Christian art of Iraq and the Gulf in the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods can be discussed in the context of its Sasanian and Classical roots as well as the influences of contemporary Byzantine and Islamic art. However, interpretations of iconographic motifs present in this art tend to be superficial and rely on the vague resemblance of one motif to another. Their symbolic understanding, in turn, often reflects an author’s loose and modern associations rather than emerging from an in‑depth study of what these motifs might have denoted for Christians living in this region at the advent of Islam.
By examining one particular motif that is representative of this art, the purpose of this paper is to understand Christian iconography in the region in the early Islamic period as being rooted in the local cultural and artistic context and symbolic milieu. In order to avoid relying on the above-mentioned vague resemblances of motifs, the main part of this examination will be a formal and com...
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