Researchers
Islamic Art and Architecture
Islamic art and architecture: one language spoken by Cordoba, Damascus, Baghdad, Samarkand and Istanbul. Its basis is the geometric pattern filling a surface without end, the vegetal arabesque picturing no face, and Arabic calligraphy writing God's speech as ornament. Cordoba's double-arched columns, the Dome of the Rock's eightfold form, every mosque's mihrab pointing to Mecca, minarets raising the call, Isfahan's iwans and blue tilework, the Alhambra's muqarnas hanging like stars, and Sinan's balance making the dome float — one art in a thousand local tongues, the common thread being beauty in the service of worship, knowledge and home. So the language completes itself: stone speaks in pattern, letter in calligraphy, light in dome — Islamic architecture is a recitation seen, not written.