LA GÉOMETRIE, LA SPIRALE ‘AL-HALAZUN’ ET LA GLORIFICATION DE LA NATURE POUR L’AMOUR DIVIN
THE GEOMETRY, THE SPIRAL ‘AL-HALAZUN’ AND THE GLORIFICATION OF NATURE FOR DIVINE LOVE

Summary/Abstract: Without orthogonality and without visible axiality, in appearance the garden of Algiers of the Ottoman period does not follow any geometry, it presents itself on a sloping ground with grass, flowers and fruit trees following the logic of the cultivator who has respected the movement of the sun, the cultivation techniques and the irrigation system. It seems like a natural landscape whose vegetable, ornamental and medicinal plants, coexist by means of highly developed cultivation techniques. The absence of apparent geometry certainly gives a natural character to the garden and a great feeling of pleasure. However, it is on the basis of a circular and spiral geometry that a spatial hierarchy of the garden is ordered to give a spiritual and mystical meaning to the garden. Thus, it is from the forest towards the orchard, then towards the courtyard and finally towards the patio that the passage from nature to culture is felt. This garden, described as picturesque by historians, travelers and painters of the modern era, tells of the love of man for his creator, a relationship that the poets and painters of medieval and modern Islamic times have admirably represented. This paper contains a cross-reading of the medieval Islamic painting and of the architecture of the Ottoman Garden of Algiers, which represent depictions of the love of man towards his creator through the geometry of the spiral, a geometry that is both cultural and natural.

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