 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-16861-9 }}</ref>