ARTICLE
Buraq
Images of the Buraq depict the creature with wings, the tail of a peacock, and the bust or head of a woman, often decorated with jewellery and a headdress. The creature is also sometimes depicted with a leopard hide draped over its body. In popular Islamic posters from the twentieth century, the Buraq was often presented alongside Duldul, the Prophet’s steed, as a pair. It continues to be represented in tazias (mobile shrines used in South Asian Shi’ism, specifically during Muharram) and on trucks in India and Pakistan as a talismanic motif.
Bibliography
Arnold, Thomas. “Buraq.” Painting in Islam: A Study of the Place of Pictorial Art in Muslim Culture. New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2002.
Buckley, Ron. “The “Burāq’: Views from the East and West.” Arabica 60, no. 5 (2013): 569–601.
Frietag, Sandra B. “South Asian ways of seeing, Muslim ways of knowing: The Indian Muslim niche market in posters.” The Indian Economic and Social History Review 44, no. 3 (2007): 297–331.
Seale, Yasmin. “From Islamic sculpture to contemporary Delhi: A visual history of Buraq, the Quran’s winged horse.” Scroll, November 17, 2016. https://scroll.in/article/817896/from-islamic-sculpture-to-contemporary-delhi-a-visual-history-of-buraq-the-qurans-winged-horse
“The Fabulous Creature Buraq.” Metropolitan Museum of Art, accessed December 9, 2021. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/453334