ISLAMIC GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTS IN ISTANBUL

MIROSLAW MAJEWSKI

I SLAMIC G EOMETRIC O RNAMENTS IN I STANBUL

Miroslaw Majewski New York Institute of Technology College of Arts & Sciences Abu Dhabi campus United Arab Emirates

Copyright text, photographs and drawings 2011 Miroslaw Majewski All photographs by the author unless otherwise stated

Cover photograph - Istanbul, a sophisticated geometric ornament on the Minbar in the Shehzade Mosque Photo by Miroslaw Majewski

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO ALL THE LITTLE CREATURES IN MY FAMILY, TO LIDIA, MARTYNA, MARCIN, TYTUS, SULIMIR, ALICJA AND MARIANNA

Three ornaments out of many investigated in this book

 T ABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ............................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 5 A glimpse into the past ............................................................................................. 8 Where is mathematics? .......................................................................................... 13 A simple example...................................................................................................... 20 Regular polygons ...................................................................................................... 25 On an equilateral triangle, regular hexagon and regular dodecagon ...........27 Construction of an equilateral triangle from a segment ...............................28 Construction of a regular hexagon from a segment .......................................28 Construction of an equilateral triangle inscribed in a circle.......................29 Construction of a regular hexagon inscribed in a circle ...............................29 Construction of a regular dodecagon inscribed in a circle ..........................30 On a square, an octagon and hexadecagon..............................................................32 Construction of a square with a given side ........................................................32 Construction of a regular octagon with a given side ......................................32 Construction of a square inscribed in a circle ...................................................33 Construction of a hexadecagon inscribed in a circle ......................................33 On a regular pentagon and a regular decagon .......................................................34 Construction of a regular pentagon inscribed in a circle .............................35 Construction of a regular decagon inscribed in a circle ...............................36 On some odd sided regular polygons ........................................................................37 Construction of a regular heptagon ......................................................................37 Construction of a regular enneagon ......................................................................38 Construction of a regular hendecagon inscribed in a circle ........................40 In the labyrinth of grids and stars ...................................................................... 41 Construction of a double star ornament .............................................................45 A tour through Istanbul .......................................................................................... 48 Walk 1: The Sultan Ahmed Mosque ...........................................................................48 Walk 2: The Great Hagia Sophia ..................................................................................63 Walk 3: The ehzade Mosque or the Princes Mosque .......................................70 Walk 4: The tomb of Mahmut Paa .............................................................................85 Walk 5: Some hidden treasures ...................................................................................90 Where to go from here? ....................................................................................... 109 Appendix: Sketchpad and geometric ornament design ........................... 115 Custom tools in Sketchpad .......................................................................................... 115 A few hints on using Sketchpad in creating geometric ornaments ............ 118 Literature ................................................................................................................. 120 Internet Resources ................................................................................................ 120

(Table of contents)|1

Three ornaments out of many investigated in this book.

2|Islamic Geometric Ornaments in Istanbul

 P REFACE
Setting the goal Islamic ornaments are one of the greatest achievements of ancient geometers, artisans and craftsmen in the Middle East, Turkey, India, Spain, and North Africa. These ornaments are frequently used to decorate secular and civil buildings, books, and furniture. Istanbul, in particular, is a place where such ornaments were, and still are, frequently used. In this book we will explore selected geometric ornaments from Istanbul. Many of these ornaments can be created using very precise geometric constructions. We will analyze the structure of these ornaments and show how grids used to draw these ornaments, were constructed. A computer program, The Geometers Sketchpad, will be used to construct these grids as well as complete ornaments. In a few examples a computer graphics program will be used to add some finishing touches to our work. Many of the examples presented in this book have a significant cognitive value. While creating them we can learn a number of important topics in geometry, e.g., constructions of regular polygons, constructions of figures circumscribed or inscribed in a circle, division of angles and segments into a given number of parts, transformations of figures, a touch of symmetry groups, and a number of other topics. Organization There are four major parts in this book. In the first part we refresh some important facts of the history of Islam and Islamic art. In the second part we will revise our knowledge of geometric constructions. The third part of this book can be considered as a mathematical tour through some places in Istanbul. I will be your guide and we will walk together through some of my favorite places in this ancient city. We will walk through the famous Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, ehzade Mosque, and a few other places. Finally, in the appendix of this book I will show how a computer program for geometry can be used to construct Islamic geometric ornaments. However, I will concentrate on one computer program only The Geometers Sketchpad. In literature there is quite a lot of talk about cosmological aspects of Islamic geometric ornaments. In this book we will not explore this area. We will concentrate mostly on the geometry of Islamic geometric ornaments, explore ways how they can be constructed, and we will stay in Istanbul. Thank you I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who have helped me to write this book, encouraged my efforts, and sometimes even tested some of my constructions. Among those that must be especially mentioned are my friends Linda Graham, Kamal Al-Achrafi, Steven Rasmussen, Scott Steketee, Bogumia Klemp-Dyczek, Erol Karakirk, Sammein Gndz, and many others. (Preface)|3

For whom is this book? You probably wonder if this is really a book for you? Well, I didnt have any particular audience in my mind when I started this project. My intention was to show how the two eternal beauties, mathematics and art, can interact and give us something that is admired by millions of people in our world. This is a book on mathematics and art. Therefore if you are not a mathematician, or your mathematical skills are not first rate you do not need to worry, there is no heavy mathematics in this book; if you are an artist then certainly you can use this book as a source of inspiration for your works; if you are a teacher of mathematics this book will give you some ideas for your classroom; if you are a student you can learn that mathematics can be found around you even in the most unexpected places; finally if you do not belong to any of these groups just have a little pleasure seeing something that many people love so much. I invite you to join me on this mathematical tour through Istanbul.

