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

Communities in different times and places in the world have given varying weight to forms of knowledge and the variety of processes by which knowledge is believed to be created. Bound to each society’s unique culture, these epistemological hierarchies are constantly in flux: Social and religious factors, for example, shaped such hierarchies by emphasizing some...Read More

Communities in different times and places in the world have given varying weight to forms of knowledge and the variety of processes by which knowledge is believed to be created. Bound to each society’s unique culture, these epistemological hierarchies are constantly in flux: Social and religious factors, for example, shaped such hierarchies by emphasizing some...Read More