The Whirling Kites of Isfahan: Geometric Variations on a Theme

PETER R. CROMWELL
Introduction
AND

ELISABETTA BELTRAMI
Figure 2(a) the compartments are decorated with stylised Kuc calligraphy; the design is taken from a small tiled panel in the al-Hakim Mosque (Masjid Hakim), Isfahan; photograph IRA 1017 in Wades collection [17] shows the original. The website [14] is a useful resource on Kuc calligraphy and gives translations of many inscriptions. Figure 2(b) shows an arabesque design carved in relief on a wooden door panel in the Great Mosque of Uqba in Kairouan, Tunisia. Another oral example from the TillaKari Madrasa in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, can be seen in photograph TRA 0732 in [17] or in [15, p. 236]. It is of silver gilded plasterwork and has simple oral trails along the bands. Two much larger and more elaborate oral examples are placed on either side of one of the great iwans in the Imam Mosque (Masjid-i Imam) in Isfahan, formerly known as the Royal Mosque (Masjid-i Shah). They form a mirror-image pair of Whirling Kites motifs and are executed in painted polychrome tiles. Photograph IRA 0225 in [17] and [15, p. 260] show an overall view. We shall see geometric examples later. While it is the nite gure in Figure 1(a) that is the focus of this article, we shall also cite a few examples of the repeating pattern of Figure 1(b). Wades archive contains photographs of carved stone reliefs from the Fort at Agra (IND 0404 and IND 0407), and a latticework screen in the Maharajahs Palace in Jaipur (IND 1019). Examples in wooden door panels and brickwork from the Khan Mosque, Isfahan, can be seen in [1]. As these examples show, the Whirling Kites gure is widespread in the Islamic world. Besides being a motif in its own right, it also provides a useful device to organise a

n medieval times the city of Isfahan was a major centre of culture, trade and scholarship. It became the capital of Persia in the Safavid era (1617th centuries) when the creation of Islamic geometric ornament was at its height. Many of the most complex and intricate designs we know adorn her buildings, including multi-level designs in which patterns of different scales are combined to complement and enrich each other. In this article we study ve 2-level designs from Isfahan built around a common motif. They illustrate a variety of techniques and the analysis exposes some of the ingenuity and subtle deceptions needed to reconcile incompatible geometries and symmetries, and produce satisfying works of art.

Theme
Kites are a characteristic design element in Islamic geometric art. They can be arranged as motifs in their own right or used to provide a structural framework for other elements. Figure 1 shows two patterns created by arranging kites with squares. Part (a) shows a chiral arrangement of four kites chasing around a central square in a nite composition. For want of a name we shall refer to this as the Whirling Kites pattern. We shall also say that the pattern with this orientation is the clockwise variant, and that its mirror-image is counterclockwise. Part (b) shows a repeating pattern that can be extended to ll the plane. It contains the Whirling Kites pattern in both its mirror-image forms. There are three canons of Islamic ornament: calligraphy, arabesque and geometric. All have been applied to the Whirling Kites gure as a secondary form of decoration. In
84
THE MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

DOI 10.1007/s00283-011-9225-4

The Geometry of the Whirling Kites Figure

A kite is a convex quadrilateral having two pairs of adjacent equal-length sides. We shall assume that a kite is not equilateral so that it has two short sides of length s and two long sides of length t. In all the examples used here, the two angles where sides of different lengths meet are right angles. If h is the acute angle between the two long sides then the obtuse angle between the two short sides is 180 - h. Note h 2 tan1 s=t: The geometry of Whirling Kites patterns is straightforward. Call the four lines making the outer square the frame and the four lines bounding the inner square and radiating from it the rotor. Let x be the length of a side of the frame and y be the length of a side of the small square in the rotor. Then x = t + s and y = t - s. In fact, any pair of x, y, s and t determine the other two. If we ignore the scale, the whole gure is determined by h. Figure 4 shows one way to lay out a Whirling Kites pattern. First take a square ABCD with side length s + t. Mark each side with a point that divides it into segments of lengths s and t so that the long and short segments alternate around the square. In the gure, two such points are marked E and F. Scribe a circular arc centred at E of radius EA, and another centred at F of radius FA. The two arcs intersect at G, and AEGF is the required kite. The Whirling Kites gure is simple to construct, but this property is not sufcient to explain its origin as an ornamental motif. It is possible that mathematical diagrams provided the inspiration. The 10th century Persian mathematician and astronomer Abul Wafa wrote On the Geometric Constructions Necessary for the Artisan, which includes references to meetings between geometers and craftsmen at which theoretical constructions were presented and practical applications discussed [13]. In Chapter 10 cut-and-paste arguments are used to construct squares of given area. For example, to construct a square of area 5, place two unit squares so they share an edge and cut the resulting rectangle along a diagonal; two sets of these pieces plus another unit square can be arranged to form a square of area 5Figure 5(a). Removing the dashed segments produces a template for the periodic pattern in Figure 1(b); the template is repeated by reection in the sides of the bounding square.

