GLASS.
It is interesting to remark that the Saracens, while they had to begin
with no art of their own, and learned all their aesthetic training from
their foreign subjects, yet contrived to introduce some element of
distinctive originality into almost every branch of artistic work. Thus
the carved panels of the Cairo pulpits are a genus by themselves; only
in Cairo can such work be seen. The metal-work of Mesopotamia, Damascus,
and Cairo, is wholly unlike any other metal-work in the world, except
that which was avowedly an imitation of it. It is not merely that the
designs are varied, or new shapes introduced; the whole character of the
work is distinct from any other style. The chased inlay of silver in the
metal-work, and the self-contained arabesques and geometrical panelling
of doors, ceilings, and stone-work, are features which we may seek in
vain to match in Europe.
So is it with their glass; it is absolutely unique in character. Without
prejudging the question whether some of the mosque lamps were imitated
in Italy or not, at least no one will dispute that they form a distinct
class by themselves, and that no other glass resembles them in the
shape, the general style, or the details of the ornament. Nor do the
stained glass windows of the mosques and houses of Cairo offer any
analogy to the windows of our cathedrals, or any other windows at all.
In glass, as in most other artistic industries, the differentiating
genius of the Saracen artist displays itself in a special character
persistently maintained through many centuries.
The oldest glass in the world belongs to Egypt. The dull green and
opaque blue glass of the Pharaohs is well known, and there can be little
doubt that the art was not suffered to die out under the Greek and Roman
governors, though examples of these periods are not numerous. The Arab
and other Mohammadan rulers of this province of the Muslim empire
encouraged the manufacture of glass, at least in the insignificant form
of small weights for testing the accuracy of coins. The British Museum
possesses a large collection of these glass weights, bearing
inscriptions which assign them to definite dates. Some have the names of
the early Egyptian governors under the Damascus and Baghdād Khalifs, of
the eighth and ninth centuries, but most of them present the names of
the Fātimy Khalifs of the tenth and especially of the eleventh century,
more rarely the twelfth. These coin weights prove at least that the
making of glass had not become a lost art in Egypt. We read in the life
of St. Odilo, bishop of Fulda, of a _vas pretiosissimum vitreum
Alexandrini generis_, which was on the table of the Emperor Henry in the
first half of the eleventh century. There is a vase in the treasury of
St. Mark’s, at Venice, of nearly opaque turquoise paste, inscribed with
Arabic characters, which may probably be of the tenth century. “The bowl
is five-sided, and on each side is the rude figure of a hare. These
figures, as well as the inscription, are in low relief, and were
probably cut with the wheel. The setting is in filigree, with stones and
ornaments of cloissonné enamels.”[75] Cups of rock crystal of the same
century are in existence and are frequently mentioned by the Arab
historians, who even describe thrones and other large objects made of
this mineral, which offers some analogy to glass in the process of
cutting on the wheel, and which must have induced imitations in the
cheaper substance.
Most of the existing glass-work of Egypt, however, belongs to the
fourteenth century, and consists of lamps intended to be suspended in
the mosques of Cairo. “All show that the makers were tolerably expert
glass-blowers, and could produce vessels of considerable size; but the
glass is of bad colour and full of bubbles and imperfections. The makers
had learnt, probably from the Byzantines, the art of gilding and
enamelling glass, and made much use of it. Inscriptions in large
characters are favourite ornaments; figures of birds, animals, sphinxes,
and other monsters, are found. The outlines are generally put on in red
enamel, the spaces between being often gilt. The enamels are used
sometimes as grounds and sometimes for the ornaments; the usual colours
are blue, green, yellow, red, pale red, and white.”[76]
There is every reason to believe that these mosque lamps were made at
Cairo, or at all events that the best and oldest specimens were made
there,[77] though the coarser and more modern sort has been attributed
to imitators at Murano (Venice), who are believed to have worked for the
Mamlūk Sultans. It is true that Damascus and Tyre had a greater name for
glass-working; Nāsir-i-Khusrau, remarks that Tyre exported glass vessels
worked on the wheel; William of Tyre writes to the same effect; and
Benjamin of Tudela, in the twelfth century, speaks of ten glass-
manufacturers at Antioch, and four hundred Jews at Tyre (Sūr)
“shipowners and manufacturers of the celebrated Tyrian glass.” In the
Royal Inventories of France are notices of several glass vessels, among