Mirek Majewski, Abu Dhabi Istanbul, Spring-Summer, 2011.

4|Islamic Geometric Ornaments in Istanbul

 I NTRODUCTION
Everything is arranged according to Number- Plato (429347 B.C.) I have been interested in applications of mathematics, in particular geometry, in architecture and art for years. Most of my works with Maple, MuPAD, and later with Mathematica, always had something to do with mathematics and art. When I first time came to the Middle East I was stunned with the amount of geometric forms and ornaments present here. This was my first rendezvous with Islamic Art. Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, is the place where I have spent more than ten years. Although it is a very modern and extremely fast developing city, we still can find wonderful decorations that are definitely some of the best examples of Islamic ornaments one can find in our modern world. Since my first days in the Emirates I started collecting books and articles on Islamic art, and taking thousands of photographs of mosques and hundreds of other places. One day I found, in a local bookshop a book on Islamic ornaments by Keith Critchlow (see [4]), and this was the moment when I started looking at Islamic ornaments, and ornaments in general, as geometric constructions. I started analyzing each example that I was able to find on Abu Dhabi streets. Hundreds of drawings and geometric constructions, developed using an excellent computer program The Geometers Sketchpad, started filling up my desk and a number of folders. I knew that one day I would have to sit and put, in writing, all my adventures with Islamic art, but then it was not the right time. The next milestone in my discovery of Islamic art was the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque built in Abu Dhabi in 2007. The beautiful shape of its domes, blue tailings in the passage around the mosque, and geometric ornaments with 5 fold symmetry were for me a completely new experience in Islamic art. A significant milestone in my discovery path in Islamic art was my trip to Turkey. After visiting the magnificent Suleymaniye Mosque on the Third Hill in Istanbul I knew that I was ready to start writing my book on geometric ornaments in Islamic art. However, the topic is huge and I probably I will never be able to cover all major examples, and topics related to the geometric ornaments in Islamic art. Therefore, I decided to concentrate on selected examples from Istanbul and see how much I can tell about them. A more complete book about geometry of Islamic ornaments will probably have to wait a while.

(Introduction)|5

Fig. 1 The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (Arabic: )in Abu Dhabi is the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates and the third largest mosque in the world. It is named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder and the first President of the United Arab Emirates, who is also buried next to the mosque (outer right side). The mosque has been opened for worship since Eid Al Adha December 2007.

In this book I am going to show a number of geometric constructions of Islamic ornaments. Such constructions can be developed by drawing them by hand. However, this work can only be used once. Such drawings cannot be reused and every time when we start the same or similar ornament we have to draw it from scratch. Therefore, I decided to use a computer program for plane geometry. A few of them are available. One can use The Geometers Sketchpad, GeoGebra, Cabri or Cindrella, and one has to choose the tool that is the most suitable for him. My first choice was The Geometers Sketchpad, in short Sketchpad1. I have been using it for years for modeling Chinese lattices, gothic windows, kaleidoscopic images, and fractals. Therefore, all constructions presented in this book will be developed using the Sketchpad specific environment and tools. However, most of my constructions can be created in a few other geometry programs. A very good choice can be GeoGebra2 where the number of tools is larger than in Sketchpad and the functionality is very similar.
The Geometers Sketchpad is a commercial product developed by KCP Technologies. An evaluation version of the program can be downloaded from http://www.keypress.com/Sketchpad 2 GeoGebra is an impressive software for teaching mathematics. It contains a module for 2D geometry. Newer versions of GeoGebra contain also a 3D geometry module (version 5, currently in early beta stage) and a Computer Algebra System (starting from version 4). The GeoGebra software is free and it can be downloaded from the the web site http://www.geogebra.org/cms/
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Constructions done with the help of a computer program can make our work much easier and store it ready for reusing many times later. However, there is no greater pleasure than developing these constructions by hand on large sheets of paper, finishing them with crayons and enjoying our work framed and hung on the wall. Therefore, if you have time and appropriate skills please do not ignore the traditional way of developing geometric ornaments. Finally I have to mention an important matter. Constructions of Islamic geometric ornaments presented in this book are not exactly the same as you can find in many other books on Islamic art. I present here my own point of view it is how a person educated in geometry with experience in various forms of computer graphics sees them.

(Introduction)|7

 A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST

Nothing is born in a vacuum and everything has its own reasons. These are the two sentences that summarize all what we would say about origins of Islam and Islamic art. Islam in many aspects is a continuation of earlier Judeo-Christian tradition. Its roots are in the Old Testament, in Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy and science. Let us have a glimpse in the past. From the very beginning the mission of Islam was revival and purification of the religion of Abraham. Prophet Mohammed adopted strict monotheistic credo and consequently purified humans beliefs of this period. In his first year as a religious leader, in Mecca only were 360 idols destroyed. Up to his time Mecca was an important center of pagan pilgrimage. The Islamic rejection of idolatry has quite different reasons than in the Christian Church. According to Islam an individual has direct connection to God. Therefore any images of God are pure delusion and are useless. This belief forces a purity of the human-divine connection. Another important belief is that the Creator is beyond any representation. Therefore, there are no images that could represent it. Its divine nature can be only experienced through the divine world. This approach, as an integral part of Islam beliefs, makes iconoclasm a default principle. This is what was missing in the Byzantine and Roman Christian Churches and what brought so much turmoil3 in Europe. As a consequence of these beliefs all Islamic art tends to create things that do not resemble any earthly subjects humans, animals, sometimes even plants 4 . This opens a wide path to geometric designs and abstraction in decoration of mosques, books, and many religious things. Moreover, quite often Islamic artists tend to avoid producing ornaments with central or focal points instead they utilize abstract patterns giving an impression of infinity. Therefore, many ornaments in Islamic art can be extended over the whole plane. Geometric designs are free of any earthly meaning. Therefore, they can easily get across some aura of spirituality without touching any religious feelings.

