Learn how to draw seven geometric star patterns from around the Islamic world, using only a pencil, straight edge, and a pair of compasses. Patterns featured are from Baghdad, Fes, Cairo, Konya, Delhi and Damascus. Suitable for ages 9 and up. No calculations are necessary. The least complicated way of learning Islamic geometric design is to understand and use the same techniques that craftsmen in the Islamic world have used for centuries. These craftsmen were not mathematicians; they knew how to make things with their hands but they did not use measurements or calculate angles to make their compositions. Their tools were a pair of compasses, a ruler and a pencil. By drawing lines, circles and arcs they were able to make all their patterns and compositions. This is also how you will be able to draw these patterns.This book will teach you how to draw seven different star patterns. All the patterns in this book can be made without calculations and measurements. They can be made by hand or on a computer. All you need to be able to do is draw circles and lines. The tools you need if you are drawing by hand are a pair of compasses, a ruler and pencils. Each pattern is constructed in a step-by-step process.

Combines wide-ranging research with the author's artistic skills to reveal the techniques used to create the patterns adorning buildings in the Islamic world

Featuring new patterns with detailed explanatory texts, this revised edition is an inspirational guide for craftspeople and artists alike. The marvels of Islamic patterns—the most recognizable visual expression of Islamic art and architecture—are not just a beautiful accident. The ancient practitioners of this craft used traditional methods of measurement to create dazzling geometric compositions, often based on the repetition of a single pattern. The results are magnificent in their beauty and awe-inspiring in their execution. Now, with the aid of this book, everyone can learn how to master this ancient art and create their own intricate patterns or re-create classic examples. All that is needed is a pencil, a ruler, a compass, and a steady hand. Technical tips demonstrate the geometric basics such as how to create designs from one of the foundational “family” shapes: a square, hexagon, or pentagon. This is followed by step-by-step instructions for reproducing some of the best examples of geometric patterns. Islamic Geometric Patterns contains twenty-three geometric patterns and brief histories of some of the most famous and beautiful Islamic art and architecture from around the world. This revised edition features seven new patterns from locations including: Ak Medrese in Nigde, Turkey; Chellah necropolis in Rabat, Morocco; Shah Jahan Mosque in Thatta, Pakistan; the Tomb of I’timad-ud-Daulah in Agra, India; the Alcazar in Seville, Spain; Zaouia Moulay Idriss II in Fes, Morocco; and Darwish Pasha Mosque in Damascus, Syria.

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 Historical Development 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 (Prophet’s 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.

Nearly 200 examples exhibit the wide range of Islamic art, including hexagon and octagon designs, combinations of stars and rosettes, and many variations on other geometric patterns. Twenty-eight examples from traditional sources in Cairo and Damascus include sanctuary doors, openwork windows, and inlaid marble pavements and ceilings.

Since precious few architectural drawings and no theoretical treatises on architecture remain from the premodern Islamic world, the Timurid pattern scroll in the collection of the Topkapi Palace Museum Library is an exceedingly rich and valuable source of information. In the course of her in-depth analysis of this scroll dating from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, Gülru Necipoğlu throws new light on the conceptualization, recording, and transmission of architectural design in the Islamic world between the tenth and sixteenth centuries. Her text has particularly far-reaching implications for recent discussions on vision, subjectivity, and the semiotics of abstract representation. She also compares the Islamic understanding of geometry with that found in medieval Western art, making this book particularly valuable for all historians and critics of architecture. The scroll, with its 114 individual geometric patterns for wall surfaces and vaulting, is reproduced entirely in color in this elegant, large-format volume. An extensive catalogue includes illustrations showing the underlying geometries (in the form of incised “dead” drawings) from which the individual patterns are generated. An essay by Mohammad al-Asad discusses the geometry of the muqarnas and demonstrates by means of CAD drawings how one of the scroll’s patterns could be used co design a three-dimensional vault.

What can we learn from 1,400 years of design excellence? What rules and conventions have guaranteed consistent quality for centuries across the Islamic world? Eric Broug looks at a wide range of visual evidence and codifies these rules: he reveals the design practices of traditional builders: how to scale a composition, how to create an engaging composition, how to innovate etc. This book shows how it was done, it shows how to apply best practice now, and it shows the most common problems in contemporary Islamic geometric design, and how to avoid them.

... a major contribution to the world of science and of particular value to the documention of the culture of Islam. N Gedal ... a masterly account of the way in which art and science are combined into aesthetic beauty by the Islamic geometric designs and motifs which decorate much of the Eastern World. M Evans ... This book will allow readers to travel through time and space, from ancient ornaments to the most modern computer graphics patterns. C. Pickover Ever since the discovery of the existence of seventeen space groups in two dimensions by Fedorov in 1891, it has been speculated that all seventeen could be found in Islamic art. But it is in this book that this remarkable fact is for the first time detailed and analysed, with beautiful illustrations. Rarely is there such a thought-provoking blend of esthetics and geometry with abstraction. C N Yang Geometrical form. Here, mathematics combines with art and exhibits clearly its aesthetic appeal Islamic patterns provide a marvellous illustration of symmetry and Drs. Abas and Salman perform a useful service by taking this as their theme and blending it with ideas on computer graphics. Foreword by Michael Atiyah Abas and Salman have assembled a fascinating collection that combines art, history, culture, science, mathematics and philosophy. Their examples range from a 12th-century minaret in Uzbekistan via the Alhambra in Granada to modern computer graphics of Koranic calligraphy on dodecahedrons and tori. They conclude by speculating on the prospect of creating Islamic patterns in virtual reality, where 'a seeker after unity in science and art would be able to submerge himself or herself in exquisite Alhambras of the mind'.Judging by the evidence presented here, it would be an unforgettable experience. New Scien

"Examine the principles of geometric design that are the basis for the beautiful and intricate patterns in the art of the Islamic world. Includes a brief overview of Islamic art, an introduction to related works in the Museum, and a series of pattern-making activities (including reproducible grids) for use in the classroom. Teachers can readily adapt these materials to create exciting lessons in art, culture, math, and geometry"--Metropolitan Museum of Art website.