From:"Alan Border" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Medieval Muslims Made Stunning
Math Breakthrough
OH Muslims! Come Lets Go Beyond the Milk
(The Muslims Need to Go Beyond the Religious Rituals (Salaah, Fasting, Hadj
etc) & Start Applying Islam to All Aspects of Human Life to REAP its True
Benefits) - AB
Medieval Muslims Made Stunning Math Breakthrough
Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:33AM GMT
http://uk.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUKN2245118920070223?pageNumber=1
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Magnificently sophisticated geometric patterns in
medieval 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 medieval 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 traveling 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
medieval 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.
AB [EMAIL PROTECTED]
First They Came for the EXTREMIST, FUNDAMENTALIST & MODERATE Muslims. And I
DIDNT Speak Out Because I Wasn't An Extremist, Fundamentalist or a Moderate
Muslim. Then FINALLY They Came for Me the NON-PRACTICING Muslim And NO Muslims
Were Left to Speak Out for ME.
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