Symmetry in Islamic Geometric Design Symmetry in Moroccan

Claudia Michael
2008 Fulbright Hays Summer Seminar Abroad
Morocco
An Interdisciplinary Study
of
Symmetry in Islamic Geometric Design
and
Symmetry in Moroccan author,
Laila Lalami’s novel
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
This interdisciplinary study was developed as a result of my interest in Islamic design,
and my participation in the 2008 Fulbright Hays Summer Seminar Abroad to Morocco.
It is intended for High School students in World Literature and Art classes.
Prior to traveling to Morocco, I read Laila Lalami’s novel, Hope and Other Dangerous
Pursuits. While in Morocco, I often thought about Lalami’s characters and themes. I
also became very interested in Moroccan Islamic pattern design. The stuccowork found
on Moroccan ceilings and walls manifests the Islamic preoccupation with symmetrical
order. The interior of many edifices we visited were adorned with spectacular zillij or
carved ornamentation. I started to think about the similarities between the geometric
designs I witnessed and the symmetrical structure of Lalami’s novel.
By using scholarly references on Islamic Art and geometric design, I will show how Laila
Lalami’s novel, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits can be used to teach symmetry.
Deconstructing the stories through this graphic lens, I will propose a direct relationship to
symmetrical design as seen in Islamic patterns.
After reading the novel and deconstructing the text, themes and characters, students will
create a design using reflection symmetry. They will take their design and explore the
symmetrical properties further, by creating a kaleidoscope that will reflect the design to
infinity.
Glossary
from the Oxford American Dictionary
Arabesque
• an ornamental design consisting of intertwined flowing lines,
originally found in Arabic of Moorish decoration
Archetype
• a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art or mythology
Baraka
• sanctity or blessing, obtained through saints or marabouts
Bilateral Symmetry • symmetrical arrangement of an organism or part of an
organism along a central axis, dividing it in half
Calligraphy
• the art of producing decorative handwriting or lettering with a
pen or brush
Dogma
• a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as
incontrovertibly true
Dromedary
• an Arabian camel, esp. one of a light and swift breed trained for
riding or racing
Frieze
• a broad horizontal band of sculpted or painted decoration, esp
on a wall near the ceiling
Hijab
• a head covering worn in public by some Muslim women
Idolatry
• worship of idols
Inshallah
• from the Arabic – if Allah wills it
Islam
• the religion of the Muslims, a monotheistic faith regarded as
revealed through Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah
Islamic Art
• Islamic art encompasses the arts produced from the 7th century
onwards by people (not necessarily Muslim) who lived within
the territory that was inhabited by culturally Islamic
populations
Islamic Pattern
• geometric repeating patterns symbolizing the unchanging laws
of God
Islamist
• a term used to define a Muslim fundamentalist
Kilometer
• a metric unit of measurement equal to 1,000 meters
(approximately 0.62 miles)
Monochromatic
• containing or using only one color, lacking in variety
Motif
• a repeated unit in a decorative design or pattern
Muslim
• a follower of the religion of Islam
Prophet Mohammad • is the central human figure of the religion of Islam and is
regarded by Muslims as the last greatest messenger and prophet
of Allah
Qur’an
• the Islamic sacred book, believed to be the word of God as
dictated to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel and written
down in Arabic
Radial Symmetry
• a symmetry around a central axis
Reflective Symmetry • the operation that flips a motif changing both its position and
its handednesss
Zillij
• terra cotta tilework covered with enamel in the form of chips
set into plaster, geometric mosaics used as ornament
Introduction
The Islamic Decorative Canon
Since the early years of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings against idolatry were
interpreted to mean that the depiction of humans and animals in art was prohibited.
(“Pattern in Islamic Art”. http://www.patterninislamicart.com)
Adherence to this strict religious interpretation led to a highly evolved Islamic design
aesthetic. Images derived from plant life (arabesque), geometric patterns and stylized
calligraphy became the canon of what we know as Islamic decorative art. (“Pattern in
Islamic Art”. http://www.patterninislamicart.com)
“Much of the art of Islam, whether in architecture, ceramics, textiles or books, is the art
of decoration-which is to say, of transformation. The aim however, is never merely to
ornament, but rather to transfigure. Essentially, this is a reflection of the Islamic
preoccupation with the transitory nature of being.” Taken from “The Evolution of
Style/Pattern in Islamic Art”. http://www.patterninislamicart.com
Unity
According to the Qur’an, unity is an underlying principal of Islam, both a doctrine of
faith, spirituality and a blueprint for conducting one’s life. As described by Keith
Critchlow in Islamic Patterns, An Analytical and Cosmological Approach, page 6,
“Islamic Art….is a means of relating multiplicity to Unity by means of mathematical
forms which are seen, not as mental abstractions, but as reflections of the celestial
archetypes within both the cosmos and the minds and souls of men.”
