rasmi

Arabic word from the same root as rasm, marsoum, and rosum. The root word rasm has several conotations, most popularly understood as custom and tradition, but also implies to the engraving of an image. The derivative rasmi literally meaning "of custom", is understood as formal and oficial in Indo-Iranian dialects such as Hindi, Urdu, Pashtu and Persian, including dialects such as Malay and Turkish that are under major Indo-Iranian influence. the term rasmi also implies to a particular form of structural groining of vaults and domes, the prime examples of which are found mainly in the Moorish cultural sphere (where the solution was invented in the tenth century) and the Indo-Iranian cultural world including Iran, Afganistan, Central Asia, India and Pakistan (where it developed into its highest sophistication. In this case the term is most likely derived from the Arabic conotation of the word rasm as engraving, in which case the term rasmi implies the literal meaning "designed". This nomination for the above mentioned architectural form is replaceable with the terms karbandi(in Iran), and qaleb-bandi (in India).