the possessions of Charles V., in 1380, described as “of the Damascus
style,” among others _une lampe de voirre outrée en façon de Damas sans
aucun garnison_. It was, however, the custom among our mediaeval
chroniclers to regard Damascus as the centre of Saracenic art, and to
call everything Oriental _à la façon de Damas_, and the term must not be
pressed too far. Some lamps may, indeed, be the product of the glass-
workers of Tyre or Damascus; and one in the South Kensington Museum is
stated to have come from a mosque which seems to be near Damascus, and
another believed to be from Damascus is in the British Museum. Most of
the Cairo lamps, however, were doubtless made in the city where they
were destined to hang, or at the not far distant Mansūra, famous for its
glass-works. It must always be remembered that the probability of
fragile objects, such as glass and pottery, being made in the immediate
neighbourhood of their destination is very strong, in the absence of
distinct evidence of importation. We know that there were glass-works at
Cairo. Nāsir-i-Khusrau[78] states that a transparent glass of great
purity was, in his time, made at Misr, by which he means Fustāt, or Old
Cairo; and if he had not said this, the numerous fragments which are
constantly picked up on the mounds of rubbish which lie between Cairo
and the site of Fustāt would be proof enough. It is curious, however,
that lamps should be almost the only objects of glass that seem to have
been made at Cairo. It is recorded that the Mamlūks used glass drinking-
vessels, and so much might be inferred from the representation of cups
on their metal-work, which are plainly intended for glass or horn
vessels. Nevertheless, there is a complete absence of mediaeval glass
cups, or other vessels of undoubted Egyptian manufacture; and the only
glass objects besides the lamps are a few bottles, decorated with enamel
like the lamps, but in more delicate lines, chiefly of red and gold; and
the coin weights, to which we have already referred.
Of the enamelled glass mosque lamps there are five examples of the
finest kind at the British Museum, three equally superb specimens belong
to the South Kensington Museum, besides four others exhibited there on
loan by the Khedive. A few are to be found in private collections, of
which that of M. Charles Schefer, at Paris, is among the most
remarkable; Mr. Magniac has a lamp of Sultan Hasan, and Linant Pasha had
others of the Amīrs Sheykhū and Almās. So few now come into the market
that the price of such examples as are offered for sale is absurd. Very
few of these lamps are now seen hanging in their proper places in the
sanctuary of the mosques; I only noticed two or three in all the mosques
of Cairo in 1883. This is partly due to the risk of their being carried
off by enterprising collectors, to whom the guardians of the mosques,
who have long known the market value of their treasures, are not
indisposed to sell them for an adequate bribe; and partly to the
circumstance that the Commission for the Preservation of the Monuments
of Cairo, alive to the dangers to which these magnificent objects were
exposed, by the cupidity of travellers and the venality of natives,
instituted a rigorous search and removed all the lamps they could find
to the safety of the Museum of Arab Art. Here, when I examined the
collection in 1883, were about eighty glass lamps, chiefly derived from
the mosques of Sultan Hasan, Barkūk, and Kāït Bey. As there were several
lamps which were precise duplicates of others in the collection, I
suggested to the Khedive that four of these duplicates should be sent on
loan to South Kensington, and his Highness readily gave the necessary
authorisation.[79] The following description of these four lamps will
show the general character of this branch of Saracenic glass-work.
The first lamp (Arab Museum, No. 24) bears the name and titles of Sultan
Hasan, who reigned from 1347 to 1361, with brief intervals of
deposition. It is ornamented with Arabic inscriptions, medallions, and
other decorations, in enamelled colours, and had six loops for
suspension, one of which is broken off, leaving a small hole. The
colours of the enamel are chiefly cobalt and red, with a touch here and
there of pale green and white. The glass is thick and muddy, with
numerous striae, as is the case with all Saracenic lamps. The decoration
is arranged in a series of five bands, the position of which is
indicated in the accompanying skeleton outline:—
[Illustration: FIG. 92.
DIAGRAM OF GLASS LAMP.]
_A_, on the neck, interrupted by three medallions, _a, a, a_; _B_, at
the junction of the neck and body of the lamp; _C_, surrounding the body
and containing the main inscription, interrupted by the glass loops for
attaching the silver chains that attached the lamp to the beams or
ceiling of the mosque; _D_, on the lower curve of the body; and _E_, on
the foot. This division is common to most of the lamps with which I am
acquainted, but the ornament of course varies greatly in different
examples.
The inscriptions on the five bands are as follows:—
_A_. الله نور السموات والارض (_a_) مثل نوره كمشكاة فيها (_a_) مصباح
المصباح (_a_)
“God is the Light of the heavens and the earth; His light is as a niche
in which is a lamp, the lamp:” here the inscription breaks off, it
should continue فى زجاجة الزجاجة كأنها كوكب درّى “in a glass, the glass
as it were a glittering star.”—_Korān_, xxiv. 35. The Arabic letters are
in cobalt, the shading lines and ornaments, which are very delicately
traced, are in red.
_a, a, a._ Three medallions, each bearing, on a fess indicated in
outline by thin red lines, the inscription thrice repeated: عز لمولانا
السلطان الملك “Glory to our lord the Sultan the king,” written in thin
red lines.
_B._ Six fleurs-de-lis, in green and red, with red line ornament
between.
_C._ عز لمولانا (_loop_) السلطان (_l._) الملك ا (_l._) لناصر ناصر ا
(_l._) لدنيا والدين (_l._) حسن بن محمد عز نصره (_l._)
“Glory to our lord the Sultan the king, the helper [En Nāsir], Aid of
the state and church, Hasan son of Mohammad: be his triumph magnified!”
These words are formed by the glass being left plain in the midst of a
ground of cobalt enamel. In earlier examples the plain portions would
have been gilt.
_D._ Three medallions similar to _a, a, a,_ but the inscriptions
slightly imperfect, divided by floral ornaments in red, green, and blue.
_E._ Ornament in fine red outline, within blue border.
The second lamp (Arab Museum, No. 40) is similar to this in the
inscriptions, the arrangement, and the colours, and differs only in
substituting for the fleurs-de-lis of band _B_, six ornaments in blue,
divided by red outline tracings.
The third lamp (Arab Museum, No. 47), which has lost its foot, has much
less inscriptional ornament, and more floral decoration. Band _A_ has,
instead of the Arabic inscription, arabesque scroll-work in blue,
divided by medallions similar to those (_a, a, a_) of the first lamp,
and bearing the same inscription. _B_ is decorated with three red and
three green circular splashes, arranged alternately: these daubs are
very common on lamps of this period. _C_ has no inscription, but a
conventional floral design repeated six times with slight variations,
and divided by the six loops for suspension. _D_ has three medallions
like _a, a, a,_ with the same inscription, divided by red outline
ornamentation enclosed in blue border within outer border of red. _E_ is
broken off. The inscriptions, it will be observed, do not give the name
of any Sultan, but the lamp is stated to have been taken, like the other
two, from the mosque of Hasan.
The fourth of the Khedive’s lamps (Arab Museum, No. 11) belonged to the
mosque of Sultan Barkūk, (in the Coppersmiths’ Market at Cairo,) who
ruled in the last two decades of the fourteenth century. The
inscriptions and ornament are arranged in much the same manner as on the
first lamp of Sultan Hasan. Band _A_ presents the same inscription as
that lamp, but perfect to the words كوكب درّى, “glittering star.” The
medallions _a, a, a,_ however, contain the following inscription thus
arranged, written in fine red lines within a blue border, outside which
is another border of fine red line ornamentation:—
الظاهر the Illustrious
-----------------
عز لمولانا السلطان Glory to our lord the Sultan
-----------------
الملك the King
_B_ is decorated with six splashes of pale green and red alternately, as
on the third lamp.
_C_ has the inscription—
عز لمولانا (_loop_) السلطان (_l._) الملك (_l._) الظا (_l._) هر ابو سعيد
(_l._) انصره الله (_l._)
“Glory to our lord the Sultan, the king, the Illustrious [Edh-Dhāhir]
Abu-Sa‘īd, whom God assist.” The letters are in plain glass, defined by
the blue ground, as on the first lamp.
_D._ Three fleurs-de-lis and three double fleurs-de-lis arranged
alternately in blue borders; the single fleur-de-lis also enclosed in
outer red border as on the first lamp. On the foot, _E_, are coarse
flowers in red and greenish white in blue scroll borders.
