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Birkhäuser

Islamic Design: A Mathematical Approach

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Brian Wichmann

    1. Woking, United Kingdom

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. David Wade

    1. Lanidloes, United Kingdom

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Only school-level geometry required
  • Provides new ways of analysing Islamic Geometric ornament
  • Shows development and geographical range of the art
  • Combines historical and mathematical study of Islamic art

Part of the book series: Mathematics and the Built Environment (MABE, volume 2)

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Table of contents (17 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Cultural Context

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. A History

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 3-15

    3. The Scientific Contribution

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 17-23

    4. The Religious Dimension

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 25-30

    5. The Evolution of Style

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 31-39

    6. Materials and Media

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 41-49

    7. Countries and Regions

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 51-59

  3. Mathematical Analysis

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61
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    2. Introduction

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 63-68

    3. A Worked Example

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 69-74

    4. An Octagonal Set

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 75-85

    5. Octagonal Tiles with a Large Star

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 87-102

    6. Lines and Edges

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 103-115

    7. Decagonal Patterns

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 117-128

    8. What Is Correct?

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 129-136

    9. 6-Fold Delights

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 137-150

    10. Two-Level Patterns

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 151-165

    11. Two Mamluk Masterpieces

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 167-181

    12. Conclusions

      • Brian Wichmann, David Wade
      Pages 183-190
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Keywords

About this book

This book deals with the genre of geometric design in the Islamic sphere. Part I presents an overview of Islamic history, its extraordinary spread from the Atlantic to the borders of China in its first century, its adoption of the cultural outlook of the older civilisations that it conquered (in the Middle East, Persia and Central Asia), including their philosophical and scientific achievements - from which it came to express its own unique and highly distinctive artistic and architectural forms. Part II represents the mathematical analysis of Islamic geometric designs. 


The presentation offers unlimited precision that allows software to reconstruct the design vision of the original artist. This book will be of interest to Islamic academics, mathematicians as well as to artists & art students.


Reviews

“I am delighted that a book like this, which offers substantial contributions to the literature … has been published. It provides inspiration for others, including undergraduate mathematics students, who are seeking interdisciplinary topics for independent research.” (Joel Haack, MAA Reviews, August 18, 2019)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Woking, United Kingdom

    Brian Wichmann

  • Lanidloes, United Kingdom

    David Wade

About the authors

Brian Wichmann is the author of a CD/booklet published by World Scientific on geometric patterns. He obtained a DPhil (Oxon) in Mathematics, then had a career in software engineering research at NPL before starting a retirement project of collecting all known classical Islamic geometric patterns. The collection is at tilingsearch.org.




David Wade is the author of a number of books about Islamic Art and related topics. He is also responsible for the web site patterninislamicart.com which has over 4,000 photographs of patterns in Islamic Art. This is a major source of photographs for the book.


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Islamic Design: A Mathematical Approach

  • Authors: Brian Wichmann, David Wade

  • Series Title: Mathematics and the Built Environment

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69977-6

  • Publisher: Birkhäuser Cham

  • eBook Packages: Mathematics and Statistics, Mathematics and Statistics (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-69976-9Published: 18 May 2018

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-09923-7Published: 11 December 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-69977-6Published: 02 May 2018

  • Series ISSN: 2512-157X

  • Series E-ISSN: 2512-1561

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 226

  • Number of Illustrations: 9 b/w illustrations, 164 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Geometry, Cultural History

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