What is Islamic Art

Nishapur shows similar, albeit simpler, geometric treatment. [Figure 22]

An approximately contemporaneous Quran inscribed by ibn al-Bawwab

used polyhedral isometric geometry in its lavishly decorated gold frontis-

piece. [Figure 23] Seljuq-era funerary architecture in modern Iran and

Iraq, such as the Kharraqan Towers (1069) in Ghazvin Province in Iran,

quickly adopted isometric polyhedral geometric surface revetment. Such

geometry soon projected into a third dimension, allowing for the stalactite

form later calledmuqarnasat sites including the Shrine of‘Abdullah (1085)

at Dur in Iraq. Although artisanal manuals recognized three-dimension-

ality as an extension of the logic of two dimensions, European art histor-

ians, accustomed to separating surface treatment from architectural form,

puzzled over the origins ofmuqarnas, the three-dimensional geometric

form that found a long-lived home over doorways and enlivening

squinches.^29

An analogous shift from simple to more complex geometries seems to

have occurred contemporaneously in music theory. Distinguishing

between consecutive and non-consecutive melodic movement, al-Kindi

conceives of music in terms of movements described as a spiral, a sash, and

a braid–forms likely translated from a Greek source. This informs al-

Farabi’s oppositions of straight and circular melodic patterns, picked up by

ibn Sina, who defines circularity as“periodic repetition of pitches within a

given melodic span.”^30 Yet he also enhances al-Kindi’s descriptive

Figure 22Anonymous, wall painting, stucco, Nishapur, Iran, ninth century.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 40.170.177

(^29) Necipoğlu, 1995 : 22; Bush, 2018 :49–52. (^30) Wright, 2004 : 361.
276 Mimetic Geometries