Keith Critchlow Islamic Patterns An Analytical and Cosmological Approach ‘d by Seyyed Hossein NasrF Stem 9. sun Foreword Ultimste Reality i at once Absolute and Infinite, the source of all being. of all consciousnoss and ofall life. Itself beyond form, it speaks 0 mankind thiough revealed forms which, while externally bound and limited, open up. inwardly towerds the Boundless. Through revelations of this Word of Logos come into being the sacied traditions which although ‘outwardly different ato inwardly united into @ Centre which transcends all forms. They are, however, the bridge trom the periphery to the Centre. from the relative to the Absolute. from the finite 10 the Infinite, from multiplicity to Unity ‘slam is the last of the univetsaf revelations of the present humanity and as such a :e-affirmation of tho primordial tut, of the Truth which has always been and will always be, amely the Unity of the Principle and utter dependence and in fect nothingnoss of all contingency before the blinding Majesty of the One who ultimately alone is. AS the final asseition of the primordial revelation Islam is also a means to the radiecovery of the sacred cheracter of the first of God's revelations which is the created order itself. Islam contains the means to enable man to see the forms of ature once again as the vesiigii De! and multiplicity a8 so many ‘ellections of the Unity which is both the origin and fend of the order of multiplicity 'slamic spirituality could not but develop a sacred art in conformity with its own revealed form as wall as with its ‘oseonco. The doctrine of unity which is canta to the Islamic fevalation combined with the nomadic spirituality which Isiam made its own brought inte being an aniconic. art ‘wherein the spirtual word was reflected in the sensible |world not Through various iconic forms but throug) meiry and thythm, through arabesques and calligraphy which ‘reflect directly tre worlds above and ultimately the supemal sun of Divina Unity. “Thora is within the spiritual universe of Islam a dimension which may be called “Abrehamic Pythagoreanism. or 2 wey Of seeing numbers and figued® at Keys to the siructure of the cosmos end as symbols of the archetypal world and also world which is viewed as the creation of God in the sense of the Abrahamic menothsiems. It is this possibility within the intellectual universe of Islam, and not any extemal influences. that enabled Islam to develop a philosophy of mathomatics skin to the Pythagorean-Platonic tradition of antiquity butin atotally secred universe freeof the nationalism and rationalism which finally stifled and destroyed tho vsoteric dimensions of Greek intelectuality, It is also this lament innate within the structure of islam which enabled the creation of a secred art of en essentially geometric “ature, and sciendes of nature which Sought 10 pene! “into the very structure of physical existence not by splitting ‘ho molocule and the atom but by eacending to the archetyoal Des vans ? word of mathematics to discover the princioal structures “Which are relfectad vv The very near of matter. siame an 8 essantaly a way of annobling matter by meane of Geomerie and forel patterns united by calligraptic. forms which embody the word af God a revealed In the sacred Book. the Hely Ouran ‘tis only duting the past few years thet at last_a few scholars in the West are becoming avvere of the fact that Islamic artis ono of tho most power'l forms of sacred ort and not just abstract arin the modern sense of the word Thanks tothe storts of a small number of authorities. fore most among them F. Schuon and T. Burckhardt, samic ot is gradually coming to be undesiood for whet tis. namely 0 means of telatng maitiplety to Unity by moons of matve metical forms which are seen, not as mental abstractions, Dut as reflections of the colestial archetypes within bath the cosmos and the minds and soule of men, ve writings of ReilW Critchlow are among the first in the West to analyze the geometry of Islamic patterns from the Point of view of the metaphysical and cosmelogical principles Involved. His research has alieady had a profound influence ‘upon a group of young Westorn architects and historians of ‘ert. Now in the presen work, the f'st of his extensive studies (on the subject to appear in print, he presents for the first time to the world at largo tho biinding evidence of the meta: hysical significance of geometric patterns in islamic ar. This study. which is based on years of research and quest in.a world rarely penetrated before in the West. is therefore asie_contribution to both Isiamic art'and science. It is a ‘Foy to the understanding of many a8p6ct of Telamic civiliza tion and also of the reality which both surrounds and transcends man Keith Critchlow ie to be congratulated for comporing a work which is an important contiibution to the field of Islamic studies and also to the new and yet ancient search of discovering the neture of thitgs