Mosque lamp inscribed with the name of Sayf al-Dīn Qawsūn ‘Ali ibn Muhammad al-Barmakī

This glass Mamluk lamp was made for the mosque or mausoleum of Sayf al-Dīn Qawsūn (died 1342) in Cairo. This merchant came from Samarkand in 1320, and was rapidly promoted to the highest State functions: he was Emir to Sultan al-Nāsir Muhammad ibn Qalā’ūn. Two other lamps exist that bear his name[1].

The wide-shouldered body swells out and rests on a tall pedestal foot. The upper part of the object largely consists of a wide neck. Six suspension loops are placed around the body. The decorations are arranged harmoniously, with nine registers decorated with alternating fine grey vegetal tendrils and wide, predominantly blue epigraphic bands.

Metal versions with the same shape exist from earlier periods[2], and Ottoman ceramicists produced similar lamps[3]. While their primary role was utilitarian, lamps in niches also became a common motif in Islamic art, and were linked to the divine symbol of light. This can be seen in architectural decorations[4], mihrābs, funerary steles, and on prayer rugs[5].

Glass working was already a thousand-year old skill in the East; then, during the Islamic period, numerous fabrication and decorative techniques were developed. The object was free-blown and worked on the pontil using a process invented in the first century BC in the Roman Empire. The rich gilt and coloured enamel decorations were then applied cold to the glass (which had already been fired once) and then fixed with a second firing. The Ayyubid craftsmen were famous for their mastery of this technique at the end of the twelfth century, and some productions from this era are today held in the treasuries of Western churches[6]. This excellence in craftsmanship lasted until the fifteenth century, when the Syrian and Egyptian workshops collapsed and were overtaken by Venetian and Barcelonan productions. There was then a reversal in trade and European productions were exported to the East[7].

The use of polychrome is tempered: blue, red, and gold are used sparingly, which allows the glass to show through. Some areas that are devoid of any decorations, like the almond shapes around the handles, and the narrow bands between the different registers accentuate the lightness of the ensemble. The motifs are characteristic of the period. The high cursive thuluth script, developed under the Mamluks, is very common on lamps, and on any support for the decorative arts: metal[8], ceramics[9], and book arts[10]. The inscription on the mouth (Sura of light) is common for lamps. The inscription on the body indicates the patron’s position as Cupbearer and mentions the Sultan’s name. The emblem of this position is a bowl, represented six times: three on the mouth and three on the lower part of the body, in a three-part red blazon on a yellow ground. The blazon is important in Mamluk art because it reflects the hierarchical organization of the State. Many contemporary objects were given this blazon[11], as were buildings[12]. The signature on the upper band of the foot is the same as that on a lamp held in Cairo[13]. The artist was Iranian, from the famous Barmakids family[14].

Amongst the vegetal motifs are peony and lotus flowers. These motifs, which were Chinese in origin, can also be seen on contemporary book arts and architectural decorations[15]. They were transmitted by the Mongols after the pax mongolica, a peace treaty signed in 1326 with the Mamluks.

Despite the reversal in the exportation of glass lamps from the sixteenth century, the technical and decorative achievements of Eastern productions influenced European artisans from the nineteenth century, like P. J. Brocard and T. Deck[16].

[2] Mosque lamp, alloy of beaten and openwork copper, from the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (twelfth century), the Louvre Museum, Paris, Inventory number OA 6007.

[3] Lamp from the Mosque of Sokollu Mehmet Pacha (completed in 1571–1572), ceramic made from siliceous clay, decorations painted on siliceous engobe covered with lead-glazed ceramic, Cinili Kiosk, Istanbul, Inventory number 41/17.

[4] The façade of the al-Aqmar Mosque (‘moonlight’) in Cairo (Egypt, 1125) is adorned with stucco panels, some of which take the form of a niche with lamp.

[5] Cotton and wool prayer rug decorated with a niche containing a lamp, Cairo, Egypt, (sixteenth to beginning of the seventeenth century) the Nasser D. Khalili collection, London.

[6] Goblet ‘of Charlemagne’, Syria, 1st half of the thirteenth century, musée des Beaux-Arts, Chartres, inv. 5144.

[7] Mosque lamp, Venice (sixteenth century), blown glass decorated with redeselli and gold, Istanbul, Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi, Inventory number 34/468.

[8] Panel with the name of the sultan of Yemen, Sayf al-Dīn al-Malik al-Mujāhid ‘Alī, beaten copper alloy, engraved decorations inlaid with engraved silver and red copper, Egypt, 1321–1363, the Louvre Museum, Paris, Inventory number 6008. 

[9] Apothecary vase, Egypt or Syria, fourteenth century, siliceous ceramic with engobe (slip), painted decorations under a transparent glaze, the Louvre Museum, Paris, MAO 618.

[10] Frontispiece of the Almanac of Countries, painted by Muhammad al-'Arari, Syria (1340), National Museum, Damascus, Inventory number 141689.

[11] Lamp with lotus flowers, blown glass, decorated in enamel and gold, Egypt or Syria, fifteenth century, the Louvre Museum, Paris, Inventory number OA 3110a: on the blazon of the fencing master a sabre is shown.

[12] Blazon in stone, Syria, Alep (end of the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth centuries), the National Museum, Alep, Inventory number 533.

[13] Mosque lamp with the name of Emir Ulmas, (1330, Cairo, Egypt), enamelled glass and gilt, the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, Inventory number 3154.

[14] This family was in power in Baghdad (Iraq) in the eighth to ninth centuries.

[15] See, for example, the façade of the Mausoleum of Sultan Hasan in Cairo, 1356–1363.

[16] Philippe J. Brocard (1840–1896), vase in the shape of a mosque lamp, glass decorated in enamel and gold, nineteenth century, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris: this vase bears the same inscription in the name of Qawsūn as the Metropolitan Museum lamp; Théodore Deck (1823–1891), fine porcelain vase with polychrome enamel decorations, nineteenth century, musée du Florival, Mulhouse, Inventory number THD-993.3.9.