Fractal Geometry and Islamic Ornamentations

Yet, if you are perplexed by Whole and finite parts,

Have patience, for patience is the key of joy."

Mathnawi (I:IX)

I. Introduction

Islam is known as an aniconic religion since it lacks a collection of depictions of earthly

or divine creatures which is one of the essentials of eastern (Byzantine) and western
(Catholic) Christianity. However ornamentation has been like an instinctive behavior
throughout the history Islam cannot avoid this tradition. Due to the strong prohibition of
idolatry in Islam, Muslim artists and artisans preferred geometric patterns in their
ornamentations. The use of geometry was more fitting to the ontology and cosmology of
Islam. This thesis reveals the history, emphasis and usage of geometry in Islamic arts by
focusing on the Fractal Geometry.

II. Islamic Ontology and Cosmology

Sources of Islamic Ontology:

Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general,
as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part
of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions
concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be
grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and
differences.

The lingual distinction between being, to be and becoming was the basis in the pre-
Socratic philosophy. For Parmenides and his followers being is the unchanging
existence. Parmenides does not recognize any negation of being; non-being, not existing
is meaningless for him since any attempt to define being even its negation would
actually confirm its existence. Being is one and infinite, indivisible, imperishable.
Constructing an expression like being is not would be logically faulty because it
conflicts in itself. The only logical expression is using being and to be together as in
being is. On the other hand, for Parmenides, becoming referred to change, coming into
existence from non-existence, and it is also erroneous due to the same reasons of fallacy
of non-being.

Pythagoreans rejected the Parmenidian denial of non-being, as accepting its existence.

They believed that when the one had been constructed, whether out of planes or of
surface or of seed or of elements which they cannot express, immediately the nearest
part of the unlimited began to be drawn in and limited by the limit. The Pythagoreans
hold that void (non-being) exists. The void distinguishes the natures of things, since it is
the thing that separates and distinguishes the successive terms in a series. This happens
in the first case of numbers; for the void distinguishes their nature. The one is the origin
of all other beings, by the inclusion of void; other beings are derived from the one.

Platonic philosophy synthesized the ontology of Parmenidian and Pythagorean

philosophies. Plato identifies both being and non-being. For him, the things surrounding
us are illusory, non-being; they are the shadows of the real beings, the ideas. The ideas
are the forms of those illusions like the reflections in the mirror. The ideas are universals
whereas the reflections are particulars. Plato makes a distinction between the realm of
universals and the realm of particulars. Universals are sole reality and the source of
the virtual particulars. The form of a tree, tree-ness produces trees. There are numerous
forms and the highest form is the form of good.

In Late Antiquity the projections of those three schools were unified with the addition of
some occult practices and the monotheistic elements, under a new philosophy which
later called as Neo-Platonism. One of the well-known representatives of this philosophy
was Plotinus. Plotinus taught that there is a supreme, totally transcendent "One",
containing no division, multiplicity or distinction; likewise it is beyond all categories of
being and non-being. The concept of "being" is derived by us from the objects of human
experience, and is an attribute of such objects, but the infinite, transcendent One is
beyond all such objects, and therefore is beyond the concepts that we derive from them.
The One "cannot be any existing thing", and cannot be merely the sum of all such things,
but "is prior to all existents".
Later, Iamblichus and Proclus developed the main themes of Neo-Platonism. In
Iamblichus' system, the realm of divinities stretched from the original One down to
material nature itself, where soul in fact descended into matter and became "embodied"
as human beings. The world is thus peopled by a crowd of superhuman beings
influencing natural events and possessing and communicating knowledge of the future,
and who are all accessible to prayers and offerings. Iamblichus had salvation as his final
goal. The embodied soul was to return to divinity by performing certain rite, or theurgy,
literally, 'divine-working'.

Islamic Ontology:

Emanation is the key concept to reveal the fundamentals of Islamic Ontology.

Emanation, from the Latin emanare meaning "to flow from" is the idea that all things are
derived from the First Being, or Principle. All things are derived from the first reality or
perfect god by steps of degradation to lesser degrees of the first reality or God, and at
every step the emanating beings are less pure, less perfect, less divine. In Islamic
philosophy this first principle is Allah, from whom all other beings derived. The idea of
emanation was developed by some important Islamic scholars and schools namely, al-
Kindi, al-Ghazali, Ikhwan-al-safa, Fard ud-Dn Attr and Mawlana.

Al-Kindi starts with the absolute oneness of God. In human calculation one refers to a
particular number among infinite set of numbers. Gods oneness is different than that as
there is only he. In addition to absolute oneness, al-Kindi also described God as the
Creator. God is the Prime Mover, the demiurgos of the universe from His being other
beings come into existence. Unlike later Muslim Neo-Platonic philosophers (who
asserted that the universe existed as a result of God's existence "overflowing", which is a
passive act), al-Kindi conceived of God as an active agent, in fact, of God as the agent,
because all other intermediary agencies are contingent upon Him. The key idea here is
that God "acts" through created intermediaries, which in turn "act" on one another
continuing ad infinitum.