(a)

(b)

Figure 1. Finite and unbounded Whirling Kites patterns.

(a)

(b)

Figure 2. Examples of simple decoration applied to Whirling Kites patterns. (a) Kuc calligraphy. (b) Floral arabesque.

larger composition and, consequently, a range of styles and techniques have been applied to build complex designs on this simple form. Figure 3 shows the west iwan of the Friday Mosque (Masjid-i Jami), Isfahan. An iwan is an open, high, vaulted porch that provides a large facade for decoration. This example is of interest as it has ve Whirling Kites panels of three different designs: there are two in each of the tall narrow panels that run the full height of the front face either side of the arch, and another on the north side of the inner wall. We shall examine the constructions of these designs plus two others.

.........................................................................................................................................................
AUTHORS

PETER R. CROMWELL

graduated from Warwick, and completed his Ph.D. at Liverpool working in knot theory, is interested in anything geometric, and has written books on polyhedra and knot theory.

ELISABETTA BELTRAMI

graduated from Milan, and studied for her Ph.D. at Pisa and Liverpool, also working in knot theory. She has taught at Trinity College Dublin and Liverpool. She enjoys walking and cooking. Pure Mathematics Division Mathematical Sciences Building University of Liverpool, Peach Street Liverpool, L69 7ZL England

Pure Mathematics Division Mathematical Sciences Building University of Liverpool, Peach Street Liverpool, L69 7ZL England e-mail: spmr02@liverpool.ac.uk

2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, Volume 33, Number 3, 2011

85

Figure 3. The west iwan of the Friday Mosque, Isfahan. (Photograph reproduced courtesy of Paul Rudkin).

(a)

(b)

Figure 5. Possible sources of inspiration for the Whirling Kites motif. In (a) t : s = 2 : 1 and in (b) t : s = 4 : 3.

Figure 4. Construction of a kite in a square.

86
THE MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER

A similar gure occurs in one of the many proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem. The ancient Chinese text The Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven contains a discussion of the theorem using the 3-4-5 triangle as an exampleFigure 5(b). The oldest surviving manuscript is a 13th-century copy in Shanghai library, but much of the content predates Islam by hundreds of years. There is Chinese inuence in Islamic art so it is possible that this proof was known to medieval Islamic scholars, too.

 Ozdural suggests [13] that gures such as those in Figure 5 may have inspired the artistic imagination of the craftsmen. Once the periodic pattern is known, it is a simple matter to extract the Whirling Kites motif. He cites the Whirling Kites pattern on the inner wall of the west iwan of the Friday Mosque as a possible application. Chiral motifs such as the swastika are widespread and found in many cultures; the Whirling Kites motif seems to be unique to Islamic ornament. Perhaps some mathematical input was required for its discovery.

applied to generate large- and small-scale patterns that are intimately related [3, 4, 6, 10]. In the patterns featured in this article, the Whirling Kites gure establishes the basic framework of a large-scale pattern, and it is embellished with secondary decoration in the following ways: calligraphy, arabesques or geometric patterns are used to ll the interiors of the kites and central square bands of arabesques or geometric patterns may be used to outline the compartments, thickening the lines of the frame and rotor. These two techniques (lling and outlining) correspond to Type A and Type B, respectively, in the classication of 2-level designs introduced by Bonner [3]. In the best examples of 2-level designs, the large- and small-scale patterns are complementary in the sense that prominent features of one are highlighted or supported by the other. This is not achieved in Figure 6(c): the hexagonal subdivision of the kite provides a good basis for the construction of a small-scale pattern, and two of the directions within the small-scale pattern are aligned with the long sides of the kite, but the focal points of the pattern are not strong enough to add emphasis where it is needed. Also, the kites are treated independently rather than as parts of a composite gure, so there is no continuity across their boundaries. Other examples we shall analyse reveal that nding a smallscale pattern that is compatible with the features of the Whirling Kites gure is a challenging problem.

