Art in the Works and Thoughts of Fardid and His Colleagues

Art and the artist have always been investigated in two ways during the history; first, artistic works and creating them, which has been ever present and never been stopped during time, and they have been appeared in assorted forms in different schools; second, the theoretical and more fundamental topics of art. In this paper, the theoretical approach is being investigated along with an art theory among several art theories in Islam. There are various thoughts in Islam, which have viewed art through religion and from their own viewpoints. They have sometimes reached the views that are could be investigated on their own part. Among them, the thoughts and remarks of Seyed Ahmad Fardid, and those called the Fardid cycle, are regarded as the most effective and impressive views. This Muslim group has tried to address that art which could be investigated in Islam and religion domain. Therefore, this view could be regarded as the main view of artistic thought in Islam and the requirement to investigate it more should be emphasized. By studying the main thoughts in the contemporary history in Islam domain, we clearly realize that Fardid’s views have always been concentrated on. The remarks and sometimes criticism of the leaders of other art fields, like Seyed Hussein Nasr about Fardid shows that this view has been cared even in disagreement. The main features of this group’s theory include studying art in historical periods; naming history as the day before yesterday, yesterday, today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow based on his views; expressing the features of Islamic art; and his special emphasis on discovering basics of politics, economy and art from pure religious resources.