Posted on 02/22/2007 6:15:51 PM PST by xcamel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Magnificently sophisticated geometric patterns in mediaeval Islamic architecture indicate their designers achieved a mathematical breakthrough 500 years earlier than Western scholars, scientists said on Thursday.
By the 15th century, decorative tile patterns on these masterpieces of Islamic architecture reached such complexity that a small number boasted what seem to be "quasicrystalline" designs, Harvard University's Peter Lu and Princeton University's Paul Steinhardt wrote in the journal Science.
Only in the 1970s did British mathematician and cosmologist Roger Penrose become the first to describe these geometric designs in the West. Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry.
"Oh, it's absolutely stunning," Lu said in an interview. "They made tilings that reflect mathematics that were so sophisticated that we didn't figure it out until the last 20 or 30 years."
Lu and Steinhardt in particular cite designs on the Darb-i Imam shrine in Isfahan, Iran, built in 1453.
Islamic tradition has frowned upon pictorial representations in artwork. Mosques and other grand buildings erected by Islamic architects throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and elsewhere often are wrapped in rich, intricate tile designs setting out elaborate geometric patterns.
The walls of many mediaeval Islamic structures display sumptuous geometric star-and-polygon patterns. The research indicated that by 1200 an important breakthrough had occurred in Islamic mathematics and design, as illustrated by these geometric designs.
"You can go through and see the evolution of increasing geometric sophistication. So they start out with simple patterns, and they get more complex" over time, Lu added.
ISLAMIC ACHIEVEMENTS
While Europe was mired in the Dark Ages, Islamic culture flourished beginning in the 7th century, with achievements over numerous centuries in mathematics, medicine, engineering, ceramics, art, textiles, architecture and other areas.
Lu said the new revelations suggest Islamic culture was even more advanced than previously thought.
While travelling in Uzbekistan, Lu said, he noticed a 16th century Islamic building with decagonal motif tiling, arousing his curiosity as to the existence of quasicrystalline Islamic tilings.
The sophistication of the patterns used in Islamic architecture has intrigued scholars worldwide.
Emil Makovicky of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark in the 1990s noticed the relationship between these designs and a form of quasicrystalline designs. Makovicky was interested in particular in an 1197 tomb in Maragha, Iran.
Joshua Socolar, a Duke university physicist, said it is unclear whether the mediaeval Islamic artisans fully understood the mathematical properties of the patterns they were making.
"It leads you to wonder whether they kind of got lucky," Socolar said in an interview. "But the fact remains that the patterns are tantalizingly close to having the structure that Penrose discovered in the mid-70s."
"And it will be a lot of fun if somebody turns up bigger tilings that sort of make a more convincing case that they understood even more of the geometry than the present examples show," Socolar said.
Where here is it being suggested that Arabs invented mathematics. That has probably been around since before the Flood--for Macroevolutionists, since prehistory. Yes, Muslims (and Arabs) adopted (as opposed to "stole/robbed") science and technology from neighboring/conquered cultures. Who didn't (rhetorical)? Less developed peoples adopt the developments of more advanced ones. That has been a modus operandi cross-cultures for a very long time.
I'm sorry, but wasn't it the Chinese who invented those two things?
Coincidently, in the 1400s, China under the Ming Dynasty stopped their seafaring to foreign places shortly after a few excursions to Arabian areas.
The "civilized" culture was possibly revolted by backward Islamics, and then decided to lay low and back away from the Troglodytes.
That seems like a reasonable thing for me to believe, rather than that the Arabs were mathematical pioneers.
They weren't. A few years (decades) later, after the Chinese abandonment of exploration by sea, Columbus "discovered" America.
The Arabs do not like that math, nor do the Chinese.
And yet they still wipe their ass with their bare hand......
To use a better example, it has recently been conjectured that all Western music follows certain, fairly complex, mathematical formalisms also utilized in the string theories of elementary particle physics. Am I now to believe that Bach, Elvis and Elton John had a grasp of the mathematics possibly underlying the music they created?
That's the point (that Europeans were using non-European technologies). If you've noticed, a lot of people are deriding past Islamic cultures for "stealing" technologies. They were not unique in adopting foreign things which were useful--almost every culture did and does it.
They did not invent "zero" either despite the BS you read in grade school.
Not quite the case with either Elvis or Elton......
Please...enlighten us...I am waiting....
To be subhuman implies ~animal~ and I wouldn't give Islam that much credit. Animals wouldn't choose to do the things that muslims do. Humans don't walk into a pizza parlor full of innocent children and blow them to bloody bits. I really don't think a human being is capable of that. I know that animals aren't capable of that choice.
