Islamic art and why it uses patterns
Islamic Studies · Key Stage 1 · The School
Three kinds of decoration
Islamic art has three main kinds. GEOMETRY is shapes that repeat. They repeat very exactly. ARABESQUE is flowing plant and leaf designs. CALLIGRAPHY is beautiful writing. It is usually writing from the Quran. You can find all three on one mosque wall. Or on one tile. Or on one page.
Why patterns
Muslim tradition has mostly avoided pictures of God. Many artists also avoided pictures of people and animals in religious places. So the walls were not left plain. Artists made pattern and writing instead. They made them wonderfully well. The pattern is not a rule showing. It is what grew in that space.
Where to see it
Look at a mosque near you. Or look at pictures. Try the Alhambra in Spain. Try the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. Try the tilework of Isfahan. Watch how a pattern repeats. Often it has no clear start or end. Many patterns begin with a circle. The circle is split into equal parts. That is why they look so exact.
Omar's class visited the Blue Mosque in Istanbul for the day. His teacher gave him a list: find geometry, arabesque and calligraphy. First, Omar looked down at the floor. He found a star pattern, built from circles that locked together. That was geometry. Next, he looked at a tiled wall. He found leaves and stems that curled round and round, with no straight edges. That was arabesque. Then he looked up near the great dome. He found gold writing curling above the windows. His teacher said it was a verse from the Quran. That was calligraphy. Omar checked for pictures of people or animals too. He found none, anywhere in the mosque. He ticked all three boxes on his list. Three kinds of decoration, found in one real building, on one visit.