Structural Interpretation of Philosophical Fundamentals of

Heydari, Erfan

doi:10.22070/negareh.2021.14156.2722

Structural Interpretation of Philosophical Fundamentals of "The Nature of Faith," as a Factor That Affected the Re-finding Nature of "Arabesque" in the Abbasid Era

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Erfan Heydari

Phd candidate in architecture, Architecture and urban design faculty, Art university of Isfahan

10.22070/negareh.2021.14156.2722

Abstract

As a hypothesis is presented in this article: The motion of "Structure of Structures" is a factor that affected the movement of both sub-structures and arrays such as architectural ornaments. In the Abbasid era, philosophy was a macro-structure that penetrated other structures. In this epoch, some structures like literature, philosophy, Fiqh, and Kalam were flourished. Subsequently, Philosophy as a flourished structure had some effects on the motion of arrays. The "Nature of Faith" is an array in Islamic philosophy from a Hellenistic root that was activated by the movement of philosophy. The "Nature of Faith" was welcomed in Muslim societies, because it had similarities to Islamic principles. Jan Mukařovský as a theorist has believed that the motion of structure has affected the moving of other structures. Undoubtedly, the movement of philosophy had involved different arrays in early Islam. This idea has interoperated on ornaments of architectural space in the Abbasid era. Arabesque is an Islamic ornament that has two patterns; vegetative and geometrical. The article focuses on the vegetative pattern of arabesque that has been used in architectural space as a wall ornament. The paper aims to explain "Nature of Faith" as a reason for re-finding arabesque. The article's necessity is cognition of both theoretical and practical framework of re-finding arabesque in the Abbasid epoch. The research method is historical-interpretive, with three layers: description, analysis, interpretation in the argument part. The first layer narrates the theoretical subjects related to this issue. The second layer analyzes the received information in two phases. The primary phase illustrated the framework of the Nature of Faith in a pattern. The advanced phase set the analogical pattern for testing the hypothesis of this article. As proof for applying this method, the paper used the approach of Saussure in the Linguistics paradigm. The Linguistics paradigm has three patterns. The Semiotics pattern is one of these. The Semiotics pattern is organized of both Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic frames. This article paraphrases the Semiotics frames according to the form of arabesque as form analysis. The third layer interprets both form patterns and the structural framework of arabesque. The question of this research is: is there a relation between the "Nature of Faith" and the form of arabesque?
In conclusion, when the structure of structures is moved, other structures will be moved. Islamic civilization in the third and the fourth centuries AH had faced a fact that had changed the structure of both philosophy and science. This change has had been based on variable changes that their effects in other subjects like arts are illustrated. Architectural arrays got impact from it as well. Undoubtedly, arabesque had declined until the Abbasid era. At this time, arabesque as a microstructure, like art was affected by other structures and motion. Re-finding the arabesque had two roots. The first root was influenced by Greece civilization (palmette). Another root was related to Iranian architecture, especially the Sassanid architecture. The structure of the theory of arabesque is like the "Nature of Faith" in terms of three points of the "nature", "motion" and "exportation". Thus arabesque's motion in this period would have been the face of the motion of the "Nature of Faith" as structure. The hypothesis of this paper is related to the following facts. First, the "Nature of Faith" is similar to the arabesque as structure and motion. Second, the movement of structures had affected the re-finding of the arabesque in the Abbasid epoch. Third, the essential sources of "Nature of Faith" that are "nature", "motion", and "exportation" had influenced the theoretical structure of the arabesque. Significantly, the fact of the export of "multitude from the monad" in the foundation of the "Nature of Faith" is the most similar to a theoretical form of the arabesque. A reason for confirming the hypothesis of this paper is a form translation of the arabesque to the theoretical base from philosophy in three objects. The Point, Line, and Surface are three essential parts of the arabesque that can have a similar reason to the "multitude from the monad". In arabesque, movement starts from a point, and the point is the first unit. This movement from the point eventually turns into a line, which is also composed of the same components of the point, but has a different structure. The line moves upwards in a twisting motion and shows a sign of growth and excellence. The line moves in the opposite dimension and forms the surface that is the ultimate arabesque form. This surface also consists of the components of the exact first point and it is a manifestation of the same character in another form. Finally, the article illustrated three patterns, and three forms for the effect of the Nature of Faith on the moving of arabesque.

Keywords

20.1001.1.26767244.1401.17.64.3.3

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