This paper discusses the notion of God as the only Creator, exploring its main implications for conceptualising the identity and purpose of Islamic architecture. The paper concludes that the concept of God as the Creator represents the core of the Islamic doctrine of tawhid (God’s Oneness and Uniqueness) which, in turn, presents Islamic architecture with...Read More

The conventional view holds that girih (geometric star-and-polygon, or strapwork) patterns in medieval Islamic architecture were conceived by their designers as a network of zigzagging lines, where the lines were drafted directly with a straightedge and a compass. We show that by 1200 C.E. a conceptual breakthrough occurred in which girih patterns were reconceived as...Read More

10th-century Córdoba, mathematics—and particularly geometry—was applied to architectural design in new ways, constituting a “mathematical turn” of Islamic architecture. In the mosque of Córdoba and in the palaces of Madīnat al-Zahrāʾ , geometry was employed in the design of ground plans, elevations, decorative patterns, and even to measure the human view. While Roman architects like...Read More

In the following I am sending a few notes on the German survey of Damascus. The copy I am sending, from which the accompanying plan is taken, was torn down on the last day of the German occupation, from the wall of a German official’s room, and with his permission. Those who knew Damascus before...Read More