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stant reformation when some protestants began to preach rejection of what they perceived as idolatrous catholic practices which filled its churches with pictures statues or relics of saints 18 the reformed calvinist churches and certain sects most notably the puritans and some of the baptist churches began to prohibit the display of religious images there were aggressive campaigns of iconoclasm or the destruction of images and often much else the most famous is perhaps the beeldenstorm in the netherlands in 1566 where the attacks were mostly on churches that were still catholic 19 among christians today edit in the church of the east also known as the nestorian church opposition to religious images eventually became the norm due to the rise of islam in the region where it forbade any type of depictions of saints and biblical prophets as such the church was forced to get rid of their icons this tradition is still in practice today with many assyrian churches lacking artistic depictions of biblical figures including those of jesus and mary 20 some amish prefer not to have their photo taken this has been attributed to the biblical commandment thou shalt not make unto thyself a graven image and the belief that photographs can steal your soul among other reasons modern amish differ in their attitudes towards photography with some accepting it as a part of the modern world around them 21 among jehovah s witnesses followers are prohibited from wearing religious themed jewelry displaying icons such as the cross as idol worship is prohibited having images or sculptures of jesus jehovah god and angels is also considered a taboo according to their interpretation of exodus 20 4 5 and 1 corinthians 10 14 22 followers are also admonished to avoid any objects portraying depictions of the supernatural 23 in islam edit main article aniconism in islam theological views edit this section does not cite any sources please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed february 2026 learn how and when to remove this message the quran the islamic holy book does not explicitly prohibit the depiction of human figures it merely condemns idolatry e g 5 92 21 52 interdictions of figurative representation are present in the hadith among a dozen of the hadith recorded during the latter part of the period when they were being written down because these hadith are tied to particular events in the life of muhammad they need to be interpreted in order to be applied in any general manner sunni exegetes from the 9th century onward increasingly saw in them categorical prohibitions against producing and using any representation of living beings there are variations between religious schools and marked differences between different branches of islam 24 aniconism is common among fundamentalist sunni sects such as salafis and wahhabis which are also often iconoclastic and less prevalent among liberal movements in islam 25 shi a and mystical orders also have less stringent views on aniconism on the individual level whether or not specific muslims believe in aniconism may depend on how much credence is given to hadith e g submitters do not believe in any hadith and how liberal or strict they are in personal practice aniconism in islam not only deals with the material image but touches upon mental representations as well it is a thorny question discussed by early theologians as to how to describe god muhammad and other prophets and indeed if it is permissible at all to do so god is usually represented by immaterial attributes such as holy or merciful commonly known from his ninety nine beautiful names muhammad s physical appearance however is amply described in the literary tradition of his biography sīrah in the ottoman empire descriptions of muhammad s physical appearance became a genre unto themselves called hilya aniconism in practice edit persian miniature painting from the 16th century ad depicting muhammad his face veiled ascending on the buraq into the heavens a journey known as the mi raj in practice the core of normative religion in islam is consistently aniconic its embodiment are spaces such as the mosque and objects like the qur an or the white dress of pilgrims entering mecca deprived of figurative images other spheres of religion schisms mysticism popular piety private level exhibit in this regard significant variability profane aniconism is even more fluctuating generally speaking aniconism in islamic societies is restricted in modern times to specific religious contexts while its prevalence in the past wasn t enforced in numerous areas and during extended periods depending on which segment of islamic societies are referred to the application of aniconism is characterized with noteworthy differences 26 factors are the epoch considered the country the religious orientation the political intent the popular beliefs the private benefit or the dichotomy between reality and discourse today the concept of an aniconic islam coexists with a daily life for muslims awash with images tv stations and newspapers which do present still and moving representations of living beings have an exceptional impact on public opinion sometimes as in the case of al jazeera with a global reach beyond the arabic speaking and muslim audience portraits of secular and religious leaders are omnipresent on banknotes 27 28 and coins 29 in streets and offices anthropomorphic statues in public places are to be found in most muslim countries saddam hussein s are infamous 30 as well as arts schools training sculptors and painters in the egyptian countryside it is fashionable to celebrate and advertise the returning of pilgrims from mecca on the walls of their houses sometimes those who profess aniconism will practice figurative representation cf portraits of taliban fighters from the kandahar photographic studios during their imposed ban on photography 31 for shi a communities portraits of the major figures of shi ite history are important elements of religious devotion portraits of ali with veiled and unveiled face alike can be bought in iran around shrines and in the streets to be hung in homes or carried with oneself while in pakistan india and bangladesh they notoriously ornate trucks 32 buses and rickshas 33 contrary to the sunni tradition a photographic picture of the deceased can be placed on the shi ite tombs 34 35 a curiosity in iran is an orientalist photograph supposed to represent muhammad as a young boy the grand ayatollah sistani of najaf in iraq gave a fatwa declaring the depiction of muhammad islamic prophets and other characters considered holy permissible if it is made with the utmost respect 36 neither is the representation of living beings in islamic countries a modern phenomenon or due to current technology westernization or the cult of the personality statues of humans and animals adorned palaces of the umayyad era 37 while frescoes were common under the umayyads 38 and later in many muslim countries notably under the safavids and various central asian dynasties figurative miniatures from medieval arabic countries india persia and turkey are among the pinnacles of islamic art and account for a good deal of its attraction 39 40 potent rulers like shah tahmasp in persia and akbar 41 in india patrons of some of the most beautiful figurative miniatures in arts from