These are good examples of the most ordinary type of Saracenic glass
lamp, with the usual mode of decoration. The three other lamps in the
South Kensington Museum, purchased in 1860, 1869, and 1875, are all
rather exceptional in their inscriptions and ornament, though these are
arranged in the same manner as in the Khedive’s lamps. They are more
choice, and the small one, of Kāfūr Es-Sālihy, from its unusually small
size, and from its probably early date, is the gem of the collection.
_Glass lamp[80] of Kāfūr Es-Sālihy_, probably of the thirteenth century,
enamelled in colours and gilt, the latter unusually well-preserved.
Height, 10¼ in. [S. K. M., 6820.-1860.]
“The ornament appears to have been traced in fine lines of red enamel,
and the spaces between the lines filled in some cases with coloured
enamels, in others with gilding. The whole work is carelessly executed,
but very effective.” On the neck is a broad band on which is an
inscription in blue divided into three parts by three medallions, the
centres of which are occupied by a white sixfoil flower on a red ground.
This inscription (_A_) reads—
مما عمل برسم الجناب ◯ العالى اﻟ ◯ ﻤولوى البكى
“Of what was made by order of his Highness the exalted, the Lord, the
Bey.”
On the body of the lamp (_C_), divided by three loops for suspension, is
the following inscription, originally gilt on a blue ground, in
continuation of _A_:—
كافور الرومى الحر (_l._) بدر الملكى اﻟ (_l._) لصالحى عز انصاره (_l._)
“Kāfūr Er-Rūmy, El-Harīdy, [liegeman] of El-Melik Es-Sālih: be his
triumphs magnified!”
On the under-side of the body the devices in medallions are repeated,
separated by floral ornament, chiefly gilt on a blue ground; on the foot
are three twelve-foiled medallions in blue, in which are arabesques in
blue, white, yellow, green, and red, on a gilt ground.
_Glass lamp of the Mamlūk Amīr Ākbughā_, fourteenth century, enamelled
with circular disks and medallions in white, red, and blue, with three
suspending chains of silver. Height, 13 in. [S. K. M., 1056.-1869.] Fig.
93.
“This very fine specimen resembles the preceding very closely as regards
the character both of the glass and of the ornamentation.” On the neck,
three medallions divide an inscription in blue enamel:—
_A._ فى بيوت اذن الله ان ترفع ويذكر فيها اسمه يبّح له فيها بالغدوّ
“In the houses which God hath permitted to be raised for His name to be
commemorated therein, men celebrate his praises morning” [and
evening].—_Korān_, xxiv. 36.
In the centre of the medallions is a device: on a fess gules, a lozenge
argent; the ground of the medallion is also white.
“On the upper part of the body are eleven sixfoil medallions formed by a
blue line, the grounds within which were probably gilt. On these are
lines very carelessly sketched in red, some of which show some
resemblance to the outlines of birds.” There were six loops for
suspension, one of which is broken, dividing the inscription _C_, which
is in blue characters with red edges on a gilt ground:—
_C._ مما عمل برسم الجناب (_l._) العالى المولوى (_l._) الاميرى الكبيرى
(_l._) سيف الدين . . . (_l._) اقبغا عبد الواحد (_l._) الملكى الناصرى
(_l._)
“Of what was made by order of his Highness, exalted, Lord, the Great
Amīr, Seyf-ed-dīn Alfy, ‘Abd-El-Wāhid Ākbughā, [liegeman] of El-Melik
En-Nāsir.”
[Illustration: FIG. 93.—GLASS LAMP OF AKBUGHA.
Fourteenth Century. (_South Kensington Museum._)]
On the under part of the body the medallions with devices are repeated;
between them are spaces filled with arabesque ornament in white, red,
green, yellow, and blue, on a gilt ground.
Ākbughā was a well-known Mamlūk of the great Sultan En-Nāsir Mohammad
ibn Kalaūn. He died in 1343.
_Glass lamp of Kahlīs_, a Mamlūk of El-Melik En-Nāsir, fourteenth
century; described, but probably erroneously, as having been brought
from the mosque “Devi Saidenaya” at Cairo, which is not known, though a
convent of a similar name exists near Damascus. Height, 11⅜ in. [S. K.
M., 580.-1875.]
This is rather better and more carefully made than the others, and the
enamel is in excellent preservation. The inscription on the neck, in
gold on a blue ground, is divided by three medallions; the centre of
each shows on a red ground a gold fess, on which is a scimitar in black
with white mountings.