in Thon hag chosen 0 forget nce Ne Geiced ro Suc Tue rancmiade Tearna ‘the perennial wisdom Jeiiici has served ass guide to man over the ages. This work “sel should be a means of awakening many people to dimensions of both art and science long forgotten but now Sought by those who have become aware of the short ‘comings of a paitial knowledge of things which for some timo hae. beon parading so e totalitarian and all-pervading ‘Solence. Keith Critchiow's analysis of the geometric patterns Of Islamic art cannot but be an sid 10 the discovery of certain principles which do not only belong to Islamic art where they are most directly manifested but also. being in the ‘nature of things, belong to men of all ages and climes, ‘Seyyed Hossein Nasr x IIntroduction ol é berdaedes Carte ones ‘Know, oh brother ..., that tho study of gonsible geometry leavs to skill in all the practical ants, wile the study of mmeiry leads to skill in the intellectual arts THis science is One of the gates through which we _Alove 10 the knowiedge of the essence of the soul and that fall knowledge. = iy eS tra Boe etic va ued amin” i ae Shue not yot boon crested from its unfolding? Cloarly there 2¢ 101d is not the ereinal tac’) and in the fundamental 5 Fer «fll anveiopnent ol ins subjet Yon Senion. Dimenuonso! am iondon 18630. 148 third dimension — to which all phenomena of the manifest corporeal world (nasut) are subject. If we take these moves into the three dimensions as being symbolic of the creation of space of our world, then it follows that we can reverse them in the folding up of the dimonsions, leading us back to the point of unity or the indivisible. n terms of consciousness this can be described as the path of reabsorption. indicating tha possibilty of reconciliation between Knower, Knowing and Known, a convergence where subject and object are obliterated’ in iV. “That shining point by its light has dominated all that is in the Creation, and by its effectiveness has penetiaied every Object of the phenomena, All that we have attributed to the Universal nature issues out from it’? In Chapter 1 we show ilustations of these fist moves into the dimensions, staring with a luminous point: the first line ig the extension from the Aoint The limits of the entension ‘having been reached, rotation tekes place 10 encompass the next domain ~ an atea With this enclosure formed, 2 sycie is completed, a world’ in the form ef 9 citcle. The"elrele becomes the archetypal governing bas forall te geomevic shapes that unfold within it, his two dimensional wold being one dimension nearer 10 the origin than is our solid ‘world The ercle's primary inherent quality is one of ‘sixnaes’ a¢ will be demonstrated in tors of the tadius end if feltionship to the crcumference. fiom the basic ciicle and the hexagonal arengement of a @r9up of tangential erates of tho same radius surrounding it emerge the thee primary shapes: the triangle, she hexagon andthe square. These thee shapes are explored in detal to reveal their inherent stucture, subdivision, proportionel fatios and intertelatedness. Fiom this last. which can be called the ‘sociability’ of the pelygors. arises tho sot of eight semi-regular divisions of surface, thet ‘scombinatiors of 35. 6's and 45 in reoeating patterns. These eight tesse- lations form the basis both for philosophical qualitave number patterns and for the mathematical foundation of the laws of repetition upon which Islamic. goometical art founded The mathematical aspect of Islamic geometrical patterns has received scant attention in the West. Notable among the few scholars to have stucied thissubjectindetailareF Schtuon and T. Burckhardt. both of whom have been a source of tion and guidance in_my own reseerchee, nd gin, whose analyses cf Islamic patterns were 1 Lamhe 93 ftom the Lamahar of Shah Wavctiginally published in Fronce in 1879" (references to patiein numbers in his book will be found in my own text. 0g, '8.139", within equate brackets) “ine thesis of the present Book is that these self-evident mathematical patterns with their asoteric philosophical Values became the invisible foundstion upon which tho ‘at was built This meant that the Islamic anist was not only versed in mathematics in the geometrical sense, but that methematics mas integral to his ort as it was‘ ‘universal structure supporting the intuitive insights that cherecterize ‘ll true art, Tho groat masters of this art were certainly moiivated by and versed in spirtual disciplines that gave Both content and meaning to thair work and placed it in the tradition of aiding the viewer to aise his or her spiritual Understanding. This fatter quality is also found in the great Chinese and Japanese paintings of Southern Sung and later Zen respectively in the yantras and mandoles of Fi Tibeiat and Buddhist ar, ané-in the sand_peintings of the us_Nont an Indians. It can be found to “Tiderie bor Eskimo and CANE a nd also occurs os for away as the Pacific