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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78943 ***
+[Illustration: MOSQUE OF KAIT BEY.
+
+_Frontispiece._]
+
+
+                                  THE
+                          ART OF THE SARACENS
+                                IN EGYPT
+
+                                   BY
+                   STANLEY LANE-POOLE, B.A., M.R.A.S.
+  _Hon. Member of the Egyptian Commission for the Preservation of the
+                         Monuments of Arab Art_
+
+                           With 108 Woodcuts
+
+[Decoration]
+
+         _Published for the Committee of Council on Education_
+                                   BY
+                       CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED
+                  11, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
+                                  1888
+
+
+
+
+                                PREFACE.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+
+The subject of the following chapters is what has been commonly known as
+‘Arab’ or ‘Mohammadan’ Art. Both these terms are misleading—for the
+artists in this style were seldom Arabs, and many of them were
+Christians—and the general term ‘Saracenic’ has therefore been
+substituted. ‘Saracen,’ which means simply Eastern, was the universal
+designation of Muslims in the Middle Ages, whether the paynims referred
+to were Syrian or Egyptian princes, like Saladin, or Barbary chiefs, or
+Moorish Alcaydes in Spain; and the mediaeval ring of the term
+Saracenic—which recalls the “proud Sarrasin” of the ballads, the
+_Sarrasina_ artist of Italy, the Bysant _Saracenatus_ of the Crusaders,
+and the stuff _Saracenatum_, or, as we spell it, “sarcenet”—is specially
+appropriate to the art about to be described. Saracenic art possesses an
+unmistakable style, which is instantly recognised wherever it occurs,
+from the pillars of Hercules and the Alcazar of Seville to the mosques
+of Samarkand and the ruins of Gaur in Bengal; and this style was
+developed and brought to perfection in the Middle Ages. The word
+Saracenic, implying the two ideas of Oriental and mediaeval, exactly
+fulfils the conditions of a general term for the art with which we are
+concerned.
+
+There is a Saracenic art of Syria, with Damascus for its centre; there
+is a Saracenic art of Egypt; another variety is seen in the buildings of
+the Barbary States and Morocco; Andalusia, in the extreme west of the
+Mohammadan dominions; Persia, India, and Central Asia in the east; and
+Anatolia, Armenia, and even Turkey in Europe, between, have each their
+special development of the Saracenic style. Some of these varieties are
+perhaps better designated by their geographical positions; we speak of
+Persian art, Indian art; or again, the Moresque decoration, and so
+forth; but we must not forget that all these are but modifications of
+the Saracenic style, produced by the differentiating elements which were
+found in each country conquered by the Arabs, or introduced by the
+genius of some special school of artists. The mere classification of the
+various branches of Saracenic art, with a list of the monuments and
+objects illustrating each branch, would occupy a volume: so large a
+subject requires subdivision, and the present work therefore treats of
+the Egyptian branch alone, with but occasional passing glances at
+contemporary or derived developments. In some respects the Egyptian is
+the most important example of the style; for the mosques of Cairo
+furnish a fuller, longer, and more continuous record of the arts
+employed in their construction and decoration than any other series of
+monuments in a single Mohammadan city, and the simple lines and
+restrained decoration of the Egyptian artists exhibit to perfection the
+essential character of the Saracenic style. The mosques of Cairo give us
+the normal character of the art; we may go eastwards to Delhi, or west
+to the Alhambra, to see what a fanciful taste could add to the normal
+elements; but we shall come back with the conviction that the purest
+form of Saracenic art, and that which most rests and satisfies the eye,
+is to be seen in Egypt.
+
+In this account of the Egyptian development of Saracenic art, I have
+worked an almost unexplored vein. The only previous attempt to describe
+the art of Cairo, as a whole, is M. Prisse d’Avennes’ _L’Art Arabe_, a
+magnificent work, unapproached in its coloured illustrations; but its
+volume of text is of slight value. M. Prisse, who was not in a position
+to consult the Arabic historians, or to decipher the inscriptions which
+so often determine the date of an object of Saracenic art, is naturally
+an uncertain guide when it is a question of anything beyond
+draughtsmanship. We must not trust his facts; but for his plates we
+cannot be too grateful. Coste’s work, the _Monuments du Caire_, deserves
+all credit as the first of its kind, but here again the letterpress is
+of no scientific value, and even the drawings exhibit an imaginative
+power, which, however admirable it may be in the creation of works of
+art, is not desirable in their reproduction. M. Bourgoin’s _Les Arts
+Arabes_, and the smaller _Éléments_, are finely illustrated, but their
+text is occupied almost entirely with a minute examination of the
+principle of geometrical ornament in Saracenic decoration, for which
+there is no better authority.
+
+The first attempt at a scientific examination of the origin and
+development of Saracenic art was made by my father, the late Edward
+Stanley Poole, of the Science and Art Department, in an Appendix to the
+fifth edition of Lane’s _Modern Egyptians_, 1860, and very little of
+importance has been added to the results set forth in that essay twenty-
+six years ago. It is still the best authority on the subject of the
+sources of Arabian architecture, and the relation of the earliest
+buildings of the Arabs to Byzantine and Sassanian models; but of other
+arts, besides architecture, this essay does not treat. My own work,
+while it necessarily includes an outline of the principal forms and
+characteristics of Cairo buildings, does not presume to offer a history
+of Cairene architecture, for which both space and materials are at
+present wanting. The decorative arts, which were employed to embellish
+the mosques and palaces of mediaeval Egypt, form the subject of the
+following chapters; the history of mural sculpture, of mosaic work, wood
+and ivory carving, glass, pottery, and the like, is traced by means of
+dated examples down to the decadence which followed the Turkish conquest
+of Egypt; and the general characteristics of each period having thus
+been established at fixed points by dated specimens, the classification
+of undated examples becomes comparatively easy. I may perhaps be thought
+to have wasted time over the exact determination of the chronological
+sequence in each separate art, but there is so much vague generalisation
+abroad, and such extremely hazardous opinions are constantly ventilated,
+on the subject of Oriental art, that I have considered it a matter of
+the first consequence to cast aside all merely aesthetic canons and
+prejudices, and base the history of the arts I describe strictly upon
+sound historical evidence. An art critic is none the worse off when the
+date of an object is fixed by historical proofs; and those who are not
+versed in the principles of art criticism will be glad to have definite
+facts to go upon.
+
+The authorities of which I have made use will be found referred to in
+the footnotes. Beyond the materials supplied by accurate drawings, like
+those of Prisse and Girault de Prangey, European books on this subject
+are few, and consist chiefly in short papers in periodical publications,
+such as M. Adrien de Longpérier’s in the _Revue Archéologique_, or M.
+Lavoix’ in the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_; or else notes, scattered
+through the pages of books like Colonel Yule’s invaluable _Marco Polo_,
+or M. Schefer’s _Nāsir-i-Khusrau_. Reinaud’s description of the Duke de
+Blacas’ collection (_Monuments Musulmans_) deserves special notice, as
+the first scientific account of any large series of Saracenic works of
+art, and also because it abounds in valuable information, especially in
+reference to metal-work. In my great-uncle’s _Modern Egyptians_ the
+buildings and furniture of Cairo are carefully and clearly described,
+but the subject of Mr. Lane’s book was the manners and customs of the
+modern people, and not the art of their forefathers. In special
+departments, Mr. Nesbitt’s _Catalogue of the Glass Vessels in the South
+Kensington Museum_, Mr. Fortnum’s corresponding _Catalogue of the
+Maiolica, &c._, and Fischbach’s _Geschichte der Textil-Kunst_ have been
+consulted. Eastern historians are as a rule singularly destitute of the
+sort of information we require about the art of the various dynasties
+and capitals: they tell us how many pieces of gold a certain mosque or
+pulpit cost, but they seldom record where or how it was made, or who
+were its designers. Nevertheless there are a certain number of valuable
+indications scattered among the Arabic writers, and these have been
+collected, from the works of such historians and travellers as El-
+Mes’ūdy, Es-Suyūty, Ibn-Khaldūn, El-Makkary, Ibn-Batūta, Nāsir-i-
+Khusrau, ‘Abd-el-Latīf, &c., &c., and, above all, from the treasure-
+house of the mediaeval topography and history of Egypt, El-Makrīzy’s
+_Khitat_ and _History of the Mamlūks_.
+
+I have to acknowledge much private assistance from friends who have made
+Saracenic art their study. Mr. J. W. Wild, the curator of Sir John
+Soane’s Museum, than whom there lives no better authority on the
+architecture of Cairo, has kindly read and approved the second, third,
+and fourth chapters, on architecture, stone and plaster, and mosaic, and
+generously placed his interesting Egyptian notes and sketch-books at my
+disposal. Mr. H. C. Kay, whose long residence in Egypt and special study
+of Arabic mural inscriptions give his criticisms a high value, has read
+the proof sheets of most of the work, and some important additions have
+been made at his suggestion. Mr. A. W. Franks, the keeper of mediaeval
+antiquities in the British Museum, and his assistant, Mr. C. H. Read,
+have given me every aid in studying the fine collection of Saracenic
+metal-work under their care, and have also seen the chapters on metal-
+work, glass, and pottery in the proofs. M. Charles Schefer has sent me
+some useful references from his valuable notes and materials. To Franz
+Pasha, the architect to the Ministry of Wakfs in Cairo, I am indebted,
+not only for giving me every facility when in Cairo in 1883 for
+studying, photographing, and taking casts from, the monuments, but also
+for having ever since kept me supplied with photographs and reports of
+great value for the present work.
+
+With regard to the orthography of Eastern names, I have tried to be
+accurate without pedantry. I have neglected diacritical points, which
+were not required in a book destined for the general student, and I have
+not spelt Koran with a Q. The vowels _a_, _e_, _i_, _u_, with the
+prolonged sounds _ā_, _ī_, _ū_, are to be sounded as in Italian; _ey_ is
+to be sounded as in they; _aw_ as “ow” in now; (‘) represents the
+guttural ‘eyn, and _g_ (or more strictly ǵ), may be pronounced either as
+English j or hard g. The latter is the usual Cairo pronunciation.
+
+I must not conclude without expressing my obligations to Mr. J. D.
+Cooper, who has expended even more than his usual care and skill upon
+the execution of the woodcuts illustrating this work.
+
+                                                              S. L.-P.
+
+  RICHMOND,
+    _February_, 1886.
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+
+            CHAPTER I.
+
+                               PAGE
+
+  THE SARACENS OF EGYPT           1
+
+            CHAPTER II.
+
+  ARCHITECTURE                   47
+
+           CHAPTER III.
+
+  STONE AND PLASTER              95
+
+            CHAPTER IV.
+
+  MOSAIC                        115
+
+            CHAPTER V.
+
+  WOOD-WORK                     124
+
+            CHAPTER VI.
+
+  IVORY                         171
+
+           CHAPTER VII.
+
+  METAL-WORK                    180
+
+           CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  GLASS                         247
+
+            CHAPTER IX.
+
+  HERALDRY ON GLASS AND METAL   268
+
+            CHAPTER X.
+
+  POTTERY                       274
+
+            CHAPTER XI.
+
+  TEXTILE FABRICS               281
+
+           CHAPTER XII.
+
+  ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS       298
+
+  INDEX OF NAMES, &C.           309
+
+
+
+
+                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+
+     FIG.                                                           PAGE
+
+       1. MOSQUE OF KAIT BEY                              _Frontispiece_
+
+       2. EAST COLONNADE OF THE MOSQUE OF ‘AMR                        50
+
+       3. PLAN OF THE MOSQUE OF ‘AMR                                  51
+
+       4. MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN                                         55
+
+       5. ARCADES IN MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN (Ninth Century)              59
+
+       6. DIAGRAM SHOWING PROPORTIONS OF A DOME                       62
+
+       7. PLAN OF THE MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN                          63
+
+       8. ORNAMENT FROM THE PORTAL OF SULTAN HASAN                    69
+
+       9. KUFIC FRIEZE IN MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN                      71
+          (Fourteenth Century)
+
+      10. DOORWAY OF SMALLER MOSQUE OF KAIT BEY                       75
+          (Fifteenth Century)
+
+      11. DOORWAY OF A PRIVATE HOUSE                                  79
+
+      12. A STREET IN CAIRO                                           81
+
+      13. PLAN OF A CAIRO HOUSE.—GROUND FLOOR                         83
+
+     13A.  „   „  FIRST FLOOR                                         84
+
+     13B.  „   „  SECOND FLOOR                                        85
+
+      14. ROSETTE IN MOSQUE OF SUYURGHATMISH (Fourteenth              93
+          Century)
+
+      15. ROSETTE IN MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN (Fourteenth               97
+          Century)
+
+      16. STONE PULPIT IN MOSQUE OF BARKUK (Early                     99
+          Fifteenth Century)
+
+  17, 18. GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENTS FROM THE WEKALA OF KAIT              101
+          BEY
+
+      19. ARCHED ORNAMENT OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY                  103
+          (Fifteenth Century)
+
+      20. GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENT OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY             107
+          (Fifteenth Century)
+
+      21. ELEVATION OF PART OF THE SHOP-FRONTS OF THE                108
+          WEKALA OF KAIT BEY
+
+      22. ARABESQUE ORNAMENT OF WEKALA OF KAIT BEY                   109
+          (Fifteenth Century)
+
+  23, 24. GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENTS OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY            110
+
+      25. ROSETTE OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY (Fifteenth               111
+          Century)
+
+      26. ARABESQUE OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY                        113
+
+      27. GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENT OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY             114
+
+      28. MOSAIC DADO                                                117
+
+      29. MOSAIC PAVEMENT                                            118
+
+      30. MODE OF BEVELLING MOSAICS                                  119
+
+      31. MOSAIC PAVEMENT                                            122
+
+      32. CARVED PANEL OF PULPIT                                     125
+
+      33. CARVED PANEL OF PULPIT                                     126
+
+      34. PULPIT OF SULTAN KAIT BEY (Fifteenth Century)              127
+
+  35, 36, CARVED PANELS OF LAGIN’S PULPIT, ONCE IN THE               130
+  37, 38. MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN. A.D. 1296
+
+      39. ARABESQUE PANEL OF LAGIN’S PULPIT, ONCE IN THE             131
+          MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN
+
+      40. PANEL OF LAGIN’S PULPIT, BEARING HIS NAME AND              131
+          TITLES
+
+      41. CARVED PANELS FROM PULPIT (OF KUSUN?)                      133
+          (Fourteenth Century)
+
+      42. CARVED PANELS FROM PULPIT (OF KUSUN?)                      135
+          (Fourteenth Century)
+
+      43. CARVED PANELS OF THE TOMB OF ES-SALIH AYYUB                137
+          (Thirteenth Century)
+
+      44. CARVED PANEL OF A SHEYKH’S TOMB. A.D. 1216                 141
+
+      45. PANEL OF A DOOR FROM DAMIETTA                              142
+
+  46, 47. CARVED PANELS FROM THE MARISTAN OF KALAUN                  143
+          (Thirteenth Century)
+
+      48. CARVED PANEL FROM THE MARISTAN OF KALAUN                   145
+
+      49. LATTICE-WORK                                               146
+
+      50. LATTICE-WORK                                               148
+
+      51. LATTICE-WORK                                               150
+
+      52. LATTICE-WORK                                               151
+
+      53. LATTICE-WORK                                               152
+
+      54. LATTICE-WORK                                               153
+
+      55. LATTICE-WORK                                               154
+
+      56. LATTICE-WORK                                               155
+
+     56A. LATTICE-WORK                                               157
+
+      57. LATTICE-WORK                                               159
+
+      58. LATTICE-WORK                                               160
+
+  59, 60. CARVED AND INLAID LATTICE-WORK                             161
+
+      61. PANELLED DOOR FROM A COPT’S HOUSE                          163
+
+      62, PANELLED DOORS                                             165
+  63, 64.
+
+      65. CEILING OF APPLIQUÉ WORK                                   166
+
+      66. TABLE (KURSY)                                              167
+
+      67. CEILING OF A MESHREBIYA                                    169
+
+      68. CARVED IVORY PANEL                                         172
+
+      69. CARVED IVORY PANELS OF A PULPIT DOOR                       173
+
+      70. INLAID IVORY AND EBONY DOOR                                175
+
+      71. INLAID IVORY AND EBONY PANEL FROM A TABLE                  177
+
+      72. IVORY INK HORN                                             179
+
+      73. INSCRIPTION INTERWOVEN WITH FIGURES ON THE                 183
+          “BAPTISTERY OF ST. LOUIS”
+
+      74. TABLE FROM MARISTAN OF KALAUN (Thirteenth                  187
+          Century)
+
+      75. PANEL OF TABLE OF EN-NASIR, SON OF KALAUN                  190
+
+      76. LAMP OF SULTAN BEYBARS II. (A.D. 1309-10)                  191
+
+      77. BASE OF CHANDELIER OF SULTAN EL-GHORY                      195
+          (Sixteenth Century)
+
+      78. LANTERN OF SHEYKH ‘ABD-EL-BASIT                            197
+
+      79. COVER OF SHERBET BOWL (Sixteenth Century)                  201
+
+      80. CASKET OF EL-‘ADIL, GRAND NEPHEW OF SALADIN                205
+          (Thirteenth Century)
+
+      81. PERFUME-BURNER OF BEYSARY (Thirteenth Century)             211
+
+      82. INLAID SILVER PANELS OF THE “BAPTISTERY OF ST.             219
+          LOUIS”
+
+  83, 84, BRONZE PLAQUES FROM DOOR OF BEYBARS I.                     224
+  85, 86.
+
+      87. BRASS BOWL INLAID WITH SILVER (Fourteenth                  231
+          Century)
+
+      88. BRASS CANDLESTICK INLAID WITH SILVER                       235
+          (Fourteenth Century)
+
+      89. BRASS BOWL OF KAIT BEY (Fifteenth Century)                 237
+
+      90. LAMP FROM JERUSALEM                                        241
+
+      91. ARMS FOR LION-HUNTING                                      245
+
+      92. DIAGRAM OF GLASS LAMP                                      252
+
+      93. GLASS LAMP OF AKBUGHA (Fourteenth Century)                 257
+
+      94. VASE OF SULTAN BEYBARS II.                                 262
+
+  95, 96. STAINED GLASS WINDOWS                                      264
+
+  97, 98. STAINED GLASS WINDOWS                                      265
+
+      99. ASYUT COFFEE-POT                                           275
+
+     100. SILK FABRIC OF ICONIUM (Thirteenth Century)                283
+
+     101. DAMASK, WORN BY HENRY THE SAINT (Eleventh                  291
+          Century)
+
+     102. SILK FABRIC OF EGYPT OR SICILY                             295
+
+     103. ILLUMINATED KORAN OF SULTAN SHA‘BAN                        299
+          (Fourteenth Century)
+
+     104. ILLUMINATED KORAN OF SULTAN SHA‘BAN                        303
+          (Fourteenth Century)
+
+     105. ILLUMINATED KORAN OF SULTAN EL-MUAYYAD                     305
+          (Fifteenth Century)
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+*** The Department is indebted to Mr. John Murray for the use of Figs. 3
+and 7; to Messrs. Virtue & Co. for Figs. 2, 4, 25, 66, 71, 74-8, 99; to
+Messrs. Cassell for Figs. 8, 9, 13, 91, 94, 101-5; to M. Leroux for
+Figs. 73, 82, 90; and to M. Giraud for Fig. 100.
+
+
+
+
+                        _THE ART OF THE SARACENS
+                               IN EGYPT._
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                         THE SARACENS OF EGYPT.
+
+
+The study of any branch of art supposes some acquaintance with the
+history of the people among whom the art was practised. Without such
+knowledge not only is much of the interest lost by the inability to
+enjoy the associations which the imagination winds about the possessions
+and works of historical personages,—always a strong attraction in
+antiquarian studies,—but we even lack the data upon which to construct a
+true and natural sequence of the art itself. Especially important is the
+aid lent by history to Mohammadan art. It frequently happens that the
+analogies that go to make up the style of a given period are obscure and
+difficult to seize in the scattered relics of Saracenic handiwork, and
+our only safe guides are the names of princes and nobles which the
+artist, allured by the fluent grace of the Arabic writing as much as by
+the desire to record the name of the nobleman who expended his treasure
+upon skilful work, was accustomed to engrave upon most of his
+productions. These inscriptions, which seldom record the name of the
+artist himself, but frequently that of the great man for whom the work
+was executed, are a prominent feature in Saracenic art, and form an
+invaluable aid to the student in establishing a definite and
+indisputable sequence of styles. The mosques were naturally inscribed
+with the name of the pious founder; and when a later grandee devoted his
+wealth to restoring the sacred building, he too would place his deed on
+record, over the entrance, or above the niche, and his new pulpit or
+carved door would be duly inscribed with his name: thus we are furnished
+with the dates both of foundation and restoration,—a circumstance of the
+utmost value in Egyptian architecture. Most of the smaller objects of
+art, such as metal bowls, glass lamps, and trays, have inscriptions, and
+a large proportion of these contain the name of some Sultan or noble who
+is well known to history. From such information we are able in most
+branches of Saracenic art to weld a chain of artistic development which
+enables us with little difficulty to class most of the undated
+specimens.
+
+In the following pages such a chain of examples of known date will be
+found illustrated and described; but it is not the less necessary to
+provide the reader with the means of ascertaining for himself the date
+of an example which he may possess, and which may not be susceptible of
+positive identification by the help of the engravings in this work. For
+this purpose a slight knowledge, at least, of the history of Egypt under
+the Saracens is necessary, and the details, which cannot be given in so
+brief an outline as is possible in the present limits of space, may be
+to some extent supplied by the chronological tables which are appended
+to this chapter.
+
+The writer on the art and history of the Mohammadan East labours under
+the disadvantage of being obliged to begin at the very beginning; to
+assume in his reader an ignorance not merely of the chief names of
+Saracenic history, but even of whole dynasties, and their places in
+general history. A person of ordinary education may possess some
+acquaintance with the early events of the Muslim empire, the life of the
+Prophet Mohammad, the first sweep of conquest, and perhaps even the
+Khalifates of Damascus, Baghdad, and Cordova. In the later history of
+the Arab empire, a name here and there, a Saladin or Nūreddīn, a Hākim
+or a Boabdil, may be known; but the rest is naturally a blank. People
+have enough to learn in the present day without attempting Oriental
+history. In describing the art of Greece or of Italy we are generally on
+familiar ground; the names of Pericles and Hiero, of the Medici and the
+Sforze, ought to be as well known as that of Wolsey or William of
+Wykeham. In Eastern history we must perforce take nothing as known until
+it has been explained; and in doing so now, no discourtesy is designed
+towards those few who are acquainted with the history, and who will, I
+am sure, forgive repetition for the sake of the larger number whose
+studies have not been directed to Oriental subjects.
+
+The history of Egypt under Mohammadan rulers extends from the middle of
+the seventh century to the present day; but we are only concerned with
+that portion of those twelve centuries which bears an intimate relation
+to the development of Saracenic art. The earliest monument which
+undoubtedly preserves its original design and ornament is the mosque of
+Ibn-Tūlūn, built in the latter part of the ninth century (878); after
+this we have but five or six monuments of the tenth, eleventh, and
+twelfth centuries, and then the most brilliant period of mediaeval
+Egyptian art opens with the accession of the Mamlūks. Again, after the
+destruction of the Mamlūk power by the Ottoman conqueror Selīm in the
+beginning of the sixteenth century, though a few rare survivals of the
+ancient artistic genius of the Saracens are found, and in the smaller
+branches of skilled industry, in wood-work, glass, and mosaic, the
+workmen of Egypt continued to produce some excellent results, the energy
+and enthusiasm of the artists languished for lack of encouragement, and
+as a rule the period of Turkish domination furnishes but the record of a
+long and dreary process of degradation in every branch of art, until the
+nadir of Eastern art was reached in the palaces of the Khedives. The
+period of the finest and most abundant works of art is that of the
+Mamlūks, from the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century,
+and to these three centuries we must devote our chief attention. Of the
+earlier periods a very slight outline is all that can be attempted. The
+rule of the Fātimy Khalifs indeed is recorded to have been signalized by
+extraordinary artistic productiveness: but too few examples of this
+period have come down to us to justify us in giving it a rank equal to
+that of the Mamlūks.
+
+The history of Mohammadan Egypt falls into eight divisions: (1) the
+period of governors appointed by the Khalifs of Damascus and of Baghdād
+(A.H. 21-254/A.D. 641-868); (2) the dynasty of Tūlūn (254-292/868-904);
+(3) an interval of governors appointed by the Khalifs of Baghdād
+(292-323/904-935); (4) the dynasty of Ikhshīd (323-358/935-969); (5) the
+Fātimy
+
+Khalifs (358-567/969-1171); (6) the Ayyūby house of Saladin
+(567-648/1171-1250); (7) the Mamlūks, Turkish (Bahry) and Circassian
+(Burgy), (648-922/1250-1516); and (8) the period of Turkish Pashas,
+ending in the dynasty of Mohammad ‘Aly (Mehemet Ali).
+
+1. In A.D. 639, the eighteenth year after the Higra or Flight of
+Mohammad from Mekka to Medīna, ‘Amr, the general of the Khalif ‘Omar,
+invaded the Egyptian province of the Byzantine empire. Aided by the
+factious divisions which sundered the Greek and Coptic Christians, and
+made the latter eager to welcome any invader who would bring down the
+arrogance of the Melekites, ‘Amr was soon able to march on Alexandria,
+the first city of the East, and after a siege of fourteen months, on the
+first day of the Mohammadan year 21 (10th December 641), captured it.