Variation 1
Figure 6(c) shows a geometric design based on the upper panels in the front face of the west iwan of the Friday Mosque. Both panels are counter-clockwise. Here the kites are decorated with a section of a periodic pattern constructed on a triangular grid. Figure 6(a) shows a hexagonal repeat unit for the pattern. The black motif is related to a common square Kuc representation of the name Ali. Here the text is truncated and reected; a well-formed hexagonal treatment of the text appears in the centre of panel 91 of the Topkapi Scroll [12]. Figure 6(b) shows how hexagons can be used to ll a kite whose small angle is 60. While Figure 6(c) is not a true reproduction of the panel on the mosque (the mosaic is not laid out so accurately), this method or something similar clearly underlies its construction. Here we pause for a few comments on terminology. The lines in the gures drawn in red show the underlying geometric structure of a design but are not apparent in the nished product. We shall use this convention throughout. We shall also refer to the shapes outlined by red lines as tiles, and to a collection of tiles as a tiling. This is to distinguish them from the individual ceramic shapes, which we shall call tesserae, that are assembled to form a panel or mosaic. Figure 6(c) is a simple example of a 2-level design: two geometric patterns of different scales used in a single design. Many examples of the interplay of patterns on multiple scales can be found in Islamic ornament. In the early works, voids in the background of a large-scale pattern are progressively lled with oral or geometric motifs to leave a design with no vacant spaces. In some of the nest examples of 2-level geometric design, mathematical processes such as subdivision were

Variation 2
Figure 7 shows a Type A 2-level Whirling Kites design from the Madar-i Shah Madrasa (Mother of the Shah or Royal Theological College), also known as the Chahar Bagh Madrasa. Each corner of the large central courtyard is canted with an arch leading to a small octagonal courtyard giving access to the rooms of the college. See [15, p. 293] for a general view. The Whirling Kites design is repeated just below roof level around the small courtyards. The design is used in both mirror-image forms, and the composition of the small-scale pattern varies. The mosaic is made using the cut tile technique: large ceramic tiles with a single colour glaze are cut into small tesserae, which are then assembled to make the mosaic panel. Here, the yellow star-shaped tesserae mark out the shapes of the compartments and manifest the 2:1 ratio of the long and short sides of the kites. The kites are lled with a seemingly random arrangement of black and turquoise tesserae. This small-scale pattern is based on a modular design system that underlies many Islamic patterns [6, 7, 10, 11]. The basic system comprises the three equilateral tiles shown in Figure 8: a regular decagon decorated with ten small kites arranged to form a {10/3} star motif, a hexagon shaped like a bow-tie decorated with two kites congruent to those on the decagon, and a convex hexagon with a bobbin-shaped motif. The boundaries of these underlying tiles are not apparent in the nished mosaic but they can be recovered from the design: the black tesserae are the foreground motifs on the tiles, the yellow tesserae are the
2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, Volume 33, Number 3, 2011

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 6. A 2-level design from the Friday Mosque, Isfahan.

87

Figure 9. First-stage analysis of Figure 7.

Figure 7. A Type A 2-level design from the Madar-i Shah Madrasa, Isfahan. (Photograph reproduced courtesy of Brian McMorrow).

decagons have the same orientation (vertex at the top), and this alone reduces the symmetry of the design as a whole to 2-fold rotation. The complete design is asymmetric because each kite has its own irregular lling. The lines in the large-scale pattern fall into two categories according to whether they connect two vertices or two edges of the decagon tiles. The lines connecting two vertices are covered by the diagonals of two bobbin tiles and a tile edge; the other lines (except for the bottomcentre) are covered by various sequences of two bow-ties and two bobbins. In fact, the two lengths produced by these combinations of tiles are not quite equal and the construction illustrated in Figure 9 is a geometric fallacy. This is made clear in Figure 10 which shows the small-scale