In Europe there were a few waves of so called iconoclasm. Iconoclasm has generally been motivated by a literal interpretation of the Ten Commandments, which forbid the making and worshipping of icons. There are known cases where a number of icons and other religious symbols were removed from churches and destroyed. 4 We have to make a very clear distinction between Islamic art and the art of an Islamic society. By Islamic art we mean art used to decorate mosques, Quran, and religious things. In Islamic art there are no human or animal representations in any form. At the same time in the art of any Islamic society there are portraits of sultans, emperors, their families, and average people. Very famous examples of such art are Persian or Moguls miniatures.
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8|Islamic Geometric Ornaments in Istanbul

One of the remarkable features of Islamic art is symmetry. This creates an esthetic quality that is famous all over the world. We know that many other cultures used symmetry to some degree. However, in Islamic art symmetry became the main principle and reached an enormous quality. Probably one of the reasons for it is the connection with the concept of balance or equilibrium on many levels. In Islamic sources we can quite often find many forms of equilibrium and harmony mentioned the sun and the moon, Heaven and Earth, good work and misdeeds, etc. The notion of symmetry, in particular cosmic symmetry, has its expression in geometric symmetry of Islamic art. It is interesting to notice that symmetry has its roots much deeper in the past. For example, the scales, as a symbol of equilibrium, were an important religious symbol in ancient Egypt. In ancient Greece the goddess of law, Themis, was always represented with scales. A very interesting exception in Islamic art are images of Paradise. So called Gardens of Eden are frequently represented in Islamic art and architecture. We can find them on carpets, praying mats, books as a decoration, on mosque walls and in many other places. This is usually an idealized garden, perfected and divine. Images of Paradise gave a beginning to a number of artistic creations panels with floral motives, floral decorations of mosques and floral decorations of books. Floral tailings on walls of mosques have their roots in idealized images of Paradise. It is interesting to notice that Islamic art, although it was created in a vast area, in many countries and by many nations; is very consistent in its style. Islamic art created in Spain is very similar, or often identical with Islamic art created in Morocco, or in Syria. This is probably due to the same system of beliefs and strong principles across all Muslim nations. At the same time we can find in Islamic art very strong influences of earlier or neighboring cultures Christian Byzantine, Sassanian Persia, Syro-Roman, classical or even oriental. This can also be seen in many places in Istanbul. Finally, in order to get back to the main theme of this book let me mention three main forms of the Islamic decorative elements. During the Sunni revival (XII century), which began in Baghdad, the classic style of the Islamic ornament started crystallizing. It uses distinctive epigraphic, geometric and abstract vegetal elements that can be seen today everywhere in Islamic art. The three main forms are calligraphy, geometric ornaments and arabesque.

(A glimpse into the past)|9

Fig. 2 Calligraphy conveys the word of God revealed in the Quran to the believers. The photograph shows calligraphy on the wall inside of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The meaning of the text is Abu Bakr Al Siddiq, may God be pleased with him. Translation by Dr Kamal Al-Achrafi.

Calligraphy can also be seen as a replacement of sacred images. It conveys the word of God revealed in the Quran to the believers. The calligraphy is considered as the most noble of the arts. It combines quite strong geometric discipline with a dynamic rhythm. Many styles of writing were created over centuries, in different places and different periods. Geometric ornaments, the main theme of this book, convey some aura of spirituality and connection with the other world. They do not have any earthly meaning. Geometric constructions, and very strict mathematical rigor, grant the craftsmen opportunity to demonstrate the highest possible skills. Many Islamic geometric ornaments can be so complex that quite often for decades they were unsolved puzzles even for contemporary mathematicians. One of such examples are so called decagonal Islamic ornaments. These ornaments discovered in Iran and in Samarkand have strong connection with the recently invented Penrose tailing system the system of tailings investigated by Sir Roger Penrose in the 1970s. In fact, Islamic geometric ornaments are quite important objects for contemporary mathematics and, in particular, for modern geometry so called transformation geometry. Fig. 3 Very complex geometric ornament in Byzantine Patriarchate in Istanbul. Its design is a real challenge for the craftsman who wants to create it.

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Fig. 4 Dodecagonal ornament in the Iwan of the Darb-e Imam mosque near Esfahans Great Mosque

Arabesque, or vegetal arabesque, is a form of Islamic ornament where floral elements are organized into a geometric form. Usually strong geometric principles are behind an arabesque design. We can find them in many places including mosques, ceramics, woodwork, ivory carving, carpets and textiles. Fig. 5 Arabesque on the ceiling of one of the small domes of the Sokullu Sehit Mehmet Pasa mosque in Istanbul. We can easily notice here an eight fold rotational symmetry and a number floral patterns combined with some rounded decagonal shapes. The center is formed by an octagonal star pattern with rounded edges.

In this book we will concentrate on Islamic geometric ornaments. However, from time to time we may see other forms of decoration. On some occasions we can also see a combination of two or more of the above mentioned forms. For example, quite often we can see calligraphy combined with multiple reflections, or a geometric ornament combined with some arabesque pattern.

