Islamic iconoclasm, visual communication and the persistence of the image

摘要

In pre-modern Islam, image breakers altered, rather than destroyed, figural images. Representations of human faces from Morocco to India would be scratched or transformed into flowers, but never completely obliterated. This practice may perplex the modern mind, for it stands in stark contrast to the more radical interventions that define contemporary image breaking. Recent examples include the destruction of antique monuments and artifacts in 2015 by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) (Figure 1), as well as the demolition of the monumental Buddhas at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, in 2001 by the Taliban.