Persian Decagonal Geometric Pattern Design

FROM KUKELDASH MADRASAH IN BUKHARA TO HAKIM MOSQUE IN ISFAHAN

A fifteen-week online course on geometric pattern design offered by the Istanbul Design Center School of Geometric Patterns in Islamic Arts

Course data in brief

• Instructor: Prof. Dr. Miroslaw Majewski

• Course duration: 15 weeks, 2 hours per week + discussion time, with 2 weeks break for Christmas and New Year

• Course timing: Fridays

6:00 PM GMT, UK Time, 7:00 PM Cairo Time, 8:00 PM Istanbul Time, 9:30 PM Tehran Time

• Course starting day: October 2, 2020

• Language: English and no translation (sorry)

• Group size: 25-30 persons,

Essential features of the course:

• International group

• Free of charge – there is no fee for this course

• All coursework in Geometer’s Sketchpad - a basic software for teaching school geometry

• Focusing on concepts and understanding of pattern design

• Strict assessment

What should you expect?

This course will be focusing on geometric aspects of decagonal patterns from various places in Central Asia and Iran. Numerous designs from this region will be used as an illustration of geometric concepts.

We will use the traditional gereh method that was used in XV-XVIII centuries by Persian architects and craftsmen.

For each example, we will start by finding proportions of the template, then we will create the geometry of the pattern, and finally, we will add to it its decoration - the pattern.

No pain, no gain

The course will be demanding and you will be expected to demonstrate your progress in the form of finished designs. You will have to submit them always before the next class.

Feel free to ask questions and discuss with us anything related to this course. There are no silly questions. Each question may lead to an exciting discussion and forming a valuable knowledge.

Geometry goes first

The focus of this course will be on the geometry of patterns - not on particular designs. Understanding and creating geometry for a pattern or group of patterns will always be the two main tasks. Patterns will be treated as a decoration for geometry.

Geometry and technology

Through each class of the course, we will use Geometer’s Sketchpad. You can download it from link

The license for it, you will get during the first class. Before starting the course, you have to figure out how you can handle on your computer screen two tasks at the same time – listening and watching the course and at the same time drawing on your screen. This will be the tricky part. Of course, you can forget about Sketchpad and draw by hand on the paper. But this is the only course where you can learn how to use Sketchpad to draw patterns. If you know GeoGebra and you want to stick to it. This is OK. But you are on your own. I will not be able to help you with using GG.

After geometry comes art

We will discuss forms of artistic interpretations of patterns. Thus we will talk about patterns made out of ceramic tiles, carving patterns in wood and stone, Persian kundekari designs, geometric art made out of mirrors, etc.

If time permits, we may have short virtual excursions to some places in Central Asia.

Possible topics

1. Learning how to use Geometer’s Sketchpad

2. Basic geometric constructions (of course with Sketchpad) esp. constructions related to decagonal geometry

3. Basic styles of decagonal patterns

4. Patterns on decagonal grids

5. Exploring proportions of decagonal designs

6. Introduction to decagonal structural methods and Isfahani inflation technique

Participants: Anybody ready to work hard and learn the theory of pattern design, will be welcome. This is an academic level course, and it fits nicely into some university programs – graphics design, architecture, mathematics education.

If you are interested only in drawing a few simple patterns (just to impress your friends), then find yourself another course. There are a few of them around.

Before starting the course

You may consider looking at the book

You will find there some important fundamentals useful for this course.

Announcement - Saturday, 19/09/2020

We selected 60 people from a list of 170 applicants. The complete list is attached below. We hope that you will survive the 15 weeks with us. As it was said in the past - this will be a very demanding course but you will learn a lot.

The course will be held online using ZOOM software. You do not need to install anything on your computer. Just a web browser will be enough. Zoom requires a password for each session. Depending on the situation IDC will create a password for each session separately, or one password for all sessions.

We wish you a joyful course and hopefully we will see you online on

October 2, 2020

All best for you,

Mirek Majewski on behalf of the IDC team

PS. For the purpose of this course we created a new email account:

[email protected]

If you have any problems you can communicate with me through this account.

The complete list of accepted course students

Afrein Nasir

Aland Yousif Aziz

Amina Smits Akilma

Antara Biswas

Aseel Al-Azi

Aysen Saner

Christina Plett

Cihan Aksu

Dominic Oliver Cort

Durbah Salahuddin

Elif Abacı

Elif Nur Dönmezgüç

Elif Zeynep Atçıl

Fakhra Mahmood

Fatima Malik

Fayeza Hussain

Fazila Patel

Ferhan Endo

Feyzanur

Ghazaleh Khayat

Gihan Bayoumi Attia

Halimah Denney

Hanaa Yahia Abdelmawgoud Sayed Awad

Iqra Arshad

İsmail Kaplan

Jasmine Alvarado

K.Karthiga Shruthi

Leyla Betül Küçük

Lubna Shabbir

Maaida Noor

Mahdi Hamedani

Mariam Lodin

Maryam Shaikh

Maryem Sulaiman Alasfoor

Mashael Ahmad Al Tarabulsi

Meryem Betül Yılmaz

Meryem Lutin

Mohammed Noman

Mona El-Taher

Muazzamkhon

Nilüfer Sinanoğlu

Noura Saif

Nubia Sofia Chavez Vera

Osman Raşit Işık

Richa Dilip Raut

Robyn Clark

Selim AKAR

Şerife Satoğlu

Shadma Shafique

Shana Hussayn

Sibel Anamur

Syeda Kinza Kazim

Tanvi Thakkar

Uzma Mahmood

Vishakha Chaplot

Yara Hossam Eldin

Yasmin Sethi

Zahra Khan

Zakia Waheed

Zarei Fatemeh

Zeynep Erkoç