By the 5th century, the Germanic Visigoths had invaded from the north by land, but by the 8th century the peninsula had been invaded from the south by tribes from North Africa, including the Berbers, pushing the Visigoths northward. By 715, Muslims dominated the Iberian Peninsula, making Seville its capital. Two of the greatest examples of Western Islamic architecture still standing from this time include the Great Mosque of Cordoba (785) and Alhambra in Granada, which evolved over several centuries. ACQUIRED: I bought this from the Alhambra book shop in Granada in 2019. Another difficult one to acquire outside of Spain. PATTERN INSTRUCTION: Yes, good for those with a bit of experience (if you're a beginner, get that experience by diving into my YouTube videos and then return to this book!). Even though there are only a few instructions for beginners who want to draw a pattern from scratch step by step there is plenty to read, digest and enjoy. With a bit of experience, it’s good to try and draw from the diagrams in this book that force you to think and deconstruct some aspects of drawing the pattern. It’s an excellent endeavour that helps you to progress in drawing patterns.

VERDICT: I haven’t used it much, but recognise its value and the role it plays in valuing & cataloguing surface pattern. There is no pattern instruction. It irks me that pattern is used so widely across the world, has its own layers of complexity and meaning but somehow is not always considered “Art” by a narrow European point of view. Legend of Prince Ahmed Al Kamel or The Pilgrim of Love has been adapted as the children’s picture book Prince of the Birds, written and illustrated by Amanda Hall in 2005. [16] PATTERN INSTRUCTION: No compass & straight edge instruction, but for those who draw digitally, you may find it especially useful as all the information you need is there in the many many diagrams. a b Jones, Brian Jay. Washington Irving: An American Original. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2008: 251. ISBN 978-1-55970-836-4 Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.Villa Zorayda, a museum in St. Augustine, Florida based on a wing of the Alhambra, takes its name from a character in Irving's book [12] (specifically from "Legend of the Three Beautiful Princesses" [13]). Wooden Books are a small publishers based in Glastonbury, Somerset, UK. Established by John Martineau, a graduate of the PSTA, he published his first book, Book of Coincidences, based on his MA project. Many other PSTA alumni & friends have authored and helped build this collection of beautiful & fascinating books, often witty and a touch magical! PATTERN INSTRUCTION: Yes, many! With access points for beginners and then many underlying grids showing the structure of patterns and their varlations. VERDICT: I’m such a fan of Manuel's books, I think it's his communication skills from a life time of teaching that comes across. The photography, history, maps, diagrams, explainations that wrap around each pattern construction add to the brilliant richess of the book.

Located in Granada, one of the most important cities of the south Iberian Peninsula, the Alhambra was built at the top of Sabika Hill, a foothill of the mountainous massif of Sierra Nevada. As explained in our Alhambra books, the oldest part of the palatine city was built in the 13 th century to house the leaders of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, the last bastion of Muslim power in the Iberian Peninsula.Alhambra has restored three Nasrid Royal Palaces (Palacios Nazaries) — Comares Palace (Palacio de Comares); Palace of the Lions (Patio de los Leones); and the Partal Palace. The Charles V palace is not Nasrid but was built, abandoned, and restored for centuries, even up to the 19th century. Notice the angle of the windows leading up to the dome. The engineering challenge was to put a round dome on top of a square structure. Indenting the circle, creating an eight-pointed star, was the answer. The decorative and functional use of the muqarnas, a type of corbel to support the height, is similar to the use of pendentives. In the West, this architectural detail is often referred to as honeycomb or stalactites, from the Greek stalaktos, as its design appears to "drip" like icicles, cave formations, or like honey: