Iconoclasm

  • Islamic iconoclasm is well known. Some salient examples are given below.
  • Other examples of anti-iconography sentiment: snowman fatwa, maldives museum attack.

Saudi Arabia and the middle east:

  • muhammad and the idols at kAbA.
  • The tree planted by ZarathruShTa.
  • ISIL kalIf
    • Yazidi temples.
    • Museum vandalism and library burning - DM201502. Nimrud. Palmyra.

Egypt, Lybia

  • “Al-Malik al-Aziz Uthman the son of the counter-crusader Salah ad-Din who wanted clean Giza of its jāhilīyah devoted a large amount of labor to demolish the pyramids but only having succeeded in damaging the smallest of the big three eventually gave up. Then the Mamluqs of Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan carved out the casing stones of the great pyramid to build masjids but could not get down the colossus. " MT
  • Sphynxes:
    “It may have been this popular practice of ordinary people venerating, as did their ancestors, what was perceived by others as a pagan symbol, that angered a certain pious Sheikh from a Sufi establishment, Khanqah Sa’id Al-Suada, who went up to the Sphinx and disfigured his face. Shortly afterwards, Alexandria was sacked for a week in October 1365 CE by the Crusader ruler of Cyprus, Pierre I of Lusignan, an event described by Al-Minufi (d 1524) (Al-Fayd: fol 52a) as a divine retribution for the desecration of the Sphinx. Al-Minufi went on to remind his readers that monuments should be left intact, following the guiding example of the Companions of the Prophet who had visited the area and had not, in spite of their religious piety, objected to any of its monuments, thus echoing the same sentiments as expressed by Al-Idrisi (Anwar: 45f). Al-Minufi does not give us the name of this Sufi Sheikh but Al-Maqrizi (Khifat 1: 333) gave his name as Şaiem AlDahr, reporting the views of the local people that the sand had taken over their land as a punishment for the disfigurement of the statue. More detail of this Sufi Sheikh is given by Ibn Qadi Shuhba (d 1448), who recorded his name among notables who died in the year 1384 as Muhammad Ibn Sidiq Ibn Muhammad AlTibrizi Al-Misri, also known as Saiem Al-Dahr. According to Ibn Qadi Shuhba, he disfigured the sphinxes of Qanaţir Al-Sibas, and he may well also have been responsible for disfiguring the one at Giza.”
  • Lybia - NYT15: Under a line of vandalized bas-reliefs, I saw a spray-painted message in Arabic script: “Destroy the stone idols, no to restoration.”

India

Northern jihads:

  • Comparison of religious sites 8-12 ce vs 12-15 ce : here.
  • mahmUd of ghazni’s attacks on somanath
  • sikandar bhut-shikAn in kAshmira
  • kAlA-pahAD in orissa
  • Numerous mosques clearly show evidence of being built upon or using material from Hindu temples.
    • Quwwat-ul-Islam_Mosque near Qutb Minar [Wiki].
  • TSP:
    • Multan/ Kaffirkot (MT1, TW1)
    • Surviving temples : SW1.

awrangzeb

  • several notable cases; especially kAshi vishvanAtha temple, somanAtha temple, Keshav Rai temple of mathura (idols were brought to Agra and layed under the steps of Jahanara’s mosque), temples in Someshwar and Udaipur.
  • awrangzeb was heavily restrained during the initial years of his reign. As soon as his top general jai singh of amber died (likely due to poisoning), he let loose his Islamic (=“peaceful”) reign; involving reintroduction of jaziya and a big series of temple destructions. copies of original firmans at Fact museum.

Southern jihads:

  • Ruins of Hampi, Halebid.
  • tales of Shrirangam
  • Vandalism at the Maldives museum (2012) NYT.

Afghanistan and Xinjiang:

  • buddha-s of bAmiyAn trashed by awrangzeb and more recently by tAliban.
  • In nearby Dunhuang, in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, many buddha statues were defaced, beheaded.

Japan:

  • Saudi student destroying buddhist statues (2014) - NHK.