+The victorious general was named the first Muslim governor of Egypt, and
+the spot where he pitched his tent (in Arabic, Fustāt) became the site
+of the new capital of Egypt, El-Fustāt, which speedily grew to handsome
+proportions. From the time of ‘Amr, A.H. 21, to the appointment of Ibn-
+Tūlūn in A.H. 254, a period of 233 years, 98 governors, nominated by the
+Khalifs of Damascus and Baghdād, ruled the province of Misr or Egypt
+(the name Misr is given both to the country and to its capital); and as
+some of these enjoyed more than one term of office, there were 105
+changes of government in 233 years, giving an average of about two years
+and a quarter for each governor. A ruler liable to be removed at any
+moment, and enjoying so brief a term of office, was not likely to occupy
+himself with the embellishment of a capital which after a few months’ or
+years’ reign he might never see again, and he probably directed his
+energies, like a Turkish Pasha, to accumulating all the wealth he could
+with his brief opportunities. We have no monuments of the period of the
+governors, with the exception of the mosque of ‘Amr, at Fustāt, which
+has been too often restored to furnish trustworthy evidence as to the
+style of architecture or decoration. The governors indeed built other
+edifices; the representatives of the ‘Abbāsy Khalifs founded in 133 a
+new quarter of the capital, adjoining Fustāt, which was called
+El-‘Askar, or “the Camp,” because the soldiers first had their quarters
+there; and here they erected a government house and a mosque, of which,
+however, no trace now remains. El-‘Askar was never more than an official
+quarter: the capital was still Fustāt.
+
+2. _Ahmad Ibn-Tūlūn_ was a Turkish governor appointed by the ‘Abbāsy
+Khalif, in 868, but after a year he asserted his independence, while
+still rendering homage to the Khalif as his spiritual lord by retaining
+his name on the coinage and in the public prayers. Ibn-Tūlūn was the
+first Mohammadan ruler who founded a dynasty in Egypt; he was also the
+first to unite Syria with Egypt, as did all independent sovereigns of
+Egypt afterwards; and he was the first great encourager of Saracenic
+Art; for he abandoned the old government house at El-‘Askar, and built a
+new suburb, connecting that quarter with the citadel hill, which he
+called El-Katāi‘, or “the Wards,” either because a large part of it was
+given in feof to the numerous colonels of his 30,000 troops, or because
+the new suburb was partitioned into various quarters allotted to
+different nations and separate trades. Both El-‘Askar and El-Katāi‘ were
+fashionable suburbs, where the nobility and men of position resided; and
+the streets were full of splendid houses. But the glory of the latest
+suburb was the mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn, of which we shall have more to say
+hereafter. It is the first undoubted example of true Saracenic art in
+Egypt, and one of the noblest monuments in the East. Ibn-Tūlūn also
+built himself a stately palace, with a _meydān_ or race-course attached,
+where the Sultan and his courtiers played at polo. One of the many
+splendid gates of this meydān was called the “Gate of Lions,” because it
+was surmounted by two lions in plaster; another was called the Sāg gate,
+since it was made of that wood. Around rose the handsome palaces of the
+generals; the mosques and the baths; the windmills and brick-kilns; the
+great hospital; the markets for the assayers, perfumers, cloth
+merchants, fruiterers, cooks, and other trades, all well built and
+densely populated. The palace, mosque, race course, and hospital,
+together cost a sum of nearly 300,000 dīnārs of gold; and the annual
+revenue from taxes, to meet this vast outlay, and the expenses of
+government, was placed at 4,300,000 dīnārs. To which fact may be added
+the instructive comment that at the time of Ahmad’s death no less than
+18,000 persons were found in the prisons. His son Khumāraweyh, who
+succeeded in 883, carried this passion of splendid luxury to its height.
+He turned the meydān into a garden, filled with lilies, gilliflowers,
+saffron, and palms and trees of all sorts, the trunks of which he coated
+with copper gilt, behind which leaden pipes supplied fountains which
+gushed forth to water the garden. In the midst rose an aviary tower of
+sāg wood; the walls were carved with figures and painted with various
+colours. Peacocks, guinea-fowls, doves and pigeons, with rare birds from
+Nubia, had their home in the garden and aviary. There was also a
+menagerie, and especially a blue-eyed lion who crouched beside his
+master when he sat at table, and guarded him when he slept. In the
+palace, Khumāraweyh built the “Golden Hall,” the walls whereof were
+covered with gold and azure, in admirable designs, and varied by bas-
+reliefs of himself and his wives (if we are to credit the historians),
+and even of the _prime donne_ of the court. They were carved in wood,
+life-size, and painted with exquisite art, so that the folds of the
+drapery seemed natural; they wore crowns of pure gold and turbans set
+with precious stones, and jewelled earrings. Such figures are
+unparalleled in Saracenic art; yet the account is too detailed to be
+altogether a fiction. But the chief wonder of Khumāraweyh’s palace
+remains to be described: it was a lake of quicksilver. On the surface of
+the lake, lay a leather bed inflated with air, fastened by silk bands to
+four silver supports at the corners; here alone the insomnolent
+sovereign could take his rest. Of all these marvels, and the splendid
+harīm rooms, the spacious stables, the furniture, wine-cups, rich silk
+robes, inlaid swords, and shields of steel, nothing has come down to us.
+We are obliged to take the mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn as witness to the
+consummate luxury and artistic eminence of the period.
+
+3. After the fall of the dynasty of Tūlūn, owing to the weakness of the
+later members of the family, who paid the common penalty of their Capua,
+_governors_ appointed by the Khalifs once more exercised their
+monotonous sway over Egypt, and again there is nothing to record in
+works of art.
+
+4. Nor did the accession of Mohammad _El-Ikhshīd_, in 935, bring any
+change for the better in this respect. El-Ikhshīd followed the example
+of Ibn-Tūlūn, and made himself independent ruler of both Egypt and
+Syria, but he left no great works behind him, nor did his dynasty
+contribute to the monuments of the Saracens. His two sons were under the
+tutorship of the eunuch Abu-l-Misk Kāfūr, “Father of Musk, Camphor,” who
+ruled the kingdom well, kept a generous open table, where 1700 pounds of
+meat were consumed daily, but was unable to resist the invasion of the
+Fātimy Khalif, El-Mu‘izz, who conquered Egypt in 969, and Syria in the
+following year, and also annexed the Arabian provinces of the Higāz and
+the Yemen.
+
+5. Hitherto the rulers of Egypt had been at least appointed by the
+lawful heads of the Mohammadan Empire, the Khalifs, first of Damascus,
+and then of Baghdād; many of them were Turks or Tartars, notably Ibn
+Tūlūn and El-Ikhshīd, who both came from beyond the Oxus; but they were
+not the less the servants of the Khalifs. In the Fātimy Khalifs we see
+for the first time an heretical line of rulers invading the empire of
+the Khalifs, and owning no sort of allegiance to them. The Fātimy
+Khalifs had created a kingdom in Tunis upon the ruins of the Aghlaby
+power, and now they proceeded to add the dominions of the Ikhshīdīs to
+their realm. They transferred their seat of government from Tunis to
+Egypt (and thereby soon lost their western provinces), and founded a new
+suburb, or rather a vast palace, which was called _El-Kāhira_, or Cairo.
+The design of the Fātimy general Gauhar was simply to build a palace for
+his master, the Khalif, where that sacred personage might be able to
+enjoy perfect seclusion; and it was only in much later times, after the
+burning of Fustāt, that El-Kāhira became really a city. El-Kāhira was,
+in fact, originally but a walled enclosure with double earthworks, about
+three quarters of a mile long and half a mile broad, containing the two
+royal palaces, one called the Great Palace (which was so extensive that
+on the fall of the Fātimy dynasty, in 1171, it was found to contain
+12,000 women and eunuchs), the other, the Small Palace, overlooking the
+pleasure-grounds; and the two were connected under the open space which
+divided them (and which is still known as the street _Beyn-el-Kasreyn_,
+“Betwixt the Palaces”), by a subterranean passage. Close to the Eastern
+or Great Palace was the Imperial Mausoleum, in which El-Mu‘izz deposited
+the bones of his ancestors, which he brought with him from their places
+of sepulture in the west. Further south was the mosque, also built by
+Gauhar, in which the Khalif, as Imām of his subjects, conducted the
+Friday prayers. The palaces received the name of _El-Kusūr ez-Zāhira_,
+“the Splendid Palaces,” and the mosque that of El-Azhar, “the Most
+Splendid,” which it still retains, and under which it has long been
+widely known as the great seat of Mohammadan learning, frequented by
+students from the most distant countries of Islam. In addition to the
+garrison’s quarters, many other buildings are enumerated, sufficient to
+account for the remaining space; such were the treasury, mint, library,
+audience-halls, arsenals, provision-stores, and imperial stables. No
+person was allowed to enter within the walls of El-Kāhira but the
+soldiers of the garrison and the highest officials of the state, whose
+greatest privilege was that of approaching the sacred person of the
+Khalif. Ambassadors from foreign lands were obliged to dismount at the
+gates of the fortress, and were conducted thence to the audience-hall on
+foot, an official on either side grasping their hands.[1] The old gates
+of Cairo are the gates of this palace or fort, built by order of Bedr
+el-Gemāly, in 1087, by three Greeks.
+
+Thus the capital of Egypt underwent a third move to the north-east:
+first was El-Fustāt, founded by ‘Amr, close to the Roman fortress of
+Babylon; then El-‘Askar, a move north-east, built by the ‘Abbāsy
+governors; thirdly, El-Katāi‘, the creation of Ibn-Tūlūn (which remained
+an important suburb until desolated by the great famine of El-
+Mustansir’s reign); and now, fourthly, Cairo, the site of the Fātimy
+palace. Of these, the scanty remains of El-Fustāt are seen in what is
+called Masr-el-Atīka, or “Old Cairo;” El-‘Askar and El-Katāi‘ have
+disappeared, save the mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn, and part of their site has
+been covered by later houses; El-Kāhira is Cairo, but has greatly
+expanded since the time when it comprised little more than the huge
+palace of the Fātimy Khalifs: new suburbs have joined it to the Citadel
+on one side, and prolonged it beyond the northern gates on the other.
+Yet Cairo is practically the Fātimy capital, though, unfortunately,
+beyond the mosques of the Azhar and El-Hākim, built in 971 and 990, and
+a fragment here and there, nothing remains of all the splendour which
+the historians attribute to these celebrated Khalifs.[2] Reference will
+frequently be found in the following pages to the costly possessions of
+these rulers, especially those included in the well-known Inventory of
+El-Mustansir, and it will suffice here to remark that the Fātimis even
+surpassed Ibn-Tūlūn in magnificence and the encouragement of every
+branch of art, and that to them, more perhaps than to any other Eastern
+dynasty, we owe the introduction of Saracenic design into southern
+Europe. The Mohammadan Amīrs of Sicily, who left so rich a legacy of art
+to the Norman kings, were vassals of the Fātimy Khalifs.
+
+6. How Saladin—or, to be accurate, Salāh-ed-dīn Yūsuf, son of Ayyūb—was
+despatched to Egypt with the troops of Nūr-ed-dīn, Sultan of Damascus,
+to support the cause of one of those powerful vizirs who by their
+arrogance and rivalry had prepared the downfall of the Egyptian
+Government, and how the brilliant young soldier and statesman soon found
+his way to depose the last of the Fātimy Khalifs and assume the supreme
+authority himself, are almost matters of European history. The period of
+Ayyūby rule from 1171, when the prayers were ordered to be said no
+longer in the name of the heretical Khalif, but in that of the Khalif of
+Baghdād, the orthodox head of Islām, to the year 1250, when the
+sovereignty descended to the Mamlūks, falls within a century, but it was
+filled with wars and deeds that have made this period known even to
+European readers. El-Mu‘izz the Fātimy had changed Egypt from a province
+into a kingdom with a definite political significance; Saladin
+transformed the kingdom into a powerful empire. The long struggle with
+the Crusaders, the victory of Tiberias, the conquest of Jerusalem, the
+well-known treaty with Richard Cœur de Lion, though most familiar to us,
+form but a part of Saladin’s exploits. He made his power felt far beyond
+the borders of Palestine; his arms triumphed over hosts of valiant
+princes to the banks of the Tigris, and when he died, in 1193, at the
+early age of 57, he left to his sons and kinsmen, not only the example
+of the most chivalrous, honourable, and magnanimous of kings, but
+substantial legacies of rich provinces, extending from Aleppo and
+Mesopotamia to Arabia and the Country of the Blacks.
+
+And, like so many of his successors the Mamlūks, Saladin combined in a
+marked degree the passion for war with the love of the beautiful. The
+third wall, and the Citadel of Cairo, with its magnificent buildings,
+now alas destroyed, bore witness to his encouragement of architecture.
+The citadel was begun in 1176, with materials obtained from some of the
+smaller pyramids of Gīza, and so strongly and carefully was it
+constructed that when Saladin died the fortress was not yet completed,
+but remained unfinished until the year 604 = 1207. The eunuch Karākūsh,
+“Black Eagle,” was entrusted with the superintendence of the work, and
+this may account for the sculpture of an eagle on the Citadel wall. The
+present massive gate, within which is the passage where the massacre of
+the last descendants of the Mamlūks by Mohammad ‘Aly took place in 1811,
+is an eighteenth century work, but the walls and part of the internal
+masonry belong to Saladin’s fortress. Of the mosque and palace, however,
+no trace remains. The so-called “Hall of Joseph,” or _Kasr Yūsuf_ (which
+was Saladin’s name as well as the patriarch’s), pulled down about 1830,
+was really the _Dār-el-‘Adl_, or “Hall of Justice,” of the Mamlūk Sultan
+En-Nāsir, more than a century later. The deep well with its massive
+masonry is, however, attributed to Saladin, and there used to be ruins
+of a solid and beautifully decorated mansion which was known, rightly or
+not, as the “House of Salāh-ed-dīn Yūsuf.”
+
+Saladin’s empire needed a strong hand to keep it united, and the number
+of relations, sons and nephews, who demanded their share of the wide
+provinces, rendered the survival of the Ayyūby dominion precarious.
+Saladin’s brother, El-‘Adil, the “Saphadin” of the Crusades, indeed
+controlled the centrifugal tendencies of his kindred for a while, and
+his son El-Kāmil gloriously defeated Jean de Brienne on the spot where
+the commemorative city of El-Mansūra, “the Victorious,” was afterwards
+erected by the conqueror. After his death, in 1237, however, the forces
+which made for disintegration became too strong to be resisted; various
+petty dynasties of the Ayyūby family were temporarily established in the
+chief provinces, only to make way shortly for the Tartars, and in Egypt
+and Syria notably for the Mamlūks, who in 1250 succeeded to the glories
+of Saladin.
+
+The monuments of the Ayyūbīs that are still standing, besides the
+Citadel and third wall, are very few. The fine ornament of the interior
+in the tomb-mosque of Esh-Shāfi‘y belongs at least in part to El-Kāmil;
+the tomb and college of Es-Sālih Ayyūb, son of El-Kāmil, are still
+partly preserved opposite Kalaūn’s Māristān; and there are, or were,
+fragments of his once splendid castle on the Island of Rōda, on the
+Nile—the island which gave his Mamlūks the epithet of _Bahry_, or
+“River-y”—the materials of which were used in the construction of En-
+Nāsir’s Mosque in the Citadel. The Kāmilīya Mosque has unhappily
+disappeared, though not before some valuable sketches had been made by
+Mr. James Wild.
+
+7. The word _Mamlūk_ means “owned,” and is applied to white slaves,
+acquired by capture in war or purchase in the market. The two dynasties
+of Mamlūks were lines of white slaves, imported for the protection of
+the Ayyūby Es-Sālih against his kinsmen and the Franks, and who
+presently acquired the power and the government of Egypt. They were
+reinforced from time to time by fresh purchases, for the climate of
+Egypt was unfavourable to the fertility of foreign immigrants, and the
+stock had to be refreshed from outside. Es-Sālih’s Mamlūks were loyal
+servants; they defended his kingdom while he lived, and it was their
+brilliant charge under Beybars that routed the French army and brought
+about the capture of St. Louis himself. Es-Sālih’s son was a drunken
+debauchee, and helpless to meet the difficulties in which his kingdom
+was involved. In circumstances that hardly left an alternative, he was
+put out of the way, and a lady, Sheger-ed-durr, “Tree of Pearls,”
+ascended the throne of her late husband and master Es-Sālih, as the
+first Slave Monarch of Mohammadan Egypt. Her rule was but brief;
+jealousy led her to murder the Mamlūk chief Aybek, whom she had married
+for political reasons, and she paid the penalty of her crime by being
+herself beaten to death with the bath-clogs of some female slaves who
+sympathized with her rival. After her death began that singular
+succession of Mamlūk Sultans, which lasted, in spite of special
+tendencies to dissolution, for two hundred and seventy-five years.
+
+The external history of these years is monotonous. Wars to repel the
+invasions of the Tartars or to drive the Christians from the Holy Land,
+struggles between rival claimants to the throne, embassies to and from
+foreign powers, including France and Venice, the Khan of Persia, and the
+King of Abyssinia, constitute the staple of foreign affairs. To
+enumerate the events of each reign, or even the names of the fifty
+Mamlūks who sat on the throne at Cairo, would be wearisome and
+unprofitable to the reader: the chronological tables at the end of this
+chapter will tell all that need be told. But it is different with the
+internal affairs of the Mamlūk period. In this flowering time of
+Saracenic art, a real interest belongs to the life and social condition
+of the people who made and encouraged the finest productions of the
+Mohammadan artist, and it will not be superfluous to explain briefly
+what the condition of Egypt was under her Mamlūk rulers. Some
+consideration of this subject is almost demanded by the startling
+contrasts offered by the spectacle of a band of disorderly soldiers, to
+all appearance barbarians, prone to shed blood, merciless to their
+enemies, tyrannous to their subjects, yet delighting in the delicate
+refinements which art could afford them in their home life, lavish in
+the endowment of pious foundations, magnificent in their mosques and
+palaces, and fastidious in the smallest details of dress and furniture.
+Allowing all that must be allowed for the passion of the barbarian for
+display, we are still far from an explanation how the Tartars chanced to
+be the noblest promoters of art, of literature, and of public works,
+that Egypt had known since the days of Alexander the Great.
+
+During this brilliant period the population of Egypt was sharply divided
+into two classes, who had little in common with each other. One was that
+of the Mamlūks, or military oligarchy, the other the mass of the
+Egyptians. The latter were useful for cultivating the land, paying the
+taxes which supported the Mamlūks, and manufacturing their robes, but
+beyond these functions, and that of supplying the judicial and religious
+posts of the empire, they had small part in the business of the state,
+and appear to have been very seldom incorporated into the ranks of their
+foreign masters. The names of the Mamlūks that have descended to us in
+the accurate and detailed pages of El-Makrīzy are generally Tartar or
+Turkish,[3] and even when they are ordinary Arabic names, they were
+borne by Tartars who had put on an Arabic name along with the speech,
+dress, and country of their adoption. In the glories, military and
+ceremonial, of the Mamlūks the people had no part. They were indeed
+thankful when a mild sovereign, like Lāgīn, ascended the throne, and
+when taxes were reduced and bakhshish distributed, and they would join,
+like all populaces, in the decoration of the streets and public
+rejoicings, when the Sultan came back from a career of conquest, or
+recovered from an illness; but they had no voice in the government of
+the country, and must make the best they might of the uncertain
+characters of their ever-changing rulers. The men who governed the
+country were the body of white military slaves, who had been imported by
+Es-Sālih, and were renewed by purchase as death or assassination reduced
+their numbers.
+
+Before Es-Sālih’s death a certain number of his Mamlūks had risen from
+the ranks of common slaves to posts of honour at their master’s court;
+they had become cup-bearers, or tasters, or masters of the horse to his
+Majesty, and had been rewarded by enfranchisement; and these freed
+Mamlūks became in turn masters and owners of other Mamlūks. Thus, at the
+very beginning of Mamlūk history, we find a number of powerful _Amīrs_
+(or “commanders,” lords), who had risen from the ranks of the slaves and
+in turn become the owners of a large body of retainers, whom they led to
+battle, or by whose aid they aspired to ascend the throne. The only
+title to kingship among these nobles was personal prowess and the
+command of the largest number of adherents. In the absence of other
+influences the hereditary principle was no doubt adopted, and we find
+one family, that of Kalaūn, maintaining its succession to the throne for
+several generations, though not without brief interruptions. But as a
+rule the successor to the kingly power was the most powerful lord of the
+day, and his hold on the throne depended chiefly on his strength of
+following, and his conciliation of the other nobles. The annals of
+Mamlūk dominion are full of instances of a great lord reducing the
+authority of the reigning Sultan to a shadow, and then stepping over his
+murdered body to the throne. Most of the Mamlūks died violent deaths at
+the hands of rival Amīrs, and the safety of the ruler of the time
+depended mainly upon the numbers and courage of his guard. This body-
+guard, or _halka_, enjoyed remarkable privileges, and was the object of
+continual solicitude on the part of the Sultan. As his own safety and
+power depended upon their fidelity, he was accustomed to bestow upon
+them grants of lands, rich dresses of honour, and unstinted largesse. A
+great part of the land of Egypt was held by the soldiers of the guard in
+feofs granted by the crown;[4] and the Amīrs who commanded them, nobles
+specially attached to the Sultan, and generally promoted from among his
+own Mamlūks, received handsome appanages. These soldiers of the guard
+numbered several thousand, and must have passed from Sultan to Sultan at
+every change of ruler; their colonels, or “Amīrs over a Thousand,” as
+they were called, became important factors in the choice of rulers, and
+often deposed or set up a Sultan as seemed good to them. The Sultan, or
+chief Mamlūk, was in fact more or less, according to his character, at
+the mercy of the officers of his guard; and the principal check he
+possessed upon their ambition or discontent was found in their own
+mutual jealousies, which might be played upon so as to neutralize their
+opposition.
+
+Each of the great lords, or Amīrs, were he an officer of the guard, or a
+court official, or merely a private nobleman, was a Mamlūk Sultan in
+miniature. He too had his guard of Mamlūk slaves, who waited at his door
+to escort him in his rides abroad, were ready at his behest to attack
+the public baths and carry off the women, defended him when a rival lord
+besieged his palace, and followed him valiantly as he led the charge of
+his division on the field of battle. These great lords, with their
+retainers, were a constant menace to the reigning Sultan. A coalition
+would be formed among a certain number of disaffected nobles, with the
+support of some of the officers of the household and of the guard, and
+their retainers would mass in the approaches to the royal presence,
+while a trusted cup-bearer or other officer, whose duties permitted him
+access to the king’s person, would strike the fatal blow, and the
+conspirators would forthwith elect one of their number to succeed to the
+vacant throne. This was not effected without a struggle; the royal guard
+was not always to be bribed or overcome, and there were generally other
+nobles whose interests attached them to the reigning sovereign rather
+than to any possible successor, except themselves, and who would be sure
+to oppose the plot. Then there would be a street fight; the terrified
+people would close their shops, run to their houses, and shut the great
+gates which isolated the various quarters and markets of the city; and
+the rival factions of Mamlūks would ride through the streets that
+remained open, pillaging the houses of their adversaries, carrying off
+women and children, holding pitched battles in the roads, and
+discharging arrows and spears from the windows upon the enemy in the
+street below. These things were of constant occurrence, and the life of
+the merchant classes of Cairo must have been sufficiently exciting. We
+read how the great bazaar, called the Khān El-Khalīly, was sometimes
+shut up for a week while these contests were going on in the streets
+without, and the rich merchants of Cairo huddled trembling inside the
+stout gates.
+
+The contest over, and a new Sultan set on the throne, there remained the
+further difficulty of staying there. “J’y suis” was a much easier thing
+to say in Egypt than “j’y reste.” The same method that raised him to
+power might set him down again. An example, drawn from the annals of the
+thirteenth century, will show better than any generalizations, the
+uncertain tenure of power among the fickle military oligarchy of the
+Mamlūks. In 693 A.H., or A.D. 1293, En-Nāsir Mohammad was raised to the
+throne, which had been occupied by his father Kalaūn and his brother
+Khalīl. En-Nāsir was a mere child, nine years old, and the real
+authority devolved on his Vizīr (or “Viceroy,” _Nāib-es-Saltana_, as
+this minister was generally styled under the Mamlūks), by name Ketbugha.
+Naturally there were several other nobles who envied Ketbugha his
+position of influence and authority; and one of these, Shugay, taking
+the lead, offered armed resistance to the authority of the Viceroy.
