Aniconism
（重定向自Iconomachy）
![An aniconic representation of Mara's assault on the Buddha, 2nd century CE, Amaravati, India.](/Images/godic/202501/19/MaraAssault4137.jpg")
![Traditional flower offering to the aniconic Shiva linga in Varanasi](/Images/godic/202501/19/Aikya_Linga_in_Varanasi4137.jpg")
![Persian miniature painting from the 16th century CE, depicting Muhammad, his face veiled, ascending on the Buraq into the Heavens, a journey known as the Mi'raj.](/Images/godic/202501/19/Miraj_by_Sultan_Muhammad4137.jpg")
![An illustration from the Birds' Head Haggadah, c. 1300, illustration of the Book of Exodus. The fleeing Jews are depicted with birds' heads, while Pharaoh and most of the pursuing Egyptians have blank circles with or without eyes as heads; two of them, however, have bird's heads. The Judenhut hats are typical of 14th-century Germany.](/Images/godic/202501/19/BH_Exodus4137.jpg")
Aniconism is the absence of material representations of the natural and supernatural world in various cultures, particularly in the monotheistic Abrahamic religions. It may extend from only God and deities to saint characters, all living beings, and everything that exists. The phenomenon is generally codified by the religious traditions and as such becomes a taboo. When enforced by the physical destruction of images, aniconism becomes iconoclasm. The word itself derives from Greek εικων 'image' with the negative prefix an- (Greek privative alpha) and the suffix -ism (Greek -ισμος).