Stele with lamp motif

This work may have been created around 1357, at the time when the madrasa of Cairo was constructed[1], where it was discovered in the nineteenth century. Carved in high relief in the marble, it was polychrome, as attested by the traces of brown and red paint that are still visible on the ground. The use of marble, which was common throughout the Mediterranean Basin during the classical period, continued in the Islamic period in Egypt. Marble was rare in Egypt and was often recuperated from Greek and Roman ruins in Egypt and in Syria. From the Fātimid period onwards, it was used both in Ifriqiya and Egypt, for funerary steles[2], cenotaphe[3]

and architectural decorations; from the twelfth century it was also used for wall and floor coverings. It was also used widely in Mamlūk architecture.

This rectangular panel is surmounted by a mixtilinear arch, which is reminiscent of those in the twelfth-century Andalusian palace of the Aljaferia in Zaragoza (Qantara), and those of the wooden decorations of the mausoleum of Imam Shāfi’ī in Cairo (1211) (Qantara). Inside are tendrils ornamented with a cluster of grapes (grapes or cedar cones) with split stems, which recall other Mamlūk marble works, like a panel in the Davids Samling collection[4], and also woodwork from the same era[5]. From the archstone hangs a lamp, whose form is similar to those of mosque lamps.

Lamps with rounded bodies and flared necks were common early on in Iran and in the Near-East[6]. They were produced in great numbers in the Syrian-Egyptian world until the middle of the Mamlūk period. But, from the start of the fifteenth century, the Egyptian industry gave way to European exports, especially from Venice and Barcelona[7]. These lamps are not specifically connected to places of Muslim worship: they could also be hung in tombs[8], secular buildings (palaces and public places) or Christian and Jewish monuments[9] in the Islamic world. This shape was sometimes adopted in Byzantium, in the Latin West[10], particularly in the ancient church of St Peters in Rome, and even in China[11]. 

While lamps were used in Christian monuments to illuminate sanctuaries and signify the divine presence, this was also the case for the Muslim religion. The lamps were often represented on the mihrāb[12], and prayer rugs, in reference to the Sura, part of which adorns the lamp: ‘God is the light of the heavens and the earth. His light may be compared to a niche that enshrines a lamp, the lamp within a crystal of a star-like brilliance[13]’. The iconography of the lamp can also be seen in a niche in the funerary context, like on a stele in the Museum of Cairo[14] and on the Khalid ibn al-Walid cenotaph, found in Homs[15]. The Jewish religion also uses the symbol of a lamp in a niche, as attested by a carpet from the mid sixteenth century, on which a chandelier with seven branches, the symbol of divine light, takes its place in a niche[16]. On the panel in the Museum of Cairo,  two chandeliers, from which a high flame rises, reinforce this idea of lighting. Their form evokes a model that appeared for the first time (to our knowledge) in a manuscript of Warqa and Gulshah from the end of the twelfth century, and then spread in the Islamic world, especially under the Mamlūks[17].

[2] Funerary stele, Kairouan, 1048, marble, Museum of Islamic Arts, Kairouan; Inscribed cenotaph panel, Egypt, tenth to eleventh century, The Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, 15551/3 Fātimid Treasures of Cairo p. 162 Nos 106 and 108.

[3] Frieze of a cenotaph with inscription, Egypt, the eleventh century, marble, the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, inv. 2908.

[4] Panel with thuluth inscription, Egypt, thirteenth century, Davids Samling, Copenhagen, 33/ 1986.

[5] Assembly elements of the minbar of Sultan Lajin, the Louvre Museum, Paris, AO 6017.

[6] Mosque lamp, the Umayyad period, part of collection [3000 Jahre Glaskunst, No. 574 p .132]

[7] Mosque lamp, Venice or Barcelona, c.1500, Glass, Museum Kunst Palast, Glasmuseum Hentrich, Düsseldorf, P 1978-1.

[8] Feuillet representing the inside of a mausoleum, Syria, twelfth century, Institut du monde arabe, Paris, AI 82-01.

[9] Godefroi de Bouillon in prière au Saint-Sépulcre, extract of the story of Guillaume de Tyr, end of 1096 to the beginning of 1097, parchment, Lyon, the municipal library, MS. 828, f° 83.

[10] Hanging lamp, Venetian, second half of the fifteenth century, bronze, the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 54-259.

[11] Mosque lamp, China, sixteenth to seventeenth century, enamelled and gilded bronze, Davids Samling, Copenhagen, 42/1966.

[12] Covering panel in the shape of a mihrab, Iran, Kashan, beginning of the fourteenth century, ceramic made from siliceous clay, with lustre and painted decorations, Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris, 7643; mihrab of the green turbe of Bursa…

[13] Qur’an 24:35, translation by D. Masson.

[14] Fragment of a funerary stele, Egypt, thirteenth century, The Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, 2988.

[15] National Museum, Damascus, Syria.

[16] ‘Mamlūk’ synagogue carpet, Cairo, mid sixteenth century, wool, Comunità Ebraica di Padova, Padua.

[17] Chandelier, Egypt, first half of the fourteenth century, copper alloy inlaid with gold and silver, Louvre Museum, Paris, OA 7529.

[17] Chandelier, Égypte, première moitié du XIV^e siècle, alliage cuivreux incrusté d’or et d’argent, Paris, Musée du Louvre, OA 7529.