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Fig. 6 The photograph shows an interesting combination of a geometric ornament with arabesque in a cemetery in Istanbul, in the Cemberlitas district. Later we will be seeing quite frequently this specific star in very complex geometric ornaments.

Throughout this book we will talk exclusively about Islamic geometric ornaments. Therefore without any confusion we can simplify our language and use terms geometric ornament or simply ornament as a convenient replacements for the full name Islamic geometric ornament. From time to time we will use also the word pattern for a part of a geometric ornament or pattern that may not be geometric at all.

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 A SIMPLE EXAMPLE
Before we start a more systematic review of geometric constructions and later geometric ornaments in Istanbul, let us look at a very simple example and see what we can find there. Let us examine a simple ornament that can be seen in Istanbul in many places, in particular in hotels or mosques. We show it in the next figure. Fig. 11 A simple star ornament that can be seen on the floor in one of the entries to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul Photo M. Majewski

There are many methods of reconstructing this ornament. We will choose the simplest one based on a rectangular grid described by Hankin in1925 (see [9, 10, 11]). Let us take a fragment of the above photograph and draw on it a rectangular grid. In fact we do not need to cover the whole photograph. We need only a small portion of it, like the one shown in the next figure. After creating the enclosed in a rectangle fragment of the ornament we can use it to create a larger part of the ornament. We will have to use reflections about its edges, and this way cover a bigger area of the plane. The part of the ornament that is sufficient to create the whole ornament is called a repeat unit or a fundamental motif. Most of the ornaments can be created from a repeat unit using geometric transformations: reflections about some lines, rotations about a point, translations about a vector, and compositions of these transformations. Depending on our point of view the concept of repeat unit can be slightly different. An orthodox mathematician would probably ask about the smallest region that can be used to create the whole ornament using the mentioned transformations. An artist or a craftsman would probably choose the region that is the most convenient to control a rectangle or another figure that will be easy to use. The same geometric ornament can be created using different its parts, that means by different repeat units. 20 | I s l a m i c G e o m e t r i c O r n a m e n t s i n I s t a n b u l

Fig. 12 11One of the possible grids that can be used to reproduce the ornament from the entrance to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque. The repeat unit (here enclosed in the rectangle with rounded corners), contains 3x9 rectangular cells. The angles between diagonal lines are 60. Each cell is a rectangle with the short side equal to a , and long side equal to b = a 3 . The same is valid for the repeat unit, if a is the length of the short side and b is the length of the long side then a : b = 1 : 3 . Note the proportion a : b = 1 : 3 is one of the most frequent proportions of the repeat unit for Islamic geometric ornaments.

Let us start by constructing a rectangular grid similar to the one in the figure 12. Construction of a single cell is shown in figure 13. Fig. 13 Construction of a cell for the grid that we will use to create the ornament from the floor in Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Start by drawing a vertical segment AB as well as a line passing through points A and B. Draw a circle with radius AB and center in B. You will get a new point C. Now draw two large circles with centers in A and C, and radii equal to AC. One of the points of intersections of these two circles we mark as D. Finally construct a line passing through D and parallel to the segment AB, and another line through A and parallel to BD. By connecting points A, B, D and E we will obtain a rectangle with required proportions.

B A

D E

Before proceeding to the next step we will have to hide if we use a computer program, or remove if we do our construction by hand on a piece of paper, all unnecessary lines and circles leaving on the screen the rectangle and its vertices. We can also hide all labels. We will not need them anymore. The rectangle obtained this way can be replicated to the right and down using the reflection about its edges. The result of this task is shown in the following figure.

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Fig. 14 The grid for the repeat unit of the ornament. Rectangle ABDE was replicated two times to the right using mirror reflection about its right edge. Then the whole triplet of rectangles was replicated the same way down 8 times. Then the diagonal segments were created starting from the point B. Comment in reality we do not need all diagonal segments in this grid. In order to create our ornament we need only selected points of intersection of the horizontal and vertical segments. We created all diagonal segments in order to emphasize the whole structure of the ornament. A rectangular grid with horizontal and vertical lines can be enough to recreate many Islamic ornaments as well as Chinese lattices. The only difference is that Chinese lattices are mostly based on a square grid, while Islamic ornaments use rectangular square root of 2, square root of 3, etc. grids.

B A

D E

In the next few steps we will create the repeat unit using the rectangular grid we created just a moment ago. Then we will hide all gridlines leaving only selected segments on the edge in order to mark mirrors for further reflections of the repeat unit. Finally, we will have to find a good marble texture, put it under the whole ornament and hide all unnecessary elements. In one of the next chapters we will talk more about the particular tasks that we have to do in a computer program in order to get a good design. Now, lets have a look at the sequence of images that we have to create on the way from the rectangular grid to the final ornament. Fig. 15 Last two steps in creating the repeat unit: (a) the grid and the ornament of the repeat unit, and (b) the repeat unit all unnecessary elements are hidden. The dashed segments were left in order to mark mirrors of reflection while developing the final ornament. You should hide these segments at the end of the construction of the whole design.

(a) Now we have everything ready to finish our ornament. The repeat unit can be reflected as many times as we wish to the right and below in order to create a larger area of the ornament. The final result is shown in figure 16. 22 | I s l a m i c G e o m e t r i c O r n a m e n t s i n I s t a n b u l

(b)

Fig. 16 The final construction of the ornament from the floor at one of the entries to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul. The marble texture was created using a computer generated image of gray marble.