Figure 8. Elements in a common modular design system.

centres of the decagons, and the turquoise tesserae are formed by fusing the background regions at the edges of the tiles. The arrangement of the tiles is a typical application of the modular system to this style of 2-level pattern: decagons are placed so their centres coincide with prominent features of the large-scale pattern, other tiles are placed so that their edges or mirror lines are aligned with the outlines of the kitessee Figure 9. The interiors of the compartments are then inlled with more tiles. In this case the decagons are centred on the corners and junctions of the lines in the large-scale pattern and also divide the long sides of the kites. The centres of the decagons on the frame divide each side into three equal parts. If the long and short sides of a kite are in the ratio 2:1 then h, the small angle in a kite, is about 53.13. In a mosaic context, this angle cannot be distinguished from 54an angle compatible with the 10-fold geometry of the modular system. However, it is not compatible with the 4-fold symmetry of the Whirling Kites pattern. Observe that all the
88
THE MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER

Figure 10. Part of the small-scale pattern from Figure 7 when it is not constrained to t a kite.

apothem (centre to edge mid-point) of the decagon is ks. (h3) Using Figure 11(c) with relations (h1) and (h2) we can deduce that the length of the short mirror line of the bobbin is 2k(s - 1). The vertical lines of the square in Figure 9 must be covered by rational combinations of the distances (v1) (v4). These are parametrised by d and sp the length of the so side of the square must belong to Q 5: The horizontal lines of the square must be covered by rational combinations of the distances (h1)(h3); these are parametrised by p k and s. The double radical k is not in the eld Q 5: Therefore the vertical and horizontal distances covered by the tiles are incommensurable.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 11. Properties of the tiles in Figure 8.

pattern in the top left kite with its natural geometry. Notice the two half bow-tie tiles at the inner end of the fracture. The gap and the misalignment of the boundary at the topcentre are small and, with minor adjustments to the size and shape of a few tesserae, the small-scale pattern can be made to t the available space without drawing attention. Similar adjustments are made in the llings of the other kitesin the bottom right kite, the problem is pushed into the small angle of the kite where it affects the frame (as indicated by the discontinuity in Figure 9). In fact, it is impossible to cover a square frame exactly with the tiles using this strategy. We shall now sketch a proof of thisreaders who are not interested in the technicalities can skip to the next section. In any tiling composed of the three tiles in Figure 8 all the decagon tiles have the same orientation, and the bow-tie and bobbin tiles can both occur in ve orientations aligned at multiples of 36 to each other. We have the requirement that a tile which intersects a line in the square must do so in an edge or a mirror line of the tile. We take the edge length of the tiles to be 1. We shall express some distances across the tiles in terms of the parameters d and k shown in Figure 11(a). Recall that the lengths of a diagonal and an edge of a regular pentagon are in the golden ratio, s. We have p p 51 51 ; d cos72 and s 2 4 s p 5 5 : k sin72 8 First we consider distances that are vertical in Figure 11. (v1) The edge length is 1. (v2) The pentagon in Figure 11(a) shows that the radius (centre to vertex) of the decagon is s times its edge length. (v3) Figure 11(b) shows that the distance across the waist of the bow-tie is 1 - 2d. (v4) Figure 11(c) with relation (v2) shows the long diagonal of the bobbin is 2(s - d). Now we consider some horizontal distances in Figure 11. (h1) Figure 11(b) shows the length of the long mirror line of the bow-tie is 2k. (h2) Recalling that the lengths of the two red lines in Figure 11(b) are in ratio s, we can deduce that the

Variation 3
Figure 12 shows one of the lower pair of Type A 2-level Whirling Kites designs from the front face of the west iwan of the Friday Mosque. As with the upper pair (Variation 1), both panels are counter-clockwise. The mosaic is predominantly in black and gold with the kites outlined in white. The problems in the Madrasa design (Variation 2) arising from the use of 10-point stars are avoided here by using 12-point stars. These stars are compatible with the 4-fold symmetry of the whole design and its 90 angles at the corners of the frame and the inner square. Figure 13 shows the underlying structure of the design. The 12-point stars are represented by circles. Using the distance between adjacent centres as the unit, we see that the long and short sides of the kites are in the ratio 4:2 so h & 53.13. The panel is subdivided into 20 unit squares, and 8 small kites with sides in the ratio 2:1. To form the mosaic each small square is lled with a standard star pattern that has the centres of 12-point stars at the corners

Figure 12. A Type A 2-level design from the Friday Mosque, Isfahan. (Reproduced from [15, p.220] courtesy of Henri and Anne Stierlin, Geneva).
2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, Volume 33, Number 3, 2011

89

Figure 13. Analysis of Figure 12.

