The Topkapi Scroll -- Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture (Sketchbooks & Albums) [Hardcover]

Gï¿1/2lru Necipoglu (Author), Mohammad al-Asad (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0892363355 | ISBN-13: 978-0892363353 | Publication Date: March 14, 1996

The scant number of drawings and the absence of any theoretical treatises on the architecture of the pre-Islamic world make the late fifteenth-century Timurid pattern scroll in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library an exceedingly valuable source of information. In the course of her analysis of the scroll, Necipoglu throws new light on the conceptualization, recording, and transmission of architectural design in the Islamic world between the tenth and sixteenth centuries. Her comparison of the Islamic understanding of geometry with that found in medieval Western art makes this book particularly valuable for all historians and critics of architecture. The text also has far-reaching implications for recent discussions on vision, subjectivity, and the semiotics of abstract representation. The book reproduces the entire scroll, with its 114 individual geometric patterns for wall surfaces and vaulting, along with illustrations showing the underlying geometries from which the individual patterns are generated. An essay by Mohahhad al-Asad discusses the geometry of the mugarnas and demonstrates how one of the scroll's patterns could be used to design a three-dimensional vault.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Featuring elaborate star-and-polygon patterns, the Topkapi scroll, probably made in Persia in the late 15th or early 16th century, was a manual of architectural designs used in complex vaults, geometric ornaments, mosaic tiles and polychromatic masonry. In this scholarly, sumptuously illustrated study, the scroll, preserved in Istanbul's Topkapi Palace Museum, serves as a point of departure for Necipoglu's history of Islamic architectural drawing and her trenchant critique of European "orientalist" assumptions about Islamic culture. Professor of Islamic art and architecture at Harvard, Necipoglu maintains that a shared classical heritage in the Latin West, Byzantium and the Islamic world was remodeled in each civilization by differing monotheistic traditions. She argues that Islamic geometric patterns, often dismissed as mere decoration, comprised a "sign system" reflecting religious and ideological currents, mathematical and scientific advances and mystical beliefs throughout premodern Islamic history.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This sumptuously produced volume by the Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at Harvard examines the Timurid pattern scroll preserved in the Topkapi Palace Museum Library in Istanbul. Since few architectural drawings or theoretical texts survive from the premodern Islamic world, this scroll is a very important source of information. Dating from the late 15th or early 16th century and featuring 115 geometrical patterns, the scroll is shown here in its entirety in clear and well-produced illustrations. The author's analysis sheds new light on the transmission of Islamic architectural design between the tenth and 16th centuries. She also compares Islamic concepts with those found in medieval Western art. Though the volume is intended for the specialist, it will be of interest to anyone familiar with Islamic architecture. Well recommended for all art collections.?Martin Chasin, Bridgeport-Adult Inst., Conn.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 412 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 14, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892363355
• ISBN-13: 978-0892363353
• Product Dimensions: 13.8 x 11.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.6 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,495,752 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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