The Barey Ton or Mason guild in Mali is famous, not only for its esoteric knowledge, but for their geometric buildings, all of which have esoteric symbolism. It is also interesting to note that the city layouts they have traditionally designed, from the remotest of antiquity till today, have all been based on fractals. [Fractals being: An object or quantity that displays self-similarity, in a somewhat technical sense, on all scales. The object need not exhibit exactly the same structure at all scales, but the same type of structures must appear on all scales. A plot of the quantity on a log-log graph versus scale then gives a straight line, whose slope is said to be the fractal dimension. The prototypical example for a fractal is the length of a coastline measured with different length rulers. The shorter the ruler, the longer the length measured, a paradox known as the coastline paradox.] Rhode scholar Dr. Ron Eglash studied fractals, and ventured to West Africa, to study the occurrence of fractals in civil design and their appearance in other aspects of African culture. One thing that he found fascinating is that, it is only in Africa that cities are designed in this way. Although his research is very interesting, the reason behind the use of fractals in African city planning alluded him. The primary reason being, those who built these cities take oaths, which forbid them from sharing certain secrets of their craft with the uninitiated. However, the answer may lie in the symbol of the Barey Ton or Mason guild of Mali i.e. the chameleon. If we analyze the esoteric meaning of the chameleon, as espoused by the Sufi Shaykh Ibn Al Arabi we are given the following esoteric meaning: “The factor that separates two similars among things is difficult to perceive through witnessing, except for him who witnesses the Real or who verifies his witnessing of a chameleon, since there is no animal that shows more clearly that the Real possesses the property of “each day He is upon some task” than the chameleon. So no attribute and no state in the cosmos remains for two moments, nor does any form become manifest twice.” The “similars” in this case are those occurrences in this material existence, be they objects, states of spiritual or mental being, or situations we find ourselves in, which may appear to be the same, however, they are actually different. Hence, the idea of similar yet different is explained by the Shaykh via the Quranic verse which states “each day He [God] is upon some task”, meaning each day, God is creating, and no two creations are alike. They may have very close resemblance, but there are variances, and only those who have “tasted” or “witnessed” what is behind the “veils”, will realize this fact. The two symbols utilized by the Barey Ton which clearly communicate this idea of “Every day He (God) is upon some task” is the chameleon, which is constantly changing its physical state; as well as fractals, which display [“self-similarity” that “need not exhibit exactly the same structure at all scales, but the same “type” of structures”]. Further info: From the documentary Heavenly Mud: https://youtube/watch?v=sTv3v0ubCkk From the documentary Heavenly Mud: https://youtube/watch?v=yFtUJ1wcGG0 Dr. Ron Eglash African Fractals https://youtube/watch?v=LXRvwk12atw part 1 Dr. Ron Eglash African Fractals https://youtube/watch?v=6sAXdQP1RnM part 2 Fractal examples of city planning in West Africa: Aerial view of a royal palace in Cameroon qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-484f625d07f26b3d46dbbb5319afeda7?convert_to_webp=true Aerial view of Djenne corbisimages/images/Corbis-42-24358449.jpg?size=67&uid=329e8540-9916-4ea4-abb6-2b57fc73a1cc Aerial view of Atar Mauritania upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Aerial_view_of_Atar,_Mauritania,_1967-1.jpg
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 13:52:09 +0000
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