Island culture. eg. in the Malukian ‘meander patterns. All these arts served osoids ton individual s Spiitual wholeness through active or passive involvement Islam's concentration on geometric pattarns draws attan- tion awey from the ‘epresentational werld to one of pure forms, poised tensions and dynemic equiliium, giving structural insight into the workings of the inner self and heir reflection in the universe, Curiously, modern atomic physics has confirmed the essential. mathematical and ‘geometric patterns cecurring in Nature: not. however. in the philosophical sense of displaying the inteligence within and throughoat all czeation — the starting point of Islamic ait — but in the purty of essent hips which le pareath the \isual surece bt out word. The sanricancs from tho Islamic standpoint is thet, in the effort to trace increation, the direction is not beckwerds butinwards ‘Whereas the experienced world. the wor'd of manifestation, is of necessity ‘i the three dimensions of space. tho pare. disiec world. oF world of motivating intelligences, exis's only two-dimensionally, the principla being that as archetypes are ‘eleesed from the limitstions of existentality 30 aio is, their confinement within the dimensions. In other words, 1 the intuitive mind, oF the Soul, of an individual soaks soutees and reasons for lis existence itis fed invrerd and away from the three-dimensional world towards fewer and more comprehensive ideas and principles. The two-dimen. sional nture of the paredisiac world is reflected in Persian ‘miniatures, which were painted in flat planes, without the perspective of 2 three-dimensional werld: it is also the fundamental difference between medieval Chistian art and 20-2alled Renaissance art, In his Oriental and Christian Arr ‘Ananda Coomeraswami hes been the most eloquent modem 1 Las Edanmes de Fat sabe: letra os onertace, Pais, 1070: ttotae te Des usc the ite rxte Gromer! Parem and Design, New York and tongon 197 8 spckesman on the iaave of whet ie ‘eal’ art, not just the art Of ‘rations} pleasure Western conditioning on the validity of perspective and chiaroscuro has been the basis of the condemnation of Islamic art as decorative. Sadly it is our own lack of effort, and insight that is at fault, not baing concerned enough to ‘Seek the spitual and philosophical reasons for the nature of the art of islam with ‘ts unique integration between ‘controlling laws and the beautiful verioty of patterns and colours. Islamic art is predominantly a balance between pure ‘geometric form and what can be called fundamental bio: morphic form: a polarization that has associative values with the four ahilosophical and experiential qualitios of cold ‘and dry — representing the crystallization in geometiic form ~ land hot and moist — representing the formative forces behind Vegetative and voscular form. The one aspect rollects tho ‘facets of 2 jewel, the purity of the snowllake ang the frozen lowers of radial symmetry: the other the glistening flank of 8 peispiring horse. the silent motion of a fish winding its ‘way through the water. the unfolding and unturling of the Teaves of tha vine and roto. in mankind this polarization is characterized by the rigidity and geomet'y of the skeleton ‘on the one hand and the flowing. ductile fibrous muscular aystem which ectivates it. In Arabic calligraphy. opitomizad in the secred art of the Quran, not only is this polarization ‘seen at its greatest extreme in the flowing and Kutie styles, bbut amongst the flowing styles (of which there ae twelve distinct varieties) the polarization can be seen between the Verticality of the upright aleoh and the thythmic flow in the horizontal drection of the other characters, starting with bey. It-has been suggested that a/eph, as the ontological axis, an also be interpreted 90 the creative ray which initiates existence at the clactitical point of bey end thence proceeds to expand horizontally with the lateral gesture of the second, cheracte.. By this the fundamental three-fold neture of fealty is established — the descent of the light. the exoansion into ereetion and (in the eymbolism of the written words of, ‘Quian) the meens whereby the ‘ight returns to is source. The Islamic art of geometric form. then. can be considered the crystallization etege, both of the intelligonco inhoront in ‘manifest form end as a moment of suspended animation of the offusion of content through form. This book is primarily concemied with geometrical form as it relates to the circle — as the circle is the symbol par excellence 101 the ‘onan ‘and ‘end’ of both geomotric and biomorphic form. At the same time all those rhythms in flowing line thet we recognize a the intervals in everyday life — breathing, blinking, heart- beet, cigestion and £0 on — reflect our intimats connection swith the cosmic rhythms of day, month and year. The circle is alto, then, the primary cosmological symbol, one of wholeness and unity, vient. een i