Arabesques

Traditional buildings still abound in the rapidly developing Kuwait. Made of mud bricks, these structures have withstood the most extreme of weather conditions.

The arabesque is an elaborative application of repeating geometric forms that often echo the forms of plants and animals. Arabesques are an element of Islamic art usually found decorating the walls of mosques. The choice of which geometric forms are to be used and how they are to be formatted is based upon the Islamic view of the world. To Muslims, these forms, taken together, constitute an infinite pattern that extends beyond the visible material world. To many in the Islamic world, they in fact symbolize the infinite, and therefore uncentralized, nature of the creation of the one God (Allah). Furthermore, the Islamic Arabesque artist conveys a definite spirituality without the iconography of Christian art.

NOUN:

1. A ballet position in which the dancer bends forward while standing on one straight leg with the arm extended forward and the other arm and leg extended backward.
2. A complex, ornate design of intertwined floral, foliate, and geometric figures.
3. Music An ornate, whimsical composition especially for piano.
4. An intricate or elaborate pattern or design: "the fluctuating shapes of a cloudscape, the complex arabesque of a camera movement, the blink of a character's eye" (Nigel Andrews).

ADJECTIVE:

In the fashion of or formed as an arabesque.

ETYMOLOGY:
French, from Italian arabesco, in Arabian fashion, from Arabo, an Arab, from Latin Arabus, from Arabs ; see Arab

The Kuwait National Museum offers a glimpe of the old way of life. Fascinating and engrossing.

Who can refuse when a butcher with sharp knives call to you and says, "Take my picture!"


oranges that taste like sunbursts of joy...

Oblivious to the world before him, the arab man sits quietly, smoking his cigar

a friend of a friend once told another friend that underneath the mysterious black abayahs that these women don are the latest, most expensive fashion apparel with designer labels.

arabesque lamp



The shaded walkways offer respite from temperatures that can soar to 50degrees Celsius