شعائر الصلاة في ضوء رسوم المستشرقين دراسة فنية تحليلية (13هـ/19م) THE PRAYER RITUALS IN THE LIGHT OF ORIENTALISTS’ PAINTINGS: AN ARTISTIC ANALYTICAL STUDY (13 H/19 A.D C.)

Abstract

Orientalists’ paintings consider one of the most important historical pieces of evidence that depicted the East through western eyes; due to these paintings, many documentary records preserved before the invention of modern photography methods. The curiosity to reveal the secrets and marvels of the Islamic civilization and the East, played a crucial role in orientalists' paintings which recorded different aspects of life in the eastern Islamic world, especially the religious rituals. Orientalists’ paintings highlighted the practice of the Muslims’ prayers in a wide diversity of approaches, they painted the muezzin, the call for the prayer, and they represented both individual and congregational prayers in different positions, invocations, and glorifications after the prayers. Between the 18 th and 19 th centuries, European orientalists adopted intense realism in prayers paintings, where they were able to combine and represent both religious and secular aspects in their paintings. paintings, while shedding the light on their role in portraying and documenting Muslim prayers’ rituals, in a descriptive and analytical study detailing the artistic features and the architectural elements represented in their paintings.