Medieval Muslims made stunning math breakthrough

[Conspiracy]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Magnificently sophisticated geometric patterns in medieval Islamic architecture indicate their designers achieved a mathematical breakthrough 500 years earlier than Western scholars, scientists said on Thursday.

 

By the 15th century, decorative tile patterns on these masterpieces of Islamic architecture reached such complexity that a small number boasted what seem to be "quasicrystalline" designs, Harvard University's Peter Lu and Princeton University's Paul Steinhardt wrote in the journal Science.

 

 

Only in the 1970s did British mathematician and cosmologist Roger Penrose become the first to describe these geometric designs in the West. Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry.

 

 

"Oh, it's absolutely stunning," Lu said in an interview. "They made tilings that reflect mathematics that were so sophisticated that we didn't figure it out until the last 20 or 30 years."

 

Lu and Steinhardt in particular cite designs on the Darb-i Imam shrine in Isfahan, Iran, built in 1453

 

Islamic tradition has frowned upon pictorial representations in artwork. Mosques and other grand buildings erected by Islamic architects throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and elsewhere often are wrapped in rich, intricate tile designs setting out elaborate geometric patterns.

 

The walls of many medieval Islamic structures display sumptuous geometric star-and-polygon patterns. The research indicated that by 1200 an important breakthrough had occurred in Islamic mathematics and design, as illustrated by these geometric designs.

 

Will Dunham of reuters

 

 

About time those fools recognized!!

[-Nomadique-]

^ Nice.

 

The number of theories, principles, discoveries, inventions etc attributable to Muslims is astonishing. The role of Muslims in shaping the world we live in today has not truly been acknowledged, not anywhere near.

 

For those who are interested check out this useful website 1001 Inventions

[Taliban]

The Medieval era is associated with ignorance, superstitiousness, backwardness, iwm; how could Muslims have been advanced? I am asking the question, because moderate Muslims complain about Islamists wanting to take us to the Medieval era.