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Islamic Geometric Patterns: Their Historical Development and Traditional Methods of Construction
Author:
Jay Bonner / Craig Kaplan
Publisher:
Springer
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Books / Science fiction
Year:
2017
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The main focus of this unique book is an in-depth examination of the polygonal technique; the primary method used by master artists of the past in creating Islamic geometric patterns. The author details the design methodology responsible for this all-but-lost art form and presents evidence for its use from the historical record, both of which are vital contributions to the understanding of this ornamental tradition. Additionally, the author examines the historical development of Islamic geometric patterns, the significance of geometric design within the broader context of Islamic ornament as a whole, the formative role that geometry plays throughout the Islamic ornamental arts (including calligraphy, the floral idiom, dome decoration, geometric patterns, and more), and the underexamined question of pattern classification.

Featuring over 600 beautiful color images, Islamic Geometric Patterns: Their HistoricalDevelopment and Traditional Methods of Con

struction is a valuable addition to the literature of Islamic art, architecture and geometric patterns. This book is ideal for students and scholars of geometry, the history of mathematics, and the history of Islamic art, architecture, and culture. In addition, artists, designers, craftspeople, and architects will all find this book an exceptionally informative and useful asset in their fields.

Jay Bonner is an architectural ornamentalist and unaffiliated scholar of Islamic geometric design. He received his MDes from the Royal College of Art in London (1983). He has contributed ornamental designs for many international architectural projects, including the expansion of both the al-Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) in Mecca, and the al-Masjid an Nawabi (Prophets Mosque) in Medina, as well the Tomb of Sheikh Hujwiri in Lahore, and the Ismaili Centre in London to name but a few. He is committed to the revitalization of Islamic geometric design through the teaching of traditional methodological practices. To this end, in addition to publishing, Jay Bonner has lectured and taught design seminars at many universities and conferences in North America, Europe, North Africa and Asia.

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Jay Bonner 2017

Jay Bonner Islamic Geometric Patterns

1 The Historical Antecedents, Initial Development, Maturity, and Dissemination of Islamic Geometric Patterns

Jay Bonner 1

(1)

Bonner Design Consultancy, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

1.1 Geometry in Islamic Art

Since the earliest period of Islamic history the ornamental traditions of Muslim cultures have found expression in a highly diverse range of styles and media. Throughout this broad sweep of ornamental diversity and historical longevity there remained an essential Islamic quality that differentiates this tradition from all others. One of the primary characteristics responsible for such cohesion is the pervasive triadic nature of Islamic ornament. From its onset, this ornamental tradition employed three principal design idioms: calligraphy, geometry, and stylized floral.; and the many Persian painted tile panels produced during the Qarjar period. Perhaps the greatest indication of the lesser role that figurative imagery played throughout the history of Islamic art and architecture is the fact that the non-miniature figurative art of Muslim cultures was not subject to the concerted effort toward continued refinement and stylistic development that is a hallmark of the calligraphic, geometric, and floral traditions. As such, with the exception of the miniature traditions, figurative art can be regarded as tangential rather than integral to Islamic art, and to have been occasionally employed rather than part of an ongoing developmental evolution.

It may seem remarkable that such an apparently limited palette of calligraphy, geometric patterns, and floral design should have provided the basis for such a rich and varied artistic tradition. Yet each of these separate disciplines benefits from unlimited developmental opportunities, and when used together provide an inexhaustible supply of aesthetic variation. The continued adherence to the triadic quality of Islamic ornament provided a governing mechanism whereby the aesthetic expressions of multiple Muslim cultures, spanning great divisions of distance and time, were able to be both culturally distinct yet identifiably Islamic. Similarly, this also served as a form of regulator, or cohesive principle, through which Muslim artists could appropriately assimilate specific ornamental conventions from non-Muslim cultures. This assimilative process contributed greatly to the tremendous stylistic diversity found in Islamic art and architectural ornament.