The only thing that comes remotely close are insects. The hive model does involve the suicide attack mode pretty regularly, so... there's that.
But I happen to think that humanity is more than a birthright of species. There's a point (many points, in fact) in the life of a person when they make a choice to join the human race or abandon it.
Muslims cannot distinguish between right and wrong. They're not allowed to. In fact, in islam there *is* no right and wrong, only the will of Allah.
In fact, this is why science died under Mohammed. Science has "principles" and "laws" of nature. Islam teaches that there is nothing but the will of Allah, and Allah cannot be limited in any way. There isn't gravity. Things fall by the will of Allah, not by a force he created. There is in fact no "good" or "evil" under Islam, but rather the will of Allah. To describe Allah as always good would limit him, and that is impossible.
There cannot be a testable scientific principle in Islam. There cannot be a test for the will of Allah. It is what it is and there is nothing else.
It's not about race and Arabs or Persians or whatnot. Mohammedism is a choice.
Arab and Persian culture had a lot going for it until Mohammed pretty much sterilized the batch.
Scientific achievement of the Muslim society cannot be considered to be of any consequence. Out of the total of 2,60,000 articles published every year on scientific research, hardly 2,500 i.e. about 1% are published in Muslim countries. One can be reminded that during Middle Ages the situation was entirely different. According to European authors of History of Science almost ninety percent of scientific literature during Middle Ages was published (in Arabic) by Muslims of Spain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran etc.
There are many other parameters, which show the backwardness of Muslim Societies in scientific field. For instance, total number of Science Ph.D.’s produced by about 450 Universities of Muslim Countries every year is less than 500, whereas in UK alone this number is 3000. According to one estimate total strength of Engineers and Scientist in Muslim world (1.30billion) is less than the scientists and engineers working in France alone (population 60million).
That's why it isn't admitted (above) that the published works during the middle ages WERE TRANSLATIONS! Not surprising when one considers that the koran itself was mostly plagiarism from hebrew and christian sources.
"Please...enlighten us...I am waiting...."
AND that their so-called religious leaders have been striving mightily ever since to reverse what little progress was made.
Um, don't know many mathematicians these days who make a living on tiles. Although I'm aware of a few plumbers who rake in the dough selling tiles.
As for the designs, I remember in my high school commercial class we were asked to create a design using only straight lines. Some of those kids created outstandingly beautiful designs and none of them wore turbans.
Why is this Lu so worshipful of a long-ago high-school talent?
LOL, and you have 'proof' of this against what most historians have been saying for a long time. Don't worry I know there are a few crank sites out there that say otherwise that you'll be able to quote from and support your 'position'. While most of us may disagree with what Islam is and its current followers, it is not traitorous to accept that they did contribute quite a bit to our understanding of science and mathematics. Not to mention hospitals, optics,......
Was worth zero of my time...thanks!!
The Arabs invented it, the West invented it, the Hindu invented it, they all lived around the same time, so what's the difference?
Is that your contention?
Talk about a "disingenuous argument."
That's like saying that the US and Britain were both around when the Nazi movement rose therefore they are equally guilty of the crimes committed in that movement's name, or there were others alive when anything was invented so if anyone from that time claims credit (or can be blamed) we must grant the claim legitimacy. Talk about relativism! Reality versus propaganda is never moot. That's Orwellian. It's even Gorian.
Arab civilization is based on being a trader and, in fact, a scavenger. They don't invent. They don't create. They steal learn what others have done and then claim it for their own.
Are there inventive, creative and even genius individuals within that community? Of course. As many as in any other human community. Study Sargon, the "law giver" and his daughter En' Heduana, the first named author in history (and a truly original thinker who introduced the concept of a personal relationship with a Deity) as I have, and you'll learn a thing or two about this question. The difference is that the geniuses, the creative and the inventive have been systematically suppressed or slaughtered by their fellows within that culture, particularly when Satan's prophet came along and institutionalized hate crime as a way of life in the 7th century.
And the Scotsman is a notoriously anti-Western rag, so posting something from them as an opening argument is the most disingenuous thing of all. Remember, this is the paper that treats George (Oil for Food is a profitable program... for me) Galloway as a national hero.
I think I understand your intent and generic position and don't question your motives, even though I disagree and think that you are basing your reaction on PC propaganda. This, however, is a subject I've had my nosed rubbed in due to personal association with numerous people and cultures from the region, including many from Persia (Iran) and India (among them Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, who is running the Gandhi center with the majority of his papers).
Forgive me if I'm a bit emphatic on this subject at least, but always remember my tag line.
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