Did the Arabs invent organic design?

A fascinating article in Middle-Eastern newspaper ITP Business charts the Arabic influence in modern design and looks at its implementation in several luxury hotels in the United Arab Emirates.

The four basic components of Islamic design (calligraphy, plant designs, geometric patterns and figural representation) are still prevalent in Arabic design today. Calligraphy was used to transmit text in decorative form. Plant designs adorn a vast number of buildings, manuscripts, objects, and textiles — these patterns and motifs were drawn from traditions of Byzantine culture in the eastern Mediterranean and Sasanian Iran. Geometric ornamentation has reached a pinnacle in the Islamic world. Beautifully complicated patterns are constructed from just four basic shapes — circles and interlaced circles, squares or four-sided polygons; the star pattern, and multisided polygons. Despite being resisted in religious art and architecture (Muslims believe that the creation of living forms is unique to God only) figural representation has also flourished in Islamic cultures. Figural motifs are found on the surface decoration of objects, or architecture, as part of the woven or applied patterns of textiles, and in sculptural form.

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