Figure 14. A Type B 2-level design from the Friday Mosque, Isfahan. (Photograph reproduced courtesy of Daniel Sanderson).

and an 8-point star in the centre. This pattern covers over half the panel. The decoration in the small kites is based on tiles analogous to the bow-tie and bobbin tiles of Figure 10, but adapted to the angles of a dodecagonal tiling scheme. The 12-point stars are not compatible with the local geometry in the shaded circles (if the spikes are equally spaced, they cannot align with the sides of the kite), but this does not intrude on the eye. We have seen three examples of Type A (lling); we now consider examples of Type B (outlining).

Variation 4
Figure 14 shows the famous 2-level Whirling Kites design from the inner wall of the west iwan of the Friday Mosque. A wider view and some details are shown in photographs IRA 0520, IRA 0604, and IRA 0605 in [17]. The bands outlining the frame and rotor are bordered by fragments of 10-point stars. Connecting the centres of these stars divides the bands into strips of approximately square cells, as shown in Figure 15(a). Using the side of a square as a unit, and measuring along the centre-line of the band, we see that the frame is 15 units along each side, and the central square is 5 units. Therefore, the sides of each kite are (again) in the ratio 2:1. The small-scale design is created by lling each square cell with a pattern based on the template shown in Figure 15(b). This pattern is constructed using another modular system, this time having four decorated tiles: a regular decagon with a {10/4} star motif, a regular pentagon with a {5/ 2} star (or pentagram) motif, an isosceles triangle with sides in the golden ratio decorated with a kite, and a trapezium decorated with an arrowhead. The template can be repeated to form periodic star patternssee photograph IND 0705 in [17] for an example. Applying the template to the square cells of Figure 15(a) is problematic as the template itself is not
90
THE MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER

(a)
Figure 15. Analysis of Figure 14.

(b)

square (the height is about 95% of the width). Hence, some juggling of the tesserae is required to make things t. The pentagrams are most affected by the deformationthey are noticeably irregular in the mosaic. Even though the large-scale pattern has 4-fold symmetry, and is decomposed into squares, the design on the template has only 2-fold symmetry. In Figure 15(a) the orientation of the template is indicated with the double arrow motif from the centre of the template; the copies around the frame are vertically aligned and those in the rotor are aligned top-right to bottom-left. The angle between the bands in the rotor and those in the frame is approximately 54 so it is compatible with the 10-fold geometry underlying the template. This means that it is possible for the stars and other motifs in the small-scale pattern to be aligned consistently throughout the design (as in

Variation 2). However, if the craftsmen who made the mosaic recognised this, either they did not consider it important or they have made a mistake in laying out the design. In the mosaic, the stars in the frame have a vertical spike while the stars in the rotor have a horizontal spike. If the rotor were rotated by 90, all the stars would have the same alignment, and the small-scale designs would be compatible at the junctions where the rotor meets the frame. In the mosaic this is not the case and further juggling is required to disguise it.

Star Placement
When the length parameters x, y, s and t are integers, discrete motifs such as owers or stars can be placed on the Whirling Kites gure so their centres lie on the gure, some coincide with the corners and intersections of the lines, and they are equally spaced along all its lines. Figure 16(a) shows a template for a Whirling Kites design with x = 11 and y = 3. This implies h & 59.49, an angle that is indistinguishable from 60 for practical

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)
Figure 16. A new Type B 2-level design with 12-point star motifs. Design Copyright P.R. Cromwell 2010.

