The complex geometry of Islamic design - Eric Broug

In Islamic culture, geometric design is everywhere: you can find it in mosques, madrasas, palaces, and private homes. And despite the remarkable complexity of these designs, they can be created with just a compass to draw circles and a ruler to make lines within them. Eric Broug covers the basics of geometric Islamic design.

Lesson by Eric Broug, animation by TED-Ed.

[greyhound]

I came to Madina (holy city for muslim beside Mecca) and saw a magnificent pattern of geometry inside the Mosque of Nabawi. It was 3 p.m and the roof was open automatically and warm sunlight hits every one and the wall which contains beautiful geometry pattern. That beauty still left me wandering.

[SuperPeacefulguy]

Everybody expectin hate in the comments, I've seen lots of good comments so far, so good job folks *thumbs up*

[jaynoxjay]

A lot of what we know today about Math and Anatomy we owe to Islamic history and practices.

[BronzeAgeMan]

centuries ago,
Students: I wanna be both Artist and Mathematician
Khalif: yes

[Angelika_Johanna]

This video is so perfectly composed and wonderful to use in my art class, thank you so much Ted-Ed, my students will fall in love with islamic design!

[manager-nim]

I love how my religion is related to something in this video that has nothing to do with death and terror, loved it.
Ramadan Kareem everyone

[magnapeccatrix]

Pen and paper skills are satisfying enough. Imagine applying these motives onto marble, rock and woods on massive scale without today's power tools and let them all be precise as in the paper.

[MeysamShojaeeNejad]

People tend to forget that until a couple of centuries ago, middle east had been the 'most advanced' part of the world.

[AlexS-ojqf]

I got introduced to Islams art in early age and I've apply it around my room. It's just beautiful and fascinating, but also complex.

[Unknown-vxqm]

I love how come TED-Ed is very open-minded about this kind of stuff and actually gives truthful facts!! Love your vids! <3

[gfergina]

Wow! no wonder old or ancient mosques looks so beautiful and artistic..

[zebrazebra]

Islamic scientists contributed much to civilization, great people

[_aureliazadira]

I love how people could start a flame war in a video about Islamic art and geometry XD

Can't we all just at least respect the beauty and hard work put into making those designs?

[KremsonKhan]

I am Muslim but i had no idea and never thought about these patterns
how complex and eye pleasing they are! amazing job on the video!

[ChristianJiang]

I'm Christian, but I find Islam fascinating. Those who associate Islam with terrorists are ignorant...

[dounyazad]

Interesting
As a Muslim I'm really proud of this great civilization and gold history that we have...

[blackroze]

The reason why Muslim artists turned to geometry in expressing themselves is the need for keeping the faith monotheistic( in the Islamic sense that god cannot be contained in any form or shape and that he cannot be defined>> anything that is limited cannot be worshiped). Muslims also stopped drawing prominent persons in the religion so people would not turn into idealizing them and worshiping them. These patterns all have meanings though. Some say that certain patterns refer to the story of creation and even certain personalities. It's quite interesting

[papayacafe]

Loved it. Golden age of Islam. Wish it were back..

[anaranarov]

"We have *30 books* left behind from muslim Andalusia, so that we could split the atom. If a half of the one million burned books could survive, we would already travel between galaxies in space.'' Pierre Curie

[jbanders]

As a Christian, I love this. Mathematics is a language from God. Muslims understood this very early on. Their wisdom and faith is beautiful to witness. Their incredible contributions to Science, Math, and Art are without question 🙏🏻🙌🏻💪🏻