_A._ انّما يعمر مساجد الله ◯ من آمن بالله واليوم اﻟ ◯ ﺂخر
واقام الصلاة ◯
“He only shall visit the mosques of God who believeth in God and the
Last Day, and is instant in prayer.”—_Korān_, ix. 18.
On the body are six loops for suspension, dividing an inscription in
blue on a gold ground:—
_C._ هذا ما اوقفه (_loop_) العبد الفقير (_l._) الى الله تعالى الر (_l._)
اجى غفور اله الكر (_l._) يم قحليس الملكى (_l._) الناصرى (_l._)
“This is what was dedicated by the humble servant of God Almighty,
hoping for the forgiveness of God the generous, Kahlīs, [liegeman] of
El-Melik En-Nāsir.”
On the lower part of the body the medallions are repeated, the spaces
between are filled with arabesque ornament, showing blue enamel on a
gold ground, lines of red on gold, and three small ornaments in white,
blue, red, and green enamel.
Of the lamps in the British Museum, the following are the most
interesting:—
_Glass lamp of Sheykhū_, a Mamlūk of El-Melik En-Nāsir, fourteenth
century. The inscriptions run round the neck (_A_) and the body (_C_),
and (as usual) are formed of blue enamel on a plain glass ground in
(_A_), and in plain glass (outlined in red) on a blue enamel ground in
(_C_): the plain glass was probably gilt when new. The neck inscription
contains the ordinary _Korān_ verse, “God is the light of the heavens
(_s_) and the earth: his light is as (_s_) a niche in which is a lamp
(_s_)”: here it breaks off.
At the points marked (_s_) is an armorial medallion: per fess, gules and
sable, on a fess or, a cup gules; within a belt of delicate red tracery.
The body inscription (_C_), divided by six loops, runs:—
برسم المقر الا (_l._) شرف العالى (_l._) المولوى (_l._) المخدومى (_l._)
السيفى سيجو (_l._) الناصرى عز الله نصره (_l._)
“By order of his excellency, the most noble, the exalted, the lord, the
master, Seyf-ed-dīn Sheykhū, [the liegeman] of En-Nāsir, God magnify his
triumph!”
On the lower curve of the body (_D_) are three armorial medallions, as
on (_A_), but divided by three medallions of arabesques, drawn in
delicate red outline on a blue enamel ground, within a belt of red
tracery.
_Glass lamp of Tukuzdemir_, Councillor of En-Nāsir, fourteenth century.
On _A_, the same inscription as on the preceding lamp, breaking off at
the same point; but divided by three shields, pear-shaped: gules, in
chief an eagle displayed or, in base a cup of the last.
On _C_: مما عمل برسم المولوى الاميرى السيفى طقزدمر امير مجلس الملكى
الناصرى الباى
“Of what was made by order of the lord, the Amīr, Seyf-ed-dīn
Tukuzdemir, Sitting Councillor of El-Melik En-Nāsir, the Bey.”
On _D_, three shields as on _A_, alternating with beautiful arabesques
in red, white, blue, and yellow.
On _E_, العالم “the wise,” repeated all round.
The border ornament consists chiefly of fine red tracery.
As before, the upper inscription is blue on gold, the lower gold
(outlined with red) on blue: but in this lamp the gold is exceptionally
well-preserved. The “Sitting Councillor,” _Amīr Meglis_, had control
over the doctors and surgeons of the Court (see p. 31); and this
Tukuzdemir is mentioned by the contemporary traveller, Ibn-Batūta, as
one of the chief nobles of the day.
A third lamp of exceptional interest, in the British Museum, must be
referred to here, although it is believed to be of Damascus manufacture.
It is quite different in style from the ordinary Cairo lamps: neither
medallions nor shields appear upon it, nor the name of any Sultan or
lord. The neck inscription (_A_) contains the beginning of the formula
“God is the light,” &c., down to الزجاجة, and the body inscription (_C_)
continues it to الامثال; the whole reads:—
(_A_). “God is the light of the heavens and the earth; his light is as a
niche in which is a lamp, and the lamp in a glass; the glass | (_C_) as
it were a glittering star; it is lit from a blessed tree, an olive
neither of the east nor of the west, the oil thereof would well-nigh
shine though no fire touched it—light upon light: God guideth to his
light whom He pleaseth; and God strikes out parables [for mankind, and
God is mighty over all.]” As before the neck inscription is blue on a
gold ground, and the body inscription gold upon blue: the gold is
unusually well preserved. Fine red tracery forms the borders. On the
three loops for suspension the following inscription is distributed:—
مما عمل برسم | المسجد بالترية | الصاحبة التقونة
“Of what was made for the mosque at the grave of the lady Et-Takūna.”