According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, in the book, Islamic Art and Spirituality, art is the
manifestation of unity upon the plane of multiplicity. The ubiquitous chanting of the
Muslim call to prayer, “There is no god but God” helps construct the unifying mode of
thought for the faithful. The devout Muslim tiles a mosaic of belief in an infinite repeated
pattern of speech, thought and action.
Titus Burckhardt writes in the book, Sacred Art in East and West, that the complexity of
unity is best described through the geometry of the circle. Mathematicians believe that
the circle is the most beautiful and elegant geometric form, because it is the expression of
justice, through symmetry and balance. It is the symbol of eternity. (Critchlow, page 9)
The circle is the starting point for many patterns in Islamic design. In it’s simplicity, the
circle is the archetype for the processes of the Universe. (Critchlow, page 7) It is a
complete form, yet has no beginning and no end. Its shape symbolizes the perfect unity of
filled and unfilled space. It is complete and multifaceted. It has many parts within a
whole yet contains a center point that anchors all other dissections of its core.
The circle exhibits several types of symmetry. It has lateral, radiating and reflective
symmetrical properties. The repeated division of space within the circle, can be seen in
many Islamic designs used to decorate mosques, utilitarian objects and in the
construction of shaped calligraphy.
Secondary Curricula
for
World Literature and Art
SYMMETRY
Symmetry in Laila Lalami’s novel, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
World Literature Competencies
(based on the New Hampshire Curriculum Frameworks)
1. Students will understand that reading literatures from around the world with
understanding and appreciation of commonality and differences is essential for
them to succeed as learners, both in school and throughout their lives, and to
become contributing members of society.
2. Students will understand that interpreting and critically analyzing classic and
contemporary literature leads to knowledge of the genre. The study of World
Literature develops an appreciation of the human experience.
3. Students will understand that in the study of World Literature it is necessary to
use critical thinking skills of analyzing, comparing, categorizing, and classifying,
identifying cause and effect, problem solving, persuading, empathizing,
synthesizing, interpreting, evaluating communicating, and applying.
Using Reflection to Create a Symmetrical Design
New Hampshire Visual Arts Curriculum Standards
Curriculum Standard 2 : Identify and apply the elements of visual art and
principles of design.
Curriculum Standard 3 : Select and apply a range of subject matter, symbols and
ideas.
Curriculum Standard 4 : Analyze the visual arts in relation to history and culture.
Curriculum Standard 6 : Students will make connections among the visual arts,
other disciplines, and daily life.
Objectives
Students will:
• make and support analytical judgments about the text
• analyze and interpret characters and themes
• find similarities between the novel and Islamic decorative design
• recognize symmetry in the physical world and the world of ideas
• create symmetrical designs using an equilateral triangle
• use reflection symmetry within the equilateral triangle to tessellate a plane
• make a kaleidoscope that will reflect the triangle design to infinity
An Overview and Analysis of Symmetry in Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
These ideas can be used to generate discussion about the novel, life in Morocco and
illegal immigration.
In the novel, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Laila Lalami uses a symmetrical
structure to tell the story of four individuals whose lives intersect much like motifs in an
arabesque. Lalami creates symmetrical reflections of characters that attempt to seek
freedom, redemption and faith in the absolute. The novel moves like a circular frieze
without beginning or end. The psychological world of the main characters is fragmented
and messy reflecting the nature of the profane. The physical world remains a constant
repetition of pattern in a sacred cosmological order. Indifferent and sometimes cruel, the
order of the Universe is never belied.
A Comparison of Islamic Patterning
and Laila Lalami’s novel,
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
The novel is set in modern Morocco. The main characters are introduced in the first
chapter called The Trip. The seemingly unrelated cast is woven together through the act
of illegal immigration. All parties have dearly paid for unlawful and dangerous passage to
southern Spain via the treacherous fourteen-kilometer pass at the Strait of Gibraltar.
The introduction sets up the obvious symmetrical structure of Lalami’s first novel.
Several patterns are established from the onset. The novel is organized into two parts.
The first set of stories introduces us to the characters’ lives prior to their fateful journey.
In the following chapters we find the characters living out the consequences of their
decisions or are they just motifs in a sacred pattern subject to “inshallah” or the will of
God?
