h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I seem to remember hearing from somewhere that mosques and other Islamic art have to have a deliberate flaw in them, somewhere, to symbolise the fallibility of humanity when compared with the perfection of Allah. Is that true or did I just make it up? Or is it a different religion? My searches don't seem to turn anything up about this.

My source of knowledge here might not be too reliable: once in a show of the 1990's run of Kung Fu, they talked about a "Persian Flaw." Apparantly, according the the greatson of the great Kwai Chang Kain, Persian rug makers would make sure that there is always some sort of imperfection in each rug they made to avoid the great sin of hubris: only the allmighty maker (who in this case would probably answer to the name of Allah - if indeed he answers) is able to create something perfect, something without flaws. Therefore, on order not to appear to aspire to challange God (or in order not to incur God's wrath), the rug makers made rugs that were deliberately llawed.

It is a totally different question, however, whether this system was not even more hubris-ridden than trying to make a perfect rug, as by deliberately making a mistake in order not to appear infallable, you do seem in to imply that you *could* make something flawless but *chose* not to...

Y.

Yes, yes. Thank you. Maybe it was prayer mats that I was thinking of, rather than mosques? I still can't find any definitive proof though.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Persian%20Flaw.%22

Thanks. Looks like the Persian flaw custom is genuine. Since many prayer mats are apparently of Persian design, maybe the custom carried over?

Yeah, it also strikes me as odd. If only Allah is able to create something perfect making a flaw should not be necessary. But I am worried if it carries over into other things, imagine the problems with Muslim architects and engineers. "Well, this bridge we just built has a deliberate structural flaw which may cause it to collapse, but it would be insulting to Allah to make a perfect bridge."

I believe any such flaws would strictly be of a cosmetic nature. The ought be be visible, rather than structural.

Y.

That'll explain Milton Keynes then.

I expect its just a reminder/symbol of the imperfection, rather than to prevent the item from being created perfect.

SpankMunki >'That'll explain Milton Keynes then.'


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4725742.stm

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