Finally one can think how this ornament can be further modified. For example in some places in Istanbul a different color of the marble was used to create an identical or a similar ornament. In some other places stars in the ornament were filled with a different color of stone and sometimes a metal. This ornament was quite often developed using wood or ceramic tiles. In some other places the hexagon shape was additionally filled with a more detailed geometric ornament. I have also seen the same ornament where all polygons were filled with a beautiful floral arabesque. Fig. 17 The ornament from the entrance to the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul this time the image was created using tiles with colors that mimic one of the large tiled panels on the wall of Hagia Irene (near the Topkapi Palace). RGB values of colors used here are as follows: Dark red: 167, 56, 5 Dusty orange: 203, 140, 21 Dusty yellow: 241, 203, 127 Gray: 179, 173, 159.

Note: Designing geometric ornaments by hand using pencil, paper, compass, and ruler can be quite different than developing them with the help of a computer program. Each method has some advantages and disadvantages.

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With a computer program we can develop a geometric construction and save it for later use in a form of a template file, or a tool, and use it whenever this particular thing is needed. Therefore, every time when we create an ornament based on a complex geometric figure, we do not need to create this figure again and again. For the same reason it is extremely easy to create multiple versions of an ornament. An ornament created with a computer program can be used in further standard geometric transformations reflections, rotations, and translations. While developing an ornament by hand we have to develop many things again and again, unless we will find a way to develop some templates. For example, a construction of a regular polygon can be done on a paper, and then we can pierce small holes in the vertices of the polygon and in the center. Such template can be used every time when we need a regular polygon of this type. However, we still may have problems with sizes of constructions in such templates. Any geometry program offers a number of shortcuts and convenient tools. For example objects can be hidden or displayed. While developing a construction on a paper the task of hiding an object means taking an eraser and removing it factually from the picture. On the other hand, the images of geometric ornaments created using traditional techniques on a paper can be any size and color. They can have this artistic touch that makes them looking completely different from the iron and glass look of computer creations.

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 A TOUR THROUGH I STANBUL

In earlier chapters we gathered some general knowledge about Islamic geometric ornaments. Now equipped with all this information, we can start exploring Islamic geometric ornaments in Istanbul. I will take a role of a mathematical guide through some of my favorite places in this wonderful city. I invite you to walk with me and see these places the way I see them. In the evening, if you still are not tired, you can take a pen and construct some the things that we have seen on our walks. We will start from the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the so called Blue Mosque, in Istanbul.

W ALK 1: T HE S ULTAN A HMED M OSQUE

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is one of the treasures of Istanbul. It is probably the most frequently visited mosque in Turkey. It is also my favorite place. I can spend many hours in this Mosque and every time I am there I discover something new. Fig. 47 The Sultan Ahmed mosque is one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture. The neighborhood in Istanbul around the mosque is today called Sultanahmet. Sultan Ahmed I is buried in a mausoleum right outside the walls of the famous mosque.

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The Sultan Ahmed Mosque was built between 1609 and 1616 by the Ottoman architect Sedefkar Mehmet Agha, during the rule of Sultan Ahmed I (15901617). Its architecture is exceptional in many ways. This is the only mosque in the world with six minarets. It is called the Blue Mosque because of the color of the Iznik tiles used to decorate its interior. Its design is based on the standing opposite to it the building of Hagia Sophia (The Church of Holy Wisdom). The Blue Mosque is the last great mosque of the classical period of Ottoman architecture. For a mathematician this mosque is particularly very interesting. Its shape and the shapes of the domes and minarets can be modeled using many mathematical objects: spheres, cylinders, cones, cubes, arcs, etc. We could also discuss proportions of the building or its parts, their location, and many other things. A complete mystery for a westerner are the multiple muqarnas carved in white marble. However, all these 3D objects are beyond the scope of this book. We will concentrate only on geometric ornaments. A few of them can be found in this mosque. We have already explored one of these ornaments in the first example in this book. Another, rather simple geometric ornament a visitor can see is on a small hexagonal fountain in the middle of courtyard. Construction of this ornament is so simple, that we can skip it or treat it as an evening exercise after a long busy day. Fig. 48 The small hexagonal fountain in the middle of courtyard of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque Here we see a very simple geometric ornament. In the next figure I show what it looks like after creating it on paper or a computer screen.

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Fig. 49 The ornament from the fountain in the Sultan Ahmed Mosque It is very easy to create this ornament and there are many ways to do it. For example you can create an equilateral triangle, find the center of it and then connect the center with centers of each side. Then using reflections about sides of the triangle create the whole ornament. While creating this ornament, I used a different method I created a rectangular repeat unit. Can you find how I did it? Now, let us enter the Blue Mosque. The first thing we see inside is an incredible space with huge columns, walls covered with blue tiles and sophisticated arabesques. Just opposite the main entrance we can see the minbar. In most of the mosques in Istanbul a minbar is the place where we can find some interesting geometric ornaments. This one is not an exception. On both sides of the minbar there is a long strip of a geometric ornament along the balustrade. Let us have a closer look at it, and try to construct it? Fig. 50 The minbar in the Sultan Ahmed Mosque contains a lot of arabesque decorations and quite an intriguing geometric ornament along its balustrade.