purposes. The gure is formed from strips of squares; where the rotor meets the frame the strips are simply overlaid and the two squares that meet at each junction are concentric. To create a Type B pattern we need to nd a star pattern that has a square repeat unit and is compatible with 90 and 60 junctions. We shall not explain the construction of star patterns heresee [5, 8, 9] for information. However, it is clear that a 12-point star is a good candidate for a motif that meets these requirements. Figure 16(c) shows four repeat units of a traditional pattern taken from Plate 94 of Bourgoin [2]. It is constructed using another modular system of decorated tiles: regular polygons of 3, 4 and 12 sides and a shield-shaped tile formed by erecting a right isosceles triangle on each side of an equilateral triangle [16, p. 18]. Figure 16(d) shows the result of placing this repeat unit in each square of Figure 16(a); the junctions between the rotor and the frame are made using the simple mitre joint shown in Figure 16(b). The result is a Type B 2-level Whirling Kites pattern with 12-point stars (coloured yellow in the gure) equally spaced along the centre-line of the bands. Even though it would have been possible for medieval artists to construct patterns like this, we are not aware of a Whirling Kites example in which the principal star motif runs along the centre-line of the bands. The closest we have come is the border pattern shown in photograph EGY 1609 of [17], which shows a band with 12-point stars turning a 90 corner. In most 2-level designs where the small-scale design is a star pattern, the dening features (corners and intersections) of the large-scale design are located in the centres of stars in the small-scale design. In Type B designs, the dening features of the large-scale design are the corners in the boundary of the band. In the example of Figure 14 the centres of the 10-point stars are evenly spaced along the band edges as far as possible. The exterior corners of the frame, the corners of the central square, and the 90 corners of the kites are all located at star centres. The obtuse and acute angles of the kites do not coincide naturally with star centres, although stars have been placed at the acute angles in the top and bottom sides of the frame. Figure 17 shows that it is possible to create a Whirling Kites design in which all the band boundaries have integer length. A 3-4-5 triangle is placed at each junction of the rotor and the frame, and the bands are 4 units wide. Measuring along the centre-line of the bands we have x = 36 and y = 12. This means that the long and short sides of the kites are in the ratio 2:1 and h & 53.13. When trying to select a star whose geometry is compatible with a Whirling Kites design, it is useful to nd a fraction of 360 that approximates h. The denominator gives an indication of the number of points in a suitable star, either directly or via simple relationships. In this case 3/20 is a good candidate. However, it is difcult to make patterns from stars with as many as 20 points. The most natural choice for a small-scale geometric pattern is a star pattern with 10-fold motifs. As we have seen, this is far from easy. Motifs with 10fold symmetry are not compatible with the 4-fold symmetry of the whole design: 10-point stars will have the same
2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, Volume 33, Number 3, 2011

91

Our nal example shows another approach to the problem of star placement.

Variation 5
Figure 18 shows another Type B 2-level design from the Friday Mosque. Other views are shown in photographs IRA 0721 and IRA 0722 in [17]. In this example, placing the stars at prominent points has taken precedence over equal spacing. The underlying structure of the small-scale pattern is shown in Figure 19. The lines dividing the band into cells connect the star centres. Left to right along the bottom of the frame we nd four squares, four rectangles, and a nal square. The width of each rectangle is determined by the equilateral triangle it contains. This arrangement is repeated around the other sides of the frame. The ratio of the p lengths is AB : BC 3 : 1 so h = 60. To construct the rotor, erect a line from A making an angle of 60 with the bottom of the frame. Repeat on each side of the frame and extend the four lines until they meet. For example, the line starting at A meets the line starting at D in the point E. These four lines bound a square in the middle of the gure, which is subdivided into a 3 9 3 array of congruent squares. These squares are smaller than those in the frame: EF is about 94% of CD. The kite in the lower right is completed with the line CF. Note that CF and DE are not parallel but diverge away from the frame. Label the midpoint of CF as G. This cellular structure provides a framework for laying out the small-scale pattern. The principal star motifs have 12 points and so are compatible with the 90 and 60 angles at the corners of the band. The 16 stars in the central array are aligned so that their spikes lie on the cell boundaries; the tips of spikes of adjacent stars touch. The 12-point stars in the frame are aligned so that the cell boundaries pass between the spikesthis difference may help to disguise

Figure 17. A band network with integer boundaries.

orientation throughout the pattern, so some band boundaries will pass through opposite spikes, and others will pass between the spikes. There are also the problems of producing a square template to cover the band, and covering the 3-4-5 triangles in both vertical and horizontal alignments. Even if this were done, the small-scale pattern would probably appear too busy and intricate to be effective as ornamentthe difference in scale and apparent complexity between the large and small patterns is too great.

