Medieval Islamic designs foretell 20th century maths
Girih strapwork pattern on an interior archway in the Sultan's Lodge in the Green Mosque in Bursa, Turkey
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Friday, 23, Feb 2007 02:46
Scientists believe that intricate medieval Islamic architecture could show that sophisticated mathematics were used in the Middle East and central Asia long before western mathematicians discovered them.
Many walls of medieval Islamic buildings throughout the world have ornate tiled services with intricate patterns known as "girih", or geometric stars and polygons.
Harvard and Princeton University researchers believe that the girih appear to show an advanced geometry - decagonal quasicrystal geometry – that was not developed in the west until the 1970s and 1980s.
Writing in the journal Science, the study's authors argue that in 1453 Islamic architects had created overlapping patterns with girih patterns of at least two sizes to produce near-perfect quasicrystalline patterns.
Drawings of the patterns were found in scrolls which were effectively design manuals for other architects.
"We can't say for sure what it means," said Peter Lu, a graduate student in physics at Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
"It could be proof of a major role of mathematics in medieval Islamic art or it could have been just a way for artisans to construct their art more easily. It would be incredible if it were all coincidence, though. At the very least, it shows us a culture that we often don't credit enough was far more advanced than we ever thought before."