+Ketbugha’s Mamlūks used to assemble at the gate of the Citadel to defend
+him in his progress through the city, and Shugay, with his retainers,
+would waylay the vice-regal _cortège_ as it rode through the narrow
+streets, and bloody conflicts ensued. The gates of the city were kept
+closed, and the markets were deserted, until at length Shugay was
+captured, and his head was paraded on a pike through the streets of
+Cairo. But disaffection was not quelled by the slaughter of Shugay and
+his followers. There dwelt a body of 300 Mamlūks called Ashrafy[5]
+(after their master El-Ashraf Khalīl) in the quarter of Cairo called El-
+Kebsh, and these warriors, finding their occupation gone by the murder
+of their master, made an attempt to seize the sovereign power. They
+assembled and went to the royal stables at the foot of the Citadel, and
+thence to the armourers’ market, plundering and destroying on their way,
+and eventually they encamped at the gate of the Citadel, and laid siege
+to the fortress. Whereupon Ketbugha’s immediate supporters mounted their
+horses and rode down to meet them. The Ashrafīs were dispersed, and
+given over to various horrible tortures—blinded, maimed, drowned,
+beheaded, and hanged, or nailed to the city gate Zuweyla—and only a few
+were so far spared that they were allotted as slaves to their
+conquerors. Thus the rebellion was put down; but the next day, the
+Viceroy Ketbugha, calling a council of the great nobles of the Court,
+protested that such exhibitions were dishonourable to the kingly state,
+and that the dignity of Sultan would be irreparably compromised if a
+child like En-Nāsir were any longer suffered to occupy the throne. The
+child was therefore sent away to grow up, and Ketbugha, as a matter of
+course, assumed the sceptre of his ward. This was in 1295, and in the
+end of 1296, on his return from a journey to Syria, the new Sultan had
+the misfortune to excite the latent jealousy of some of the powerful
+nobles who accompanied him: his tent was attacked; his guards and
+Mamlūks, by a devoted resistance, succeeded in enabling their master to
+fly, and the leader of the rebellion, Lāgīn, was forthwith chosen Sultan
+in his stead.
+
+Husām-ed-dīn Lāgīn, who now ascended the throne under the title of El-
+Mansūr, had originally been a slave of El-Mansūr ‘Aly son of Aybek
+(whence he was called El-Mansūry), and had then been bought for the
+trifling sum of about £30 by Kalaūn, under whom he rose from the grade
+of page to that of _silāhdār_, or armour-bearer; and Kalaūn, coming to
+the throne, gave him the rank of Amīr and made him governor of Damascus.
+Kalaūn’s son Khalīl, on succeeding to the sovereignty, cast Lāgīn into
+prison, and in return for this treatment Lāgīn assisted in his murder.
+During the brief reign of Ketbugha, he held the highest office in the
+land, that of Viceroy (_Nāib-es-Saltana_) and now he had turned against
+his latest lord, and had seized the crown for himself. The terms of his
+election throw an interesting light upon the precarious authority of the
+Mamlūk Sultans. His fellow-conspirators, after the flight of Ketbugha,
+marched at Lāgīn’s stirrup, hailed him Sultan, and payed him homage; but
+they exacted as a condition of their fealty that the new monarch should
+continue as one of themselves, do nothing without their advice, and
+never show undue favour towards his own Mamlūks. This he swore; but so
+suspicious were they of his good faith, that they made him swear it
+again, openly hinting that when he was once instated he would break his
+vow and favour his own followers, to the injury of the nobles who had
+raised him to the throne. When this had been satisfactorily arranged,
+Es-Sultān El-Melik El-Mansūr Husām-ed-dīn Lāgīn, “The Sultan, Victorious
+King, Sword-blade of the Faith, Lāgīn,” rode on to Cairo, attended by
+the insignia of sovereignty, with the royal parasol borne over his head
+by the great Lord Beysary; the prayers were said in his name in the
+mosques, drums were beaten in the towns he passed through; the nobles of
+Cairo came out to do him fealty; and, escorted by a crowd of lords and
+officers, he rode to the Citadel, displayed himself as Sultan to the
+people in the Hippodrome, and made his royal progress through the
+streets of the capital, from the Citadel to the Gate of Victory. The
+‘Abbāsy Khalif of Egypt, a poor relic of the ancient house of Baghdād,
+rode at his side; and before them was carried the Khalif’s diploma of
+investiture, without which very nominal authority no Sultan in those
+days would have considered his coronation complete. The streets were
+decorated with precious silks and arms, and great was the popular
+rejoicing; for the benevolence and generosity of Lāgīn made him a
+favourite with the people, and he had already promised to remit the
+balance of the year’s taxes, and had even vowed that if he lived there
+should not be a single tax left. The price of food, which had risen to
+famine height during the late disturbances, now fell fifty per cent.;
+bread was cheap, and the Sultan was naturally adored.
+
+In spite of his share in a royal murder and a treacherous usurpation,
+this Mamlūk Sultan seems to have deserved the affection of his subjects.
+Not only did he relieve the people from much of the pressure of unjust
+and arbitrary taxation under which they had groaned, but he abstained,
+at least until he fell under the influence of another mind, from the
+tyrannical imprisonments and tortures by which the rule of the Mamlūks
+was too commonly secured. His conduct to his rivals was clement to a
+degree hardly paralleled among the princes of his time. He did not
+attempt to destroy the ex-Sultan Ketbugha, but gave him a small
+government in Syria by way of compensation. The child En-Nāsir had
+nothing to fear from Lāgīn, who invited him to return to Egypt, and told
+him that, as the Mamlūk of the boy’s father, Kalaūn, he only regarded
+himself as his representative, holding the throne until En-Nāsir should
+be old enough to assume the government himself. Lāgīn was zealous in
+good works, gave alms largely in secret, and founded many charitable
+endowments. Among his services to art must be mentioned his restoration
+of the Mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn, at a cost of £10,000, to which he was
+impelled by the circumstance that he had found refuge in the then
+deserted building during the pursuit which followed the murder of
+Khalīl. Hidden in the neglected chambers and arcades of the old mosque,
+where so few worshippers repaired that but a single lamp was lighted
+before the niche at night, and the muëzzin cared to come no further than
+the threshold to chant the call to prayer, Lāgīn vowed that he would
+repay his preservation by repairing the mosque that had sheltered him;
+and it is interesting to know that the panels of the pulpit, which, with
+a cupola over the niche, formed the chief additions (beyond mere
+repairs) that Lāgīn made to the mosque, are now in the South Kensington
+Museum (figs. 35-8.) Such good deeds, and the magnanimous release of
+many prisoners, and not least, a bold foreign policy, as when he sent an
+army to capture towns on the distant borders of Armenia, could not fail
+to endear him to the populace; and when he was confined to the Citadel
+for two months with injuries resulting from a fall at polo, the
+rejoicings on his return to public life were genuine and universal. All
+the streets were decorated with silks and satins, the shops and windows
+were hired by sightseers, eager to catch a glimpse of the Sultan, and
+drums were beaten during his state progress through the capital. He
+celebrated the occasion by giving a number of robes of honour to the
+chief lords, freeing captives, and distributing alms to the poor. His
+private life commended him to the good Muhammadans of Cairo; for
+although in his youth he had been a wine-bibber, gambler, and given over
+to the chase, when he ascended the throne he became austere in his
+practice, fasted two months in the year besides Ramadān, affected the
+society of good pious kādis and the like, was plain in his dress, as the
+Prophet ordains that a Muslim should be, and strict in enforcing
+simplicity among his followers. His ruddy complexion and blue eyes,
+together with a tall and imposing figure, indeed marked the foreigner,
+but his habits were orthodoxy itself; he bastinadoed drunkards, even if
+they were nobles; and his immoderate eating was not necessarily wicked.
+
+But Lāgīn, with all his virtues, had a weakness, too common among Mamlūk
+sovereigns; he was passionately attached to one of his retainers, named
+Mangūtīmūr, and by degrees suffered himself to be led by this favourite
+where his better judgment would never have allowed him to stray.
+Mangūtīmūr was neither a bad nor a contemptible man; but he was devoured
+by ambition and pride, and had no scruples when it was a question of
+removing an obstacle in his path to power. One of these was the great
+Lord Beysary, who had himself declined the crown, and who, when
+consulted by Lāgīn on the wisdom of making Mangūtīmūr his viceroy,
+reminded the Sultan of his vow when he was elected to the supreme power,
+and told him in blunt language that Mangūtīmūr was not worthy of the
+honour to which the Sultan destined him. The favourite, when he was made
+Viceroy after all, did not forget Beysary or his other detractors; some
+he banished, others were imprisoned and bastinadoed, and Beysary himself
+was placed in a sort of regal confinement, and there kept till his
+death. We shall hear more of Lord Beysary when we come to describe his
+perfume-burner in the chapter on metal-work, and it is enough to say
+here that he was too much devoted to the comforts and enjoyments of good
+living to care to trouble himself with the uneasiness which proverbially
+attends crowned heads. He was moreover an old man, and had been a
+notable and respected figure in Mamlūk court life for the past fifty
+years; his arrest was therefore the more wanton. Mangūtīmūr’s
+oppressions were not tamely endured by the Amīrs; but it was no light
+thing to risk the horrors of incarceration in the Citadel dungeon, a
+noisome pit, where foul and deadly exhalations, unclean vermin, and
+bats, rendered the pitchy darkness more horrible, and where for nearly
+half a century it was the practice to incarcerate refractory nobles,
+until, in 1329, En-Nāsir had the dreaded hole filled up. At length a
+combination was formed; Lāgīn was treacherously murdered as he was in
+the act of rising to say the evening prayers, and immediately afterwards
+Mangutīmur was entrapped. He was for the moment consigned to the pit
+under the Citadel, when the Amīr who had dealt the fatal stroke to Lāgīn
+arrived on the scene, and crying with a strident voice, “What had the
+Sultan done that I should kill him? By God, I never had aught but
+benefits from him; he brought me up, and gave me my steps of promotion.
+Had I known that when the Sultan was dead this Mangūtīmūr would still be
+living, I would never have done this murder, for it was Mangūtīmūr’s
+acts that led me to the deed.” So saying, he plunged into the dungeon,
+slew the hated favourite with his own hands, and delivered his house
+over to the soldiers to pillage.
+
+This sketch of a few years of Mamlūk history will serve to show the
+perils that surrounded the kingly state. It is a fair sample of the
+whole history, although now and again a sovereign would ascend the
+throne whose personal qualities or diplomatic talents succeeded in
+keeping the reins of government in his hands for a considerable period.
+The uncertainty of the tenure of power, and the general brevity of their
+reigns, (they average about five years and a half,) make it the more
+astonishing that they should have found time or leisure to promote the
+many noble works of architecture and engineering, which distinguish
+their rule above any other period of Egyptian history since the
+Christian Era. The Sultan’s office was indeed no sinecure, apart from
+the constant watchfulness needed to manage the refractory Mamlūks. Two
+days a week did Lāgīn devote to sitting in the Hall of Justice and
+hearing any complaints that his subjects might bring before him, in
+addition to those petitions which were constantly presented to him as he
+rode through the city. The correspondence of the empire, again, was no
+light matter, and most of the Sultans took a personal share in drawing
+up the despatches. Beybars had established a well organized system of
+posts, connecting every part of his wide dominions with the capital.
+Relays of horses were in readiness at each posting-house, and twice a
+week the Sultan received and answered reports from all parts of the
+realm. Besides the ordinary mail, there was also a pigeon post, which
+was no less carefully arranged. The pigeons were kept in cots in the
+Citadel and at the various stages, which were further apart than those
+of the horses; the bird knew that it must stop at the first post-cot,
+where its letter would be attached to the wing of another pigeon for the
+next stage. The royal pigeons had a distinguishing mark, and when one of
+these arrived at the Citadel with a despatch, none was permitted to
+detach the parchment save the Sultan himself; and so stringent were the
+rules, that were he dining or sleeping or absorbed in polo, he would
+nevertheless at once be informed of the arrival, and would immediately
+proceed to disencumber the bird of its message. The correspondence
+conducted by these posts was often very considerable. Here is an example
+of the business-hours of the famous Sultan Beybars. He arrived before
+Tyre one night; a tent was immediately pitched by torchlight, the
+secretaries, seven in number, were summoned, with the commander-in-
+chief; and the adjutant-general (Amīr ‘Alam) with the military
+secretaries were instructed to draw up orders for drums and standards,
+&c. For hours they ceased not to write letters and diplomas, to which
+the Sultan affixed his seal; this very night they indicted in his
+presence fifty-six diplomas for high nobles, each with its proper
+introduction of praise to God. One of Beybar’s letters has been
+preserved; it is a very characteristic epistle, and displays a grim and
+sarcastic appreciation of humour. Boemond, Prince of Antioch, was not
+present at the assault of that city by Beybars, and the Sultan kindly
+conveyed the information of the disaster in a personal despatch. He
+begins by ironically complimenting Boemond on his change of title, from
+Prince to Count, in consequence of the fall of his capital, and then
+goes on to describe the siege and capture of Antioch. He spares his
+listener no detail of the horrors that ensued: “Hadst thou but seen thy
+knights trodden under the hoofs of the horses! thy palaces invaded by
+plunderers and ransacked for booty! thy treasures weighed out by the
+hundredweight! thy ladies bought and sold with thine own gear, at four
+for a dīnār! hadst thou but seen thy churches demolished, thy crosses
+sawn in sunder, thy garbled Gospels hawked about before the sun, the
+tombs of thy nobles cast to the ground; thy foe the Muslim treading thy
+Holy of Holies; the monk, the priest, the deacon, slaughtered on the
+altar; the rich given up to misery; princes of royal blood reduced to
+slavery! Couldst thou but have seen the flames devouring thy halls; thy
+dead cast into the fires temporal, with the fires eternal hard at hand!
+the churches of Paul and of Cosmas rocking and going down!—then wouldst
+thou have said, ‘Would God that I were dust! Would God that I never had
+this letter!’ . . . This letter holds happy tidings for thee: it tells
+thee that God watches over thee, to prolong thy days, inasmuch as in
+these latter days thou wert not in Antioch! Hadst thou been there, now
+wouldst thou be slain or a prisoner, wounded or disabled. A live man
+rejoiceth in his safety when he looketh on a field of slain. . . . As
+not a man hath escaped to tell thee the tale, we tell it thee; as no
+soul could apprise thee that thou art safe, while all the rest have
+perished, we apprise thee!” Nevertheless, Boemond was mightily incensed
+with the Sultan’s sarcastic attentions.[6]
+
+Beybars was exceptionally active in the discharge of his royal
+functions, and was indefatigable in making personal inspections of the
+forts and defences of his empire. Once he left his camp secretly, and
+made a minute inspection of his kingdom in disguise, returning before
+his absence had been found out by his troops. He maintained 12,000
+soldiers under arms, of whom a third were stationed in Egypt, a third at
+Damascus, and the remaining third at Aleppo. On his expeditions he was
+escorted by 4000 horsemen. His history is a good example of the
+adventurous career of the Mamlūk. He was a native of Kipchak, between
+the Caspian and the Ural Mountains,—a tall, ruddy fellow, with blue
+eyes, one of which had a cataract on it, and this defect nearly lost him
+a purchaser in the slave-market: indeed, he only fetched 800 francs, a
+sum hardly equal to £20. He was afterwards bought by the Amīr ‘Alā-ed-
+dīn Aydekīn, El-Bundukdār, “the Arblasteer,” from whom Beybars took his
+title El-Bundukdāry, or “Bendocquedar,” as Marco Polo writes it.
+Subsequently he passed into the possession of Es-Sālih Ayyūb, and his
+strong, determined nature, his promptitude and resource in action, high
+mettle, and resonant voice, soon gained him the admiration and fear of
+his contemporaries. His charge at Mansūra won the day and annihilated
+the crusade of St. Louis, and in due course he made his way to the
+throne, through, we are sorry to add, the usual road of assassination.
+His was not a scrupulous nature, and his own death was caused by poison
+which he had prepared for another; but he was the first great Mamlūk
+Sultan, and the right man to lay the foundations of the empire.
+“Bondogar,” says William of Tripoli, “as a soldier was not inferior to
+Julius Caesar, nor in malignity to Nero;” but he allows that the Sultan
+was “sober, chaste, just to his own people, and even kind to his
+Christian subjects.”[7] So well did he organize his wide-stretching
+provinces that no incapacity or disunion among his successors could pull
+down the fabric he had raised, until the wave of Ottoman conquest swept
+at last upon Egypt and Syria. To him is due the constitution of the
+Mamlūk army, the rebuilding of a navy of 40 war-galleys, the allotment
+of feofs to the lords and soldiers, the building of causeways and
+bridges, and digging of canals in various parts of Egypt. He
+strengthened the fortresses of Syria and garrisoned them with Mamlūks;
+he connected Damascus and Cairo by a postal service of four days, and
+used to play polo in both cities within the same week. His mosque still
+stands without the north gates, and his college till lately formed an
+important feature among the splendid monuments in the street known as
+“Betwixt the Palaces;” he founded an endowment for the burial of poor
+Muslims; in short, he was the best ruler Egypt had seen since the death
+of Saladin, whom he resembled in many respects, but not in chivalrous
+clemency. Some idea of the luxury and refinement of his court may be
+gathered from the list of his presents to the Persian Ilkhān Baraka,
+which included a Korān, said to have been transcribed by the Khalif
+‘Othmān, enclosed in a case of red silk embroidered with gold, over
+which was a leather cover lined with striped silk; a throne encrusted
+with carved ivory and ebony; a silver chest; prayer-carpets of all
+colours and sorts; curtains, cushions, and tables; superb swords with
+silver hilts; instruments of music of painted wood; silver lamps and
+chandeliers; saddles from Khwārizm, bows from Damascus, with silk
+strings; pikes of Kana wood, with points tempered by the Arabs;
+exquisitely fashioned arrows in boxes plated with copper; large lamps of
+enamel with silver-gilt chains; black eunuchs, ingenious cook-girls,
+beautiful parrots; numbers of Arab horses, dromedaries, mules, wild
+asses, giraffes, and apes, with all kinds of saddles and trappings. Only
+remarkable qualities could have raised Beybars from the condition of a
+one-eyed slave to the founder of an empire that endured for nearly three
+centuries.
+
+In addition to necessary business, state ceremonies occupied no
+inconsiderable part of the Sultan’s time. The Mamlūk court was a
+minutely organized system, and the choice of officers to fill the
+numerous posts of the household, and the tact demanded in satisfying
+their jealousies and disagreements, to say nothing of the constant
+presentation of ceremonial dresses of honour, writing of diplomas, and
+granting of titles and appanages, must have been a tax upon their
+master. The posts about the royal person were no sinecures, and it
+needed no doubt some diplomacy to arrange the cabinet and household
+appointments to the satisfaction of everybody. The chief officers of the
+court, which of course included the administration, were these:—
+
+1. The _Nāib-es-Saltana_, or Viceroy, chief officer of the empire,
+corresponding to the Vizīr of other periods, who controlled alike the
+army, finances, posts, and appointments; rode at the head of the troops
+in state progresses, and was escorted by nobles to and from the Sultan’s
+presence. He was styled _Melik el-Umara_, or “King of Nobles,” and had a
+special palace (_Dār-en-Niāba_) in the Citadel, where all the
+functionaries of the state came to him for instructions.
+
+2. The _Atābek_, or _Atābek-el-asākir_, Commander-in-Chief, also styled
+(after the middle of the fourteenth century) _El-Amīr-el-Kebīr_, or “the
+Great Lord.”
+
+3. The _Ustaddar_, Majordomo, superintendent of the household, the
+kitchen, pages (_ujākīs_), and servants and officers generally; he had
+entire authority to obtain the supplies, money, and clothing for the
+royal household. By the time of Barkūk, A.D. 1400, this official had so
+waxed in importance, that he had become practically Grand Vizīr, and
+enjoyed the management of the finances and the royal domains. His
+military rank—for all Mamlūks, though their posts might be purely civil,
+had military grades—was that of Bicenturion, or Major over 200. Under
+him were servants supplied from among the Lords of the Drums and
+Captains over Ten, and he had a legal assessor and _mubāshirs_, or
+superintendents, to assist him.
+
+4. The _Rās Nauba_, or Chief of the Guard, commanded the Sultan’s
+Mamlūks, and settled their differences. Another and superior _Rās Nauba_
+commanded the Lords and adjusted their quarrels, and the latter was not
+only addressed as “His Excellency the Generous the Exalted,” الجناب
+العالى الكريم, but the Sultan called him “Brother.”[8]
+
+5, 6. The _Silāhdār_, Armour-bearer, carried the Sultan’s armour. There
+were several, and their chief was called _Amīr Silāh_, “Lord of the
+Arms,” who inspected the Armoury, was a centurion or Captain over 100,
+and was addressed by the Sultan as “Brother,” with the same style as the
+_Rās Naubat el-Umara_. The Lord of the Arms was one of the highest
+officers in the realm after the _Atābek Amīr el-Kebīr_.
+
+7. The _Amīr Akhōr_, Master of the Horse, presided over the royal
+stables, assisted by the _Selākhōry_, who saw to the horses’ food, and
+sometimes by a second _Amīr Akhōr_, who was a Captain over Ten; minor
+equerries superintended the colts, oxen, water-wheels, &c., separately,
+but all were under the supreme control of the great Master of the Horse.
+
+8, 9. The _Sāky_, Cup-bearer, and the _Gāshenkīr_, Taster, whose duty it
+was to taste the Sultan’s food before it was served, to ward against
+poison, were officers of trust, and enjoyed frequent intercourse with
+the sovereign, and thus often carried great influence in the management
+of the empire. The _Gāshenkīr_ was a Bicenturion.
+
+10. The _Hāgib_, Chamberlain, was the officer who guarded the access to
+the royal presence.
+
+11. _Amīr Gandār_, Equerry-in-waiting, introduced nobles to the
+presence, and commanded the _gandārs_ or equerries, and _berd-dars_,
+grooms of the bedchamber; superintended the executions and tortures by
+order of the Sultan, and had charge of the _zardkhānāh_, or royal
+prison. He was chosen from the ranks of the Colonels (_mukaddam_) or
+Lords of the Drums.
+
+12. The _Dawādār_, or Secretary, took charge of the imperial
+correspondence, received and addressed despatches, was a Lord of the
+Drums, or a Captain over Ten, and enjoyed great influence and
+consideration.
+
+13. The _Kātim es-Sirr_, or Private Secretary, was the depository of the
+Sultan’s secret affairs, shared the correspondence with the _Dawādār_,
+was the first to go in to the sovereign and the last to come out, and
+was his chief adviser in all matters.
+
+Besides these great officers, there were many smaller posts, which often
+commanded great power and influence. The _Amīr Meglis_, Lord of the
+Seat, so called because he enjoyed the privilege of sitting in the
+Sultan’s presence, was the superintendent of the court physicians and
+surgeons; the _Gamdār_, or Master of the Wardrobe, was a high official;
+the _Amīr Shikār_, or Grand Huntsman, assisted the king in the chase;
+the _Amīr Tabar_, or Drum-Major, held almost the rank of the Chief of
+the Guard, and commanded the _Tabardārs_ or Halbardiers of the Sultan,
+ten in number; the _Bashmakdār_ carried the sovereign’s slippers; the
+_Gūkandār_ bore the Sultan’s polo-stick, a staff of painted wood about
+four cubits long, with a curved head; the _Zimamdārs_ were eunuch
+guards. The various household departments had also their officers, who
+were often great nobles, and men of influence in the realm. The
+_Ustaddār-es-Suhba_ presided over the cookery; the _Tabl-khānāh_, or
+Drummery, was the department where the royal band was kept, and it was
+presided over by an officer called the _Amīr ‘Alam_, or adjutant-
+general. The Sultan’s band is stated at one time to have comprised four
+drums, forty kettle-drums (كوسات), four hautbois (زمور), and twenty
+trumpets (نعير). The permission to have a band was among the most
+coveted distinctions of Mamlūk times, and those Lords who were allowed
+to have a band playing before their gates were styled _Amīr Tabl-
+khānāh_, or Lord of the Drums; they were about thirty in number, and
+each had command of a body of forty horsemen, with a band of ten drums,
+two hautbois, and four trumpets, and an appanage of about the value of
+30,000 dīnārs. The practice of employing these ceremonial bands went out
+with the Turkish conquest.
+
+Then there was the _Tisht-khānāh_, or Vestiary, where the royal robes,
+jewels, seals, swords, &c., were kept, and where his clothes were
+washed. The servants of the _Tisht-khānāh_ were called _tishtdārs_, or
+grooms of the wardrobe, and _rakhtwānīs_, or grooms of the chamber,
+under the command of two _mihtārs_, or superintendents. The _Sharāb-
+khānāh_, or Buttery, where were stored the liquors, sweetmeats, fruits,
+cordials, perfumes, and water for the sovereign, was also managed by two
+_mihtārs_, aided by a number of _sharāb-dārs_, or buttery-men; the
+_Hawāig-khānāh_, or Larder, where the food and vegetables required for
+the day were prepared, was under the superintendence of the _Hawāig-
+kāsh_. At the time of Ketbugha the daily amount of food prepared here
+was 20,000 pounds, and under En-Nāsīr the daily cost of the larder was
+from 21,000 to 30,000 francs. The _Rikāb-khānāh_, or Harness-room, and
+_Firāsh-khānāh_, or Lumber-room, had also their staff of officials. And
+besides the household and military officers, there were the various
+judicial officers, _Kādis_ and the like, and the police authorities, to
+be appointed by the Sultan; such were the _Wāly_, or chief magistrate of
+Cairo, who kept order in the city, commanded the patrols, inspected the
+prisons, opened and shut the city gates, and was obliged always to sleep
+in Cairo; the _shādds_ and _mushidds_, inspectors in their various
+departments, and the _muhtesib_, the important officer who corrected the
+weights and measures in the markets, and guarded public morals.