The symmetrical structure could be seen as bilateral. Not quite a mirror image, the
similarities are reflected in the thoughts and words of the characters.
The novel begins and ends through the eyes of Murad. The character completes the circle
of hope and gives the reader assurance that there is order in the universe despite the
obvious appearance of randomness.
The Trip, foreshadows the dichotomous psychology of the characters as they confront
two countries, two universes, the infinite, the finite, the sacred and the secular.
Part 1: Before
The Fanatic
Larbi, is the father of Noura, a university student aspiring to study at NYU.
He is an official in the Moroccan Ministry of Education. His wife is a lawyer with
progressive views about women.
Noura befriends Faten, a conservative Islamist student who influences Noura to question
the bourgeois life created by wealth and profane values.
Symmetrical and circular devices in Lalami’s storytelling allow the viewer to see
universal themes in the details of the Maghrebi tale.
Larbi is annoyed that he is asked for a professional favor. At the end of the story, it is
Larbi who manipulates events and solicits his own brand of extortion to serve a purpose.
Faten presents herself as righteously pious. She is not above corruption when survival is
at stake. Corruption emerges as a theme contrasted with integrity, seen as a convenient
luxury of the rich and powerful.
It is certainly not baraka, (a blessing from God) but maybe karma that finds Larbi
contemplating his daughter’s extremism while struggling to acknowledge his own
corruption.
The Mizan, the Islamic scales of balance are used to measure the cosmic symmetry in
Lalami’s work. (“Pattern in Islamic Art”. http://www.patterninislamicart.com)
Lalami’s characters are Moroccan yet universal themes are revealed through their
duplicitous actions.
If we pay attention, we will hear Faten’s sentiments repeated in Part II. Page 43, “No one
is offering me anything. No one gives anything for free.”
Lalami creates a pattern of character motifs. They reappear physically and also in
thought and action. They are not regular motifs, like the shapes repeated in zillij tiling
but a progressive motif. They are transfigured paralleling the transitory nature of being.
(“The Evolution of Style/Pattern in Islamic Art”. http://www.patterninislamicart.com)
Bus Ride
Halima is married to Maati an alcoholic. They have three children.
Through the use of visual metaphor, Lalami paints an Islamic design of light and shadow
cast on a Moroccan landscape.
Page 30, “The windows were open and the sun was making tree spots on the floor”
Page 52, “Stripes of sunlight came through the closed shutters, making a hazy grid on the
bare floor.”
It is almost as though Lalami’s description of light attempts to levitate Halima’s tragic
life to a spiritual realm. Through the interplay of light and shadow on the intricate
stalactite carvings in mosques, the structure is made to appear transcendent. (Nasr) In the
Bus Ride, Halima does not transcend her circumstances, but Lalami shows us that this
mother’s spirit is not confined to what is acceptable.
Reflective symmetry is seen in Halima’s comparison of her life to that of her employer,
Hanan on page 70. “I could have been her, had my luck been different, had I gone to a
real school, had I married someone else.” Even though Halima cannot transcend her
fate, she can visualize a transfiguration.
Acceptance
Aziz has made the decision to leave his wife and his country to make a better life in
Spain.
Aziz confronts the void in the infinite pattern of his life. He aligns himself with a
nomadic psychology, being acutely aware of the fragility of existence. (Burckhardt) He
creates a pattern of rhythmic thought that designs his future. We see later that the new
reality he creates limits his pattern making to isolated designs. He is not able to
interweave the old and the new
Better Luck Tomorrow
We become acquainted with Murad again. Like the point from which emanates the
circle, Murad finds himself in the center of his family. He is the man of the household
comprised of a mother, sister and twin brothers away at medical school. He has a degree,
but no steady income. He must reconcile his inability to provide for his family, with his
status as protector of the household.
Lalami creates a kaleidoscope reflection of infinity for Murad. On page 100, “He let his
eyes rest on the TV, where a dark, handsome man was courting a plump girl with too
much eye makeup, promising her that he would talk to her parents as soon as he had
found a job and saved enough money for the dowry.”
Murad knows the downward circular spiral that he is on. His sister has crafted her own
geometry through her job and marriage proposal. She will become a motif in someone
else’s pattern. Murad seeks to regain his dignity risking his life and going into debt, to
illegally immigrate to Spain.
Part II: After
The last four stories find the main characters having either returned to their lives after the
failed attempt to reach Spain or we meet them in their new lives, in a new country, in a
new universe.
The Saint
Halima didn’t make it to Spain. Her son, Farrid saved her when all the passengers were
forced out of the inflatable boat.