The historical development of all three of the primary ornamental idioms is characterized by an evolving refinement and increased complexity. This process was aided by any number of influences, not the least of which include contacts with other mature artistic traditions; concomitant improvements in fabricating technologies (e.g., a brocade loom allows patterns to be woven that would otherwise not be possible); vainglorious patronal expectations that commissioned works should exceed that of their predecessors or neighbors; and the natural tendency for an artist to strive for creative excellence by challenging personal limitations and pushing the boundaries of an artistic tradition. Such criteria are common to all cultures, but the refinement and growth in complexity within the ornamental traditions of Muslim cultures were also greatly aided by the ongoing fascination with and influence of geometry.

That geometry should be at the root of the geometric idiom goes without saying. Yet the role of geometry in the aesthetic development of both Islamic calligraphy and floral design was also of paramount importance. The tradition of Islamic calligraphy is, first and foremost, a book art. Within Muslim cultures, calligraphy is regarded as the highest art form, and the copying of the Quran is as much a spiritual discipline as it is an artistic activity. The creative heights to which Muslim calligraphers refined this tradition were directly driven by their need to adequately express their deep reverence for the Quran.

The geometric angularity of Kufi is in marked contrast with the flowing movement of the cursive scripts, and together these stylistic trends create a dynamic complementarity that was used to great aesthetic effect. This is especially evident within the realm of Islamic architectural ornament. In contrast to the writing of the Quran, conventions for the use of text on buildings were less rigid, and the traditions of architectural calligraphy allowed greater latitude for ornamental stylization. Being less bound by governing rules, Kufi scripts were particularly suited to ornamental elaboration. From as early as the eighth century, the letters of the Kufi script were embellished with floral extensions that encroach upon the background space between the letters. Similarly, plaited Kufi intertwines the vertical letters into elaborate knots. In time, the traditions of foliated and plaited Kufi became highly elaborate, and a prominent feature of architectural ornament and decorative arts throughout the Islamic world.

The geometric quality of Kufi received its most extreme expression in the development of the principally epigraphic style of Shatranji Kufi (chessboard Kufi ). This calligraphic style forces each letter of the alphabet to conform to the orthogonal grid; and the resulting geometric nature of this style endows it with a quality which appears, at first glance, more akin to geometric key patterns than written words. As an ornamental device, this expressly geometric calligraphic style is highly effective and can be found in buildings from al-Andalus to India. The orthogonal nature of Shatranji Kufi was ideally suited to the technical constraints that governed early Islamic brick ornament.

Photograph 1

Shatranji Kufi at the Minaret of Masud III in Ghazni, Afghanistan ( Bernard OKane)

The role of geometry within the traditions of Islamic floral ornament is primarily structural: providing symmetrical order upon which the stylized tendrils, flowers, and foliation rest. Most obvious are the innumerable examples of floral design with reflective symmetry. Floral designs with bilateral symmetry are commonly used as infill motifs within the individual cells of a geometric pattern. The use of floral patterns as fillers in an otherwise geometric pattern was certainly part of the pre-Islamic, Late Antique ornamental vocabulary that assisted in the formation of Islamic art as a distinct tradition. However, with the Muslim development of increasingly sophisticated geometric patterns comprised of far more complex and diverse polygonal elements and multiple regions of diverse local symmetry, over time, the floral fillers followed this growth in complexity by becoming considerably more symmetrically varied than their antecedents. Both as polygonal fillers and as stand-alone motifs, floral designs with multiple lines of reflected symmetry were widely employed within Islamic architecture, manuscript illumination, and applied arts. Within architecture, floral designs with reflected symmetry were frequently used for dome ornamentation. In such examples the number of radial lines of symmetry will invariably be divisible by the number of side walls of the chamber that the dome is covering: e.g., if the plan of the chamber is a square, the reflected symmetry will be a multiple of 4.

The use of rotational symmetry was also common; and floral designs with twofold, fourfold, fivefold, sixfold, and eightfold rotational symmetry frequent this tradition. Such designs were typically used as roundel motifs, on tiles, or as fillers within the background elements of geometric patterns. As with higher order reflective symmetries, rotational floral designs were also used for dome ornamentationtypically with 8-, 12-, or 16-fold symmetry, albeit less frequently.

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