+
+It will be seen that court life was complicated even in the fourteenth
+century, and the state ceremonies of a Mamlūk Sultan must have involved
+as much etiquette as any modern levée, and presented a much more
+splendid spectacle. When the Sultan rode abroad in state, to hold a
+review or to make a progress through his dominions, the composition of
+his escort was elaborately ordered. The Sultan Beybars, for example,
+rode in the centre, dressed in a black silk _gubba_, or vest with large
+sleeves, but without embroidery or gold; on his head was a turban of
+fine silk, with a pendant hanging between his shoulders; and a Bedawy
+sword swung by his side, and a Dawūdy cuirass was concealed beneath his
+vest. In front, a great lord carried the _Ghāshia_, or royal saddle-
+cloth, emblem of sovereignty, covered with gold and precious stones; and
+over his head, a Prince of the Blood, or the Commander-in-chief, bore
+the state parasol, made of yellow silk, embroidered with gold, and
+crowned with a golden bird perched upon a golden cupola. The housing of
+his horse’s neck was yellow silk embroidered with gold, and a _zunnāry_
+or cloth of red atlas satin covered the crupper. The royal standard of
+silk and gold thread was borne aloft, and the troops had their
+regimental colours of yellow Cairene silk, embroidered with the
+escutcheons of their leaders. Just before the Sultan rode two pages on
+white horses, with rich trappings; their robes were of yellow silk with
+borders of gold brocade, and a kuffīya of the same: it was their duty to
+see that the road was sound. A flute-player went before, and a singer
+followed after, chanting the heroic deeds of former kings, to the
+accompaniment of a hand-drum; poets sang verses antiphonally,
+accompanying themselves with the kemenga and mōsil. Tabardārs carried
+halberts before and behind the Sultan, and the state poniards were
+supported by the polo-master (_gūkandār_) in a scabbard on the left,
+while another dagger with a buckler was carried on the monarch’s right.
+Close beside him rode the _Gamakdār_, or Mace-bearer, a tall, handsome
+man, who carried the gold-headed mace aloft, and never withdrew his eyes
+from the countenance of his master. The great officers of the court
+followed with little less pomp. When a halt was called for the night, on
+long journeys, torches were borne before the Sultan, and as he
+approached the tent, which had gone on in front and been pitched before
+his arrival, his servants came to meet him with wax candles in stands
+inlaid with gold; pages and halbardiers surrounded him, the soldiers
+sang a chorus, and all dismounted except the Sultan, who rode into the
+vestibule of the tent, where he left his horse, and then entered the
+great round pavilion behind it. Out of this opened a little wooden bed-
+room, warmer than the tent, and a bath with heating materials was at
+hand. The whole was surrounded by a wall, and the Mamlūks mounted guard
+in regular watches, inspected periodically by visiting rounds, with
+grand rounds twice in the night. The _Amīr Bābdār_, or Grand Door-
+keeper, commanded the grand rounds. Servants and eunuchs slept at the
+door.[9]
+
+The historian of the Mamlūks is fond of telling how the Sultan made his
+progresses, held reviews of his troops, led a charge in battle, or
+joined in the games at home. The Mamlūks were ardent votaries of sport
+and athletic exercises. En-Nāsir was devoted to the chase, and imported
+numbers of sunkurs, sakrs, falcons, hawks, and other birds of prey, and
+would present valuable feofs to his falconers, who rode beside him hawk
+on wrist. Beybars was a keen archer, and a skilful hand at making
+arrows. He erected an archery-ground outside the Gate of Victory at
+Cairo, and here he would stay from noon till sunset, encouraging the
+Amīrs in their practice. The pursuit of archery became the chief
+occupation of the lords of his court. But Beybars, like most of the
+Mamlūks, was catholic in his tastes; he was fond of racing horses; spent
+two days in the week at polo; was famous for his management of the lance
+in the tournaments which formed one of the amusements of the day; and
+was so good a swimmer, that he once swam across the Nile in his cuirass,
+dragging after him several great nobles seated on carpets. Such outward
+details of the life of the Mamlūks may be gathered from the pages of El-
+Makrīzy and other historians. But if we seek to know something of the
+domestic life of the period, we must go elsewhere than to these sources.
+We find indeed occasionally in El-Makrīzy an account of the revels of
+the court on great festivals, and he tells us how during some
+festivities in Beybars’ reign there was a concert every night in the
+Citadel, where a torch was gently waved to and fro to keep the time. But
+to understand the home-life of the Mamlūks, we must turn to the
+_Thousand and One Nights_, where, whatever the origin and scene of the
+stories, the manners and customs are drawn from the society which the
+narrators saw about them in Cairo in the days of the Mamlūks. From the
+doings of the characters in that immortal story-book, we may form a
+nearly accurate idea of how the Mamlūks amused themselves; and the
+various articles of luxury that have come down to us, the goblets,
+incense-burners, bowls, and dishes of fine inlaid silver and gold, go to
+confirm the fidelity of the picture. The wonderful thing about this old
+Mohammadan society is that it was what it was in spite of Islām. With
+all their prayers and fasts and irritating ritual, the Muslims of the
+Middle Ages contrived to amuse themselves. Even in their religion they
+found opportunities for enjoyment. They made the most of the festivals
+of the Faith, and put on their best clothes; they made up parties—to
+visit the tombs, indeed, but to visit them right merrily on the backs of
+their asses;[10] they let their servants go out and amuse themselves too
+in the gaily illuminated streets, hung with silk and satin, and filled
+with dancers, jugglers, and revellers, fantastic figures, the Oriental
+Punch, and the Chinese Shadows; or they went to witness the thrilling
+and horrifying performances of the dervishes. There was excitement to be
+derived from the very creed; for did they not believe in those wonderful
+creatures the Ginn, who dwelt in the Mountains of Kāf, near the
+mysterious Sea of Darkness, where Khidr drank of the Fountain of Life?
+And who could tell when he might come across one of these awful beings,
+incarnate in the form of a jackal or a serpent; or meet, in his own
+hideous shape, the appalling Nesnās, who is a man split in two, with
+half a head, half a body, one arm and one leg, and yet hops along with
+astonishing agility, and is said, when caught, to have been found very
+sweet eating by the people of Hadramaut? To live among such fancies must
+have given a relish to life, even when one knew that one’s destiny was
+inscribed in the sutures of the skull, and in spite of those ascetic
+souls who found consolation in staring at a blank wall until they saw
+the name of Allah blazing on it.
+
+What society was like at the time of the first Mamlūks may be gathered
+very clearly from the poems[11] of Behā-ed-dīn Zuheyr, the secretary of
+Es-Sālih Ayyūb, who survived his master and died in 1258. The Egyptians
+of his acquaintance, as reflected in his graceful verse, seem to have
+resembled our own latter-day friends in their pleasures and passions.
+Love is the great theme of Zuheyr as well as Swinburne; the poet waxes
+eloquent over a long succession of mistresses, blonde and brown,
+constant and fickle, kind and coy,—
+
+
+  “Like the line of beauty her waving curl,
+
+   Her stature like the lance.”
+
+
+We read of stolen interviews, in despite of parents and guardians,
+maidens “waiting at the tryst alone,” and various other breaches of
+Mohammadan morals. If Zuheyr fairly represented his time, life at Cairo
+in the thirteenth century was not without its savour:—
+
+
+  Well! the night of youth is over, and grey-headed morn is near;
+
+  Fare ye well, ye tender meetings with the friends I held so dear!
+
+  O’er my life these silvery locks are shedding an unwonted light,
+
+  And revealing many follies youth had hidden out of sight.
+
+  Yet though age is stealing o’er me, still I love the festive throng,
+
+  Still I love a pleasant fellow, and a pleasant merry song;
+
+  Still I love the ancient tryst, though the trysting time is o’er,
+
+  And the tender maid that ne’er may yield to my caresses more;
+
+  Still I love the sparkling wine-cup, which the saucy maidens fill, &c.
+
+
+The wine-cup plays a prominent part in Zuheyr’s catalogue of the joys of
+life, and he is full of contempt for the prudent mentor who reproved
+him:—
+
+
+  Let us, friends, carouse and revel,
+
+  And send the mentor to the devil!
+
+
+The great indoor amusement of the mediaeval Muslim was feasting. The
+Arabs indeed never understood scientific gastronomy; they coarsely drank
+to get drunk, and ate to get full. We read of a public banquet (under
+the Fātimīs, but probably equalled many a time in the Mamlūk period),
+where the table was covered with 21 enormous dishes, each containing 21
+baked sheep, three years old and fat, and 350 pigeons and fowls, all
+piled up together to the height of a man, and covered in with dried
+sweetmeats. Between these dishes were 500 smaller ones, each holding
+seven fowls and the usual complement of confectionery. The table was
+strewn with flowers and cakes of bread, and two grand edifices of
+sweetmeats each weighing 17 cwt., were brought in on shoulder-poles. On
+such occasions a man might eat a sheep or two without being remarkable.
+But if he ate somewhat heartily, he did not omit to wash it down
+afterwards with plenty of wine, despite all the ordinances of the
+Prophet. If the bowls that have descended to us were drinking-cups, the
+Mamlūk thought very little of a pint stoup. Like our own Norse and Saxon
+ancestors, he loved his wassail, and took it right jovially, until he
+found himself under the table, or would have done so had there been any
+tables of the right sort. Zuheyr sings:—
+
+
+  Here, take it, ’tis empty! and fill it again
+
+    With wine that’s grown old in the wood;
+
+  That in its proprietor’s cellars has lain
+
+  So long that at least it goes back to the reign
+
+    Of the famous Nushirwan the Good—
+
+
+  With wine which the jovial friars of old
+
+    Have carefully laid up in store,
+
+  In readiness there for their feast-days to hold—
+
+  With liquor, of which if a man were but _told_,
+
+    He’d roll away drunk from the door!
+
+
+Many of the Mamlūk Sultans are described as being addicted to wine, and
+the great Lord Beysary was at one time stated to be incapable of taking
+part in affairs, because he was entirely given over to drink and hazard.
+Yet there are redeeming points in this sottishness. The Muslims of the
+days of good Harūn, and not less of the other “golden prime” of Beybars
+and Barkūk, did not take their wine moodily or in solitude. They loved
+to have a jovial company round them, and plenty of flowers and sweet
+scents on the board; they scented their beards with civet, and sprinkled
+their beautiful robes with rose-water, while ambergris and frankincense,
+burned in the censers we still possess, diffused a delicious perfume
+through the room. Nor was the feast complete without music and the
+voices of singing women. A ravishing slave-girl, with a form like the
+waving willow, and a face as resplendent as the moon, sang soft, sad
+Arabian melodies to the accompaniment of the lute, till the guests
+rolled over in ecstasy. Other and less refined performances, the
+alluring gestures of the dancing-girls, the coarse feats of Punch or the
+hired buffoon, also enlivened the evening; and the ladies of the Harīm
+would share the pleasures of the men, separated by a lattice screen, or
+hidden behind gorgeously embroidered curtains. We shall see presently
+what palaces the Mamlūks built for themselves, how they hung them with
+rich stuffs, and strewed them with costly carpets; what wealth of
+carving and ivory-work embellished their doors and ceilings; how
+gloriously inlaid were their drinking and washing vessels, how softly
+rich the colouring of their stained windows. The Mamlūks offer the most
+singular contrasts of any series of princes in the world. A band of
+lawless adventurers, slaves in origin, butchers by choice, turbulent,
+bloodthirsty, and too often treacherous, these slave kings had a keen
+appreciation for the arts which would have done credit to the most
+civilized ruler that ever sat on a constitutional throne. Their morals
+were indifferent, their conduct was violent and unscrupulous, yet they
+show in their buildings, their decoration, their dress, and their
+furniture, a taste which it would be hard to parallel in Western
+countries even in the present age of enlightenment. It is one of the
+most singular facts in Eastern history, that wherever these rude Tartars
+penetrated, there they inspired a fresh and vivid enthusiasm for art. It
+was the Tartar Ibn-Tūlūn who built the first example of the true
+Saracenic mosque at Cairo; it was the line of Mamlūk Sultans, all
+Turkish or Circassian slaves, who filled Cairo with the most beautiful
+and abundant monuments that any city can show. The arts were in Egypt
+long before the Tartars became her rulers, but they stirred them into
+new life, and made the Saracenic work of Egypt the centre and head-piece
+of Mohammadan art.
+
+
+The following tables will supply the necessary chronological details and
+the chief events and monuments of each reign. It should be noticed that
+a certain stability and duration of authority was necessary even among
+the Mamlūks to allow opportunity for artistic effort. The great
+monuments now standing of the Mamlūk Sultans are grouped about 9
+Sultans: 4 of the Bahrīs, and 5 of the Burgīs. But the reigns of these 9
+Sultans amounted together to two-thirds of the whole period occupied by
+the 49 Mamlūk rulers. The reigns of Beybars I. (18 years), Kalaūn (11),
+En-Nāsir (42), and Sultan Hasan (11); of Barkūk (16), El-Muayyad (9),
+El-Ashraf Bars Bey (17), Kaït Bey (28), and El-Ghūry (16), make a total
+of 168 years, out of 266, leaving but 98 years for the remaining 40
+Sultans. The great Mamlūk builders had thus an average reign of nearly
+19 years, while those who have left no signal monuments average only 2½
+years. Beybars Jāshenkīr, however, is perhaps an exception; for he has
+left a beautiful mosque and many restorations, yet he ruled as Sultan
+for but a single year.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+
+                      THE SARACEN RULERS OF EGYPT.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+                      A.H. 21-926 = A.D. 641-1517.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+
+               I.—GOVERNORS APPOINTED BY THE KHALIFS.
+
+ A.H.|A.D.|              Ruler.                    |Events and existing
+     |    |                                        |     Monuments.
+ ----+----+----------------------------------------+--------------------
+   21| 641|The list of 98 Governors, to whom       |Conquest of Egypt
+   to|  to|no distinctive work of art can be       |completed, 21 A.H.
+  254| 868|ascribed, is omitted. (Cp. Wüstenfeld,  |
+     |    |_Die Statthalter d. Egyptens unter den  |_Mosque of ‘Amr_,
+     |    |Khalifen_.)                             |21 A.H., but
+     |    |                                        |frequently restored.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |City of El-Fusṭāṭ,
+     |    |                                        |A.H. 21, and suburb
+     |    |                                        |of El-‘Askar, A.H.
+     |    |                                        |133.
+
+                         II.—HOUSE OF ṬŪLŪN.
+
+  254| 868|Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn                         |Suburb of
+     |    |                                        |El-Ḳaṭāi‘, 256.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Mosque of
+     |    |                                        |Ibn-Ṭūlūn_, 263-5.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Annexation of Syria
+     |    |                                        |as far as Aleppo,
+     |    |                                        |264.
+     |    |                                        |
+  270| 883|Khumāraweyh (son of Aḥmad)              |
+     |    |                                        |
+  282| 895|Geysh Abu-l-Asākir }  (sons             |
+     |    |                   }     of             |
+  283| 896|Hārūn              }  Khumāraweyh)      |
+     |    |                                        |
+  292| 904|Sheybān (son of Aḥmad)                  |
+
+                    III.—SECOND LINE OF GOVERNORS.
+
+     |    |                               {        |Partial burning of
+  292| 905|                               {        |El-Ḳaṭāi‘, 292.
+   to|  to|Thirteen Governors.            {        |
+  323| 934|                               {        |Invasion of Egypt
+     |    |                               {        |by El-Mahdy the
+     |    |                               {        |Fātimy, 307.
+
+                        IV.—HOUSE OF IKHSHĪD.
+
+  323| 934|Moḥammad El-Ikhshīd ibn Ṭukǵ            |Syria again
+     |    |                                        |annexed. The kings
+  334| 946|Abu-l-Ḳāsim Ūngūr (son of El-Ikhshīd)   |of this dynasty
+     |    |                                        |were buried at
+  349| 960|Abu-l-Ḥasan ‘Aly (son of El-Ikhshīd)    |Damascus, and have
+     |    |                                        |therefore left no
+  355| 966|Abu-l-Misk Kāfūr, a Eunuch              |tomb-mosques in
+     |    |                                        |Egypt.
+  357| 968|Abu-l-Fawāris Aḥmad (son of ‘Aly)       |
+   to|  to|                                        |
+  358| 969|                                        |
+
+                          V.—FĀṬIMY KHALIFS.
+
+                             A.—IN TUNIS.
+
+  297| 909|El-Mahdy ‘Obeyd-Allah                   |Invades Egypt, 307.
+     |    |                                        |
+  322| 934|El-Ḳāïm Moḥammad                        |
+     |    |                                        |
+  334| 945|El-Manṣūr Ismā‘īl                       |
+     |    |                                        |
+  341| 952|El-Mu‘izz Ma‘add                        |
+
+                             B.—IN EGYPT.
+
+  358| 969|   „     „                              |Conquest of Egypt,
+     |    |                                        |358. Syria and part
+     |    |                                        |of Arabia annexed.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Foundation of
+     |    |                                        |El-Ḳāhira (Cairo).
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Mosque El-Azhar_,
+     |    |                                        |359-61.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Invasions of the
+     |    |                                        |Ḳarmatis.
+     |    |                                        |
+  365| 975|El-‘Azīz Nizār                          |Conversion of
+     |    |                                        |the Azhar into a
+     |    |                                        |University.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Mosque of
+     |    |                                        |El-Ḥākim_, 380.
+     |    |                                        |
+  386| 996|El-Ḥākim El-Manṣūr                      |Founder of the
+     |    |                                        |Druse sect.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Mosque of El-Ḥākim
+     |    |                                        |completed_, 403.
+     |    |                                        |
+  411|1020|Eḍh-Ḍhāhir ‘Aly                         |Loss of Aleppo.
+     |    |                                        |
+  427|1035|El-Mustanṣir Ma‘add                     |Great famine,
+     |    |                                        |7 years long,
+     |    |                                        |which caused the
+     |    |                                        |desertion and decay
+     |    |                                        |of El-Fusṭāṭ and
+     |    |                                        |other parts of the
+     |    |                                        |capital.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Restoration of
+     |    |                                        |Mosque of ‘Amr_,
+     |    |                                        |441-2.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_The 3 great Gates
+     |    |                                        |and 2nd wall of
+     |    |                                        |Cairo built._
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Usurpation of
+     |    |                                        |Nāṣir-ed-dawleh,
+     |    |                                        |462-5.
+     |    |                                        |
+  487|1094|El-Musta‘ly Aḥmad                       |First Crusade; loss
+     |    |                                        |of Jerusalem.
+     |    |                                        |
+  495|1101|El-Āmir El-Manṣūr                       |Further losses in
+     |    |                                        |Syria.
+     |    |                                        |
+  524|1130|El-Ḥāfiḍh ‘Abd-el-Megīd                 |Nūr-ed dīn ibn
+     |    |                                        |Zenky makes himself
+     |    |                                        |master of Aleppo
+     |    |                                        |and Damascus.
+     |    |                                        |
+  544|1149|Eḍh-Ḍhāfir Ismā‘īl                      |
+     |    |                                        |
+  549|1154|El-Fāïz ‘Īsā                            |
+     |    |                                        |
+  555|1160|El-‘Āḍid ‘Abd-Allah                     |Nūr-ed-dīn’s
+   to|  to|                                        |expeditions to
+  567|1171|                                        |Egypt, 559, 561.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Saladin in Egypt,
+     |    |                                        |561.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Burning of
+     |    |                                        |El-Fusṭāṭ, 564,
+     |    |                                        |for fifty days, to
+     |    |                                        |save its falling
+     |    |                                        |into the hands of
+     |    |                                        |Amaury, Christian
+     |    |                                        |King of Jerusalem.
+
+                         VI.—HOUSE OF AYYŪB.
+
+                          (EGYPTIAN BRANCH.)
+
+  567|1172|En-Nāṣir Salāh-ed-dīn [Saladin] Yūsuf   |From 567-9 owns
+     |    |ibn Ayyūb                               |homage to Nūr-ed-dīn
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Annexation of
+     |    |                                        |Syria, 570.
+     |    |                                        |Crusades.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Citadel and 3rd
+     |    |                                        |Wall of Cairo._
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Restoration of
+     |    |                                        |Mosque of ‘Amr._
+     |    |                                        |
+  589|1193|El-‘Azīz ‘Imād-ed-dīn ‘Othmān           |Resists 4th
+     |    |                                        |Crusade. Syria
+     |    |                                        |separated.
+     |    |                                        |
+  595|1198|El-Manṣūr Moḥammad                      |
+     |    |                                        |
+  596|1199|El-‘Ādil Seyf-ed-dīn Abu-Bekr ibn Ayyūb |Reannexes Syria.
+     |    |                                        |
+  615|1218|El-Kāmil Moḥammad                       |Defeat of Jean de
+     |    |                                        |Brienne.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Tomb of
+     |    |                                        |Esh-Shāfi‘y_, 608.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Jerusalem ceded to
+     |    |                                        |Frederick II., 626.
+     |    |                                        |
+  635|1238|El-‘Ādil Seyf-ed-dīn Abu-Bekr II.       |
+     |    |                                        |
+  637|1240|Eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Negm-ed-dīn Ayyūb              |Jerusalem
+     |    |                                        |recaptured. Crusade
+     |    |                                        |of St. Louis.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_College
+     |    |                                        |Eṣ-Ṣālihīya_, 641.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Castle of Er-Rōda.
+     |    |                                        |
+  647|1249|El-Mu‘aḍhḍham Tūrān Shāh                |Defeat and capture
+     |    |                                        |of St. Louis at
+     |    |                                        |Manṣūra, 647.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Tomb Mosque of
+     |    |                                        |Eṣ-Ṣāliḥ_, 647.
+     |    |                                        |
+  648|1250|El-Ashraf Mūsā (nominally joint king    |
+   to|  to|with the Mamlūk Sultān Aybek)           |
+  650|1252|                                        |
+
+                       VII.—THE MAMLŪK SULTĀNS.
+
+                      A. —BAḤRY OR TURKISH LINE.
+
+  648|1250|Queen Sheger-ed-durr                    |Syria separated.
+     |    |                                        |
+  648|1250|El-Mu‘izz ‘Izz-ed dīn Aybek             |
+     |    |                                        |
+  655|1257|El-Manṣūr Nūr-ed-dīn ‘Aly               |
+     |    |                                        |
+  657|1259|El-Muḍhaffar Seyf-ed-dīn Ḳuṭuz          |War with Hūlāgū the
+     |    |                                        |Mongol.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Syria annexed.
+     |    |                                        |Antioch taken.
+     |    |                                        |
+  658|1260|Eḍh Ḍhāhir Rukn-ed-dīn Beybars I.       |Campaigns against
+     |    |                                        |the Mongols and
+     |    |                                        |Christians.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Mosque of
+     |    |                                        |Eḍh-Ḍhāhir_, 665-7.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Collegiate Mosque
+     |    |                                        |Eḍh-Ḍhāhirīya_, 660.
+     |    |                                        |
+  676|1277|Es-Sa‘īd Nāṣir-ed dīn Baraka Khān       |
+     |    |                                        |
+  678|1279|El-‘Ādil Bedr-ed-dīn Selāmish           |
+     |    |                                        |
+  678|1279|El-Manṣūr Seyf-ed-dīn Ḳalāūn            |_Mosque of Ḳalāūn,
+     |    |                                        |Māristān or
+     |    |                                        |Hospital_, 683.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Campaign in Syria;
+     |    |                                        |sack of Tripoli.
+     |    |                                        |
+  689|1290|El-Ashraf Ṣalāḥ-ed-dīn Khalīl           |Capture of Acre,
+     |    |                                        |690.
+     |    |                                        |
+  693|1293|En-Nāṣir Nāṣir-ed dīn Moḥammad. _1st    |
+     |    |reign_                                  |
+     |    |                                        |
+  694|1294|El-‘Ādil Zeyn-ed-dīn Ketbughā           |
+     |    |                                        |
+  696|1296|El-Manṣūr Ḥusām-ed-dīn Lāgīn            |_Restoration
+     |    |                                        |of Mosque of
+     |    |                                        |Ibn-Ṭūlūn._
+     |    |                                        |
+  698|1299|En-Nāṣir Moḥammad. _2nd reign_          |Defeat of Mongols
+     |    |                                        |in Syria.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Collegiate Mosque
+     |    |                                        |En-Nāṣiriya_,
+     |    |                                        |698-703.
+     |    |                                        |
+  708|1309|El-Muḍhaffar Rukn-ed-dīn Beybars II.    |_Monastic Mosque of
+     |    |                                        |Beybars_, 706.
+     |    |                                        |
+  709|1310|En-Nāṣir Moḥammad. _3rd reign_          |_Mosque of En-Nāṣir
+     |    |                                        |in citadel_, 718.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Persecutions of
+     |    |                                        |Christians and
+     |    |                                        |destruction of
+     |    |                                        |churches.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Mosques of the
+     |    |                                        |Amīrs Kūṣūn_, 730;
+     |    |                                        |_El-Māridāny_,
+     |    |                                        |738-40; _Singar
+     |    |                                        |El-Gāwaly and
+     |    |                                        |Salār_, 723 ff.
+     |    |                                        |
+  741|1341|El-Manṣūr Seyf-ed-dīn Abū-Bekr          |
+     |    |                                        |
+  742|1341|El-Ashraf ‘Alā-ed-dīn Ḳūgūḳ             |
+     |    |                                        |
+  742|1342|En-Nāṣir Shihāb-ed-dīn Aḥmad            |
+     |    |                                        |
+  743|1342|Eṣ-Ṣāliḥ ‘Imād-ed-dīn Ismā‘īl           |
+     |    |                                        |
+  746|1345|El-Kāmil Seyf-ed-dīn Sha‘bān            |
+     |    |                                        |
+  747|1346|El-Muḍhaffar Seyf-ed-dīn Ḥāggy          |_Mosque of the Amīr
+     |    |                                        |Aḳsunḳur_, 747-8.
