Reddit reviews A Visual Dictionary of Architecture

Coincidentally, I went to this lecture earlier today: Mamluk Geometric Design In Cairo. It was given by Eric Broug, an expert on Islamic geometric design.

He made some fascinating points. He stated that there was a 'continuity of best practice' throughout the Islamic world for over 1000 years. He gave examples of this to do with how geometric designs were scaled, and how corners were finished. He stated that the only period in Islamic history where these best practices are not applied, is in the last 100 years.

He then gave some examples of shitty geometric design in Dubai. He showed how some geometric panels in Dubai malls are trying to imitate Mamluk designs, but fail. He also recounted a story of how he kept seeing this one particular pattern everywhere in Dubai. Then he realized that it's on the cover of a book on Islamic design, and that the architects had traced it off Amazon. And he knows it was traced because it's not even symmetrical or properly laid out. It's so sad.

Most of the lecture was him showing photographs he'd taken of favourite designs in Mamluk Cairo. He said that he loves finding anomalies. For example, there's a particular type of pattern that was only really used in Iraq. He found one example in a Mamluk mosque in Cairo. Another type of pattern was very common in Andalusia and Morocco, but doesn't exist in the Middle East, with the exception of one Mamluk mosque in Cairo. What's more, it was placed on the minaret and can't be seen by pedestrians. You have to be on the mosque roof to see it.

Really fascinating talk. The video will be put up next week on the website. Eric Broug is active on youtube and social media, btw, so he's definitely worth a follow.

Regarding the paper itself - what are these shitty plans? Like come on, draw some proper readable plans and sections and put some labels for God's sake.

But reading this paper made me think of the necessity of an Islamic version of Francis Ching's Visual Dictionary of Architecture. I've come across several books in English and Arabic in the past, but none that are properly illustrated. For god's sake, you can't read about qa'as and iwans and turbas and mu3allaqas and qaytuns and tablakhanas without a drawing or illustration.

Generally this subject fascinates me, and I yearn for a revival of traditional Islamic arts and crafts. I think architecture and the visual arts are a mirror of society, and that the modern history of the Middle East is perfectly summarized by the fact that 1000 years of best practice craftsmanship was lost in the 20th century. Basically, it is this.

According to Broug, the only country that still retains some of this knowledge and skill is Morocco.

Edit: He mentioned that he keeps a pinterest board of shitty geometric design. I found it here