Abstract

GARRITZ, Andoni. Quasicrystals and Islamic art. Educ. quím [online]. 2012, vol.23, n.1, pp.2-5. ISSN 0187-893X.

Now that quasicrystal discovery have deserved the Nobel prize to Daniel Shechtman, art and science are recombined once again. Shechtman arrived to his contribution by analyzing a tenfold electronic diffraction pattern of a supposed crystal, discovering in this way the quasicrystals. It is shown that by 12th Century a conceptual breakthrough occurred in Islamic art. A five and tenfold figures were introduced in mosques and shrines. «Girih» patterns were reconceived as tessellations of a special set of equilateral polygons (girih tiles) decorated with lines. These tiles enabled the creation of increasingly complex periodic girih patterns, and by the 15th Century, the tessellation approach was combined with self-similar transformations to construct nearly perfect quasi-crystalline Penrose patterns, five centuries before their discovery in the West. Penrose tilling with darts and kites is shown and tessellations of W. C. Escher, as their transformation after visiting the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.

Keywords : Quasicrystals; Islamic art; Penrose patterns; Escher tessellations.