A Geometry of Early Islam – The “Ray” Method

“3D Thinking” Pages 183 to 186: An example of the Ray Method – one of the six primary methods used to create Arabian designs during the early Islamic period – during the Abbasid Caliphate 566-653CE. In the animation one arm of a “10-Ray” is used to position a “6-Ray” – then on the intersection of one of the arms of the 10-Ray and the 6-Ray a “9-Ray” approximately fits. The method was used to generate designs based on number sequences that corresponded to letters and words using the ABJAD system – in this case the numbers 10, 6 and 9. See my paper on the subject, “Six Arabian Geometries” also the “Early Islam” chapter in my new book to be published by Thames and Hudson in April 2018, “3D Thinking in Design and Architecture from Antiquity to the Future.”