Yet another mystery concerning the Cairo tiling arises from a quote by Martin Gardner in his Scientific American July 1975 article, 'On tessellating the plane with convex polygon tiles', pp. 112-118, where he states that the Cairo tiling is seen '…in the mosaics of Moorish buildings', but he is not specific as to the type of building or exactly where this is. As such, there is no documentary evidence for this ‘sighting’ whatsoever in the form of a picture, or indeed other indirect references. Did Gardner simply err here? Has anyone seen this tiling on any ‘Moorish buildings’? In the course of my investigations I have also consulted various Islamic authorities on tiling, such as Brian Wichmann and David Wade, both of whom are unaware of it. My chief investigator, Gregg De Young, in Cairo, is also unfamiliar with it, and he also asked another authority, Bernard O’Kane, and he is not seen this. Gardner’s quote would, to me, imply that it seen more than once, but all still to no avail. As I have shown elsewhere (see ‘References’ page), Gardner’s account was almost certainly beyond all reasonable doubt second hand, and apparently taken from Dunn’s report. However, Dunn makes no such reference to this additional’ aspect ‘…in the mosaics of Moorish buildings', and so this addition of Gardner’s is decidedly mysterious. So just where has Gardner seen this? One possible investigation would be to have a look in the Stanford archive for the background to the 1975 column (where his papers are stored). Would any keen reader have, or know of someone with access to the archives there that could have a look? Would any reader have seen the tiling as described by Gardner in a book or article? Or indeed, have any comment whatsoever? Of note is that subsequent to Gardner’s account, various other authors have also reported this, likely taking this line from Gardner, or copying after one another, and occasionally embellishing it, with: 1984
Blackwell, William, Geometry in Architecture, Wiley 1984, page 54 … This unusual pattern, which is seen in street tiling in Cairo and occasionally in the mosaic of Moorish buildings. The latter part of the quote is taken from Gardner, word for word. 1991
Wells, David. The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Geometry.
Penguin Books, page 23 : So called because it often appears in the streets of Cairo, and in Islamic decoration. 1991
Fetter, Ann E. et al. The Platonic Solids Activity Book. Key
Curriculum Press/Visual Geometry Project. Backline Masters. … seen in street tiling in Cairo and in the mosaics of Moorish buildings. Almost certainly this quote above is taken from Gardner, word for word. 2003
Weisstein, Eric W. CRC concise encyclopedia of mathematics, page 313 A tessellation appearing in the streets of Cairo and in many Islamic decorations. 2005
Mitchell, David. Sticky note origami: 25 designs to make at your desk,
Sterling Publication Company …of its frequent occurrence on the streets of Cairo and in other Islamic centers and sites. Wolfram
MathWorld Although without going to the trouble of questioning
each author, these accounts are without a shadow of doubt all copying from Gardner’s quote in one form or the other. Such instances
can be summarily dismissed. Created 7 January 2013 |