Reichert Verlag

This publication deals with geometrical designs on Saljuq buildings in Anatolia (Turkey). The Golden Age of Saljuq rule in Anatolia lasted from the end of the 12th until the middle of the 13th century. During this period Persia and Mesopotamia had already been strongly influenced by Islam while the territory of modern Turkey was still open for cultural impulses from Armenia and Bycantium as well as for impulses from earlier cultures. During the relatively short period of Saljuq rule enormously man different ornamental patterns are used. Ornamentation played a minor role in Pre-Islamic Asia Minor and it decreases again under the succeeding Osmans.
Gerd Schneider does not only give an almost complete list of architectural ornamentation patterns from Saljuq Anatolia - he also shows the multitude of designs, their development, and their formal connections with each other in detailed drawigns. On 50 plates different ornamental patterns are presented and analysed - various examples show the development from simple forms to very complex ones and it becomes evident how complex patterns are constructed out of basic elements.
38 photographs by Werner Brüggemann show the buildings on which the designs discussed are located.