This post was inspired by the Week 6 discussion readings which engaged the idea of the significance of mosque decor and encouraged a friendly debate within section among the students, who were divided between defending positions held by S. H. Nasr, from their Islamic Art & Spirituality and Gülru Necipoğlu’s The Topkapı Scroll – Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture. My own post, in which I hope to explore 3 geometries and/or arabesque patterns in watercolor, is more inspired by Necipoğlu’s approach to the topic.

Early in her argument, Necipoğlu situates the discussion of Chapter II of her book by discussing the canon Western-imposed discourse surrounding the islamic geometries of arabesque patterns. This academic discourse largely served to “other” the artistic expressions of the orient and to attribute to it some separate and lesser quality than artistic religious expressions of the west: Oftentimes, the islamic tradition was “assigned a purely decorative function that differed fundamentally from the iconographic tradition of Western, representational art,” which alleged that the geometric arabesque design is devoid of meaning and facilitated its appropriation by modern European architects and industrial designers. (Necipoğlu 63).

Necipoğlu characterizes much of the literature written regarding islamic geometries as falling under the aforementioned “ahistorical discourse of Orientalism,” as well as aligning with prevailing 19th and 20th century European discourse which seeks to find universal design principles (Necipoğlu 71). Likewise, I stand with Necipoğlu’s point regarding this predominant mode of discourse; however, I do not feel that I have read enough literature or have seen enough images on this particular subject to make a solid explanation of or defense of islamic geometries — their origins, purposes, independent regional developments, or overarching themes — and do not want to risk falling into the Western academic canon myself.

Because of this, I decided to do what I know best as a result of a few of my classes on architecture — draw the geometries to get a better understanding of their visual juxtapositions in terms of shape and color. I attempted to draw, with watercolor pencils, this design:

  

taken from a mosque in Yazd, Iran. However, I found that the geometries were too complex for my limited color-pencil abilities. In drawing this, I made one poor attempt at capturing the whole of the image, which I then abandoned after noticing its complete lack of symmetry and inability to capture even a microcosm of the geometric essence at the heart of the design. In lieu of this I sought to focus singularly on the mid-section of the design and build outwards, in hopes of retaining more of a semblance of geometry.

While I do not have literature to back me up and while I recognize the potential scroll-like, plant-themed decorative origins of these arabesque geometries, I do think that there must be some connection between these images and the divine nature of God primarily because of the sheer difficulty and expertise it takes to craft a design like this by hand — especially without the assistance of modern graphic design software!