Al-Ghazali and Ikhwan-al-safa school share the same beliefs as that of al-Kindi, for the
origin of beings, which is emanation. In addition to that they introduced the ancient
Atomism into the Islamic ontology. The works of Demokritos and especially the ideas of
Lucian of Samosata which considered man as a reduced model of the universe
(microcosm), and the universe as an enlarged copy of man (macrocosm) carried on as
the microcosm is the reflection of the macrocosm. All material things are composed of
atoms that have no qualities or attributes but simply make up the shape of the body.

Fard ud-Dn Attr, in his famous poem Mantiq at-Tayr (the Conference of Birds)
describes the relationship between the ultimate being and other beings as all have the
same essence. The story recounts the longing of a group of birds who desire to know the
great Simorgh, and who, under the guidance of a leader bird, start their journey toward
the land of Simorgh. One by one, they drop out of the journey, each offering an excuse
and unable to endure the journey. Each bird has a special significance, and a
corresponding didactic fault. The guiding bird is the hoopoe, while the nightingale
symbolizes the lover. The parrot is seeking the fountain of immortality, not God and the
peacock symbolizes the "fallen soul" who is in alliance with Satan.

The birds must pass seven valleys in order to find the Simorgh: Talab (Yearning), Eshq
(Love), Marifat (Gnosis), Istighnah (Detachment), Tawheed (Unity of God), Hayrat
(Bewilderment) and, finally, Fuqur and Fana (Selflessness and Oblivion in God). These
represent the stations that a Sufi or any individual must pass through to grasp the true
nature of God.

Within the larger context of the story of the journey of the birds, Attar masterfully tells
the reader many didactic short, sweet stories in captivating poetic style. Eventually only
thirty birds remain as they finally arrive in the land of Simorgh all they see there are
each other and the reflection of the thirty birds in a lake not the mythical Simorgh. It
is the Sufi doctrine that God is not external or separate from the universe, rather is the
totality of existence. The thirty birds seeking the Simorgh realise that Simorgh is nothing
more than their transcendent totality. The poem ends with following verses:

Come you lost Atoms to your Centre draw,

And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:
Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide
Return, and back into your Sun subside.

Probably by Attars strong influence, Mawlana reveals how creation comes into being
and how they vary. In his famous work Mathnawi he describes his point as;
 If God should reveal Itself a hundred thousand times, not one moment would
resemble another. Every instant you see Gods display and yet not even one
act resembles another. In times of happiness you see one display, in times of
weeping you find another. During moments of fear you see one face, during
hope another. Since Gods creations and His acts vary infinitely, not one like
another, so you can be sure the display of His Essence also varies endlessly.
You, too, being a single spark of Gods flame, change a thousand times every
instant and never stay the same. (Fihi Ma Fih: XXVI)

According to the historical analysis of Islamic Philosophy given above, the tenets of
Islamic Ontology can be summarized as below:

God is one
God is the eternal and ultimate being
Other beings are illusory
Other beings come into existence (illusory) by emanation of Gods supreme
oneness
The emanation is reflection of Gods existence
Other beings are reflections of God

III. Fractal Geometry

Definition:

Fractal geometry is a branch of mathematics concerned with irregular patterns made of

parts that are in some way similar to the whole, e.g., twigs and tree branches, a property
called self-similarity or self-symmetry. A fractal often has the following features:

It has a fine structure at arbitrarily small scales.

It is too irregular to be easily described in traditional Euclidean geometric
language.
It is self-similar.
It has a simple and recursive definition.

Because they appear similar at all levels of magnification, fractals are often considered
to be infinitely complex.
Fractal Patterns in Islamic Ornamentations:

Mawlana states in Mathnawi IV: XII that:

Form proceeds from the world that is without form,

Even as smoke arises from fire.
The Divine art without form designs forms (ideals),
Those forms fashion bodies with senses and instruments.
Whatever the form, it fashions in its own likeness
Those bodies either to good or to evil.
If the form be blessing, the man is thankful;
If it be suffering, he is patient;
If it be cherishing, he is cheerful;
If it be bruising, he is full of lamentation!

He also describes the doctrine of depiction for the artists: You shall define the infinite
by creating a beautifully ordered symmetric structure which repeats itself forever and
ever and is bejewelled with divine words. (Fihi Ma Fihi, XXVI) This formula is embodied
in most of the Islamic ornamentations. Distinguishing motifs of Islamic architecture have
always been ordered repetition, radiating structures, and rhythmic, metric patterns. In
this respect, fractal geometry has been a key utility, especially for mosques and palaces.
Almost all of the ornamentations are in fractal composition. The depictions of the
interior architecture on the portals as in the gates of Alhambra can be counted in this
manner too.

In this understanding of art, the emphasis is given to the archetype that is God and His
creation. The artist, his artistic faculties, and even the product are trivial. The main
objective of art is to praise God and His work and pronounce the order He projected.
This is a very different position than that of the pre-modern and modern art where the
artist and his art are to be praised.

IV. Conclusion:

The tenets of Islamic ontology overlap with the principles of Fractal Geometry. In other
words, the divine ontology can be concretized by the use of fractal geometry. The infinite
emanation of the essence of God in beings is formalized in the infinite repetition of the
main model in the entire pattern. A fractal pattern is the one in many and many in one as
God and the creation is, according to Islamic Ontology. One staring at a fractal pattern
can see how an archetype vitalizes the whole and how the whole reflects the archetype;
this is the manifestation of Islamic ontology.