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Fig. 51 A detail of the geometric ornament on the minbar. The two rounded squares show two different square tiles that can be used as a repeat unit to create the whole ornament. As we can see, the repeat unit of the ornament can be created in a few ways. One of them could be to create the repeat unit as a square with the circled star ornament in the middle (rectangle 1). Another way could be to create a square determined by the vertical bars going through the whole ornament (rectangle 2). This way on the sides of the square we will have centers of four circles and inside the square there will be four halves of a circle with half of a star in each of them. Without any special reason we will choose the second method. I suggest my readers to construct the repeat unit using the first method as an interesting exercise. The following images show steps of our construction. We start with a preparation step, and before going to the actual construction we will hide all unnecessary elements. This way we will have much clearer understanding of what we are trying to do. Fig. 52 Construction of the ornament on the minbar in the Sultan Ahmed Mosque STEP 1: Construction of the fist subgrid Create a square, mark the center of each side. Draw diagonals of the square as well as lines connecting centers of opposite sides. This will be our first subgrid. Draw a circle with center in G and radius equal to GE (length of the side of the square), find intersection point of it with the right side of the square (point L). Draw line GL and mark point K. Note: LGB=60..
C E D L H K F

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STEP 2: Construction of the second subgrid (circular) Before starting this step hide all unnecessary elements leaving only first subgrid, all points including and point K. Draw the first circle with center in G and passing through K. Draw another circle with center in F passing through K also. The two remaining circles with centers E and H we draw using the points of intersection of the diagonal lines with the two existing circles.

H K

STEP 3: Use the existing points and the points of intersection of the four circles with diagonals of the square to draw a part of the ornament. Some of the existing intersection points can be hidden at this stage, but I will leave them in order not to confuse my readers.

STEP 4: Construction of the third subgrid (small circles) In order to create the remaining elements of the repeat unit we need another subgrid of circles. Create 12 small circles 4 in the middle and 8 close to the edge of the square. Circles of the new subgrid are marked here using a thin solid line. Mark all points of intersection of the new subgrid of circles with the existing subgrids and part of the ornament created in the previous step. Now we are ready to finish the repeat unit.

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STEP 4: Draw the missing lines of the ornament, i.e. the lines shown inside of small circles. Hide all points and the three subgrids: diagonals of the square, large circles and small circles. The repeat unit is ready (below).

Fig. 53 A geometric ornament created using the repeat unit constructed above. This ornament is very specific to Istanbul. We find it in many older mosques here, as well as in the Topkapi palace. The same ornament can be found also in many other mosques in Turkey.

The ornament from the minbar in the Sultan Ahmed mosque is rather unusual. In order to create it we needed two circular subgrids. Later we will have another example where circular subgrids will be used. In the Sultan Ahmed mosque there are many other geometric ornaments. Let us have a walk around the interior of the mosque. There are many window shutters and doors with interesting, sometimes very complex, geometric ornaments carved in the wood. Constructing some of them can be a real challenge. Let us try to see how we can approach this task. We will start with a carving that contains a relatively simple ornament. This is a very interesting ornament as it can be modified and expanded into many more complex designs.

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W ALK 4: T HE

TOMB OF

M AHMUT P AA

Every time I visit Istanbul the Mahmut Paa mosque is closed no luck. So, I have no idea what we can find inside, but every time I am there I see a neglected cemetery next to the mosque and an octagonal tomb of Mahmut Paa with interesting Moorish style decorations with small tiles in blue, black, green, yellow and turquoise. The Mahmut Paa mosque was built in 1462, nine years after Istanbul was conquered by Ottomans. This was the first large mosque built inside of the city walls. Its founder, Mahmut Paa, was a Byzantine aristocrat of Greek origin, who after converting to Islam became the grand vizier under Mehmet the Conqueror. He was fortunate to finish his own tomb in time. In 1474 after a disastrous defeat in the Upper Euphrates region of Anatolia, he was executed on the order of sultan. In this chapter we will stop here for a short while to examine ornaments on the tomb of Mahmut Paa. These ornaments are not terribly complicated, but their colors are very different from anything that we have seen until now. Here we can see two different geometric ornaments one of them with a constellation of stars with eight and five arms, and another one with overlapping regular dodecagons. Fig. 95 The tomb of Mahmut Paa with Moorish style decorations

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Let us first look at the overlapping dodecagons ornament. In this construction we will be able to use the technique of two equilateral triangles with one common side that we used for the two ornaments in the ehzade Mosque. Fig. 96 The overlapping dodecagons ornament on the tomb of Mahmut Paa The simplest way to develop this ornament is to create a rectangular repeat unit shown on the photograph. Like in one of the earliest examples we will have to start with the long side of the rectangle, create two equilateral triangles with AB as a height of them and then develop a subgrid of dodecagons. The following figures show selected steps of the construction. Fig. 97 Construction of the overlapping dodecagons ornament from the tomb of Mahmut Paa Start by drawing the segment AB. Then construct two equilateral triangles CDB and BCE, with AB and CF respectively as their height. Connect the point C with the center of the segment BE, point F. This is the second long edge of the repeat unit. Divide each side of each triangle into four equal parts. Construct four regular dodecagons each with the center in the corner of one of the triangles, points D, B, E and C, and a vertex in of the triangle side. You should obtain a subgrid of four dodecagons. Finally use a thick line to draw the part of the ornament for the repeat unit. Now, you can clean all grids, points, etc., fill spaces between thick lines with some color and create a larger ornament using such repeat unit. The repeat unit for the overlapping dodecagons ornament from the tomb of Mahmut Paa

A B

The next figure shows one of the possible color versions of a complete ornament. On the tomb we find this ornament in two color versions: yellow and turquoise. 86 | I s l a m i c G e o m e t r i c O r n a m e n t s i n I s t a n b u l

Fig. 98 A replica of the overlapping dodecagons ornament from the tomb of Mahmut Paa

The next ornament is a bit more challenging. It contains large octagonal stars with smaller pentagonal stars between them. The figure below shows how these stars are arranged on a square grid. Fig. 99 The second ornament from the Mahmut Paa tomb We can easily see that the ornament can be outlined with the help of large touching circles, as well as smaller circles inscribed in the empty space between large circles. The large stars are constructed on the base of octagons inscribed in large circles. Finally centers of circles are located on vertices of a square grid. The small circles are used to create small four corner stars with diamond shaped arms. A square with corners located in centers of stars, here ABCD, can be the most convenient repeat unit for this construction.

