With their victory over the Byzantines at Malazgirt in 1071, the art form followed the Seljuks into Anatolia. A new period of strong development was fostered by the Anatolian Seljuk sultanate.
There’s a widely held but quite erroneous belief that figurative painting is not found in Islamic art due to prohibition by the Koran. Religious rulings issued in the 9th century discouraged the representation of any living beings capable of movement, but they weren’t rigidly enforced until the 15th century.
Figural art features strongly on tiles as well as stone and stucco reliefs of the Seljuk period, adorning both secular and religious monuments.
The subjects included nobility as well as servants, hunters and hunting animals, trees, birds, sphinxes, lions, sirens, dragons and double-headed eagles.