page_title: Islamic geometric patterns
section_title: Evolution
hierarchical_section_title: Islamic geometric patterns / Evolution
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Vue des carreaux lustrés, ornant le mihrab et son mur, dans la Grande Mosquée de Kairouan, en Tunisie. English: View of the luster tiles, ornating the mihrab and its wall, in the Great Mosque of Kairouan, in Tunisia.
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.
caption: Early stage: simple geometric patterns on lustre tiles in the Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia. 836 onwards
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