Figure 18. A Type B 2-level design from the Friday Mosque, Isfahan. (Photograph reproduced courtesy of Steven Achord).
92
THE MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER

Figure 19. Analysis of Figure 18.

the fact that they are further apart than the others. The star at G marks the transition between the two orientations and has 13 points. The square cells in the frame contain 8-point stars at their centres. Triangle CDG is almost equilateral (the angle at C is about 62.19) and this is close enough for the decoration used in the other triangles to be applied. Each kind of cell has its own lling, and these are consistently applied. The pattern has no awkward juxtapositions or abrupt changes, it is a masterly display of apparently effortless transitions between a progression of patterns.

Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music and Science, (Granada, 2003), eds. R. Sarhangi and N. Friedman, 2003, pp. 112. [4] P. R. Cromwell, The search for quasi-periodicity in Islamic 5-fold ornament, Math. Intelligencer 31 no 1 (2009) 3656. [5] P. R. Cromwell, Islamic geometric designs from the Topkapi Scroll I: Unusual arrangements of stars, J. Math. and the Arts 4 (2010) 7385. [6] P. R. Cromwell, Islamic geometric designs from the Topkapi Scroll II: A modular design system, J. Math. and the Arts 4 (2010) 119136. [7] E. H. Hankin, The Drawing of Geometric Patterns in Saracenic Art, Memoirs of the Archaeological Society of India, no 15, Government of India, 1925. [8] C. S. Kaplan, Computer generated Islamic star patterns, Proc. Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music and Science, (Kansas, 2000), ed. R. Sarhangi, 2000, pp. 105112. [9] C. S. Kaplan, Islamic star patterns from polygons in contact, Graphics Interface 2005, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series 112, 2005, pp. 177186. [10] P. J. Lu and P. J. Steinhardt, Decagonal and quasi-crystalline tilings in medieval Islamic architecture, Science 315 (23 Feb 2007) 11061110. [11] E. Makovicky, 800-year old pentagonal tiling from Maragha, Iran, and the new varieties of aperiodic tiling it inspired, Fivefold Symmetry, ed. I. Hargittai, World Scientic, 1992, pp. 6786. [12] G. Necipoglu, The Topkapi Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture, Getty Center Publication, Santa Monica, 1995. [13] A. Ozdural, Mathematics and arts: connections between theory and practice in the medieval Islamic world, Historia Mathematica 27 (2000) 171201. [14] G. Potter, http://www.kuc.info/. [15] H. Stierlin, Islamic Art and Architecture from Isfahan to the Taj Mahal, Thames and Hudson, London, 2002. [16] D. Sutton, Islamic Design: A Genius for Geometry, Wooden Books Ltd, Glastonbury, 2007. [17] D. Wade, Pattern in Islamic Art: The Wade Photo-Archive, http://www.patterninislamicart.com/.

Conclusion
The examples discussed above have highlighted some of the problems encountered in trying to design and fabricate 2-level Whirling Kites designs. The mathematics required to create designs with discrete motifs such as owers evenly spaced along the centre-lines of the band in a Type B pattern is straightforward and could have been understood by medieval craftsmen. Working with star patterns is more difcult, but it is possible to discover by experiment some congurations of the Whirling Kites gure whose angles are compatible with the geometry of stars. Even so, applying a star pattern to cover the bands presents theoretical as well as practical challenges and the medieval artists produced ingenious and attractive solutions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to everyone who has given us permission to reproduce their images, and to Mamoun Sakkal for explaining the Kuc basis of the decoration in Figure 6.
REFERENCES

[1] N. Assarzadegan, Dividing and composing the squares, Lamar University Electronic Journal of Student Research, Fall, 2008. Also in History and Pedagogy of Mathematics Newsletter 68 (July 2008) 1320. [2] J. Bourgoin, Les Elements de lArt Arabe: Le Trait des Entrelacs, Firmin-Didot, Paris, 1879. Plates reprinted in Arabic Geometric Pattern and Design, Dover Publications, New York, 1973. [3] J. Bonner, Three traditions of self-similarity in fourteenth and fteenth century Islamic geometric ornament, Proc. ISAMA/

2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, Volume 33, Number 3, 2011

93