Plate from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones (1856) “The Alhambra is at the very summit of perfection of Moorish art, as is the Parthenon of Greek art. We can find no work so fitted to illustrate a Grammar of Ornament as that in which every ornament contains a grammar within itself.” —Owen Jones, The Grammar of Ornament, 1856 To patterns enthusiasts, the Alhambra looms large in the imagination—“a pearl set in emeralds,” according to Moorish poets, alluding to its whitewas