"From One Polygon to Another: A Distinctive Feature of Some Ottoman Minarets"
Date Added
24/06/2022
Content Type
Documentary
Category
Researches
Link to Content
Subject Area
Mosques
Author
Bernard Parzysz
Year of Publication
2011
Description
This article is a geometer’s reflection on a specificity
presented by some Turkish minarets erected during the
Ottoman period which gives them a recognisable appearance.
The intermediate zone (pabuç) between the shaft and the
base of these minarets, which has both a functional and an
aesthetic function, is also an answer to the problem of
connecting two prismatic solids having an unequal number of
lateral sides (namely, two different multiples of 4). In the
present case this connection was achieved by creating a
polyhedron, the lateral sides of which are triangles placed
head to tail. The multiple variables of the problem allowed
the Ottoman architects to produce various solutions.