In the Bus Ride, the previous story about Halima, metaphor is expressed through the
visual imagery of light. We see this again in The Saint. Page 126, “She did not notice
the fading afternoon light that lengthened the shadows behind her, framing her body like
the arches of a shrine.” In Islam, light symbolizes the infinite and represents the word of
God that illuminates the world of men. (Nasr)
Lalami creates a saintly image of Halima whose selfless life is dedicated to her children.
The confines of her culture and status force her into submission before a drunken
husband, demanding mother and superstitious neighbor. I compare the character of
Halima to a passage from Islamic Art and Spirituality by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, “The
stalactites serve the practical function of supporting the roof and also symbolize the
descent of light into the world of material forms.” Halima is so charged.
The Odalesque
Faten is unrecognizable as a young prostitute in Madrid. Lalami helps us to see her
instincts for survival as she creates order out of chaos.
We are reminded of her former life in Morocco, as a friend of Noura’s at Larbi’s dinner
table. The following passage is foreshadowed in the dinner conversation from The
Fanatic. Page 133, “She began to wonder about the price of all this-----after all, she had
long ago learned that nothing is free.”
On page 138, Faten reflects on her former friend, “Noura was probably still wearing it.
She was rich; she had the luxury of having faith. But then Faten thought, Noura also had
the luxury of having no faith; she’d probably found the hijab too constraining and ended
up taking it off to show off her designer clothes. That was the thing with money. It gave
you choices.” Faten’s thoughts follow a circular pattern of logic and the sentiment
exhibits reflection symmetry as viewed against her former life in Morocco.
In the end Faten is grateful for the truth. I am reminded of what Larbi says in The
Fanatic when thinking about Noura’s newfound religious fervor, on page 35, “What if he
lost her to this…this blindness that she thought was sight?” When we know the truth are
we able to see more clearly? The lens through which Faten sees the world is not the same
as it was when she was a student in Morocco. The dogmatic principals of her former life
have given way to the void, not so easily explained or defended. The arabesque nature of
Faten’s existence can be compared to the thoughts of Seyyed Hossein Nasr in Islamic Art
and Spirituality. “Through the use of the arabesque in its many forms the void enters into
the different facets of Islamic art lifting from the material objects their suffocating
heaviness and enabling the spirit to breathe and expand.” Faten seems to be able to lift
her psyche away from the reality of her physical burdens. Nasr goes on to write, “The
arabesque through its extension and repetition of forms interlaced with the void, removes
from the eye the possibility of fixing itself in one place and from the mind the possibility
of becoming imprisoned in an particular solidification and crystallization of matter.
Emptiness in Art becomes synonymous with the manifestation of the sacred.”
Faten transcends her reality even though she knows her daily fate. She does not succumb
to the illusion that someone else knows better or that she will be taken care of. She
navigates the void by ordering the small elements of her life and finding unity through
self-knowledge. Although physically burdened she is not spiritually imprisoned.
Allusion to her self-knowledge is heard in this passage from page 140, “There was a
program on TV about dromedaries, and she watched, eyes half-closed, as the Spanish
voice-over described the mammal’s common habitat, his resistance to harsh living
conditions, his nomadic patterns, and his many uses, as a beast of burden, for his meat
and milk, and even for his dung, which could be burned for fuel.” Faten recognizes
herself in this description.
Homecoming
Aziz has made a life for himself in Spain. Although not the life he envisioned, he can no
longer imagine a life in Casablanca. Memories are often one-dimensional and take on the
design of our choosing. Dreams of his homecoming provide Aziz with a design he
eagerly awaits to color. The truth tells a sober story of a displaced immigrant who doesn’t
feel at home in either reality. The colors fade and are replaced with a monochromatic
future for the couple. Aziz finds that he cannot expect his wife, Zohra to adapt to life in
Spain and he can no longer live his former life. The couple once was two halves of a
whole, now they are merely the weak reflection of each other’s dreams. When Aziz takes
his suitcase to return to Spain, each is left a little lighter by the awareness of the truth.
The Storyteller
The circular tale returns the focus to Murad. His immigration attempt was unsuccessful
and he finds himself in Tangier. He works in a bookstore, a fitting place for someone
with a Batchelor’s Degree in English. He has lived the better part of his life dreaming of
the future. “He wondered if one always had to sacrifice the past for the future, or if it
was something he had done, something peculiar to him, an inability to fill himself with
too much, so that for every new bit of imagined future, he had to forsake a tangible past.”
