The Arts of Ornamental Geometry, A Persian Compendium on Similar and Complementary Interlocking Figures

In the 1970s Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose published hideously complex calculations on quasi-crystalline symmetry that were later demonstrated to have been invented (and then “lost”) by Muslim architects and artisans over 500 years earlier. Surprisingly little is really known about medieval Islamic geometry for certain. Yet from this distant time and place emerged a theory and practice of mathematical ornamentation that has influenced architecture from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. The Turkish architectural historian Gülru Necipoğlu seeks to illuminate this most obscure but dynamic period in the history of Islam, with a compendium in honour of the late Alpay Özdural focusing on his examination of the Fi tadakhul al-ashkal al-mutashabihah aw almutawafiqah, an anonymous Persian text regarding the uses of geometry in art, decoration and architecture. This ancient text has been broadly acknowledged for its intriguing design procedures employed to create a variety of geometric