The meaning as well as the position of this curious inscription is
unique: and the mosque and the lady Takūna, or Takwīya, or whatever her
name may be, has not yet been identified. Over the word المسجد are signs
which look like ١٩٨, and may be a date reversed, 891 (A.D. 1486).
A lamp exhibited by Mr. J. Dixon at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, in
the summer of 1885, bore the inscription round the neck
المقر الكريم العالى ا _m_ المولو[ى] الاميرى الكبيرى _m_ المالكى المخدومى
_m_
continued round the body,
التقى على الله تعالى يلبغا الناصرى امير حاجب بالابواب الشريفة
“His excellency the generous, exalted, lord, great amīr, royal, master,
| trusting in God most High, Yelbughā, the retainer of En-Nāsir, lord
chamberlain of the royal gates.”
At the points _m_ are medallions bearing a coat of arms: on a fess a
scimitar azure, with brown mountings, chief gules, base brown.
Yelbughā is mentioned by El-Makrīzy (in the _Khitat_) as a “wezīr” and
“ustāddār,” and “one of the chief mamlūks of El-Melik Edh-Dhāhir
Barkūk,” in reference to his restoration of the mosque El-Akmar in 1397.
The lamp may have come from this very mosque; but it must have been made
after the death of Barkūk, since Yelbughā styles himself, not Edh-
Dhāhiry, but En-Nāsiry, _i.e._ mamlūk of En-Nāsir Farag, Barkūk’s son
and successor. This will give the lamp a date of about 1405-10.
No two lamps are really alike; the designs are infinite, and only in the
inscriptions do we find any trace of monotony. The appropriateness of
the passage from the Korān about “the light of the heavens and the
earth,” seems to have made it very popular with the glass-workers, and
it recurs with almost the persistency of the still more celebrated
“Throne Verse,” which meets the eye in nearly every mosque and tomb in
Cairo. Besides variety in ornament, the lamps sometimes differ widely in
substance. The transparent glass, covered with inscriptions and designs
in blue and red enamel, is certainly the ordinary material, but some
lamps are of plain glass with no enamel at all; such is the lamp of the
church of Abu-Sarga, engraved in Mr. Butler’s _Coptic Churches_, which
has the form of the lamps already described, but is perfectly plain, and
has only three loops for suspension. A similar lamp is preserved in the
Coptic church of Sitt Maryam hard by. Some of the lamps in the Arab
Museum at Cairo are of pale green or blue glass, and semi-opaque, and I
have seen one, of a rich deep blue, still hanging in a mosque. Lamps of
the same shape and purpose were also made of pottery, but not, so far as
we know, in Egypt. The earthenware lamps are chiefly of Damascus and
Rhodian ware, and belong to the sixteenth century; some of them reach
very large sizes, and not a few are open to suspicion of owing their
existence to the modern forger’s desire to satisfy the passion of the
collector. The Saracenic glass lamps do not appear to have been made
much later than the fourteenth century, nor do we hear much of Eastern
glass from travellers after this period. Venice had then taken up the
_rôle_ of glassmaking.
[Illustration: FIG. 94.—VASE OF SULTAN BEYBARS II.]
The mode in which the lamps were used was this: they were suspended by
chains of silver or brass to the wooden beams that generally run across
the span of the smaller arches in a mosque, or else to the ceiling, or
to the gallows brackets that stand out from the walls, as at Sultan
Hasan. A small glass vessel containing oil was hung inside the lamp by
means of wires hitched on to the rim, and a wick was soaked in the oil
and lighted. The effect of the yellow light shining through the gold and
the blue and red enamel, and showing off the inscriptions and ornament,
must have been magnificent: the true Oriental delight in softened light,
which we notice in the shady _meshrebīyas_, the subdued tones of the
windows, the dull red and blue of the ceilings, is exhibited in this
manner of introducing light into the mosques.