Now, we know almost everything about this ornament. Let us start our construction.

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Fig. 100 Construction of the star ornament from the Mahmut Paa tomb STEP 1: Construction of the first subgrid Draw a segment AB, and construct a square ABCD with AB as its base. Draw diagonals of the square and two circles with centers in C and B respectively and radius equal half of the diagonal CB. Construct two regular octagons with centers in C and B respectively, inscribed in circles. For each of the octagons create a subgrid of lines connecting every second vertex (dashed lines). For each circle you should get two squares inscribed in it. Finally, add the small circles with centers in A and C respectively, tangent to the large circles. STEP 2: Construction of the second subgrid For each of the octagons draw a subgrid of pairs of parallel, vertical and horizontal lines (solid, thin lines). These lines are passing through points of intersection of the first subgrid and are parallel to the sides of one of the squares inscribed in each circle. This is our second subgrid.

STEP 3: Construction of the pattern for the repeat unit This part is quite simple. Draw only a quarter of each star the part that falls inside the boundaries of the repeat unit. You do not need to draw anything outside of the repeat unit, even if the subgrids are tempting you to do this.

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STEP 4: Filling the small circles Note each small circle contains a short fragment of a diagonal of the square. Find the center of each of these fragments, and then use them to draw a diamond like shape inside each small circle. This is all. Now clean the maze of subgrids and circles, and remove all labels if you have them. The repeat unit should look like the one in the pictures below.

The repeat unit for the star ornament from the Mahmut Paa tomb Left outlines of the pattern only Right a ready repeat unit with fills. Note, this ornament does not have any lines like we had in the previous example.

Below I show one of the possible versions of this ornament. However, this ornament, although it is not very popular, it can be found in different color versions. Fig. 101 The star ornament from the Mahmut Paa tomb Although the original ornament on the Mahmut Paa tomb is in a terrible state, this ornament is one of the most crystal clear ornaments I have ever seen.

In the next chapter we will look into a few places trying to discover what people passing would not normally notice at all.

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 A PPENDIX : S KETCHPAD AND GEOMETRIC ORNAMENT DESIGN

As I said in the beginning, Sketchpad is the tool I have been using for constructing all the ornaments in this book. I believe that some of my readers would like to try this approach and use Sketchpad in their explorations of geometric ornaments. Therefore in this chapter we will look into Sketchpad as a construction tool for geometric ornaments and discuss a few things that are useful in this work. However, this chapter is not intended to be a Sketchpad tutorial. There are a number of Sketchpad tutorials available on its web site and a very broad help system inside the program. One can easily learn how to use the program completely on his or her own. In this chapter we will discuss only a very few issues specific for creation of geometric ornaments. Fig. A1 Toolbox in The Geometers Sketchpad A number of tools are available in Sketchpad. Here are all of them listed from top to bottom. Selection tools: select and move, rotate, scale object (or the whole construction) Construct a point Construct a circle using two points center of the circle and a point on its edge Construct a segment, ray or line Construct a polygon Label objects or write text Marker tool, Info tool, and Tool to create custom tools

Sketchpad is a very simple computer program to work with plane geometry. We can draw there points, lines, segments, arcs, circles and other objects used in elementary geometry (see fig. A1). The number of creation tools in Sketchpad is somewhat limited but still enough to proceed with even the most complex geometric constructions. In case if a tool is missing, we still have an option to create it and then use it in our works. Therefore, we will take a closer look at the process of the creation of custom tools in Sketchpad.

C USTOM

TOOLS IN

S KETCHPAD

Let us develop a simple tool to create a regular pentagon starting from a segment that will be the side of the pentagon. First we will construct such pentagon, and then we will use our construction to create a custom tool to create more pentagons. Finally we will explain how this tool can be used in current or in all our future works.

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Fig. A2. Construction of a regular pentagon STEP 1: Start by drawing a segment AB. Here A and B are the ending points of the segment and these two points will be important later while creating the pentagon tool. Construct a bisector of the segment AB. This can be done by drawing two circles with centers in A and B respectively, and radius AB. By connecting points of intersection of these two circles (points C and D) we create a line that is our bisector. Construct three more lines: line extending segment AB, and two lines perpendicular to AB in points A and B. STEP 2: In order to find other vertices of the pentagon we will need three more circles (the thick lines in the figure to the right). Draw a circle with a center in G and its radius equal to GE. You should obtain two new points on the line AB: J and I. Use the new points I and J to draw two more circles, one with center in J and another one with center in I, and radii AI and BJ respectively. This time we obtained three additional points K, L and M. These points are the remaining vertices of the pentagon. By connecting them with segments we get the outline of the pentagon.

M K E C L

STEP 3: Creation of the tool This is the final step in creation of a tool to construct pentagons from a given segment. Select the points A, B, K, M, and L, as well as all segments connecting these points. No other points, lines, or segments should be selected. With this selection on the screen open the tool to create customs tools (see fig. A1) and choose Create New Tool, write there your preferred name for the new tool and a new custom tool will be created. Now the new tool can be used as many times as you need it.

