Girih Tiles on the
Category: EARLY ISLAMIC PERIOD
Presentations & Workshops
PRESENTATIONS WORKSHOPS
SHAPE CHANGING POLYHEDRA
“3D Thinking” Page 238: Shape Changing Polyhedra The original idea for shape changing polyhedra came from studying muqarnas and playing with children’s building blocks. The featured image is of the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque Muqarnas in Shiraz, Iran. The building blocks were as in the photo: An introduction to the logic of this geometry can be seen in […]
A Geometry of Early Islam – Nesting Polygons
“3D Thinking” Page 190, 191: There are a number of Islamic design methodologies of which the “Nesting Polygon” method is one. The method places an arrangement of polygons within a polygon and continues infinitely placing the same but scaled arrangement within each polygon as it appears. The method was used to generate a lattice from […]
A Geometry of Early Islam – ABJAD, Circles and a Door
“3D Thinking” Pages 175 to 177 Islamic Geometry: This Seljuk period door dates from 13th-century Anatolia and stands as a possible example of a use of numeric values to communicate a message. The door’s design is based the Islamic “close-packing circle” method of design – in this case an arrangement of close-packing circles within a pentagon. The two primary numbers […]
A Geometry of Early Islam – The Dynamic Circle Method
“3D Thinking” Pages 187, 274: Using close-packing circles to create surface designs, during the early years of Islam, requires a method to generate different close-packing circle arrangements. The dynamic sphere geometry provides such a method. Applying the geometry, starting with a 5-circle arrangement within the unit triangle of a square, generates many arrangements including the […]
A Geometry of Early Islam – The Circle Method and a Window
“3D Thinking” Page 187: The animation below shows the Arabian “close-packing” circle method that was used to create the window design of the 1356CE Madrasa of Amir Salf al-din Sargatmish in Old Cairo, Egypt. The design method dates back to the Abbasid period – a time of great creativity. The development starts with (i) a […]
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 […]
ABJAD Designs Store Coded Messages
I have been working on my latest book, “The Arabs,” – a new title in the “Geometry Through Time,” series. I’d like to share an idea originally formed in the 1960’s, and that I have been further developing for “The Arabs”; that of the possible use of the ABJAD system to store coded messages in […]
An Octagon Design System
Mathematicians working within the Islamic culture, from about 900 AD, often used geometry to communicate ideas, instructions, and even to send messages using the Abjad numerological system and the numbers of sides of polygons, rosettes, and other design forms, to encode words and meanings. Walking into the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, for example, is, […]