Mosul school

▪ metalwork

      in metalwork, a group of 13th-century metal craftsmen who were centred in Mosul, Iraq, and who for centuries to come influenced the metalwork of the Islāmic world from North Africa to eastern Iran. Under the active patronage of the Zangid Dynasty, the Mosul school developed an extraordinarily refined technique of inlay—particularly in silver—that far overshadowed the earlier work of the Sāmānids in Iran and of the Būyids in Iraq.

      Mosul craftsmen used both gold and silver for inlay on bronze and brass. After delicate engraving had prepared the surface of the piece, strips of gold and silver were worked so carefully that not the slightest irregularity appeared in the whole of the elaborate design. The technique was carried by Mosul metalworkers to Aleppo, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, and Iran; a class of similar metalwork from these centres is called Mosul bronzes.

      Among the most famous surviving Mosul pieces is a brass ewer inlaid with silver (1232; British Museum) made by Shujāʿ ibn Mana. The ewer features representational as well as abstract design, depicting battle scenes, animals, and musicians within medallions. Mosul metalworkers also created pieces for eastern Christians. A candlestick of this variety (1238; Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris), attributed to Dāʾūd ibn Salamah of Mosul, is bronze with silver inlay. It displays the familiar medallions but is also engraved with scenes showing Christ as a child. Rows of standing figures, probably saints, decorate the base. The background is decorated with typically Islāmic vine scrolls and intricate arabesques, giving the piece a unique flavour.

▪ painting

      in painting, a style of miniature painting that developed in northern Iraq in the late 12th to early 13th century under the patronage of the Zangid Dynasty (1127–1222).

 In technique and style the Mosul school was similar to the painting of the Seljuq Turks, who controlled Iran at that time, but the Mosul artists emphasized subject matter and degree of detail rather than the representation of three-dimensional space. Most of the Mosul iconography was Seljuq—for example, the use of figures seated cross-legged in a frontal position. Certain symbolic elements, such as the crescent and serpents, derived, however, from the classical Mesopotamian repertory.

      Most Mosul paintings were illustrations of manuscripts—predominantly scientific works, animal books, and lyric poetry. A frontispiece painting (National Library, Paris) from a late 12th-century copy of Galen's medical treatise the Kitāb al-diriyak (“Book of Antidotes”) is a good example of the earlier work of the Mosul school. It depicts four figures surrounding a central, seated figure who holds a crescent-shaped halo. By the 13th century the Baghdad school, which combined the styles of the Syrian and early Mosul schools, had begun to surpass them in popularity. With the invasion of the Mongols in the mid-13th century, the Mosul school came to an end, but its achievements were influential in both the Mamlūk and the Mongol schools of miniature painting.

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