+     |    |                                        |
+  748|1347|En-Nāṣir Nāṣir-ed-dīn Ḥasan. _1st reign_|
+     |    |                                        |
+  752|1351|Eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Ṣalāḥ ed-dīn Ṣāliḥ             |
+     |    |                                        |
+  755|1354|En-Nāṣir Ḥasan. _2nd reign_             |_Mosque of Sulṭān
+     |    |                                        |Ḥasan_, 757-60.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Mosques of the
+     |    |                                        |Amīrs Sheykhū_,
+     |    |                                        |756, and
+     |    |                                        |_Suyurghatmish_,
+     |    |                                        |757.
+     |    |                                        |
+  762|1361|El-Manṣūr Ṣalāḥ-ed-dīn Moḥammad         |
+     |    |                                        |
+  764|1363|El-Ashraf Nāṣir-ed-dīn Sha‘bān          |_Mosque of
+     |    |                                        |Umm-Sha‘bān._
+     |    |                                        |
+  778|1377|El-Manṣūr ‘Alā-ed-dīn ‘Aly              |
+     |    |                                        |
+  783|1381|Eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Ṣalāḥ-ed-dīn Ḥāggy deposed by  |
+   to|  to|Barḳūḳ 784/1382, but restored, 791,     |
+  792|1390|with new title of El-Manṣūr Ḥāggy, and  |
+     |    |finally deposed by Barḳūḳ, 792.         |
+
+                    B.—BURGY OR CIRCASSIAN LINE.
+
+  784|1382|Eḍh-Ḍhāhir Seyf-ed-dīn Barḳūḳ           |_Tomb Mosque of
+     |    |(interrupted by Ḥāggy, 791-2)           |Barḳūḳ._
+
+     |    |                                        |_Collegiate Mosque
+     |    |                                        |Barḳūḳīya_, 786.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |War with Tīmūr
+     |    |                                        |(Tamerlane).
+     |    |                                        |
+  801|1399|En-Nāṣir Nāṣir-ed-dīn Farag. _1st reign_|Peace concluded
+     |    |                                        |with Tīmūr.
+     |    |                                        |
+  808|1405|El-Manṣūr ‘Izz-ed-dīn ‘Abd-el-‘Azīz     |
+     |    |                                        |
+  809|1406|En-Nāṣir Farag. _2nd reign_             |
+     |    |                                        |
+  815|1412|El-‘Ādīl El-Musta‘īn (the Khalif)       |
+     |    |                                        |
+  815|1412|El-Mu‘ayyad Sheykh                      |_Mosque of
+     |    |                                        |El-Mu‘ayyad_,
+     |    |                                        |818-23.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Campaigns in Syria.
+     |    |                                        |
+  824|1421|El-Muḍhaffar Aḥmad                      |
+     |    |                                        |
+  824|1421|Eḍh-Ḍhāhir Seyf-ed-dīn Ṭaṭār            |
+     |    |                                        |
+  824|1421|Eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Nāṣir-ed-dīn Moḥammad          |
+     |    |                                        |
+  825|1422|El-Ashraf Seyf-ed-dīn Bars Bey          |_Collegiate Mosque
+     |    |                                        |El-Ashrafīya_, 827.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Tomb Mosque of
+     |    |                                        |Bars Bey._
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Expedition against
+     |    |                                        |John, King of
+     |    |                                        |Cyprus, 827.
+     |    |                                        |
+  842|1438|El-‘Azīz Jemāl-ed-dīn Yūsuf             |
+     |    |                                        |
+  842|1438|Eḍh-Ḍhāhir Seyf-ed-dīn Gaḳmaḳ           |
+     |    |                                        |
+  857|1453|El-Manṣūr Fakhr-ed-dīn ‘Othmān          |
+     |    |                                        |
+  857|1453|El-Ashraf Seyf-ed-dīn Īnāl              |
+     |    |                                        |
+  865|1461|El-Mu‘ayyad Shihāb-ed-dīn Aḥmad         |
+     |    |                                        |
+  865|1461|Eḍh-Ḍhāhir Seyf-ed-dīn Khōshḳadam       |
+     |    |                                        |
+  872|1467|Eḍh-Ḍhāhir Seyf-ed-dīn Bilbāy           |
+     |    |                                        |
+  872|1467|Eḍh-Ḍhāhir Temerbughā                   |
+     |    |                                        |
+  873|1468|El-Ashraf Seyf-ed-dīn Ḳāït Bey          |_Mosque of Ḳāït Bey
+     |    |                                        |(intra muros)._
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Tomb Mosque of
+     |    |                                        |Ḳāït Bey._
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |_Wekāla of Ḳāït
+     |    |                                        |Bey._
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |War with the
+     |    |                                        |Ottoman Turks, who
+     |    |                                        |were repeatedly
+     |    |                                        |defeated.
+     |    |                                        |
+  901|1496|En-Nāṣir Moḥammad                       |
+     |    |                                        |
+  904|1498|Eḍh-Ḍhāhir Ḳānṣūh                       |
+     |    |                                        |
+  905|1500|El-Ashraf Gānbalāṭ                      |_Mosque of the Amīr
+     |    |                                        |Ezbek_, 905.
+     |    |                                        |
+  906|1501|El-Ādil Tūmān Bey                       |
+     |    |                                        |
+  906|1501|El-Ashraf Ḳānṣūh El-Ghòry               |_Mosque and Tomb
+     |    |                                        |Mosque Ghōrīya_,
+     |    |                                        |909.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Battle of
+     |    |                                        |Marg-Dābik, and
+     |    |                                        |defeat of Mamlūks
+     |    |                                        |by Selīm I.
+     |    |                                        |
+     |    |                                        |Invasion of Egypt.
+     |    |                                        |
+  922|1516|El-Ashraf Tūmān Bey                     |
+     |    |                                        |
+  922|1516|Egypt annexed by the Ottoman Sultān Selīm.
+
+
+         GENEALOGICAL TREES OF THE FAMILIES REIGNING IN EGYPT.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+
+                            HOUSE OF ṬŪLŪN.
+
+               1. Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn
+                        |
+          +-------------+----------------+
+          |                              |
+  2. Khumāraweyh                    5. Sheybān
+         |
+  +------+----------+
+  |                 |
+ 3. Geysh       4. Hārūn.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+
+                           HOUSE OF IKHSHĪD.
+
+            1. Moḥammad El-Ikhshīd
+                       |
+         +-------------+----------------+
+         |                              |
+    2. Abu-l-Ḳāsim                  3. ‘Aly
+                                        |
+                                    5. Aḥmad
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+
+                            FĀṬIMY KHALIFS.
+
+                    4. El-Mu‘izz
+                          |
+                    5. El-‘Azīz
+                          |
+                    6. El-Ḥākim
+                          |
+                   7. Eḍh-Ḍhahir
+                          |
+                  8. El-Mustanṣir
+                          |
+          +---------------+----------------+
+          |                                |
+    9. El-Musta‘ly                      Moḥammad
+          |                                |
+    10. El-Āmir                       11. El-Ḥāfiḍh
+                                           |
+                                      12. Eḍh-Ḍhāfir
+                                           |
+                                      13. El-Fāïz
+                                           |
+                                      14. El-‘Āḍid.
+
+
+                            HOUSE OF AYYŪB.
+
+                               Ayyūb.
+                                 |
+          +----------------------+-----------------------+
+          |                                              |
+  1. Ṣalāḥ-ed-dīn [Saladin] Yūsuf.              4. El-‘Ādil Abū-Bekr.
+          |                                              |
+  2. El-‘Azīz ‘Othmān.                          5. El-Kāmil Moḥammad.
+          |                                              |
+          |                             +----------------+-----+
+          |                             |                      |
+  3. El-Manṣūr Moḥammad.          6. El-‘Ādil II.     7. Eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb.
+                                                             |
+                                            8. El-Mu‘aḍhḍham Tūrān Shāh.
+
+
+                             BAḤRY MAMLŪKS.
+
+      (A _dotted_ line denotes the relation of master and slave.)
+
+                    Eṣ-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb. (See above.)
+                                 |
+       +------------+----------------+-----------+---------------+
+       ·            ·                ·           ·               ·
+       ·            ·                ·           ·               ·
+       1.           2.               ·           ·               ·
+ Shejer-ed-durr = Eybek = _x_.  4. Ḳuṭuz.  5. Beybars.           ·
+   (Queen).             |                        |               ·
+                        |       +--------+-------+---+           ·
+                        |       |        |           |           ·
+                        3.      6.       7.          |           ·
+                      ‘Aly.  Baraka.  Selāmish.  Daughter = 8. Ḳalāūn.
+                                                          |
+       +------------+----------------+-----------+--------+------+
+       |            |                ·           ·               ·
+       |            |                ·           ·               ·
+  9. Khalīl.  10. En-Nāṣir.  11. Ketbughā.  12. Lāgīn.   13. Beybars II.
+                    |
+       +------------+------------+-----------+-------------+---------(2)
+       |            |            |           |             |
+ 14. Abū-Bekr.  15. Ḳūgūḳ.  16. Aḥmad.  17. Ismā‘īl.  18. Sha‘bān.
+
+  (2)----+------------+---------------+-----------------+
+         |            |               |                 |
+   19. Ḥāggy.     20. Ḥasan.     21. Ṣāliḥ.          Hoseyn.
+         |                                              |
+  22. Moḥammad.                                  23. Sha‘bān II.
+                                                        |
+                                                +-------+-------+
+                                                |               |
+                                            24. ‘Aly.      25. Ḥāggy II.
+
+The Burgy Mamlūks present some instances of a son succeeding his father,
+but as a rule the Sultans of this second line bore no blood relation to
+one another.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                             ARCHITECTURE.
+
+
+The arts of the Saracens are for the most part intimately connected with
+their buildings; they are chiefly employed for the decoration of their
+mosques and houses. Of the examples of Saracenic art that have come down
+to us, the large majority form part of the ornament and furniture of
+mosques, or, in a less proportion, of private dwellings. Thus wood-work
+mainly consists of carved panels from the doors of mosques, pulpits,
+ceilings, and the panelled doors and lattice windows of houses; the
+mosaics and marble ornament, no less than the stone carvings, are
+chiefly derived from the walls of mosques and other buildings. The
+finest ivory is found in the doors of Mohammadan pulpits and the screens
+of Coptic churches; glass is represented by mosque lamps and perforated
+stained windows; pottery is mainly displayed in the form of tiles on the
+walls of mosques and houses; and of existing textiles, the most
+important, though not native to Egypt, are the prayer carpets. The only
+branch of art industry that does not more or less share in this intimate
+connection with a building is the metal work, which includes many small
+objects which have no stated position, but might be placed anywhere
+without violating their natural intention; and even metal-work in Cairo
+is best seen in the embossed bronze doors of the mosques. As a whole, it
+may be said that the art of mediaeval Egypt was centred in the
+beautifying of its mosques and palaces, and that in most departments of
+artistic labour there is a certain architectural relation which shows
+that the various objects were elaborated with a direct eye to their
+effect when in the mosque or house. Of course, it does not follow that
+because the extant examples of Saracenic art in the middle ages are
+chiefly of this decorative character, there was no art of a less
+obviously relative nature. The artists who carved the wood and ivory of
+the mosques must have employed their skill on other things as well. But
+the sanctity of the mosques has procured for them a measure of respect
+which has preserved much of their decoration comparatively perfect to
+the present century, and a similar protection was not to be expected in
+the case of mere portable articles of furniture which could be burnt and
+broken and melted with no imputation of sacrilege. Objects of art which
+form part of buildings, whether sacred or not, stand a far better chance
+of survival than movable things, and this is, no doubt, to a large
+degree the cause of the one-sidedness of Cairene art as we now study it.
+Another cause is the simplicity of the Mohammadan idea of furniture. A
+Muslim grandee had much fewer modes of gratifying his artistic tastes
+than an English nobleman. The law of his Prophet, in the first place,
+forbade luxury, prohibited gold and silver ornaments, rich silks, and
+sumptuous apparel; it was impious to paint or chisel the image of man or
+any animate creature; and if a prince were not strongly under the
+influence of his religion, yet the general custom of his countrymen, and
+the conservatism of the East, would restrain him from eccentric
+innovations in the embellishment of his palace. Divans offered little
+scope for the artist; their frames, if not constructed of ordinary
+masonry, were made of palm sticks, or an unornamented framework of wood;
+the coverings alone could be sumptuous. A little low round table formed
+almost the sole piece of movable furniture in the room; there were no
+chairs for the Egyptian Chippendale to exercise his fancy upon; no
+bureaux, sideboards, book-cases, mirrors, mantel-shelves, or other
+pieces of decorative furniture, to be carved or inlaid; the little
+dining-table, or, rather, stool, with its round tray instead of a cloth,
+permitted no array of fine glass and silver, though the few dishes that
+could be ranged upon it were often of very exquisite workmanship, and
+inlaid with the precious metals. Thus it happened that in the house as
+in the mosque the chief skill of the artist was expended upon the
+decoration of the structure, by mosaics and tiles on the wall, painting
+the ceiling, panelling and carving the doors and cupboards, and
+designing the stained windows.
+
+No examination of the industrial arts of Egypt, therefore, would be
+intelligent which did not start from a clear comprehension of the
+characteristics of the buildings round which they were grouped. In a
+work of the present scope it is of course impossible to attempt a
+history of Saracenic architecture, even in its Cairene development; such
+a task is worthy of the best endeavours of an architect, and would
+demand a volume to itself. It will be sufficient for the present purpose
+if the principal buildings of Cairo are briefly described in general
+classes, the chief distinctions of style and plan noticed, and a clear
+conception offered of what mosques and houses are like. For this purpose
+it will not be necessary to take many examples. A large number of the
+300 mosques that still remain in various stages of preservation in that
+city offer no elements of originality, and not a few are modern and
+unworthy of study, except by those who would carry the history of an art
+down to its lowest stage of decadence. In houses we have unfortunately
+but a small choice to select from. Most of the noble palaces of the
+Mamlūk lords have long ago fallen to ruin, and there are now probably
+very few that can be called representative of the great period of
+Saracenic architecture. Still, while the palaces, for the most part,
+have passed away, there are here and there smaller houses of remarkable
+beauty, which preserve some of the best features of the true Cairo
+style.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2.—EAST COLONNADE OF THE MOSQUE OF ‘AMR.]
+
+The first idea of a mosque was extremely simple. The Prophet’s mosque at
+Medīna consisted of a small square enclosure of brick, partly roofed
+over with wooden planks, supported on pillars made of palm stems
+plastered over. All that was needed was retirement from passing scenes,
+and shade from the sun’s rays. It was not necessary that the whole of
+the square court forming the mosque should be roofed in, for the number
+of worshippers who remained for any length of time in the mosque would
+be small, and, for the brief periods occupied by the ordinary prayers,
+the open court could be used if the roofed portions did not afford space
+enough. The same principle was observed in the plans of the early
+mosques of Egypt. An open court for occasional use, and roofed cloisters
+for the regular congregation, were the essentials; and in the older
+mosques in and around Cairo we find this plan carried out by a spacious
+open court surrounded on the four sides by covered colonnades or
+cloisters. The mosque of ‘Amr at Fustāt (or Old Cairo) has been so
+repeatedly restored that it is not safe to draw conclusions from its
+details; but it is certainly as old as the 10th century in its main
+outline, which consists of an immense court surrounded by covered
+colonnades (fig. 2). The mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn, which preserves, for the
+most part untouched, its original form and ornament as completed in the
+year 265 of the Hijra (A.D. 878), consists also of a vast open court
+surrounded by arcades or cloisters, which differ considerably in the
+details from the colonnades of ‘Amr’s mosque, but show the same general
+plan. The mosque of the Fātimy Khalif El-Hākim, finished in 1012,
+resembles that of Ibn-Tūlūn in plan and many of the details, and the
+Azhar, though frequently restored, preserves its original colonnaded
+court of 971. The mosque of Edh-Dhāhir Beybars, to the north of Cairo
+(1268), and that of En-Nāsir Mohammad in the Citadel (1318), are also of
+the arcade plan, resembling Ibn-Tūlūn, and the same form was adopted by
+Kūsūn (1329), El-Māridāny (1339), and Aksunkur (1347), for their mosques
+in the first half of the 14th century, by Barkūk at the end of the same
+century for his tomb-mosque in the eastern cemetery of Cairo, and by El-
+Muayyad for his mosque (1420) in the Ghōrīya, now in course of
+restoration.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3.—PLAN OF THE MOSQUE OF ‘AMR.]
+
+The plan of an open court surrounded by colonnades is, as will be
+readily recognised, simply a survival of the ancient Semitic temple, as
+we see it in Phoenician and other ruins, and also in the porticos
+surrounding the Ka‘ba at Mekka. The Arabs naturally adopted the form
+most familiar to them, and also best suited to the climate, and to the
+religious rites to be performed. This plan is universal in Egypt from
+the 9th to the 13th century, so far as extant buildings permit us to
+judge. From the 13th century the older plan shared the favour of the
+Cairene architects with a new form, which was, however, rather a
+development of the former than a new departure. As space became more
+valuable in Cairo, and as architectural skill improved, and the art of
+spanning wide intervals by great arches became better understood, the
+cruciform mosque was naturally developed out of the old columnar or
+cloistered court. Instead of surrounding a spacious court with shallow
+arcades, a smaller court was enclosed by four deep recesses or
+transepts, each of which was covered by a single large arch; the plan
+thus resembles roughly a cross, of which the centre was formed by the
+open court, and the arms by the four covered recesses. A reason for this
+arrangement is perhaps to be found in the four sects into which the
+Mohammadans of Egypt were divided: for some of the cruciform mosques
+have inscriptions which show that a separate transept was allotted to
+Mālikis, the Hanafīs, the Shāfi‘is, and the Hanbalīs. This plan seems to
+have been introduced into Cairo by the Ayyūby Sultans of the family of
+Saladin. The earliest examples are the buildings of El-Kāmil Mohammad,
+Saladin’s nephew, whose collegiate mosque in the street known as Beyn-
+el-Kasreyn, or “Betwixt-the-Palaces,” was erected in the year 1224. Two
+sides of this building were standing in 1845 when Mr. Wild made some
+sketches of the ornament, which he described as more like the Alhambra
+than anything he had seen in Cairo. The most famous extant specimen of
+the cruciform mosque is that of Sultan Hasan, built in 1356-9, where the
+arches opening into the transepts are of magnificent dimensions.
+Barkūk’s medresa or collegiate mosque in the Beyn-el-Kasreyn, 1384, and
+the two mosques of Kāït Bey, one in the city, the other and more
+celebrated in the eastern burial-ground, one of the most beautiful
+monuments of Cairo (1472), also belong to the cruciform order, as does
+that of El-Ghōry (1503), besides many less important mosques.
+
+The standard example of the _cloistered mosque_ is that of Ibn-Tūlūn,
+the bold and massive style of which recalls our own Norman architecture.
+This is the oldest mosque of Cairo, or rather of the quarter called El-
+Katāi‘, or “the Wards,” which was the residence of the princes of the
+dynasty of Tūlūn, when Cairo was not yet founded. It occupies a space of
+about four hundred feet. The exterior is very plain, as is always the
+case with cloistered mosques. A high wall surrounds it on three sides,
+leaving a space of some fifty feet vacant between the wall and the
+mosque itself. The outer courts thus formed, in close resemblance to the
+plan of the Egyptian temple (as seen, for example, at Edfu), were
+intended to isolate the worshippers in the mosque from the noises of the
+street without. The front or east side is shut off from the street by
+houses and various apartments; and washrooms and other chambers for the
+mosque attendants or for worshippers block up part of the western outer
+court. The walls of the mosque have no ornament, except a crenellated or
+embattled parapet. Originally the mosque was entered by two doors in
+each of the three outer courts; the doors are simple and without any of
+the elaboration of later mosques.
+
+Passing through the inner partition wall we find ourselves in a cloister
+or arcade looking into a magnificent court ninety-nine yards square
+(fig. 3), in the centre of which is a square stone building surmounted
+by a brick dome, which was built, however, a century later than the
+mosque itself, in the place of the original marble fountain covered by a
+painted dome resting on marble pillars. This vast court is surrounded on
+all four sides by arcades of pointed arches resting on piers of
+plastered brick. It is related that Ahmad Ibn-Tūlūn intended to have 300
+columns for his mosque, but when he was informed that this would involve
+the destruction or dismemberment of numerous churches throughout the
+land of Egypt—for the Muslims took their pillars from Roman and Greek
+buildings—he abandoned the project. His chief architect, a Copt[12],
+whose religious sympathies may have had something to do with Ibn-Tūlūn’s
+clemency towards the Christian churches, then undertook to build a
+mosque without columns, save two at the niche which marked the direction
+of Mekka; and when he had drawn his design on parchment, and shown it to
+the prince, it was approved, and he was given a dress of honour, and
+furnished with 100,000 gold pieces, or about £60,000 to build the
+mosque. He began the work in A.H. 263, and completed it in 265 (878),
+when he received a fee of 10,000 pieces of gold.[13] It is clear from
+this account, which is derived from the historian El-Makrīzy, that the
+mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn was the first experiment in brick piers instead of
+stone columns. Three sides have two rows of arches; the fourth, that
+which lies on the side towards Mekka, has five.[14]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4.—MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN.]
+
+All the rows of arches run parallel to the sides of the court, so that
+standing in the latter you look through the arches. The arches are all
+pointed (fig. 5), and constitute the first example of the universal
+employment of pointed arches throughout a building, three hundred years
+before the adoption of the pointed style in England. They have a very
+slight tendency to a return at the spring of the arch, but cannot be
+said to approach the true horse-shoe form. They rest on heavy piers of
+brick, the four corners of which are shaped in the form of engaged
+columns, with no bases, and only very simple rounded capitals, coated,
+like the rest of the building, with plaster, on which a rudimentary bud
+and flower pattern is moulded. The spaces between the arches are partly
+filled by windows with similar engaged columns and pointed arches. On
+either side of each window, in the face fronting the court, is a rosette
+moulded in the plaster, and a band of similar rosettes runs all round
+the court above the arches, over which is the embattled parapet. The
+faces of the arcades in the interior are somewhat differently treated.
+Round the arches and windows runs a knop and flower pattern, which also
+runs across from spring to spring of arch beneath the windows, and a
+band of the same ornament runs all along above the arches, in place of
+the rosettes, which only occur in the face fronting the court; over this
+band, and likewise running along the whole length of all the inner
+arcades, is a Kūfy[15] inscription carved in wood, and above this the
+usual crenellated parapet. The arcades are roofed over with sycamore
+planks resting on heavy beams. In the rearmost arcade the back wall is
+pierced with pointed windows, which are filled, not with coloured glass,
+but with grilles of stone, forming geometrical designs, with central
+rosettes or stars; but it is not quite certain that these belong to the
+original mosque; they may have been introduced in one of the
+restorations which are known to have been made. To whatever period they
+belong, they may compare favourably in variety and beauty of design with
+any Gothic tracery in existence. With the exception of these grilles,
+the central fountain, and the two marble columns by the niche in the
+east end, the entire mosque is built with burnt brick, plastered on both
+sides.[16]
+
+The Mekka side, which is the _līwān_ or sanctuary, and specially the
+place of prayer, is deeper, as has been said, consisting of five arcades
+instead of two, and the arches fronting the court are filled almost to
+the height of the piers by wooden screens or partitions, which rail off
+the sanctuary from the court. It is ornamented in the same manner as the
+other arcades, except that the back wall, which in the other sides is
+plain, save for the grilled windows, in the east end was once carefully
+decorated, though at present little remains of the original mosaic and
+colour which El-Makrīzy says were used for its embellishment.
+
+The essential parts of the east end of a mosque are the _mihrāb_ or
+niche indicating the _kibla_ or direction of Mekka, the _mimbar_ or
+pulpit for the Friday sermon, and the _dikka_ or tribune, a raised
+platform from which the Korān is recited and the prayers intoned by the
+imām or choragus. The niche is generally an arched recess in the centre
+of the east wall, richly inlaid with mosaics of marbles and mother-of-
+pearl, and often bordered with Arabic inscriptions. The niche of Ibn-
+Tūlūn is adorned with marbles of different colours. Very often the whole
+of the east wall is covered with ornament; dados of mosaic, friezes of
+inscriptions, panels of marble and tiles, are arranged with exquisite
+taste over the whole surface, broken only by the stained glass windows
+which form so beautiful a feature in the later mosques.
+
+At each end of the sanctuary of Ibn-Tūlūn is a small minaret, and there
+is also a great stone minaret, in the west outer court, which has the
+unique peculiarity of an external winding staircase (fig. 4), reminding
+one of the traditional tower of Babel of the children’s picture books.
+This is, however, quite phenomenal, and the ordinary minaret, which
+forms the most beautiful external feature of the Cairo mosques, if not,
+as Fergusson says, “the most graceful form of tower architecture in the
+world,” has an internal winding staircase, and consists of a slender
+tower, constructed in several stories, which generally diminish in size
+and shape, from a substantial square at the base, through graduated
+octagons, to a cylinder or a group of dwarf columns at the top, on which
+is a small cupola surmounted by a knotted pinnacle and crescent, with
+several wooden staffs fixed at angles to the round of the cupola, from
+which lamps are suspended on the great festivals. Two or three galleries
+project at various heights, supported by stalactite corbels and
+cornices, and from these the muezzin proclaims the call to prayer five
+times a day. It is recorded by El-Makrīzy that the first stone minaret
+in Cairo was that of the mosque of El-Māridāny, built by the Master
+Suyūfy—all the earlier ones being of brick.[17] A very beautiful example
+of a minaret is seen in the engraving of the mosque of Kāït Bey
+(frontispiece). Sometimes the cupola at the top is fluted, as in a very
+pretty little minaret in the southern burial-ground of Cairo, which
+tapers upwards from the square by a series of diminishing octagons till
+the transition to the round can be gently effected. The transitions are
+ingeniously managed by those stalactite or pendentive ornaments, which
+are the peculiar property of the Saracenic architect, and are freely
+used to mask angles and to modulate such transitions as those in the
+dome and minaret. In describing the minaret we are, however,
+anticipating the true chronological order, for the earlier mosques do
+not present many of the graceful details which we see in that of Kāït
+Bey. The great minaret of Ibn-Tūlūn indeed diminishes by stages, but
+there are no stalactites in any part of this mosque, except over the
+_mihrāb_, or niche, and these are probably a later addition.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 5.—ARCADES IN THE MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN.
