From One Polygon to Another: A Distinctive Feature of Some Ottoman Minarets

Abstract

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. © 2011 Kim Williams Books, Turin.