Islamic Design

The Taj Mahal took a good 22 years to come to the full beauty that it is now, all in the name of love. This building was designed by Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite late wife, Mumtaj Mahal. He needed this place to be perfect because he had seen it as an earthly replica to the house of Mumtaj in paradise. And as learned in the video that is posted below the Taj Mahal is completely symmetrical except for the tombs. The only reason the tombs are different sizes is due to who occupies them, one being male and the other female. Another important part of this building is the water feature (shown in picture below) because they were very big on landscaping and how things appeared on the outside.


There are many other important buildings and Mosques created at this time including: the Mosque of Kairouan, the Mosques of Sultan Ahmed, The Great Mosque of Cordoba, and the Alhambra. These all had a ton of new features in them too. Minbars are added which are pretty much a staircase with a throne stuck at the top of them(shown below). These are used along with alot of geometric patterns on the carpets and walls due to the fact that they specifically do not decorate with human figures. They do not use people in their art because they feel that they cannot create something like that because that is a job for God, because they believe God creates humans.
 



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Extra Credit Video: (Taj Mahal)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1GShoW1Ez4