Najima: The art of Armory

We would like to briefly pass on history of Art and show you the origin and meaning of our new design “Najima”.

Its name is a castilianisation from the arab “Najm”, which means Star, as we inspired by this pattern so frequent in Hispano-muslim art. The geometry and the star in particular, have been a constant in muslim art from its beginning to the Fifteenth and Sixth Centuries.

Although all the artistic and cultural influences (Byzantine, Greco-roman, Sassanid or Iranian, to name a few) Islam created a beautiful and new decorative world full of symbolism. The decoration profusely will nearly cover the whole walls, playing a key role and maintaining itself  beyond the eight centuries of government is our territory.

There is a popular misconception that all human or animal figures are forbidden by the Koran, this is not only false but also there are beautiful examples of these decorative motifs in Eastern and Western muslim art, especially in civil and palatine decoration. However, there is a conscious and gradual inclination towards vegetal, floral and geometric patterns and a wide range of styles depending on dynasties and territories.

Is within geometric decoration where the stars motifs - sometimes really complex - will successfully spread, mostly from the end of muslim government and during the Mudejar period.

Its basis is the square and by overlapping, rotating, dividing and multiplying it they will create an endless pattern that will be used as cellar of the most sacred place in the Great Mosque of Cordova… the Mihrab.

One of the most beautiful and magical meanings of those motifs and patterns is precisely their deep spirituality and the representation of omnipresence of God, its unity, endlessness and armony. A kind of decoration, nearly “horror vacui”, that not stop us in just a detail but it take us to infinite and repetitive forms as a mantra.

The geometry as schematisation of Nature has been always interesting for Man. Plato already present four polyhedral forms for the four elements. And they perfectly fit inside the quintessential perfect shape, the sphere, with no beginning and no end.

But the muslims, showing their vast mathematical and scientific knowledge, take the geometry and the divine representation a step further so that everyone could see it with meaningful and spiritual eyes.

And it is in this decorative world, and in its meaningful language, which inspired us to create a new bags for male  in high quality and attractive design in cordoban technique.