Besides the mosque lamps, the most prominent use of glass in Cairo was
for the windows of both mosques and houses. Over the niche of a mosque,
and over the lattice wood-work of a _meshrebīya_ in a house, one
generally sees examples of the characteristic stained glass windows of
Cairo. In houses they are generally set in a row, in slight wooden
frames, over the lattice, to the number of eight or more. The Cairo room
in the South Kensington Museum (no. 1193-1883), has eleven of these
stained windows, which are called in Arabic _kamarīyas_ or _shemsīyas_,
“moonlike” or “sunlike.” They consist of a rectangular frame of wood,
about two inches broad by one thick, and forming an oblong about thirty
inches high by twenty broad. The frame is filled with an arabesque,
floral, architectural, or inscriptional design in open stucco-work, the
perforations being filled with stained glass. The mode of making these
windows is the simplest. A bed of plaster is poured into the frame and
suffered to set, and the design is then cut out with a gouge or other
tool, after which the stained glass is fixed with more plaster on the
outside of the window, which is then put up in its place, flush with the
inside of the wall, and set in a slight wooden frame with a flat
architrave round it forming a margin which conceals the joints between
the several windows. A couple of buttons keep the window from falling
inwards, while the architrave secures it on the outside. It will be seen
that no special skill is required for most of this work. The plaster is
easily cut—as any one may prove who cares to make the experiment of
carving a _kamarīya_ out of plaster of Paris—and the glass requires no
fitting, for its superfluous edges are concealed by the plaster. The
material is fragile, no doubt, as those who have tried to bring it to
England know, but moderate care on the part of the workman would ensure
the safety of the _kamarīya_ between its cutting and its placing in the
window. Where the art comes in is in the shaping of the perforations
which form the design. The shape and slant of these holes are skilfully
regulated according to the height they are to be raised above the
spectator; and the thick plaster setting of the bright little facets of
glass gives the light that comes through the latter a shaded appearance
which is singularly charming. It is difficult to give in words any clear
idea of the exquisite effect which is obtained by a skilful management
of the plaster rims; and, unfortunately, in our climate one cannot
reckon on seeing the sun’s rays streaming through the stained glass of
those _kamarīyas_ which are exhibited in the South Kensington Museum.
[Illustration: FIG. 95.
FIG. 96.
STAINED GLASS WINDOWS.
(_South Kensington Museum._)]
[Illustration: FIG. 97.
FIG. 98.
STAINED GLASS WINDOWS.
(_South Kensington Museum._)]
With all the ingenuity of moulding that is noticeable in the plaster
designs of these _kamarīyas_, it must be admitted that the designs
themselves are somewhat monotonous. Certain well-known types recur again
and again, and it seems as if the artist had satisfied himself that no
other design could be so successful and suited to the character of the
light that was strained through. The South Kensington Museum contains
thirty-seven of these windows, including the eleven belonging to the
Cairo room, and the following is an analysis of the designs presented by
this series:—
Pinks and other flowers growing from a vase—ten examples, varied of
course in colours and slight details, but actually of the same design,
which is the commonest of all. (Fig. 98.)
Cypress entwined with flower-stem—six examples. The spirals of the
flower-stem are made to twist in opposite directions in a pair of
these designs.
Cypress alone, one; or within a quatrefoil, surrounded by flowers,
two. Two cypresses under an arch, one; or beneath a palm, one example.
(Fig. 97.)
Kiosk between two cypresses or two buds (fig. 95.), or alone, six
examples.
Scroll or sprig of flowers and leaves, three examples. (Fig. 96.)
Thus thirty of the thirty-seven windows are accounted for by five
designs. The remainder consist of two Solomon’s Seals, one rosette, and
four portions of Arabic inscriptions, of which two or three form parts
of Christian formulas. Examples of the kiosk, the palm spreading over
two cypresses, the flowers growing out of a vase, and the scroll or
sprig of flowers, are given in the illustrations (figs. 95-98).
The position of the row of _kamarīyas_ over a _meshrebīya_ is almost
always just beneath the eave of the window, above the lattice-work; but
there is one exception in the South Kensington Museum. The Cairo room
there has its eleven _kamarīyas_ in an intermediate position, with a
panel of lattice-work above as well as below the glass. This is so
unusual, that competent authorities have asserted that the _meshrebīya_
has been wrongly put together; but apart from the fact that the sketch I
made of the window before it was taken down in Cairo shows the same
arrangement, the joints of the wood-work prove that the window is in its
original position, and could not have been set up in any other way.