Art was and still is linked to craft, workmanship and technology, so that the word “art” meant all three, and the artist in the seventeenth century was a student of art, and this word remained until the eighteenth century, meaning “artisan.” In 1932, the well-known French writer Balzac used the word "artistic" as opposed to "artisan". And art in the Latin language means “talent”, science and knowledge of craftsmanship, and qualitative skill, intellectual and material, which is the advantage and virtue of good assets for execution and arrangement, and it is against bad and chaos, and the artist is the craftsman, but there are lower letters such as welding and the baker, and noble arts such as architecture, painting and rhetoric, and there Free knowledge such as literature and fine arts.

1. Meaning of ART
Art was and still is linked to craft, workmanship and technology, so that the word “art” meant all
three, and the artist in the seventeenth century was a student of art, and this word remained
until the eighteenth century, meaning “artisan.” In 1932, the well-known French writer Balzac
used the word "artistic" as opposed to "artisan". And art in the Latin language means “talent”,
science and knowledge of craftsmanship, and qualitative skill, intellectual and material, which is
the advantage and virtue of good assets for execution and arrangement, and it is against bad
and chaos, and the artist is the craftsman, but there are lower letters such as welding and the
baker, and noble arts such as architecture, painting and rhetoric, and there Free knowledge
such as literature and fine arts.
In fact, the nature of art was and still constitutes a case of debate between artists, scholars of
art, beauty and craftsmen, especially the relationship of art to craft or craftsmanship, which most
researchers see as necessary for art, in which its expressive language is straightened, and
through it it communicates its contents to others, and it remains alive from generation to
generation.
The craft is as necessary for art as art is for it. Art escalates the value of the aesthetic and
expressive craft, which increases its presence and richness in the eyes of the recipient and his
feelings, and with it, its importance, originality and uniqueness are enshrined.
Thus, art needs craftsmanship to embody and occupy its correct and proper dimensions in
reality, and continue with generations. In fact, there is no contradiction between being an artist
and a craftsman at the same time, but on the contrary, this is how it should be if we seek an
authentic and real artist.

2. On this basis, craft arts mean a state of positive identification between art and craft, creativity
and technology, innovation and practical experience accumulated by continuous practice, and
the treatment of specific materials, materials and subjects, which are constantly ascended and
developed by the craftsman inhabited by the spirit of the artist, while the craftsman usually falls
prisoner of stereotype and repetition.
And craftsmanship is numerous and varies in form, material and function from one country to
another, and from time to time as well, depending on a number of objective, natural and human
reasons, including the abundance of materials and raw materials, the quality of needs, their
suitability with the prevailing climate, their compatibility with customs and traditions, and so on.
Basically, craft satisfies a daily use need of man, and art satisfies a spiritual aesthetic need.
The craft arts were and are still associated with specific materials and raw materials, which
formed the basic basis for their establishment and continuity, through several eras, including
trees, plants, stone, marble, pottery, ceramics, glass, ivory, various metals, shells, animal horns,
skins, weaving, colors, and others. These handicraft arts are traded by people today, with great
care and pride, because they have become an intimate part of their lives, homes and personal
history, as well as international museums and galleries that race to win the rare and masterful
original because of its artistic, aesthetic, cultural, historical and material value, with its symbols
and values. And high spiritual and mythological connotations, indicating the uniqueness and
privacy of the peoples who produced them.

3. The craftsmanship is usually based on the muscular effort of its maker and his family, which is
passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, it is handmade, and its value and
originality come from this aspect, and from the ingenuity, talent and experience of its maker,
which formed the most prominent measure of its quality and importance. Like all creations in life,
there are authentic and imitated craftsmanship, good and humble, expensive and cheap, rare
and prevalent, unique and numerous, made for the public and others for kings, presidents,
states and museums, which is called a rare and precious masterpiece.
Since the demand for craftsmanship has increased in all countries of the world, due to the
development of the tourism movement, its prosperity and spread, and the strong demand of
tourists for it, and its acquisition as gifts and souvenirs, it has begun to abandon its traditional
assets and handicraft, by entering the machine into it, and performing part of its industry, in
order to achieve abundance In its production, to cover the increasing demand for it in the
domestic and foreign tourism market alike, which reduced its importance and its antiquity,
because the human effort that was focused directly on these arts, giving them a special human
feeling, gnawed by the cold machine, spoiling part of its expressive and craft value at the same
time.
Thus, the majority of handicraft arts began to turn from manual labor to a mechanical industry,
abundant in production, with little artistic, material and semantic value.
Craft arts take more than one form and task, and are implemented with more than one material,
material, and method. There are adornment tools, totems and masks that are used for more
than one religious and magical task, statues, and sophistication that prevent evil and envy,
logos, symbols, popular drawings and icons, ornamental boxes and jewelry, and eating and
drinking tools, Frames of mirrors, windows, chairs and tables, swords, daggers, vases, and
paintings executed with different techniques, multi-form decorations, tasks, lamps, saddles, and
urns for various uses, various ceramics, glass and stained glass, Arabic calligraphy, Arabic and
foreign threads, stone and wood carving, metal and copper roads, and wood engraving. Plaster,
tile, mosaic, arabesque, pulpit industry, furniture and nets, textile printing using molds and seals,
various textures, ceramic industry, carpets, book arts, metal arts, mosaics, and craftsmanship
related to architecture.All internal and external, and other things that are difficult to limit here.

