Patterns

When it comes to pattern work, Islamic art is the best. The architecture from its culture and religion is beautiful, intensified for their sharp eye for simplified yet complex patterns. Arabesque design work is an elaborate use of repeating geometric forms that represent plans and animals. Muslims believe that when these forms are tacken together, they constitute an infinite and uncentralized nature of the creation of Allah. Basically, Arabesque art conveys a definate spirituality without having iconography like in the art of other religions. The ancient Islamic people had five main shapes that they would manipulate to make many styles and designs. From looking at many patterns on tiled floors, wallcoverings, and prints, I think that the Native American and the Muslim are the masters when it comes to patterns in design. Of all art, patterns, simple or complex, makes the strongest and most solid composition.

(Richard Ettinghausen, Oleg Grabar, and Marilyn Jenkins-Madina, Islamic Art and Architecture, 650-1250. (New Haven: Yale UP, 2001), 66.)