page_title: Islamic geometric patterns
hierarchical_section_title: Islamic geometric patterns
caption_attribution_description: English: A small doorway in Ben Youssef Madrasa, Marrakech. The wooden doors are carved with a girih pattern of strapwork. The arch is surrounded with arabesques; to either side is a band of Islamic calligraphy, above colourful geometric zellige tilework.
context_page_description: Islamic decoration, which tends to avoid using figurative images, makes frequent use of geometric patterns which have developed over the centuries.
  The geometric designs in Islamic art are often built on combinations of repeated squares and circles, which may be overlapped and interlaced, as can arabesques, to form intricate and complex patterns, including a wide variety of tessellations. These may constitute the entire decoration, may form a framework for floral or calligraphic embellishments, or may retreat into the background around other motifs. The complexity and variety of patterns used evolved from simple stars and lozenges in the ninth century, through a variety of 6- to 13-point patterns by the 13th century, and finally to include also 14- and 16-point stars in the sixteenth century.
  Geometric patterns occur in a variety of forms in Islamic art and architecture including kilim carpets, Persian girih and Moroccan zellige tilework, muqarnas decorative vaulting, jali pierced stone screens, ceramics, leather, stained glass, woodwork, and metalwork.
  Interest in Islamic geometric patterns is increasing in the West, both among craftsmen and artists including M. C.
context_section_description: Islamic decoration, which tends to avoid using figurative images, makes frequent use of geometric patterns which have developed over the centuries.
  The geometric designs in Islamic art are often built on combinations of repeated squares and circles, which may be overlapped and interlaced, as can arabesques (with which they are often combined), to form intricate and complex patterns, including a wide variety of tessellations. These may constitute the entire decoration, may form a framework for floral or calligraphic embellishments, or may retreat into the background around other motifs. The complexity and variety of patterns used evolved from simple stars and lozenges in the ninth century, through a variety of 6- to 13-point patterns by the 13th century, and finally to include also 14- and 16-point stars in the sixteenth century.
  Geometric patterns occur in a variety of forms in Islamic art and architecture including kilim carpets, Persian girih and Moroccan zellige tilework, muqarnas decorative vaulting, jali pierced stone screens, ceramics, leather, stained glass, woodwork, and metalwork.
  Interest in Islamic geometric patterns is increasing in the West, both among craftsmen and artists including M. C. Escher in the twentieth century, and among mathematicians and physicists including Peter J. Lu and Paul Steinhardt who controversially claimed in 2007 that tilings at the Darb-e Imam shrine in Isfahan could generate quasi-periodic patterns like Penrose tilings.
caption: A doorway in Ben Youssef Madrasa, Marrakech. The Atlas cedar doors are carved with a pattern of strapwork with a 16-point star. The arch is surrounded with arabesques; to either side is a band of Islamic calligraphy, above colourful geometric zellige tilework with 8-point stars.
exif: {}