(Page 178). At this moment the notion that his imagination is fixed and not expandable,
is contrary to his final epiphany. He comes to realize that he has his own stories. He
understands his legacy will be to continue the transmission of culture through
storytelling. Titus Burckhardt writes in Sacred Art in East and West, “The sense of
rhythm, innate in nomadic peoples and the genius for geometry: these are the two poles
which transposed into the spiritual order, determine all Islamic Art. Nomadic
rhythmicality found its most direct expression in Arab prosody….”
Murad realizes his calling to continue the tradition of Arab prosody.
The structure of Lalami’s novel comes full circle with Murad. He is the character we
encounter first and last. He finds unity by looking inward. Keith Critchlow writes in
Islamic Patterns, “Islam’s concentration on geometric patterns draws attention away
from the representational world to one of pure form, posed tensions and dynamic
equilibrium, giving structural insight into the workings of the inner self and their
reflection in the universe. Curiously, modern atomic physics has confirmed the essential
mathematical and geometric patterns occurring in Nature; not, however, in the
philosophical sense of displaying the intelligence within and throughout all creation – the
starting point of Islamic art – but in the purity of essential relationships which lie
beneath the visual surface of our world. The significance from the Islamic standpoint is
that, in the effort to trace origins in creation, the direction is not backwards but
inwards.”
Lesson 1
REFLECTION SYMMETRY
Students will create an equilateral triangle motif that will have three lines of reflection
symmetry and will tessellate the plane. Geometric shapes or arabesque forms can be used
as design elements. Through reflecting the image on the line of symmetry, unity of
design is achieved.
Materials:
• several small sheets of tracing paper
• equilateral triangle pattern page
• pencil, eraser
• drawing paper
Procedure:
Using an equilateral pattern page, trace a triangle on a piece of
tracing paper.
Draw a floral or geometric design inside the triangle. Imagine each
line of the triangle is the line of symmetry dividing a complete image
in half. Link designs with connecting forms to unify the interior of
the triangular drawing space. Pay attention to the positive and
negative space created by the drawn forms.
Use a second sheet of tracing paper to trace the original triangle. The
triangle is the motif that will be repeated and reflected in the
completed design. Flip the second tracing over and align it to the
original design. We can now see the mirror image of one side of the
triangle. The pattern matches up along the line of mirror symmetry.
Trace both images onto a third piece of tracing paper.
Continue the process of flipping the
design along the line of symmetry,
and tracing the mirror images.
The completed hexagonal form will
be comprised of 6 equilateral
triangles with mirror symmetry.
Continue the process of tracing and flipping along the lines of symmetry, going
beyond the original hexagon, to fill a rectangular piece of paper. The final pattern
will tessellate the plane with the potential to continue to infinity.
Lesson 2
KALEIDOSCOPE
A kaleidoscope is an optical toy consisting of a cylinder with mirrors that allows the
viewer to see a variety of symmetrical images, depending how many mirrors are used,
and what is being reflected.
Students will be constructing a kaleidoscope using 3 mirrors and common household
objects.
The equilateral triangle motif, designed in the Reflective Symmetry lesson, will be used
in the kaleidoscope and reflected to infinity inside the mirror system chamber.
Materials:
• 1 tall Pringles can
• 2 plastic covers from a tall Pringles can
• 3 pieces of mirror about 2 inches wide by 8.75 inches long
• masking tape
• white paper
• pencil, eraser
• scissors
• colored pencils
• foam peanuts
• small drill or penknife to make a hole in one plastic cover
Procedure:
1. Remove the metal base from the Pringles can. Wipe out the inside of the can so it
is clean.
2. Drill or cut a small hole in the center of one of the plastic cover.
3. Tape the mirrors together using masking tape, reflective side in as illustrated
below.
4. Trace the equilateral triangle formed by the mirrors on a sheet of white paper.
Draw a floral or geometric design inside the triangle. Imagine each line of the
triangle is the line of symmetry dividing a complete image in half. Link designs
with connecting forms to unify the interior of the triangular drawing space. Pay
attention to the positive and negative space created by the drawn forms.
5. Place the tapped mirrors inside the Pringles can. Center them using packing
peanuts to secure the mirrors inside the cylinder.
6. Attach the plastic cover with the hole onto one end of the Pringles can.
7. Cut the designed triangle shape and glue it to the center of the inside of the second
plastic cap. Place it on the tube.
8. Look through the eyehole and see your design reflect to infinity inside the scope.
9. Decorate the outside of the cylinder as desired.
Bibliography and Webography
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