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| colorful mosaics Zellige is an amazing feat of the Islamic world, dating back to the 8th century. |
The
ratio, also known as the Fibonacci sequence, dictates the arrangement
of branches in a tree and the number of petals on a flower. The golden
ratio is an overt reminder of the ways that math plays into everyday
life, and of its effortless beauty.
I
thought about the beauty of mathematics as I stood in the courtyard at
the University of al- Qarawiyyin, the oldest university in the world, in
the Fez medina. I was looking at a walled pattern designed with
hundreds of small stones, entranced by its beauty and fascinated by its
perplexing mathematical structure...
A marriage of art and math
Zellige also represents the ancient Islamic world’s mathematical capabilities and advancements. I was not the only one fascinated by the combined beauty and complexity of zellige. Many have questioned how the two play together, and what makes the art so captivating. There is even a realm of mathematics dedicated to patterns and mosaics, a subject zellige falls neatly into.
Zellige also represents the ancient Islamic world’s mathematical capabilities and advancements. I was not the only one fascinated by the combined beauty and complexity of zellige. Many have questioned how the two play together, and what makes the art so captivating. There is even a realm of mathematics dedicated to patterns and mosaics, a subject zellige falls neatly into.
Metin Arik, a mathematician who studies this category, has a theory
about zellige and its surprising relation to a “freak of nature.”
Although it is contested, Arik suggests that the mosaics have a striking
similarity to a unique crystal known as a quasicrystal.
Source: Morocco World News