M K E C L

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COMMENT: Before creating a new tool it is worthwhile to hide labels of objects used in the tool. Otherwise every time while creating multiple instances of the pentagon, we will get a number of unnecessary labels. Custom colors and point or line styles used while creating the tool will also be preserved. This means that if we created the pentagon tool using green, medium size line, and yellow points, then each new pentagon created with this tool will have the same colors and styles. Fig. A3 A simple construction created with our pentagon tool. The floral ornament as well as colors are similar to those that I have seen in one of the mosques in Istanbul. RGB values of colors used here are as follows: Dark dusty blue: 87, 72, 104 Dusty red: 241, 96, 67 Yellow: 255, 170, 87 Light salmon (background): 255, 224, 197

Construction of the pentagon described here, although it is a slightly more complex than many other constructions of regular polygons in this book, it is very accurate. We can check in Sketchpad that all angles have the same value 108 and the total measure of all angles is 540. In earlier chapters we developed constructions of some other regular polygons, stars based on polygons, and grids that can be used to create Islamic ornaments. Each of these constructions is a good opportunity to develop a number of useful custom tools that can be used later. For example I used a few custom tools in order to develop the ornament from the Sultan Selim tomb. It saved me a lot of work. While creating a custom tool it is important to decide what the starting object for the construction should be. For example while creating a pentagon we used one of its future edges with two ending points. In fact, as we can easily notice, the edge is not very important. The whole construction could be done starting from two points only. One can also think about creating a pentagon inside a circle, where the center of the circle and one point on its edge can be the starting objects for the pentagon tool. There are also known constructions of a pentagon based ( A p p e n d i x : S k e t c h p a d a n d g e o m e t r i c o r n a m e n t d e s i g n ) | 117

on an existing hexagon, square or a segment. Each time the starting objects can be different. In this book we mainly used regular polygons created from a given edge, i.e. a segment or two ending it points, and regular polygons inscribed in a circle. In this last case the starting objects are the center of the circle and a point on its edge. Suppose we created our custom tool or tools. Now we have to think how we can use them in some of our later works. A good solution is to put all of them in a selected folder and ask Sketchpad to load custom tools on start. We have already noticed that in Sketchpad, at the very bottom of the custom tool menu, we have an option Choose Tool Folder. If we point out where the folder for the tools is and save our files with custom tools in this folder, we will be able to use any of these tools in our further works. In my works I usually declare, as a tool folder, the folder where I save all my Sketchpad files. This way I have access to all tools that I have created in the past. This is very convenient usually I use a large number of custom tools in my constructions.

FEW HINTS ON USING S KETCHPAD IN CREATING GEOMETRIC ORNAMENTS

Edges of fills: While constructing ornaments we frequently use filled polygons or circles. If a polygon touches the boundary of a repeat unit we should use framed polygons, i.e. polygons with an edge. Otherwise after replicating the repeat unit we will find narrow gaps between some polygons. This is an especially unwanted effect if we use dark colors for fills. Transparency: Using polygons with edges brings another problem. Sketchpad, by default, uses 50% transparency for the fills. This way overlapping and filled polygons, or circles, show the area covered by two or more objects in a different color. If the polygon has an edge, then the edge is not transparent and in such a case its color is darker than the color of the fill. Therefore in some situations it is convenient to use filled polygons, or circles with 100% opacity. This way we can be sure that the fill will have the same color as its edge. Note also that transparent colors can get out of hand if we copy and paste our constructions in some graphics programs. Some popular graphics programs may introduce unexpected changes of colors to our transparent fills. Note also that graphics programs usually have better coloring tools than Sketchpad. Therefore, if we wish to get a more sophisticated color it can be convenient to create the ornament in Sketchpad, copy it into a graphics program and apply a specific color scheme there. The ornament shown in figure A3 was created in Sketchpad with completely random fills, copied from the Sketchpad screen and pasted into Adobe Illustrator. Then the Illustrator coloring palette was used to color all fills.

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Saving graphics: In Sketchpad we can save our constructions as an EMF file (Microsoft Windows Enhanced Metafile). This is vector file format. This simply means that all constructed elements will be saved using their coordinates, parameters and equations. Therefore, the file size depends only on the number of elements in our construction. The dimensions of the construction on the Sketchpad screen are not really important. However, if we use a bitmap, like the marble ornament in our first example, then the bitmap will be embedded in the EMF file and the size of the file will also depend on the dimensions of the bitmap. Buttons to hide grids: While creating a complex ornament we use multiple grids. If we are not sure how to proceed with the construction it can be useful to select each grid separately and create a button to hide and show the grid (Sketchpad menu: Edit > Action Button > Hide/Show). Do not create unnecessary elements: While performing multiple transformations we often create a number of unnecessary elements, for example by doing multiple reflections or rotations of an ornament with construction points (ends of segments, or vertices of polygons). Then we can face two problems. One of them is hiding at the end of our work all these unnecessary points, sometimes edges, etc. If we only have a small amount of them then we need a few minutes to hide them all. However, if we have hundreds of such unnecessary elements we may never be able to finish the cleaning process. There is one more issue to consider. Sketchpad, like any other vector graphics program, must recalculate locations of all elements if we move them on the screen or scale. With too many elements created in our notebook Sketchpad will work much slower. Use multiple copies of your construction: I frequently have this situation that at some stage of my work I wish to try a few different options; for example, use different colors or different width of lines and compare both resulting images. In such a case, in a critical moment when two or more options are going to be tested, I create a copy of my work and apply changes to the copy. At the same time, the original construction is safe and later I can always return to it. Multiple copies of our work can be created as separate files or in one file as multiple tabs (Sketchpad menu: File>Document Options>Add Page>Duplicate).

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