Patterns of Infinity
If we probe deeper into any phenomena – astronomy, the cycle
of life, mathematics, we arrive at the concept of infinity. It is the most
abstract of abstractions, although mathematicians have tried to devise ways to
measure and rationalize infinity.
Trying to make sense of the infinite is a bit like trying to
contain the uncontainable. Contemplating infinity inevitably led all civilizations
and all religions to the concept of God. The art of most religions express God as an
image or a symbol, perhaps to make it more accessible to devotees, leaving it
to the philosophers to come to terms with the nature of infinity.
The exception is Islamic Art, which from its earliest
expressions of Quranic calligraphy, to the architectural design of mosques, made infinity the cornerstone of its expression.
While most art continued on a human centric pathway,
culminating in the cult of the individual, Islamic art remained rooted to an
interconnected cosmic order, exploring more and more complex patterns of
infinity in two dimensional patterns and dazzling three dimensional arabesques
and muqarnas in architecture.
The interlacing Islamic patterns without beg inning or end ,
simultaneously intoxicating and restraining,
reflecting no specific ideas, not leading the eye in a particular
direction, present unbroken rhythm and endless interweaving for quiet contemplation of an infinite and
all-encompassing cosmic force in
perpetual motion. Islamic calligraphy, while defining specific words, interlace
in an equally compelling rhythm. The position of the reed pen at the beginning
and ending of the formation of each letter is in the initial position of
writing Aleph – the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, implying all begins
and ends with Aleph or Allah.
What distinguishes Islamic art is its intrinsic relationship
to geometry and mathematics. Geometry
was considered by the ancient Greeks as essential to the understanding of logic
and philosophy . The Motto on the entrance to Plato’s Academy read “Let none
ignorant of geometry enter my door.”
Islamic
scholars studied Euclidian geometry and mathematics from the Greeks as evidenced in the Fihrist (Catalogue) written by the
10th century Baghdad court librarian al-Nadı¯m. There is much speculation but
little evidence of the exact origins and
subsequent development of Islamic patterns. Yet the use of these patterns
spread across the Muslim world from Spain to India, from North Africa to the
Oxus, spanning many centuries.
The Turkish
historian Alpay Özdural presents two mathematical sources: “On the Geometric
Constructions Necessary for the Artisan”
by Abu ‘l-Waf al-Buzjani (ca. 940-998), and an anonymous work, “On
Interlocks of Similar or Corresponding Figures” (ca. 1300) to suggest collaboration between mathematicians and
artisans in the Islamic world.
The works of
Plotinus were translated into Arabic as early as the 9th C and Turkish Art Historian, Gülru Necipoglu,
suggests the influence of his concept of ‘The One’ who has no manifestation and can only be experienced, or known, through
contemplation, is eternally present in all existence, inspiring both rapt
contemplation and ecstatic, creative extension.
However, the
actual evolution of patterns from the simple geometric patterns of Great Mosque
of Kairouan,in the 9th C to the
dizzying muqarnas of Al Hambra, Granada, remains an enigma for researchers.
In 2007 Harvard physicist Peter Lu, concluded “medieval
Islamic artists produced intricate decorative patterns using geometrical
techniques that were not understood by Western mathematics until the second
half of the 20th century”. The set theory of infinity developed in the 19 C by
Georg Cantor was pre shadowed by Ibn e
Sina in the 11th C. The question remains: How did artisans
intuitively produce complex pattern sets that could be extended infinitely in
perfect symmetry and with mathematical accuracy?
Allama Iqbal wrote in his diary: A mathematician cannot but
a poet can enclose infinity in a line.
Titus Burckhardt suggests that contemplating the patterns on
the Mosque of Cordoba, or of Ibn Ṭūlūn in Cairo, encapsulates the Islamic
concept of Divine Unity and may be enough to answer the question “What is
Islam?”
Durriya Kazi
March 28, 2021
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