A philosophical and interpretive analysis of the geometrical patterns of Islamic art, explaining their inseparability from mystical mathematics and, with the aid of nearly two hundred drawings, their reflection of the cosmological laws affecting all creation

Product Description: Issam El-Said pinpoints the rules of composition that form the basis of the geometric concepts of Islamic art. He then shows how intricate patterns are based on these basic principles. Fully illustrated in three colors to show the development of the patterns, this book offers an insight into how craftsmen and designers in the Muslim world achieved monumental feats of artistic expression using the simplest of tools...read more

Product Description: Attributed to Iamblichus (4th cent. AD), The Theology of Arithmetic is about the mystical, mathmatical and cosmological symbolism of the first ten numbers. Its is the longest work on number symbolism to survive from the ancient world, and Robin Waterfield's careful translation contains helpful footnotes, an extensive glossary, bibliography, and foreword by Keith Critchlow...read more

Offering imaginative insight into the area where mathematics and the arts meet, this book may be used as a practical tool by the architect, designer or scientist who has to deal with such problems as defining space, distributing patterns, packing and stacking, and communication links.