+
+Ninth Century.]
+
+Nothing has been said so far about the dome, and for this reason, that
+the mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn has none. It is a mistake to suppose that the
+dome is an essential feature of a mosque. The minaret is essential,
+because there must be a raised tower from which the _Adān_ or Call to
+Prayer may resound over the city, though even this was dispensed with in
+the Prophet’s own mosque at Medīna, where the Muezzin Bilāl of the
+stentorian voice shouted the call from the gate. A dome, however, has
+nothing whatever to do with prayer, and therefore nothing with a mosque.
+It is simply the roof of a tomb, and only exists where there is a tomb
+to be covered, or at least where it was intended that a tomb should be.
+Only when there is a chapel attached to a mosque, containing the tomb of
+the founder or his family, is there a dome, and it is no more closely
+connected with the mosque itself than is the grave it covers: neither is
+necessary to the place of prayer. It happens, however, that a large
+number of the mosques of Cairo are mausoleums, containing chambers with
+the tomb of the founder, and the profusion of domes to be seen, when one
+looks down upon the city from the battlements of the Citadel, has
+brought about the not unnatural mistake of thinking that every mosque
+must have a dome. Most mosques with tombs have domes, but no mosque that
+was not intended to contain a tomb ever had one in the true sense. The
+origin of the dome may be traced to the cupolas which surmount the
+graves of Babylonia, many of which must have been familiar to the Arabs,
+who preserved the essentially sepulchral character of the form, and
+never used it, as did the Copts and Byzantines, to say nothing of
+European architects, to roof a church or its apse. The form of the true
+Cairo dome is not quite the same as that of Italy and St. Paul’s; like
+most Saracenic designs it is based upon simple geometrical proportions.
+To draw the outline of the ordinary type (fig. 6), to which, however,
+there are exceptions, describe a circle A, draw tangents B B, to the
+length of three-fourths of the radius, join the extremities, and from
+each of the extremities draw a circle C, the radius of which shall equal
+the whole diameter of the first circle plus an eighth; and where these
+circles intersect erect the pinnacle. The whole can be done with
+compasses and rule.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 6.—DIAGRAM SHOWING PROPORTIONS OF A DOME.]
+
+Domes are generally built of brick, not moulded to fit the curve, but
+simply laid each tier a little within the lower tier so as to form the
+proper curve; the plaster which coats most domes inside and out conceals
+the slight irregularity of the brickwork. Wooden frames are also
+sometimes used to support the lighter plaster domes, as is shown in the
+foreground of fig. 4. Some domes, however, are of stone, which is cut to
+the shape of the curve, and carved with the desired pattern. As a rule I
+have observed that plain and fluted domes are of plastered brick, whilst
+those ornamented with zigzag, geometrical, and arabesque devices are
+more commonly of carved stone. The surfaces of the domes are ornamented
+in various ways. Sometimes they are covered with an intricate
+geometrical design, with star centres, as the domes of Kāït Bey and Al-
+Ashraf Bars-Bey in the eastern cemetery. A common decoration consists in
+bands of zigzags, or chevrons close together, running horizontally round
+the dome from base to apex, such as we see in the tomb-mosque of Barkūk
+(1407). Many domes are fluted, and these would seem to belong to all
+periods of Cairo architecture, for we find the fluted cupola surmounting
+the _mibkharas_ or quasi-minarets of the mosque of El-Hākim (1012; but
+these may belong to the restoration, in 1303, when it is known that the
+mibkharas were shored up with massive bases), and also in domes in the
+southern burial ground, which apparently belong to the end of the 15th
+century. A rarer and late form of dome ornament consists in covering the
+whole surface with arabesques arranged in large outlines, which form a
+sort of diaper, with a much richer effect than mere geometrical
+ornament. There are a few examples, which are probably of very early
+date, with a lantern pierced with small windows, and roofed with a
+little fluted cupola on the top of the larger dome. These are in the
+southern burial-ground, but are in so ruined a condition that there
+remains no evidence as to their date that can be regarded as positive.
+Certain characteristics of the stalactites, however, lead to the belief
+that they may belong to the Ayyuby period (1170-1250). Some of the more
+elongated domes have a second and lower dome structure inside them, from
+which spring walls to support the outer dome. “The dome,” as Franz Bey
+remarks, “is blended with the quadrangular interior of the mausoleum by
+means of pendentives [stalactites]; while externally the union of the
+cube with the sphere is somewhat masked by the polygonal base of the
+dome. In some cases the transition is effected by means of gradations
+resembling steps, each of which is crowned with a half-pyramidal
+excrescence of the height of the step. These excrescences might be
+regarded as external prolongations of the pendentives of the interior,
+but do not correspond with them in position. The architects, however,
+doubtless, intended to suggest some such connection between the internal
+and external ornamentation.” Sometimes the dome is set simply on the
+cube of the building with no gradation at all. A row of windows commonly
+surrounds its base.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 7.—PLAN OF THE MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN.]
+
+We have digressed thus far in order to finish what had to be said on the
+subject of domes, which form, with minarets, the most prominent features
+of Cairo architecture. As has been remarked, they are not found in the
+mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn, nor indeed in most of the cloistered mosques. That
+of El-Hākim has no dome, nor have the Azhar, the mosque of En-Nāsir in
+the Citadel, that of El-Māridāny, and several others, owing to the
+absence of tomb-chapels. Barkūk and El-Muayyad are buried in their
+mosques, and domes are therefore proper. There is a domed structure,
+indeed, in the centre of the court of Ibn-Tūlūn, but the date of this is
+much later than the mosque; and it is a question whether the original
+dome built in this place by Ibn-Tūlūn was not intended to cover his own
+tomb: when he died, and was buried in Syria, the domed edifice may have
+been converted into its present use as a fountain for ablutions. There
+is, however, a feature in the cloistered mosques, or in some of them,
+which has a close resemblance to a dome; this is a small cupola, which
+seems to have been not uncommonly erected over the niche. There is such
+a cupola over the niche in Ibn-Tūlūn, and though this is probably of the
+date of the restoration by Lāgīn, in 1296, to judge by the wooden
+stalactites which are found in no other part of the mosque, yet it is
+probable that the restorer only replaced an original cupola with one in
+the style of his own time. The Azhar University mosque, a century later
+than Ibn-Tūlūn, has a raised portion of the arcade over the _kibla_,
+which once carried a small dome or cupola, and the same feature is
+observed in the Citadel mosque of En-Nāsir Mohammad, where the cupola,
+which stood on high columns, has also disappeared. There are probably
+other examples with traces of this arrangement which have been
+overlooked; but it was not necessary or universal. These cupolas over
+the niche are not domes properly speaking, though they have the melon
+form; they are smaller than the true dome, and correspond rather to the
+lantern of a house.
+
+The ornament of the cloistered mosque consists partly in the borders and
+frieze which run round and above the arches, and beneath the crenellated
+parapet; the capitals of the columns; and the geometrical grilles of the
+windows, of which Ibn-Tūlūn and Edh-Dhāhir Beybars offer very fine
+examples.[18] Some beautiful grilles were still standing in the ruins of
+the mosque of Kūsūn in 1883, though the ex-Khedive had run a road
+through the bulk of this splendid edifice. These ornaments are in stone
+or plaster. In wood, the chief decorations are the Kūfy frieze, which
+may also be of plaster; the ceiling, which is often exquisitely painted
+and carved; the junction with the wall, masked by a cornice or
+stalactite corbels; and the pulpit. Mosaics and tiles are chiefly, or
+exclusively, used in and round the niche in the east end, and metal-work
+and carving are employed for the massive doors. All these several modes
+of decoration will be found described under their separate headings.
+
+Of the principal examples of the cloistered mosque in Cairo, those of
+Ibn-Tūlūn, El-Hākim, and Barkūk have the arches supported on piers, and
+running at right angles to the side of the court; but the mosques of
+‘Amr, the Azhar, of En-Nāsir in the Citadel, of Kūsūn, El-Māridāny, El-
+Muayyad, and others, have columns instead of piers, and the arches
+sometimes run parallel with the court. The marble columns employed in
+mosques, which are often very numerous (the Azhar has 380 in the
+sanctuary alone), were generally abstracted from Roman buildings or
+Christian churches, with capitals of various orders, arranged with
+little regard to symmetry, and prolonged in a quaint fashion, if too
+short, by a pedestal or inverted capital used as a base. There is,
+however, a Saracenic capital, derived from simple Ptolemaic models, of a
+distinctive character. It is used both as a capital and as a base, and
+is contained by four surfaces proceeding in curves from the square
+abacus, and joining at the round of the column. Above the abacus of
+this, and also of Roman or Corinthian columns, is placed a second abacus
+of wood, joined from pillar to pillar by a wooden bar. The mosque of
+Barkūk is not only surrounded by arches on piers, but instead of a
+ceiling has a groined brick roof, which is very exceptional in mosques,
+though frequent in other buildings—as in the great stone city gate, the
+Bāb-en-Nasr.
+
+The second style of mosque, with the _cruciform_ plan (fig. 7), cannot
+better be exemplified than by the mosque of Sultan Hasan. This
+magnificent edifice, the loftiest and in some respects the most imposing
+in Cairo, was built during the years 1356-9, at the cost of 1,000 dīnārs
+of gold a day, and the legend is related that the Sultan took the futile
+precaution of cutting off the architect’s hand in order to prevent any
+further efforts of his genius. The interior of the mosque consists of a
+cross, of which transept on the east side, which may be compared to a
+chancel, is larger than the three other arms, while the founder’s chapel
+(over which is the dome) occupies the position of a lady-chapel behind
+the chancel. The outline of the founder’s chapel is visible on the
+outside, but the cross-shape is not; the spaces in the right angles,
+between the four transepts or arms, are so filled with offices and
+schools and other apartments (as is the case with most cruciform
+mosques) that the exterior has the form of an irregular oblong, the
+sloping outline of which is partly due to the line of the street which
+runs past the mosque to the Citadel which it confronts. The exterior
+walls from the base to the top of the cornice are about 113 feet high,
+and are entirely built of finely-cut stone brought from the Pyramids.
+The broad expanse of wall is slightly relieved by windows, of which the
+most prominent—those of the founder’s chapel—consist of two horseshoe-
+headed lights, surmounted by a single round window, placed in a tall
+shallow recess, which is brought forward at the top to the face of the
+wall by stalactite corbelling supporting a trefoil arch. The other
+windows are plain rectangular grilles (sometimes as many as eight, one
+above another), similarly placed in tall shallow recesses with
+stalactite tops, or small circular windows set in square recesses. The
+eastern corners of the main building resemble polygonal towers, and the
+angles of the chapel are ornamented with graceful pilasters or engaged
+columns, carved in a spiral or twisted design, with stalactite capitals,
+reaching to nearly half the height of the wall. The cornice, which is
+unusually prominent in this mosque and forms one of its most beautiful
+features, consists of six tiers of stalactites, each overhanging the one
+below it, till the top projects some six feet; the coping is plain,
+without the usual crenellated parapet. The other external ornaments
+are—(1) the dome, which was rebuilt in the last century, and though
+large, is squat, and wholly unworthy of the mosque; (2) the two
+minarets, of which that on the south-east angle of the mosque is the
+tallest (280 ft.) in Cairo, a handsome structure, with two galleries,
+and a cupola on the summit, resting on graceful pillars, erected on a
+third gallery; another lofty minaret, over the portal, was thrown down
+by an earthquake in 1361, soon after its completion, killing three
+hundred children in the adjoining school; the other surviving minaret is
+a puny erection, and gives the mosque a lop-sided aspect; and (3) last,
+but by no means least, the splendid main portal. This gateway, which is
+approached by some seventeen rather insignificant steps, laid sideways
+along the face of the wall,[19] is the chief subject of external
+decoration in the mosque. It consists of a square arched niche, or
+recess, 66 feet high, open to the outside, and vaulted in a half sphere,
+which is gradually approached by twelve tiers of stalactites,
+ingeniously arranged so as to modulate the square recess into the semi-
+domed summit. At each side of the portal, on the outer wall, are tall
+borders of bold arabesques, with stalactite summits, and arabesque
+medallions at the base, running up the whole height of the portal.
+Beyond these on either side are geometrical panels, and then twisted
+corner columns with stalactite capitals, which bound the slight
+projection or buttress in which the portal is set. The inner angles of
+the gateway are decorated with smaller columns (not twisted), with
+stalactite capitals and borders of fine geometrical and arabesque (fig.
+8) designs. On either side of the niche, inside, is an arched recess for
+the doorkeepers, set between columns, and surmounted by stalactites and
+patterns of coloured stone, and over the central bronze-plated door,
+which leads into the mosque, is a window with similar side columns and
+stalactites. The surfaces of the interior walls of the gateway are
+variegated by alternate courses of black and white marble.[20]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 8.—ORNAMENT FROM THE PORTAL OF SULTAN HASAN.]
+
+Passing into the mosque, through a handsome vaulted vestibule and some
+bent passages, we find ourselves in the hypaethral court, or _sahn el-
+gāmi‘_, which is 117 feet long by 105 feet wide. It is paved with marble
+slabs and medallions arranged in various patterns. In many mosques
+massive granite slabs taken from the ancient temples of Egypt, and
+sometimes carved with hieroglyphics, are laid in the pavement,
+especially at the threshold. In the centre is a _meyda‘_, or tank for
+ablutions, crowned by a ruinous plastered wood cupola, resting on eight
+marble columns, by the side of which stands a smaller octagonal
+fountain, or _hanafīya_, with taps, for the use of the sect of the
+Hanafis, who require running water for their washings preparatory to
+prayer. Each of the four transepts, opening out of the court and raised
+a step above its level, consists of a single deep arch, the arching
+being continued throughout the whole depth of the transept. On either
+side of the north, south, and west transepts is a door set in a
+stalactite recess, with windows over it. The transept at the east end is
+larger and loftier than the other three. It is ninety feet high, ninety
+feet deep, and sixty-nine feet wide. The framework of this vast arch is
+stated to have cost 100,000 francs. Like the rest of the mosque, the
+interiors of the transepts are built of brick plastered over; but the
+facing of the arches (where every third course is coloured red) is of
+stone, and the walls which connect and surround the arches, forming the
+square outline of the court, are also of stone, but are plastered over.
+The coping of the court is formed by an embattled parapet. The smaller
+transepts are almost plain, but the chancel or sanctuary at the east is
+adorned with a marble dado, which runs round it to the height of about
+four feet; and the east wall or back of this is richly decorated with
+marble slabs, which rise to the height of thirty feet, and are arranged
+in rectangular panels and borders of contrasted colours, black, white,
+and yellow. In the centre of the east wall is the _mihrab_, or niche,
+indicating the direction of prayer towards Mekka.[21] This consists in a
+semicircular recess about six feet wide, the front edges of which are
+composed of two marble columns, and the top of a pointed arch vaulted
+like a shell inside. The interior of the niche is beautifully adorned
+with three tiers of arches (the first pointed, the second round, and the
+third trefoil) supported by dwarf columns, one above the other, and
+divided by arabesque borders and bands of greenstone. The backgrounds of
+the arches behind the dwarf columns are alternately of red and green
+marble. The shell-like top of the niche is decorated with marbles
+arranged in rays, and the facing of the arch itself is treated with the
+common zigzag ornament, which is seen so frequently round arches and
+over doors in Cairo. The effect of the whole is extremely rich, and the
+details are finished with infinite care and skill. A Kūfy inscription
+(fig. 9) of large bold characters within fine borders runs round the
+sanctuary just above the marbles, and overlaps the edges of the arch.
+Above this, in the east wall, are two windows, each of two lights with a
+circular light above, and a central round aperture. In front of the
+niche, a little on the left hand (as you face the court), stands the
+pulpit, a staircase enclosed by high sides, and ending in a small
+platform surmounted by a cupola supported by a column on either side.
+Most pulpits are of carved and panelled wood, but that of Sultan Hasan
+is of coloured marbles arranged in circular medallions. Further in
+front, nearer the court, is the _dikka_, or tribune, which in most
+mosques is a light structure of wood, but here is of stone and marble,
+and rests upon solid piers and columns, with very graceful columns let
+into the corners, and formed of alternate zigzag drums of white, black,
+and yellow marble. From the top of the arch hang seventy-seven cords, to
+which are fastened as many small glass lamps, and many more are
+suspended from the simple gallows brackets which are ranged along the
+side walls, about half-way between the dado and the Arabic inscription.
+A large bronze chandelier hanging from the keystone of the great arch
+completes the furniture of the sanctuary.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 9.—KUFIC FRIEZE IN MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN.
+
+Fourteenth Century.]
+
+By a beautiful bronze-plated door, on either side of the niche, we
+obtain access to the sepulchral chapel of the Sultan who caused all this
+wonderful building to be erected for the honour of his Creator and
+himself. This is the portion of the mosque which underlies the dome. It
+is sixty-nine feet square, and is surrounded on all sides with fine
+tablets of coloured marbles, forming a dado of the height of twenty-five
+feet or more, and broken by eleven arches, either blind or with doors
+closing cupboards, and including a niche in the east wall resembling in
+design the niche of the inner wall already described. Over the marbles
+is the “Throne Verse” from the Koran (ch. ii. v. 256) carved in wood,
+and forming a frieze all round, interrupted only by medallions
+containing the name of the Sultan; the usual lamp brackets are fixed
+above the frieze. Higher up still are the windows, which are badly
+planned; most of the glass is gone, and what remains resembles common
+bottle glass. Above are fine wooden stalactites, painted and gilt,
+marking the transition from the square to the dome. The founder’s tomb
+is a plain marble grave, enclosed in a simple wooden railing:—the whole
+chapel is the true tomb. It should be noted that the tomb chapel is not
+surrounded like the rest of the mosque by offices, schools, and chambers
+of all sorts; it stands out clear from everything, and three of its
+sides are outside walls, the fourth being the east wall of the
+sanctuary.
+
+Such is the great mosque of Sultan Hasan. It forms a typical example of
+the cruciform mosque, although its materials are much more substantial
+and costly than usual, and its size far transcends all other mosques of
+this plan. In none other do we find the same noble span of arch, the
+same lavish display of marbles; in a word, the same grandeur. But there
+are many mosques in Cairo that are more pleasing than that of Sultan
+Hasan, whose broad surfaces of unrelieved plaster find inadequate
+compensation in the rich but heavy mosaics of the sanctuary wall. And in
+spite of its imposing proportions, there is something ungainly about the
+exterior of this big mosque; the stone walls, besides the defect of
+being unparallel, seem heavy and insufficiently relieved; the dome,
+being modern, is unsightly; and the minarets do not balance. For a very
+different specimen of a mosque of the same cruciform plan, let us glance
+at the illustration (frontispiece) of the mausoleum of Kāït Bey, another
+Mamlūk Sultan, and the prince of Cairo builders. This mosque is situate
+in that wonderful wilderness of exquisite domes and minarets known as
+the great or eastern Karāfa or cemetery, and also as the Karāfa of Kāït
+Bey _par excellence_. Here we see the dome and minaret in their utmost
+perfection, and the proportions of the cruciform mosque most admirably
+displayed. The exterior is fluted with shallow recesses like Sultan
+Hasan’s, in which the windows are set, and is striped red and white, in
+imitation, no doubt, of the ancient Roman buildings of Egypt, where
+courses of red brick alternate with a row of white stone. The effect is
+not so unpleasant as might be imagined; for when time has softened the
+red ochre, the zebra-like walls seem suited to the character of the
+architecture.[22] The door is set in a deep recess like that of Sultan
+Hasan, but on a smaller scale; and the details of such doors may be
+better seen in the engraving (fig. 10), which represents a gateway of
+another mosque of the same Sultan within the city of Cairo. Kāït Bey’s
+mosques, and those generally of a late period, are much more elaborately
+decorated than early cloistered mosques like Ibn-Tūlūn. We have seen
+that the ornament in the latter consists chiefly in bands and friezes
+running round and above the arches, and in the mosaics in the sanctuary.
+In Kāït Bey’s mosques the triangular spaces between the arches and the
+square of the court are filled with arabesque scrolls carved in stone;
+the keystone and every alternate stone in the arch is similarly
+ornamented; the interior doors are surmounted by carved architraves, and
+over these are little windows between pillars, and surmounted by
+stalactites. Medallions occupy the centres of large expanses of
+ornament, and are filled with the name and titles of the Sultan who
+built the mosque, with a prayer,—“Send him victorious!” Marble inlay
+covers the lower portions of the walls, and marble slabs are arranged in
+the pavement. The whole interior surfaces wear the aspect of a
+beautifully woven and embroidered carpet, and however much we may
+criticise the structural vagueness of the edifice, it is impossible to
+refuse our admiration to the details of the ornament. These complexly-
+decorated mosques are naturally of the smaller cruciform shape, for the
+large extent of wall in the cloistered style would not only demand an
+almost impossible quantity of costly material and time, but would not
+repay the artist in the effect.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 10.—DOORWAY OF SMALLER MOSQUE OF KAIT BEY.
+
+Fifteenth Century.]
+
+The two general types of mosque described above, with their usual styles
+of decoration, will give a sufficient idea of the purposes to which the
+arts of the Saracens are applied; but they do not by any means exhaust
+either the architectural character or the modes of decoration of the
+religious buildings of Cairo. It is not possible in a limited space to
+enter into the varieties of Cairo mausoleums, dervish convents, and
+other buildings; but a few examples will serve to show that, while the
+majority of mosques fall under one or other of the categories above
+described, there is infinite variety among those that depart from the
+ordinary outline. Among these, one of the most remarkable is the
+mausoleum of Kalaūn. This is attached to the northern side of the great
+hospital or Māristān, built by that Sultan in the Beyn-el-Kasreyn, and
+separated from it by a vaulted passage entered through a splendid black
+and white marble portal.[23] The Māristān originally comprised an
+infinity of chambers, lecture-rooms, theatres for operations, surgeons’
+rooms, mortuary, professors’ lodgings, cells for the mad patients, a
+mosque, and many other features, of all which little now remains. But
+the tomb of the builder, which is entered from a gateway in the passage
+opposite to that which admits one into what is still standing of the
+once extensive Māristān, is in extremely fine preservation, and contains
+many peculiar and beautiful features. It is built of stone, and consists
+of a vestibule or antechapel, and a square chapel, covered originally by
+a dome, but now only by a flat ceiling. The support of the dome is an
+octagonal inner structure, resting upon eight arches, of an elongated
+and slightly horse-shoe form, supported by four piers and four massive
+granite monolithic columns. The arches are surrounded by a border of
+very delicate and lace-like arabesque tracery, in plaster, which
+terminates over each of the eight arches in a rose of arabesque open-
+work. Above each arch is a window composed of two round-headed lights
+and a circular light above. The niche is decorated with beautiful dwarf
+arcades, the arches being delicately chiselled in a very graceful shell
+form, and supported by little pillars. Bands of coloured marble separate
+each tier from the next. The marble tomb is in the centre of the chapel,
+enclosed with a wooden railing of coarse lattice work; but the
+magnificent carvings on the doors of the Māristān (figs. 46-48) atone
+for any shortcomings in the tomb itself.
+
+The exterior of the mausoleum is coloured red and white in squares like
+a draught-board, and is peculiar in other respects. At the base, half a
+dozen dwarf columns, surmounted by tall piers or pilasters, support
+lofty arched recesses, running nearly the full height of the wall. The
+recesses are not of equal size; and the larger are occupied by a single
+window between columns (divided into two lights by a column surmounted
+by a round light, giving the effect of a trefoil), and the smaller by a
+similar window over a small pointed window of a single arch. The windows
+are filled with grilles of geometrical open-work, and the arched
+portions of the recesses in which they are set are coloured in radiating
+bands of red and white; and even the columns share in this zebra
+decoration. Beneath the row of windows, running across pilasters and
+recesses alike, is a fine Arabic frieze, painted red, and at the top of
+the wall is an embattled parapet of remarkably fine zigzag teeth filled
+with geometrical ornaments. The cornice is a mere double line. Over the
+top are seen the windows, set in pointed arches, of the internal
+octagonal structure, which ought to be crowned by a dome; and on the
+right-hand side is a massive square minaret (of somewhat later date) in
+three stories, each with its plain gallery supported by very simple
+stalactite cornices, the first checkered red and white, the second in
+red and white bands, the third cylindrical, ornamented with striped
+columns surmounted by interlaced arched tracery.
