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Article: Tiles shed new light on ancient patterns.
- Article from:
- Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)
- Article date:
- February 22, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Chicago Tribune. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Jeremy Manier
CHICAGO _ The intricate, abstract designs of Islamic art and architecture have always struck experts as the inspired expressions of a faith that forbids direct depictions of holy figures.
But a new study shows that Muslim artisans working in what is now Iran went further, producing a sophisticated geometric pattern more than 500 years before Western mathematicians identified it in the 1970s and 1980s.
It's unclear whether artists of the time fully understood the unique features of their patterns, which researchers at Harvard and Princeton Universities found in tile decorations on a shrine and mosque dating from the 15th ...