Abstract

The idea that linear perspective arose only in the West due to the strength of an unusual process of rationalization is denied by the fact that IXth century Islamic scholars had yet a thorough knowledge of the optical and geometrical materials required in perspective. In addition, the process of rationalization was rarely so intense as in that time, because truth uniqueness and scientific communalism were core values of Medieval Islam. The puzzle is not a matter of less or more rationality, but a matter of axiological motives. First, Islamic disregard for perspective is the result of a value-set insofar painters were fearing the hadīths' prohibition, or wished to avoid pretentiousness of their name (muṣawwir). Second, Islamic art did not draw from Qurʿān and hadīth's precepts directly. Third, painters implemented axiological motives, to put iconic practice in accordance with aniconic leanings.