+
+The domestic architecture of Cairo, varied as are its details, possesses
+certain general features common to all examples. The first and all-
+important object of the Mohammadan architect was to screen the women of
+the house from the view of strangers. Cairene building rests on the
+principle that the inmates of the house must neither be seen of passers
+by, nor see too much themselves of the outside world. Hence the prime
+condition of domestic architecture was to build the rooms round an
+interior court, into which the chief windows looked, and to make as few
+windows as possible, and those few closely latticed. As a result, those
+streets of Cairo which are lined with private houses exhibit a somewhat
+monotonous aspect. The houses are generally two or three stories high—in
+the old Mamlūk days they were of five stories—and are built of stone on
+the ground floor (coloured in alternate red and white courses with red
+ochre and limewash), and of brick tied with wood and coated with white
+plaster on the upper stories. The doors are often very tastefully
+ornamented (fig. 11); but there the external decoration generally ends,
+for the windows on the ground floor are generally but small rectangular
+apertures closed with lattice work, and set high above the reach of
+curious eyes, and even those on the upper stories are commonly small and
+plain, and arranged with no regard to symmetry, though there are still
+some examples of streets where the higher floors of the houses are
+furnished with richly-ornamented lattice windows (fig. 12). These
+lattice windows are called _meshrebīyas_, “drinking places,” from the
+semi-circular or semi-octagonal bow, which commonly juts out from their
+centre, in which the porous water-bottles of the house are placed to
+cool by evaporation in the air. Unlike the mosques, there are no friezes
+of ornament or inscriptions on the outer walls of houses.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 11.—DOORWAY OF A PRIVATE HOUSE.
+
+(From a Sketch by J. W. Wild.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 12.—A STREET IN CAIRO.]
+
+The door generally opens flat against the side wall of the passage
+inside, turning upon a pivot in the lintel and threshold, and is
+confronted by the _mastaba_ or stone seat (sometimes replaced by a
+_dikka_ or chair of lattice work) on which the door-keeper (_bawwāb_)
+sits. Thence a passage, which makes one or two sharp bends, with the
+intention of foiling any attempt of inquisitive eyes to see into the
+interior through the door when it happens to be open, leads into a
+square court, unpaved, and open to the sky, in which is a tree shading
+the well, supplied by infiltration from the Nile with somewhat brackish
+water. No eye should see into the court from any other house, still less
+from any street. The four sides are lofty, and are composed of the rooms
+of the house, with their beautiful meshrebīyas, or if only three sides
+are thus occupied, the fourth consists of a plain partition wall,
+dividing the house from its next-door neighbour, and pierced by no
+aperture. The south side of the court is that on which the chief rooms
+of the mansion are built, for here the cool northern breezes, so dear to
+Cairenes in the hot season, can best be enjoyed. The rooms most
+accessible from the court, on the ground floor, are those which belong
+to the men of the household, and include the offices, stables,
+storerooms, and men-servants’ rooms, besides the reception-rooms of the
+master for his male guests. These last, in the best houses are three in
+number: the _mandara_, the _mak‘ad_, and the _takhtabōsh_. The two last
+are chiefly for summer use; the first is the general men’s saloon. The
+takhtabōsh is nothing more than a recess in the corner of the court,
+supported by a single column, paved with marble, and furnished with
+divans; it is an alcove rather than a room. The mak‘ad is a belvedere or
+open gallery, raised some eight or ten feet above the ground, on the
+south or cool side of the court, into which it looks through three or
+four arches, open to the northern breeze. It is plainly furnished like
+the takhtabōsh, and is a pleasant lounge for the men in hot weather.
+Sometimes this belvedere is latticed in front for the use of the women,
+but, as a rule, it is a man’s apartment. The third room, the _mandara_,
+is arranged, like all Cairene reception-rooms of the closed order, in
+two levels. A paved walk or floor, leading from the door, and ornamented
+with coloured marbles, is called the _durkā‘a_, and its use is to
+receive the visitor’s shoes before he steps up to the carpeted portion
+of the room. The durkā‘a has often a fountain playing in the centre, in
+the midst of a tesselated marble border, and a sideboard or stand for
+water-bottles occupies the extremity facing the door. On one side of
+this narrow pathway is the room proper, to which the durkā‘a supplies
+the place of a vestibule. There is no partition between the two, but the
+room is raised a step higher. The general plan of a reception-room is
+thus seen to consist in a low pavement and a daïs. The daïs, which is
+not a mere recess, but a spacious room, is furnished with divans running
+round the sides, raised from the floor by low stone slabs or palm-
+frames. Above the divan is a dado of coloured marbles or tiles, broken
+only by the cupboards, with little open arcades, filled with porcelain
+and earthenware vessels, by recesses containing cushions for reclining,
+and at the end by the _meshrebīya_ or lattice window, over which is
+often a row of stained-glass windows forming the topmost panel of the
+meshrebīya, or a few windows of the same character are set in the wall
+above. The surface of the walls is simply lime-washed, or left of
+uncoloured plaster, and a plain wooden shelf forms the principal relief.
+The ceiling is constructed of beams, clearly displayed, and resting on
+corbels or cornices, all of which are painted and gilt in arabesque
+designs, while the spaces between the beams are coffered in little
+compartments, each decorated with tasteful arabesque and floral
+designs.[24]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 13.—PLAN OF A CAIRO HOUSE. GROUND FLOOR.
+
+B B. Street; 1. Stable; 2. Bakehouse; 3. Kitchen; 4. Small mandara; 5.
+Entrance; 6. Strangers’ room; 7. Chief mandara; 8. Mak‘ad; 9. Court; 10.
+Servants’ room.]
+
+A small and carefully-closed door conducts to the _harīm_ or women’s
+apartments, which are on the upper floors, or in large houses occupy a
+separate court to themselves. Of the _harīm_ rooms the chief is the
+great _Kā‘a_ or reception-room. This resembles the _mandara_ in its
+decoration, but has a _līwān_ or daïs on each side of the _durkā‘a_
+instead of only on one side, and thus forms a double room.[25] It is
+also loftier than the mandara, and often rises to the roof of the house,
+while its durkā‘a (which seldom has a fountain) is surmounted by a sort
+of clerestory, projecting above the rest of the ceiling, and crowned by
+a lantern or cupola. There are also some smaller sitting-rooms; and
+bedrooms, which are supplied with no furniture but the pallet-bed, which
+is rolled up and thrust away into a closet in the morning. There is
+often a small sitting-room on the top story, with a cupola, an example
+of which is to be seen in the South Kensington Museum (No. 1193-1883),
+and also some ventilating chambers, open to the flat roof, on which are
+erected the sloping wooden screens or _malkafs_, so familiar to those
+who have looked down upon Cairo from the Citadel, the object of which is
+to guide the north winds down into the house. In the ventilating
+chambers beneath the malkafs, or on the upper terrace of the roof, open
+to the sky, the inhabitants are wont to sleep in the hot months.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 13A.—FIRST FLOOR.
+
+1. Servants’ rooms; 2. Linen room; 3. Space over rooms; 4. Men’s rooms;
+5. Mandara; 6. Space over chief mandara; 7. Courtyard; 8. Strangers’
+rooms.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 13B.—SECOND FLOOR.
+
+1. Rooms; 2. Bath; 3. Harim; 4. Space over mandara; 5. Space over rooms;
+6. Court; 7. Strangers’ rooms.]
+
+The arrangement of the rooms is incapable of generalisation; they are
+built on every variety of plan: that given in the accompanying diagrams
+(from Prof. Ebers’ _Egypt_) is a fair example. Some, like the great
+_kā‘as_ and _mandaras_, may rise to the whole height of the house;
+others form mezzanine stories of the normal height of fourteen feet. You
+frequently have to ascend or descend several steps in going from one
+chamber to the next. Seclusion for the women, air from the north, and
+subdued light, are the three essentials, and after these have been
+attained the architect could exercise his ingenuity as he pleased. It
+should be noticed that Cairo architecture is an internal art, for all
+its best skill is spent on the interior of the house; and that the
+decoration is architectural, since, as has been well said, the rooms are
+furnished by the architect and not by the upholsterer. The general
+effect of the courts surrounded by lattice-windows and arched belvedere,
+and of the interior of the reception-rooms, with their soft light,
+primitive colours, and obvious honesty of construction and decoration,
+is strangely attractive. The honesty of the work impresses one
+everywhere: “The beams which support the ceiling are plainly visible to
+the eye, and are supported at the ends by elongated corbels ending in
+perfect stalagmitic patterns. Nothing is hidden away; there is no
+insincere work. One of the beauties of the rooms is the extensive use of
+wood, and the rare use of stucco, which is indeed a testimonial to the
+sterling value of the architect’s work, since he preferred to go out of
+his way to employ wood for his purpose, when he might have got a far
+easier but more perishable material at home.”[26]
+
+The houses above described are those of ordinary gentlemen of fifty
+years ago. In the great periods of Fātimy and Mamlūk splendour—to judge
+from contemporary records and the scanty remains that have come down to
+us—the palaces of the chief lords were much more splendid. Nāsir-i-
+Khusrau, who travelled in Egypt in the 11th century, remarks that most
+of the houses of Cairo had five or six stories, and were built with such
+care that one might fancy they were constructed of precious stones
+instead of mere plaster and brick and ordinary stone. Each house, he
+adds, was isolated from its neighbour’s by gardens. Jehan Thénaud, who
+accompanied André Le Roy, the ambassador of Louis XII. to the Mamlūk
+Sultan El-Ghōry, at the opening of the 16th century, tells us that the
+house assigned to the embassy contained six or seven beautiful halls,
+paved with marble, porphyry, serpentine, and other rare stones, inlaid
+with wonderful art; the walls were of similar mosaic, or painted with
+azure and rich colours; the doors inlaid with ivory, ebony, and other
+_singularitez_; yet the workmanship excelled the materials. Extensive
+gardens, filled with fruit-trees, surrounded the mansion, and were
+watered from the Nile night and morning by means of horses and oxen.
+Such a house, he exclaims, might have cost 80,000 seraps of gold; yet it
+was but one of a hundred thousand more beautiful still![27]
+
+The chief buildings of Cairo, besides mosques and houses, are the street
+fountains and schools, which are very numerous, and the _khāns_ or
+_wekālas_ for merchants. These often go together, as in the wekāla of
+Kāït Bey, of which a description is given in the next chapter (pp.
+104-112). The khān or wekāla is a rectangular building enclosing an open
+court, and consisting of numerous chambers, which are occupied by
+merchants who come to the city for a few days’ or weeks’ trafficking; it
+is, in fact, the commercial hotel of the East. Stables for the asses and
+other beasts are on the ground floor inside, and the exterior is
+commonly fringed with a row of small shops of the usual Eastern
+pattern—namely, a recess in the wall, some six feet square, furnished
+with shelves for the goods, and a divan for the seller and purchaser.
+Similar shops fringe the ground floors of the houses in the principal
+streets, the upper stories of which have no connection with the shops,
+but are generally partitioned into lodgings. The shops open only on the
+street, and, when the shopman goes home, are closed with wooden
+shutters. The _sebīls_ or street fountains consist externally of a front
+of semicircular form, with grated windows and a row of brass pipes, from
+which water may be sucked by passers-by, or a row of apertures through
+which they may thrust their arms with a brass cup (which is provided
+outside) to the tank of water within. Over the fountain is a room, with
+open arched windows, where a pedagogue instructs the youth of Cairo in
+the art of reading the Koran, and not much else. These sebīls, with
+their schools, are pious foundations, and are generally connected with
+some mosque. The walls of the interior of some of the better style, such
+as that of ‘Abd-er-Rahmān Kikhya or Ketkhuda (18th century), are
+decorated with earthenware tiles of floral patterns, and often with a
+bird’s-eye view of Mekka, with the Ka‘ba and other holy places,
+represented on the tiles. Such fountains are among the most ornamental
+features of the streets of Cairo, though most of them belong to the
+Turkish period of decadence.[28]
+
+In concluding this brief survey of the chief characteristics of Cairo
+architecture, it cannot be concealed that the style fails to give
+complete satisfaction to an eye trained in the contemplation of either
+the Classical or the Gothic orders. The Saracen builders do not seem to
+have been possessed with an architectural idea; the leading
+consideration with them seems to have been not form but decoration. For
+the details of the decoration it is impossible to feel too much
+admiration; they are skilfully conceived and worked out with remarkable
+patience, honesty, and artistic feeling. But the form, of which they are
+the clothing, seems too often to want purpose; there is a curious
+indefiniteness about the mosques, a want of crown and summit, which sets
+them on a much lower level than the finest of our Gothic cathedrals. It
+is perhaps unfair to judge of them in their more or less ruinous state;
+yet their present picturesque decay is probably more effective than was
+the sumptuous gorgeousness of their colours and ornament when new. The
+want of bold relief in the ornament is one of the most salient defects
+to us of the north; we find the surfaces of the mosque exteriors flat
+and monotonous. The disregard of symmetry is another very trying defect
+to eyes trained in other schools of architecture; the windows, minarets,
+&c., are scattered with no sense of balance; and the dome, instead of
+crowning the whole edifice covers a tomb at the side of the building,
+and thus infallibly gives it a lopsided aspect. It is chiefly to the
+grace of their minarets, the beauty of their internal decoration, and
+the soft effects of the Egyptian atmosphere upon the yellowish stone of
+which they are built, that the mosques of Cairo owe their peculiar and
+indestructible charm. A charm they have undoubtedly, which is apparent
+and fascinating to most beholders; but it is due, I believe, to tone and
+air, to association, to delicacy and ingenuity of detail, and not to the
+architectural form. Franz Pasha, the architect to the Khedive’s
+Government, himself a fervent admirer of what is really excellent in
+Saracenic art, has the following criticism on the architecture: “While
+bestowing their full meed of praise on the wonderfully rich
+ornamentation and other details of Arabian architecture, one cannot help
+feeling that the style fails to give entire aesthetic satisfaction. Want
+of symmetry of plan, poverty of articulation, insufficiency of plastic
+decoration, and an incongruous mingling of wood and stone are the
+imperfections which strike most northern critics. The architects, in
+fact, bestowed the whole of their attention on the decoration of
+surfaces; and down to the present day the Arabian artists have always
+displayed far greater ability in designing the most complicated
+ornaments and geometrical figures on plane surfaces than in the
+treatment and proportioning of masses. Although we occasionally see
+difficulties of construction well overcome, as in the case of the
+interior of the Bāb-en-Nasr, these instances seem rather to be
+successful experiments than the result of scientific workmanship. The
+real excellence of the Arabian architects lay in their skill in masking
+abrupt angles by the use of stalactites or brackets. If we inquire into
+the causes of these defects in the developments of art, we shall find
+that the climate is one of the principal; its remarkable mildness and
+the rareness of rain have enabled architects to dispense with much that
+appears essential to the inhabitants of more northern latitudes; and
+hence the imperfect development and frequent absence of cornices. The
+extraordinary durability of wood, again, in Egypt has led to its being
+used in the construction of walls and in connection with stone, in a
+manner that would never occur to northern architects. Another cause,
+unfavourable to the development of native art, has doubtless been the
+ease with which the architects obtained the pillars and capitals in
+ancient buildings ready to their hand.”[29]
+
+The architect goes on to point out how political changes, and the
+respect for traditional forms, and the superstitious dread of the evil
+eye, bearing upon external display, have combined to arrest the
+development of Cairo architecture. There is much that is penetrating and
+just in this criticism; but it is clearly the criticism of a northern
+artist. We have come to regard certain architectural features, such as
+cornices, as essential, which an eastern would regard as superfluous,
+and our eye is biassed by what it has been accustomed to see in Europe.
+The main criticism, however, stands good, that the beauty of the mosques
+of Cairo is not so much architectural as decorative, and no prejudice
+can be accounted a sufficient reason for disregarding this defect.
+
+Nevertheless, when all has been said, the mosques and older houses of
+Cairo possess a beauty of their own, which no architectural canons can
+gainsay. The houses in particular, by their admirable suitableness in
+all respects to the climate of Egypt, their shady, restful aspect, and
+subdued light, must take a high place among the triumphs of domestic
+architecture. We may detect a lack of meaning in this feature and in
+that, but we are forced to admit that the whole effect is soft and
+harmonious, sometimes stately, always graceful, and that the Saracenic
+architecture of Cairo, whatever its technical faults, is among the most
+characteristic and beautiful forms of building with which we are
+acquainted.
+
+The following list of the principal mosques of Cairo still existing will
+be useful for reference. Considering that there are some three hundred
+mosques in Cairo, to say nothing of _zāwiyas_ (or chapels), a complete
+list would be somewhat cumbrous; but the majority of these edifices are
+comparatively modern and of little pretension to architectural merit,
+which forms the sole consideration from our present point of view. El-
+Makrīzy, in his “Topography of Cairo” (_Khitat_), written about the year
+1420, enumerates 86 _gāmi‘s_ (or congregational mosques, where the
+Friday prayers were said), 75 _medresas_ (or collegiate mosques, where
+lectures were delivered), 19 _mesgids_ (or small mosques), 22 _khāngāhs_
+(or monasteries), 26 _zāwiyas_ (or chapels), 34 mausoleums in the
+Karāfa, and 5 _māristāns_ (or hospitals); in all 279 mosques or mosque-
+like edifices. But this is something of a cross division, for many of
+the _medresas_ and _māristāns_ were attached to a _gāmi‘_, and really
+formed one building with it. A large proportion of the mosques described
+by El-Makrīzy still remain, but many of them are in advanced stage of
+decay. The following comprise the best specimens of the different
+periods, so far as they still present fairly preserved architectural
+details.
+
+
+               PRINCIPAL MOSQUES STILL EXISTING IN CAIRO.
+
+    A.H.      A.D.
+
+       20.       640. _‘Amr._ Frequently restored; _e.g._ in A.D. 1049,
+                      by El-Mustansir; in 1172 by Saladin; after the
+                      earthquake of 1302 by En-Nāsir. Little of the
+                      original building is left.
+
+      265.       878. _Ibn-Tūlūn._ Restored by Lāgīn, 1296.
+
+      361.       971. _Azhar._ Injured by earthquake of 1302, and
+                      restored by Salār and Suyurghatmish; again by
+                      Sultan Hasan in 1360; by Kāït-Bey; and by Kikhya
+                      in 1753. Little of the original building is left.
+
+  380-403.  990-1012. _El-Hākim._ Injured by earthquake, 1302; restored
+                      in the next year by Beybars II.; again by Sultan
+                      Hasan in 1359; and again in 1423.
+
+      608.      1211. _Esh-Shāfi‘y_ (mausoleum). Built by El-Kāmil;
+                      restored by Kāït-Bey, El-Ghōry, &c.
+
+      647.      1249. _Es-Sālih_ (mausoleum). Injured by earthquake,
+                      1302, and restored by En-Nāsir.
+
+      667.      1268. _Edh-Dhāhir Beybars_ I.
+
+      683.      1284. _Kalaūn_ (Māristān). Minaret destroyed by
+                      earthquake, 1302, and rebuilt.
+
+      687.      1288. _Kalaūn_ (Kubba).
+
+      698.      1298. _En-Nāsir._
+
+      706.      1306. _Beybars II. Gāshenkīr._
+
+      718.      1318. _En-Nāsir, in the Citadel._
+
+      723.      1323. _Sengar El-Gāwaly_ and _Salār_, joined.
+
+      739.      1338. _El-Māridāny._ (Architect, El-Mu’allim Es-Suyūfy).
+
+      748.      1347. _Aksunkur._ Restored by Ibrāhīm Aghā in 1652.
+
+      756.      1355. _Sheykhū._
+
+      757.      1356. _Suyurghatmish._
+
+      760.      1358. _Sultan Hasan._
+
+      770.      1368. _Umm-Sha‘bān._
+
+      786.      1384. _Barkūk._ (Architect, Cherkis el-Haranbuly.)
+
+  808-813. 1405-1410. _Barkūk, in the Karāfa._ Built by ‘Abd-el-‘Azīz
+                      and Farag, sons of Barkūk. (Architect, Lāgīn
+                      Tarabay (?).)
+
+      823.      1420. _El-Muayyad._ In process of restoration.
+
+      827.      1423. _El-Ashraf Bars Bey._ Also _mausoleum_ in the
+                      Karāfa.
+
+      860.      1456. _El-Ashraf Ināl, in the Karāfa._
+
+      877.      1472. _Kāït Bey, in the Karāfa._ Also mosque within
+                      Cairo.
+
+      886.      1481. _Kigmās, Amīr Akhòr._
+
+      905.      1499. _Ezbek._
+
+      909.      1503. _El-Ghòry_ (two). Restored 1883.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 14.—ROSETTE IN MOSQUE OF SUYURGHATMISH.
+
+Fourteenth Century.]
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                           STONE AND PLASTER.
+
+
+In the preceding chapter we have endeavoured to point out the chief
+modes of decoration in mosques and houses, and the parts selected for
+ornament. This selection seemed a little capricious. It was natural that
+the sanctuary, or east end of the mosque, should be the special subject
+of the artist’s skill, but it is undoubtedly a defect that this skill
+should have been devoted so exclusively to this and other fixed points
+of the building. The bareness of the three other transepts of the mosque
+of Sultan Hasan is only rendered more conspicuous by the marble and
+other decoration of the east end, and even there the elaborate ornament
+of the dado is likely to throw the plainness of the roof into the
+greater prominence. So in the treatment of the exterior, the portal
+engrosses the attention of the architect, to the comparative neglect of
+the walls. This is, however, characteristic of Cairo art, and it has its
+merits. It would have been less usual to devote so much skilful work to
+the selected portions if the whole surface had been similarly treated;
+we should have had a general meagreness of ornament. We have now to
+consider the details of the ornament of which the position alone was
+indicated in the last chapter.
+
+We saw that in the great mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn the chief ornament
+consisted in borders of floral designs running round the arches, forming
+friezes above them, and connecting them at the spring. These were made
+of plaster or stucco, worked with a tool when in a moist state, and
+never cast in moulds. The difference is very striking; the softness and
+flexuous grace of the hand-moulded patterns being in strong contrast to
+the hard uniformity of the Moorish mechanical castings. The borders of
+Ibn-Tūlūn are the earliest examples that have been found of the
+geometrical designs and scroll work which afterwards became so
+characteristic of Saracenic ornament. “The scroll-work may possibly be
+traced to Byzantine work, but in this building it has assumed an
+entirely distinct character. It is the ornament which thenceforth was
+gradually perfected, and its stages may be traced in the mosques and
+other edifices of Cairo through every form of its development. But in
+this, its first example, it is elementary and rude, and therefore all
+the more remarkable. Its continuity is not strongly marked, its forms
+are almost devoid of grace. In later and more fully developed examples,
+each portion may be continuously traced to its true root—constituting
+one of the most beautiful features of the art—and its forms are
+symmetrically perfect.”[30] The principal pattern of the stucco or
+plaster borders of the mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn consists in a modification of
+the “knop and flower” pattern which is so familiar in every branch of
+decoration. Almost the same design is found in ancient Egyptian wall-
+paintings at Thebes, and also in the Assyrian ornament of Khorsabād.[31]
+
+Plaster ornament is a sign of early date, though it would be difficult
+to assign a satisfactory reason for this. The art of carving marble had
+certainly been known in Egypt long before the Saracens set about
+building mosques, and the Copts have marble pulpits and other works of
+early date. Nevertheless, as a fact, the earlier mosques are generally
+ornamented with plaster designs. The century after that of Ibn-Tūlūn is
+represented by the Azhar, built in 971, of which the only certainly
+original remnants consist in the central arcades of the sanctuary, and
+these are adorned with Kūfy friezes of the true Fātimy character, and
+arabesque ornament, all in plaster; in the eleventh we have that of El-
+Hākim (1012), which was decorated in plaster, though few traces of this
+now remain. After these two Fātimy mosques[32] there follows a wide
+interval before any considerable mosque offers sufficient remains to
+enable conclusions to be drawn. What was formerly visible of the
+Kāmiliya, built by El-Kāmil, nephew of Saladin, in 1224, showed plaster
+decoration; and the simple arabesques of the mosque of Edh-Dhāhir
+Beybars, _extra muros_ (1268), are of the same material. But the most
+perfect example of plaster ornament in Cairo is in the mausoleum of
+Kalaūn, A.D. 1284. Here the borders of the tall arches supporting what
+was once the dome, the borders of the clerestory windows above, and an
+infinity of other decoration, are wholly of plaster, and nothing more
+delicate and lace-like can be imagined. The bud surrounded by leaves
+again forms a central idea, but it is developed until it is scarcely
+recognizable, and the designs are chiefly characterized by a broad
+treatment of large foliage, worked round into a scroll-like continuous
+pattern. Continuity is a leading quality of these designs: it would be
+difficult to break off at any given point in the borders.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 15.—ROSETTE IN MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN.
+
+Fourteenth Century.]
+
+Plaster work continued to be used by En-Nāsir Mohammad, the son of
+Kalaūn, in his two mosques, but this appears to have been nearly the
+last occasion (1318) of the general employment of plaster in a
+considerable mosque. Before the building of Sultan Hasan, in 1356-9,
+stone had begun to take the place of plaster (see fig. 14). Sultan
+Hasan’s mosque is entirely of stone facing, though, as we have seen,
+brick was used for the roofs of the arches or transepts, and similar
+internal surfaces. The ornaments, whether geometrical, scroll, or
+arabesque, are cut in stone or marble. The chief border of the portal
+consists of a bud and leaf pattern (fig. 8, page 67), obviously
+developed from the simple outline seen in Ibn-Tūlūn, and not nearly so
+complicated as the borders of Kalaūn. Probably stone was a new material
+to the sculptors, and was found less easy to manipulate than plaster,
+and the design was consequently simplified as far as possible. The
+rosettes at the foot of these borders are particularly fine; broad in
+design, yet simple and easily disentangled. The leading idea (fig. 15)
+is a circle of buds or flowers, joined by intertwined leaves and
+tendrils, and arranged in a radiating pattern round a central whorl or
+star. The pure self-contained arabesque is hardly found in Sultan Hasan;
+but the geometrical pattern arranged in a square is seen in a very fine
+manner. A double line, interlaced, forms the border of the square, and,
+at the interlacings, lines shoot out so as to form a broken pentagon,
+and other lines projected from this pentagon meet in the shape of a
+five-rayed star. The junctions of the lines are however somewhat forced;
+they are not natural prolongations, such as we see in the later and more
+perfect developments of the geometrical ornament, but break off at
+unexpected angles.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 16.—STONE PULPIT IN MOSQUE OF BARKUK.
