Girih

Beautiful geometric patterns where stars and lines interlace to decorate the walls of mosques and historic buildings with harmony.

Girih is an intricate Islamic geometric design system based on interlocking strapwork tiles that form repeating star and polygon patterns. Used to decorate domes, prayer niches, and wooden doors across Central Asia, Iran, and Anatolia, it demonstrates the sophistication of Muslim builders in mathematics, geometry, and abstract aesthetics.

An Islamic geometric ornament system consisting of interlaced strapwork lines generating intricate symmetrical polygons, decagons, and stars governed by rigorous geometric ratios. Prominent across Seljuk, Ilkhanid, Timurid, and Safavid architecture, it employed a standardized set of five polygonal shapes (the girih tiles). Modern scientific analysis has revealed that these tessellations embody quasi-crystalline structural principles, illustrating profound mathematical intuition centuries ahead of modern geometric theory.