islamic countries migrated during their life between an extravagant figurative and an extremist aniconic period during the 15th and 17th century representations of muhammad veiled 42 unveiled 43 and other prophets or biblical characters like adam 44 45 abraham 46 or jesus 47 and solomon 48 and alexander the great 49 became common in painted manuscripts from persia india and turkey extreme rarities are an illustrated qur an depicting muhammad and in a spanish muslim manuscript datable from the 16th century five umayyad and abbasid caliphs iblis too is present in various illustrated manuscripts however there are no known figurative depictions of god medieval muslim artists found various ways not to infringe any prohibition of the image while still representing living beings it can be argued that since god is absolute the act of depiction is his own and not that of a human and miniatures are obviously very crude representations of the reality so the two can t be mistaken 50 at the material level prophets in manuscripts can have their face covered by a veil 42 or all humans have a stroke drawn over their neck a symbolic cut preventing them from being alive calligraphy the most islamic of arts in the muslim world has also its figurative side due to anthropo and zoomorphic calligrams in judaism edit 14th century hagaddah depicting moses leading the people david kaufmann collection the feast of the righteous detail of fol 136r ambrosian tanakh c 1236 38 biblioteca ambrosiana main article aniconism in judaism the view that judaism is an aniconic religion was challenged by david kaufmann who marshalled an extensive and comprehensive corpus of data to prove that this view was untenable he was the first to use the term jewish art in an article he published in 1878 and he is also considered the founder of the scholarly discipline of jewish art history in 1901 his disciple samuel krauss wrote as late as ten years ago it would have been absurd to speak about a jewish art it is kaufmann s own merit to have uncovered this art not only did he have to prove that such an art existed he also had to prove that it could exist as he showed that the idea that the prohibition of images would obstruct the development of such an art was mistaken and even established it as an irrefutable fact that the art in wide areas was not prohibited insofar as no worship was associated with it 51 in a refutation of the belief in an aniconistic form of judaism and more generally in an underestimation of jewish visual arts the historian of ideas kalman bland proposed that the phenomenon is a modern construction stating that jewish aniconism crystallized simultaneously with the construction of modern jewish identities 52 others have also argued that the notion of a total prohibition of figural representation in the biblical era and hellenistic roman period is untenable 53 54 some illustrations from the middle ages feature fantastic creatures usually animal headed humanoids even when the depictions are quite clearly meant to be those of historical or mythological humans known as zoocephalic figures 55 a well known example is the german birds head haggadah c 1300 although it is theorized that zoocephalic art is intended to circumvent this prohibition the presence of human faces in some manuscripts casts doubt on this assumption the reasons for this illustration style are not fully understood 56 the ambrosian bible or ambrosian tanakh of 1236 by jacob ben samuel and joseph ben kalonymus is one of the earliest ashkenazic illuminated manuscripts and biblical codices it contains figural representations and depictions of biblical figures such as adam and eve abraham isaac jacob or joseph moses solomon david and others 57 some of the figures appear with faces obscured or zoocephalic 58 it was made for a patron probably from ulm 59 hebrew bible edit the vision of ezekiel fol 135v ambrosian tanakh ca 1236 38 biblioteca ambrosiana a number of verses in the hebrew bible tanakh refer to prohibitions against the creation of graven images which are invariably linked directly to idolatry the strongest source exodus 20 3 6 is based on what judaism counts as the second of the ten commandments thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image nor any manner of likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth thou shalt not bow down unto them nor serve them for i the l ord thy god am a jealous god visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love me and keep my commandments 60 another source is leviticus 26 1 ye shall make you no idols neither shall ye rear you up a graven image or a pillar neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land to bow down unto it for i am the l ord your god 61 orthodox halakha edit wikimedia commons has media related to illuminated manuscripts in hebrew despite the semantic association with idols halakha jewish law at least as codified in the shulkhan aruch interprets the verses as prohibiting the creation of certain types of graven images of people angels or astronomical bodies whether or not they are actually used as idols joseph karo the compiler of the shulkhan aruch writes in yoreh de ah 139 it is forbidden to make complete solid or raised images of people or angels or any images of heavenly bodies except for purposes of study 62 karo translates פֶּסֶל pésel as graven image which is from the root פּ ס ל p s l to engrave 63 64 the orthodox jewish community therefore sees the prohibition as applying specifically to certain forms of sculpture and depictions of the human face it is thought that illustrations from the middle ages of zoocephalic figures such as in the birds head haggadah do not violate this prohibition because such creatures as griffins harpies sphinxes and the phoenix do not actually exist no violation of the prohibition is perceived in such depictions this is based on the fact that the commandment as stated in the book of exodus refers specifically to anything in the heaven above on the earth below or in the water below the land however it is forbidden per the kitzur shulchan aruch to make the four faces on the divine chariot described in the book of ezekiel or the ministering angels because these are believed to be real beings that actually exist in the heaven above 65 better source needed in the baháʼí faith edit main article aniconism in the baháʼí faith like other abrahamic religions depictions of god are prohibited in the bahá í faith and bahá í houses of worship are devoid of statues or images photographs and depictions of the báb and bahá u lláh who are considered manifestations of god are considered very precious they are viewed and handled with reverence and respect and their existence itself is not considered offensive however shoghi effendi the guardian of the baháʼí faith stated that believers should only view the images when they can be treated with the utmost respect and not let them be exposed to the public or displayed in their private homes there is no objection that the believers look at the picture of bahá u lláh but they should do so with the utmost reverence and should also not allow that it be exposed openly to the public even in their private homes from a letter written on behalf of shoghi effendi to an individual believer december 6 1939 republished in lights of guidance p 540 shoghi effendi has also written in the directives fr...