4. All of these craft arts, were initially created for simple use purposes, then quickly escalated in
form and method of use, through art, decoration and decoration, to meet an emerging need in
the human soul, centered on beauty and the search for the most complete, optimal and most
beautiful, in harmony with the environment, climate, materials and beliefs.
The craftsmanship in the hot regions came captive to the human need for moisture, shade and
adaptation to reality, in contrast to the industries of cold regions that seek warmth for the human
being, in addition to that, their close association with the materials and raw materials of the
environment, inherited beliefs and the prevailing aesthetic taste, and the quality of materials and
raw materials available were imposed on the manufacturer or Craftsmanship, methods of
formation and expression, methods of processing, forms of decoration, miniatures, colors and
even content and themes that usually dealt with what is in the closest environment: animals,
plants, folklore and beliefs. One often hears about the Damascene sword, distinguished by its
design, unique in its technique, decoration, and good execution, about the Levantine mosaic,
and the dagger of Yemen, and about the craftsmanship that is unique to this city or that, or this
country or that. It suffices to mention “Mamoshka” to realize this Russian symbol, which is
well-known and popular in all parts of the world.
Just as some craft arts were associated with cities and countries, they were also associated with
the name of their skilled maker and his family. Syrian folk paintings were known through “Abu
Subhi al-Tinawi” and before him through his father, and after him they were confined to his
family. Likewise, the family of “Abu al-Qasim Abdullah bin Abi Taher al-Qashani” who worked in
the tiles, as well as the teacher “Ghibi al-Shami” who became famous in the twenties and thirties
of the fifteenth century AD, as the most important workers in the art of ceramics and tiles, and
many ceramics in Egypt were influenced by the style "Ghaibi Al-Shami", including "Ghazal",
"Dahin", "Al-Qarmazi" and "Abu Al-Ezz".

5. In the field of textile printing arts by means of wooden molds and stamps, several names
emerged, including Ahmed Khamis, Muhammad Abdo Al-Olabi, Abdul-Razzaq Al-Daqqaq,
Ibrahim, Omar Kalash, Saeed Al-Koko, Muhammad Hawa and Ahmad Al-Murabit. In the
decorative arts, Muhammad Ali Al-Khayyat (Abu Suleiman), Ahmed Mahfouz, Marwan Awda
Bashi, and Mohi Al-Din Al-Shalabi (Abu Sayyah) emerged. In the field of decoration on wood,
Khaled Al-Douji emerged, and in the field of Al-Mashqaf Muhammad Awad and Hamoud
Al-Latqani. Among my muqarnas teachers were “Wakik Wakim”, and stone sculpting teachers
Nawaf Azzam and Deeb Wafa. In the field of drawing, design and creating decorative elements,
Wafa Dajani emerged, and Louis Sarraf was the first to invent the enamel decoration industry on
copper.
Arab and Islamic craftsmanship lived in a state of great progress, prosperity and brilliance,
during the prosperity and spread of the Islamic state, where freedom of movement was
available to the craftsman, between the sprawling country. The caliphs, kings and sultans also
searched for these people and brought them to their capitals, and assigned them to establish
workshops and workshops, to produce and develop these arts, after providing them with the
requirements of materials, raw materials and manpower, which provided them with opportunities
for creativity and innovation, and the transfer of their knowledge and experience to the younger
generations. These arts continued, but at different rates, linked to the state of security, stability
and economic prosperity experienced by the state.
After that, and under the shadow of the multinational colonialism and the forms that ruled the
Arab countries, these craft arts declined, and some of them disappeared with the death of those
who worked in them. Satisfy the tourists and meet their growing needs.
From here, it is necessary to carry out a thorough study, scientific and objective, of the current
reality of these handicrafts and those who work in them, and to search for ways to develop their

6. production centers, and replace them with an appropriate place in the economic and cultural
policy, and return them to their sources and originality, and work to develop them, in a way that
protects their authenticity. It affirms its heritage and uniqueness, and consecrates its artistic,
aesthetic and semantic