The Topkapi Scroll, the best preserved example of its kind, contains far-reaching implications for the theory and praxis of geometric design in Islamic architecture and ornament. Created by master builders in the late medieval Iranian world, the scroll compiles a rich repertory of geometric drawings for wall surfaces and vaults. This important document belongs to a once-widespread Islamic tradition of scrolls in which geometric patterns ranging from ground plans and vault projections to epigraphic panels and architectural ornament in diverse media appeared side by side.
Topkapi Scroll
Late 15th or early 16th century. Ink and colors on paper.
Schematic design for a cast metalwork door with star-and-polygon patterns
Ismail b. al-Razzaz al-Jazari. From his "Kitab fi marifat al-hayat al-handasiya" (book on the knowledge of ingenious mechanical devices), Diyarbakir, 1206, watercolor and ink on paper, MS A.3472, Fols. 165v-166r.
Diagrams showing the details for the individual units of a cast metalwork door with star and polygon patterns
Ismail b. al-Razzaz al-Jazari. From his "Kitab fi marifat al-hayat al-handasiya" (book on the knowledge of ingenious mechanical devices), Diyarbakir, 1206, watercolor and ink on paper, MS A.3472, Fols. 167v.
Taqi al-Din b. Maruf and his collegues at the Istanbul observatory
Miniature painting. From Lokman, Shahanshahnama (book of the king of kings), Istanbul, 1581-1582.
Diagrams of metric circles representing rythmic patterns of sound
Muslih al-Din Mustafa Sururi. From his "Bahr el-maarif" (Sea of knowledge), written for the Ottoman prince Mustafa in 1549, copied in 1585, red and black ink on paper. MS H. 659, Fols. 17v-18r.
Diagrams of pattern-forming verses
Muslih al-Din Mustafa Sururi. From his "Bahr el-maarif" (Sea of knowledge), written for the Ottoman prince Mustafa in 1549, copied in 1585, red and black ink on paper. MS H. 659, Fols. 134v-135r.
Vault fragment with black-dotted polygonal grid lines, triangular one-twentieth repeat unit of a decagonal vault, and fan-shaped radial muqarnas quarter vault.
Fan-shaped radial muqarnas quarter vault, and shell-shaped radial muqarnas quarter vault.
Fan-shaped radial muqarnas quarter vault, rhombodial one-eight repeat unit of an octagonal fan-shaped radial muqarnas quarter vault, fan-shaped radial muqarnas quarter vault, and rectangular repeat unit of stellate muqarnas fragment.
Fan-shaped muqarnas full vault, stellate muqarnas full vault, and another stellate muqarnas full vault.
Quarter repeat unit of a star-and-polygon pattern with two superimposed layers, and quarter repeat unit of a pattern with two superimposed layers.
Repeat unit of a fragmentary square panel, and quarter repeat unit of a double-layered pattern for relief mosaic tile work.
Linear repeat unit of a square kufic inscription, and repeat unit composed of rotated squares and rhombuses with kufic kalligraphy.
Strip of a naskhi inscription, square kufic calligraphic panels, linear repeta unit of square kufic inscriptions, and linear repeat unit of geometric patterns.
Quarter repeat unit of star-and-polygon patterns, and quarter repeat units of kufic calligraphic panels.
Quarter repeat unit of a pattern with swastika motifs, and hexagonal panel with kufic inscriptions.
Composite square kufic calligraphic panels.
Square kufic calligraphic roundel, and composite square kufic calligraphic panel.
Hexagonal calligraphic panel with kufic letters, stellate arch-net quarter vault, and fan-shaped radial muqarnas quarter vault.
Fan-shaped radial muqarnas quarter vaults
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