Part of a steatite lantern

This part of a lantern was found with some fifteen other objects, including a truly remarkable brazier, in the storehouse of a former Byzantine monastery converted into a palace by the Ummayads. Crushed during an earthquake, it was recovered in thirty pieces but remains incomplete. Steatite, the soft stone of which it is made, had been used since the sixth millennium BC, at least in Iran and Mesopotamia, as attested by seals from Susa.[1] It seems to have been imported from the Arabian peninsula, where a number of steatite quarries still function in Yemen. The political unification effected by the Ummayad Empire led to the dissemination of such items, and carved steatite objects dating from the eighth–ninth century have been found in Byzantium and on the Iranian sites of Susa[2] and Nishapur.[3] In addition to the lamp ten steatite "cooking pots" bearing exclusively geometrical ornamentation have been found in Mafraq.

The dome-shaped piece unearthed at Mafraq is some ways reminiscent of the ceramic lanterns excavated at Susa,[4] Nishapur and Ramla, also dating from the Ummayad period or the early Abbasid reign; but these latter do not have the four handles this lantern has on its base. The ornamentation also resembles that of the unglazed ceramics of the same period. Delicately incised, it is divided into six horizontal bands, of which five bear the geometrical motifs – rosettes, grids, triangles, etc. – found on the cooking pots mentioned above. Executed with a stylus, this kind of decoration is common on steatite pieces – those excavated in the citadel in Amman, for example – but it is also reminiscent of the art of cut glass,[5] in terms both of its motifs and of the contrast between hatched and blank areas. The ocelli or "peacock's eyes" are reminiscent of stamped metal patterns[6] and turn up again in the bottoms of the lustreware and other ceramics of the Abassid period. 

Only the lower band is really distinctive, with its succession of arches from which half-moon-shaped objects are suspended. Given their pronounced stylisation they might be the hanging crowns of Byzantine rituals.[7] But more likely they are lamps, as seen on a small ivory plaque also found at Mafraq[8] and on a Coptic stela.[9] As it happens there are surviving examples of half-moon Coptic drinking cups probably intended for this purpose, one of them Byzantine glass dated to the eleventh century.[10] In the Christian world they served both to light the interior of places of worship and to signal the divine presence. This symbolism is equally present in Islam: the famous "Light" surah in the Qur'an, (XXIV, 35), which has given rise to many interpretations, including that of the Tabernacle of Light by Ghazali, notably declares, "God is the Light of Heaven and Earth! His light may be compared to a niche in which there is a lamp; the lamp is in a glass; the glass is just as if it were a glittering star."[11] Mosque lamps are most frequently depicted in Islamic art, on a range of supports including paper, prayer mats and mihrabs, as hanging under arches, which leads J.B. Humbert to surmise that this particular lantern could have been used in a shrine.

[2] Lamp and brazier, Susa (Iran), eighth–ninth century, steatite, MAO S. 393, MAO S. 201.

[3] Lamp holder, Nishapur (Iran), ninth–tenth century, steatite, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 40.170.121.

[4] Lantern with painted ornamentation, Susa (Iran), clay, Paris, Musée du Louvre, MAO S. 778.

[5] Drinking glass, Middle East or Egypt, ninth century, cut glass, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 65.173.1.

[6] Bowl, Ummayad or Abbasid period, white bronze, Jerusalem, L. A. Mayer Memorial, M178-17.

[7] Consular diptych, Constantinople, 518, ivory, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Cabinet des médailles, 3267.

[8] Plaque, Mafraq (Jordan), eighth century, ivory, Amman, National Archaeological Museum of Jordan, J. 15709.

[9] Funeral stela, Egypt, Byzantine era, limestone, Cairo, Coptic Museum, 8703.

[10] Lamp, Byzantine, eleventh century, cut glass, Venice, St Mark's Cathedral Collection, 67.

[11] Qur'an, XXIV, 35, trans. T. B. Irving.