+
+Early Fifteenth Century.]
+
+The stone pulpit (fig. 16), erected in 1483 by Kāït Bey, in Barkūk’s
+mosque in the eastern Karāfa, a unique work, is among the most splendid
+examples of stone chiselling that can be seen in Cairo. Its shape is
+triangular, like the wooden pulpits to be described hereafter: but,
+instead of the sides being filled with geometrical mouldings containing
+numerous panels chased and inlaid with ivory, the whole of the pulpit is
+of stone slabs, and the geometrical designs and the ornament which fills
+the interstices are all chiselled in stone. The design springs from a
+rosette of sixteen six-sided panels, the lines of which produced in
+radiate form towards the centre make a star-like ornament, which is
+filled with an arabesque design; and being similarly produced outwards
+cover the whole surface with a network of interlacing lines, which
+eventually combine into other half-rosettes bisected by the edges of the
+pulpit.[33] The interstices between these interlacing lines are filled
+with admirably drawn floral arabesques consisting of little more than a
+single conventional flower with a simple border formed by developments
+of its extremities or with that of a simple rosette flower. The
+triangular side is divided from the bannister part by a looped double
+line and a border of delicate floral scrollwork; and the bannister
+portion, or side of the staircase, is of six large square panels divided
+by narrower upright panels of floral scrollwork, and a central panel of
+arabesque. The large panels are ornamented, four with arabesque
+patterns, and two with geometrical designs arranged round a central
+star. The whole side of the pulpit is made in about twelve slabs, which
+are so well joined that only in two or three parts are the joints
+distinctly visible. The canopy and other parts are also carved stone.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 17.
+
+FIG. 18.
+
+GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENTS FROM THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY (_c_)]
+
+It is, indeed, in the buildings of the Sultan Kāït Bey (1468-96) that
+both the pure arabesque and the finest geometrical ornament are seen in
+their perfection. This prince of Cairo builders allowed no portion of
+his edifices to be neglected, and the countless ornaments which were
+lavished upon his mosques and other erections were all cut in good
+limestone or marble. The arch of the sanctuary in his mosque _intra
+muros_ is a good example of the richness of this ornamentation. It is
+about 30 feet from the floor to the keystone, and is placed in a square
+wall about 39 feet high. Nine courses of plain stone, alternately
+coloured red, form the pier of the arch, on which is a capital formed of
+three tiers of stalactites. From this the arch springs with a slight
+projection beyond the capital, owing to its incurved horse-shoe form.
+The arch is formed by twenty-three courses of stone, on either side,
+alternately red and white, and a red keystone. Each of the white stones
+is carved with arabesque and geometrical patterns, arranged alternately.
+The arabesques are of a prevailing type, consisting of a trefoil or
+fleur-de-lis surrounded by leaves very beautifully interlaced. The
+design is, however, varied, and I doubt if any two stones would be found
+to tally exactly. The geometrical patterns consist of interlacing lines,
+forming irregular pentagons and hexagons, with little apparent regard to
+symmetry, though they are all related to one another in the general
+plan. The arch is enclosed in a raised moulding, which forms a loop at
+the top, in which is carved a whorl of eight rays. The spandrils of the
+arch are filled with a bold arabesque design, enclosed in trifoliate
+borders, and in the centre of each is a circular medallion inscribed
+with the name and titles of the Sultan and a prayer for his success,
+arranged in three lines. These medallions are frequently seen in Cairo,
+and are generally filled with the name of Kāït Bey, though other Sultans
+adopted the same method of putting a seal on their works. It is
+interesting to note that a similar arrangement of the Sultan’s titles
+within a medallion is seen on the fourteenth century glass lamps, and
+also on the gold coins of the Burgy or Circassian Mamlūks. A broad band
+of Arabic inscription, from the Korān, divided by arabesque panels,
+forms a frieze at the top, over which is a carved cornice. The whole
+effect of this arch, and of all the internal decoration of this
+beautiful little mosque, is extremely rich and finished: and it would be
+hard to point out a space unoccupied by some delicate design.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 19.—ARCHED ORNAMENT OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY. ⅐th.
+
+Fifteenth Century.]
+
+Among the buildings of Kāït Bey, none is more fruitful in designs
+chiselled in stone than his Wekāla or Khān, on the south side of the
+Azhar mosque. This magnificent building was only a sort of hotel for
+travelling merchants, but its external ornamentation is superb, and in
+no single building in Cairo do we find so many varieties of arabesque
+and geometrical design in such perfect preservation. The Wekāla consists
+of a spacious rectangular court, surrounded by lodgings for the
+merchants and their beasts. Unhappily, the interior is in confusion, and
+has long been deserted: heaps of crumbling stone and rubbish cumber the
+court, which was once no doubt surrounded by walls as carefully built
+and ornamented as the exterior. The front, however, facing the Azhar, is
+fortunately in a fine state of preservation, and deserves a thorough
+study. When I was in Cairo in 1883, I took casts of the ornament of this
+front, and was fortunately able to bring back paper squeezes, fortified
+with layers of gipsum, of every distinct ornament on the whole façade.
+From these squeezes plaster casts have been made, and a set of these are
+exhibited in the gallery over the architectural court of the South
+Kensington Museum. The difficulty of obtaining every variety of design
+was less than it would have been in a work of an earlier date; for by
+the time of Kāït Bey the beauty of uniformity had been learnt, and the
+honest custom of the old workmen, never to repeat a design, had given
+place to a decorative system which while it encouraged variety approved
+of a certain symmetry and recurrence in the patterns. The whole number
+of designs in the long front of the wekala of Kāït Bey does not exceed
+twenty-two, if the end and doorway are not reckoned, although round the
+shops which run along the ground-floor of the façade there are no fewer
+than 120 panels of ornament.
+
+The front of the Wekāla is decorated only on the ground-floor; the upper
+stories, save for small windows, are left unadorned. The ground-floor,
+however, makes amends for the shortcomings of the superstructure by its
+wealth of ornament. It consists of a row of thirteen shops, divided
+between the seventh and eighth by a splendid arched gateway,[34] the
+finest feature in a singularly fine building. This gateway is set in a
+recess, the jambs of which are coloured in the usual red and white
+stripes. The arch is broad, giving an opening of about eight feet, and
+pointed, and the edge is composed of stalactites in three tiers, with
+their surfaces carved with arabesque designs. Round the facing, above,
+runs a beautiful scroll border, like a wreath of roses, which forms a
+loop above the keystone, within which is inscribed the name of God. The
+same scroll border frames the spandrils. The recess in which this arch
+is set is brought back to the face of the front by vaulting; but in this
+case, instead of the common rows of stalactites, or simple arching, the
+depth being considerable, the vaulting is effected by a deep trefoil
+arch, of which the vault is formed by three smaller bays supporting an
+upper bay. The side bays below are filled with stalactites, which seem
+to constitute natural corbels on which the superstructure rests; and the
+surfaces of the stalactites and the spare spaces at their sides are
+covered with arabesques. The base of the upper bay is worked with little
+shell patterns, and its back is ornamented with a sparse scroll ribbon,
+resembling somewhat the rose border below, arranged in zigzags. The
+alternate courses of the stones forming the edge of the upper bay are
+also carved, and the whole trefoil outline of the vaulting is enclosed
+in a double line, looped at intervals, outside which the spandrils are
+filled with arabesque designs.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 20.—GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENT OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY.
+⅑th.
+
+Fifteenth Century.]
+
+The shops on either side of the great gateway are not unlike most other
+shops in Cairo. They are uniform recesses about six or seven feet high,
+and four to five wide; but they are surrounded with ornaments such as
+few other shops in Cairo can boast. Over the shop, forming a species of
+eave or fringe to the recess, is a wooden panel (_a_) bearing the name
+of Kāït Bey, in medallion form, with other carved or lattice panels,
+most of which have been destroyed or stolen. One or two are now in the
+South Kensington Museum. Over each shop is first an oblong panel (_b_)
+of shallow arabesque carving, the full width of the recess forming the
+shop, and rather over two feet high. At each side (figs. 17, 18) of
+this, dividing it from the similar panel over the next shop, is a narrow
+upright geometrical panel (_c_). Over each of the horizontal panels is a
+sort of arch (_d_), composed of nine small upright panels, (fig. 19)
+arranged so as to form an arch on the lower side and a straight line at
+the top, of the same width as the horizontal panel below. The four side
+panels (_e, f, g, h_) are counterparts each of the opposite one, though
+each is different from its neighbour, and the same four panels, with
+their counterparts or reverses, do duty for all the arched panels
+(except two or three which are covered with a continuous arabesque
+device, instead of being thus subdivided into nine pieces); the
+keystones (_i, k_) however are not identical over the several shops, but
+three different patterns are used. Between each of these arched panels
+and the next is a circular medallion (_e_) with the name and titles of
+Kāït Bey, of the kind already described. The subjoined outline will
+explain the arrangement:—
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 21.—ELEVATION OF PART OF THE SHOP-FRONTS OF THE
+WEKALA OF KAIT BEY.]
+
+At the right-hand corner of the Wekāla is a Sebīl or fountain with two
+large grated windows, one at the front, the other round the corner, each
+set in a border of wooden scroll-work, and surmounted by arabesque
+panels; and at the corner an engaged column is hewn in the wall, with a
+round base composed of two drums like a dice-box, a shaft of ten drums,
+carved with arabesque and geometrical patterns and an Arabic
+inscription, and a stalactite capital; and above and on either side of
+the capital are geometrical panels (fig. 20) in the wall.[35]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 22.—ARABESQUE ORNAMENT OF WEKALA OF KAIT BEY. ⅑th.
+
+Fifteenth Century.]
+
+Between the Sebīl and the shops is a small doorway, leading up to the
+school which surmounts the fountain. This little door has a square above
+it marked out by a double line, looped at intervals, and subdivided into
+nine rectangular compartments by the same means, each of which has its
+geometrical device, matching on opposite sides, except one in the
+centre, which is occupied by a small grated window. Over this square is
+a splendid rosette (fig. 25) of arabesque ornament, enclosed by four
+spandrils of the same pattern. Beyond the sebīl, the portion of the
+Wekāla which stands back from the street is occupied by another door,
+surmounted by a trefoil vaulted arch, over which is a meshrebīya window.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 23.
+
+FIG. 24.
+
+GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENTS OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY. ⅑th.]
+
+Many of the ornaments of this noble building are engraved in this
+volume. The illustration (fig. 19) shows the arch (_d_,) with its nine
+panels, seven of which exhibit the true self-contained arabesque,
+complete within the space it occupies, and formed by the knot-like
+interlacing of two loops, ending in trefoil heads; whilst two show the
+characteristic geometrical design of Kāït Bey, triangular (essentially,
+though with a fourth angle in the base) figures linked together, and the
+intervals ornamented with cinquefoils. The two varieties of side panels
+(_c_) are shown in figs. 17 and 18. Some of the larger ornaments, e.g.,
+half of an arabesque panel and half the geometrical design over the
+corner column, are shown in figs. 20 and 22, where figures of four sides
+are linked together and ornamented with stars. The rosette over the
+small door and two small upright panels adjoining it are shown in figs.
+23-5, and two examples of geometrical and arabesque patterns from the
+same façade appear in figs. 26 and 27.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 25.—ROSETTE OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY.
+
+Fifteenth Century.]
+
+The stone and plaster work of Cairo is, as has been seen, chiefly
+surface decoration, of an even or flat tone, which has little or no
+constructive meaning, and seems to be more or less derived from the
+patterns which were used for the decoration of textile fabrics. The
+stalactite or pendentive bracketing, however, is strictly constructive,
+and forms a strongly marked characteristic of Saracenic art (see fig.
+10). Its first and principal use is for masking the transition from the
+square of the mausoleum to the circle of the dome. “In their domes the
+Arabs adopted, and improved on, the constructional expedient for
+vaulting over the space beneath, and passing from a square apartment to
+the circle of the dome, used by both Byzantines and Persians. The church
+of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, presents fine examples of its
+Byzantine form; but in later edifices of that style, constructional
+difficulties seem to have confined the architects to small domes. The
+buildings of the Sassanian dynasty also contain pendentives.[36] . . The
+Arabs, with their peculiar faculty for cutting away all superfluous
+material, naturally arched the overlapping stones that filled up the
+angles of the building; and, by using _pointed_ arches, overcame the
+difficulty of the Byzantine architects to which I have alluded. The
+pendentive was speedily adopted by the Arabs in Egypt in a great variety
+of shapes, and for almost every conceivable architectural and ornamental
+purpose: to effect the transition from the recessed windows to the outer
+plane of a building; and to vault, in a similar manner, the great
+porches of mosques, which form so grand a feature characteristic of the
+style. All the more simple woodwork of dwelling-houses was fashioned in
+a variety of curious patterns of the same character; the pendentive, in
+fact, strongly marks the Arab fashion of cutting off angles and useless
+material, always in a pleasing and constructively advantageous
+manner.”[37]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 26.—ARABESQUES OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY (⅛th).]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 27.—GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENT OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY
+(⅛th).]
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                                MOSAIC.
+
+
+Among the modes of decorating specially honourable parts of the mosque
+or house, none was more esteemed in Cairo than mosaic work, and none was
+practised with greater success. By mosaic, we understand the combination
+of small pieces of hard substances of different colours, to form a
+pattern for a wall or pavement. As hard substances are numerous, and the
+manner of combining them is susceptible of considerable variety, the
+term mosaic embraces a wide range of artistic processes. Of these the
+most familiar is the glass mosaic of Byzantium and Ravenna, in which
+cubes of glass, rendered opaque, and coloured with various tints, are so
+arranged as to represent figures of saints. Another kind of mosaic,
+scarcely less celebrated, is the well-known tesselated pavement of the
+Romans, of which there are many examples in England, where the pattern
+is formed by the combination of cubes and other small pieces of marbles
+of different colours. There is also a sectile mosaic, called Florentine,
+where the coloured marble is used as a sort of veneer, and backed by
+stouter but common material. The “Opus Alexandrinum” consisted of small
+geometrical pieces of coloured marbles let into a marble ground.
+
+Saracenic mosaic, in Egypt, is a combination of the tesselated method
+with the larger proportions of sectile mosaic; but it does not exactly
+coincide with any of the usual European processes. In its most familiar
+application, as a dado about four feet high, running along the wall of
+the sanctuary of a mosque, or round a principal room in a palace, it
+consists of upright slabs of marble of different colours and different
+widths, so arranged as to form a series of rectangular panels, divided
+and framed by narrower bands. Thus the tomb-mosque of El-Ghōry, built in
+1503, has a niche inlaid with blue, yellow, and red marbles, in zigzag
+stripes, while the double dado on either side of it, running the whole
+width of the south-east wall, in two lines, one high up, the other low,
+is of red, yellow, and black marbles, arranged in square or oblong
+panels, the black forming the pattern, and the red and yellow the
+centres and borders of the design. The niche of Kalaūn has black, red,
+and yellow mosaic, picked out with little spots of blue tile. It is not
+uncommon to find fragments of tile thus used in combination with marble
+or earthenware: there are two specimens of this curious style in the
+South Kensington Museum (1499, 1499_a_). A more usual mode of varying
+the monotony of the tall slabs of marble and their narrower margins was
+by introducing between them a border of tesselated work, made of small
+cubes of marbles of various colours, mixed with red pottery or blue
+enamel, and frequently with mother-of-pearl. The contrasts between the
+different colours of marble, pottery, and glass, and the iridescence of
+the mother-of-pearl, give this peculiar class of mosaic a beauty of its
+own, which will bear comparison with any other kind of inlay. A fine
+example, from the St. Maurice collection, is now in the South Kensington
+Museum, and is engraved in fig. 28. It consists of three panels,
+enclosed in borders; the central panel is of rich porphyry, bordered
+with white and black marble, and with a geometrical edging of mother-of-
+pearl filled in with red pottery and yellow marble; the side panels are
+of streaked red marble within similar borders; and the whole is enclosed
+within a rim of greenstone. This triple panel was, no doubt, one of a
+series which formed the dado of a mosque or palace. Dados of this kind
+of mosaic are found in the mausoleums of Kāït Bey and El-Ashraf, in the
+eastern cemetery, and beautiful examples of red marble inlaid with blue
+glass and mother-of-pearl are seen in the ruined sanctuary of the mosque
+of El-Māridāny.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 28.—MOSAIC DADO (¹⁄₂₀th).
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+This is the specially characteristic mosaic of Cairo, and it will be at
+once recognized as distinct from the mosaics of Europe. It is made of
+natural marbles and mother-of-pearl, with only a sprinkling of such
+manufactured substances as pottery or glass enamel; it is arranged in
+geometrical designs, with no attempt at representing human or other
+figures; and it is fixed in a plaster bed, and not inlet, like the “Opus
+Alexandrinum,” into a marble matrix. These are the salient points of the
+Saracenic mosaic; and the minuteness and delicacy of the tesserae, the
+intricacy of the designs, and the lustre of the mother-of-pearl, combine
+to produce an exquisitely beautiful effect.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 29.—MOSAIC PAVEMENT (¹⁄₁₅th).
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+Precisely similar mosaics are found about the tribunes of the Coptic
+churches, and there is every reason to believe that the art is
+essentially a Christian one, preserved by the Copts in Egypt from very
+early times, while in the west it was suffered to die out and be
+supplanted by the Byzantine glass mosaic. Eusebius’s mention of
+variegated marbles on the walls of the church of St. Saviour at
+Jerusalem, in A.D. 333, seems to point to this form of mosaic, which
+would thus be traced back to the fourth century. Surviving specimens
+are, however, mainly found in Egypt; and the chief example in Europe is
+the apse of Torcello, the mosaics of which closely resemble the niche of
+a mosque or the tribune of a Coptic church at Cairo.[38]
+
+The manner in which mosaics of this description were put together and
+set up against the wall was as follows:—Each piece of marble or tessera
+of this or other material, having been bevelled from face to back (as
+below), the whole mosaic is laid out on the ground, face downwards, and
+strong plaster is poured over it, which, entering the interstices
+(shaded in the cut) at the back, binds them together into one slab.
+Pieces of reed are then laid across the wet surface to strengthen it,
+and more plaster is poured on, till the thickness is about two inches.
+Large surfaces can thus be bound together, lifted, and plastered to the
+wall, without breakage. The bevelling of the edges not only gives the
+plaster a grip on the tesserae, but saves labour in fitting the pieces
+together: for instead of the whole of the sides having to be exactly
+parallel and accurately fitted to the adjoining side, only the faces and
+the top edges of the tesserae and slabs have to be ground, so as to form
+accurate junctures at the front alone; and the backs and sides are left
+quite rough. Tiles are bevelled in the same manner, and this constitutes
+a general distinction between Eastern and European tiles, for the latter
+are hardly ever bevelled. The Cairo mosaic worker, who gave Mr. Wild the
+foregoing account of the method of his art, also stated that no drawings
+were as a rule made beforehand, but the mosaic was constructed out of
+the artist’s head as he arranged it on the ground.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 30.—MODE OF BEVELLING MOSAICS.]
+
+Two spandrils of a niche in the South Kensington Museum present some
+peculiarities in colour and materials (884, 884_a_, St. Maurice). The
+ground is composed of red pottery, formed from powdered water jars; the
+geometrical pattern is marked out by lines of mother-of-pearl, and
+marble and blue enamel is restricted to the small points which form the
+centres of the geometrical systems; the edging of the whole is of
+greenstone.
+
+Most of the Mamlūk mosques of Cairo have mosaics in their niches, and in
+the dado on either side, but the mosaic is not always of the rich and
+intricate character of the panel engraved in fig. 28. In many of the
+mosques, notably those of El-Ghōry and Sultan Hasan, the mother-of-pearl
+and pottery are omitted, and the mosaic consists of marble slabs and
+borders, in two or three colours. In Sultan Hasan the dado is of black
+and white slabs, simply arranged—
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The pulpit is also constructed of variegated marbles, arranged in
+medallions, in a European style, with a much less pleasing effect than
+the usual wooden panelling; and a column is also formed of alternate
+drums of yellow, white, and black marble.
+
+The mosaic pavements of Cairo are of a somewhat different character from
+those employed for wall decoration. Naturally such substances as mother-
+of-pearl and glass are not suited to pavements, where they would offer
+very inadequate resistance to the feet. The pavements are therefore
+generally composed entirely of marble tesserae (and sometimes red
+earthenware), of larger size than the delicate pieces that are included
+in wall mosaics, and arranged so as to form geometrical patterns within
+the space of about two feet square. Eighteen squares of this description
+are preserved in the South Kensington Museum, of which two are engraved
+in figs. 29 and 31. Each square is made separately, and the pieces are
+set, not in plaster, but in a composition of lime and clay, impervious
+to water: the clay must be unburnt, just as it comes from the pit. A
+slab (no. 490-1872) in the South Kensington Museum is of this
+composition, inlaid with porphyry, glass, and greenstone. The most
+common application of mosaic pavements is to the durkā‘a, or lower floor
+of a room, which faces the entrance, and commonly contains a fountain.
+Mr. Wild has preserved drawings of several of these mosaic fountain
+floors, which would well repay reconstruction in England.[39]
+
+The marbles most commonly employed in Cairo mosaics are the red, yellow,
+black, and white varieties, and the red is sometimes very beautifully
+streaked. It has been generally supposed that these were imported ready
+polished from Italy, but there is evidence that this was by no means the
+invariable custom. Nāsir-i-Khusrau, who visited Egypt in the eleventh
+century, in the reign of the Fātimy Khalif El-Mustansir, states that
+marbles were very common at Ramla, near Alexandria, and that the walls
+of most of the houses there were coated with marble plaques,
+artistically inlaid, and carved with arabesques. The slabs were cut with
+a toothless saw and Mekka sand, and the colours of the marbles were red,
+green, black, white, mottled, &c.[40] The traveller does not state where
+the marbles came from, in the rough; but there are certainly no marble
+quarries near Ramla, unless the ancient temples and other buildings of
+Roman and Christian times were utilized in this manner. The Mohammadan
+builders were in the habit of making raids upon the Christian remains of
+Egypt whenever they were in need of materials for a new mosque. We read
+how Beybars, when he was building his mosque outside the north gate of
+Cairo, in 1268, collected marbles from all the towns of Egypt, where no
+doubt the churches still retained something of their ancient splendour;
+while the sanctuary was lined with marbles and carved wood brought from
+the fortress of Jaffa, which he had just captured at the point of the
+sword. The majority of the columns used in mosques appear to have been
+stolen from earlier buildings, and the ancient Egyptian monuments were
+laid under contribution. ‘Abd-el-Latīf, the physician of Baghdād, who
+travelled in Egypt in the year 1200 A.D., tells us how attempts were
+made to pull down the granite of the Red Pyramid of Menkara, at Gīza,
+for building purposes, so early as the reign of the Khalif El-Mamūn, in
+the beginning of the third century of the Flight; and though the attempt
+failed, and the workmen declared that they could make no impression upon
+the huge mass, the practice of borrowing stone from the pyramids and
+temples of ancient Egypt still continued. Hieroglyphic inscriptions are
+occasionally found on blocks of black diorite and other stones in the
+mosques, _e.g._ of El-Gāwaly. It is therefore not improbable that the
+Ramla marble-works were supplied, at least in part, from the older
+monuments of Egypt, though they may have been reinforced by importation.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 31.—MOSAIC PAVEMENT (¹⁄₁₅th).
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+The red porphyry, or _rosso antico_, the green-stone or serpentine, and
+the black diorite and slate, which occur in mosaics, are quarried in the
+mountains of the Arabian desert, between the Nile and the Red Sea; and
+alabaster, which was sparingly used in mediaeval times, was found near
+Asyūt, on the Nile.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                               WOOD-WORK.
+
+
+When we remember how little wood grows in Egypt, the extensive use made
+of this material in the mosques and houses of Cairo appears very
+remarkable. In mosques, the ceilings, some of the windows, the pulpit,
+lectern or Korān desk, tribune, tomb-casing, doors, and cupboards, are
+of wood, and often there are carved wooden inscriptions, and stalactites
+of the same material leading up to the circle of the dome. In the older
+houses, ceilings, doors, cupboards, and furniture, are made of wood, and
+carved lattice windows, or meshrebīyas, abound. In a cold climate, such
+employment of the most easily worked of substances is natural enough;
+but in Egypt, apart from the scarcity of the material, and the necessity
+of importing it,[41] the heat offers serious obstacles to its use. A
+plain board of wood properly seasoned may keep its shape well enough in
+England, but when exposed to the sun of Cairo it will speedily lose its
+accurate proportions; and when employed in combination with other
+pieces, to form windows or doors, boxes or pulpits, its joints will
+open, its carvings split, and the whole work will become unsightly and
+unstable. The leading characteristic of Cairo wood-work is its
+subdivision into numerous panels; and this principle is obviously the
+result of climatic considerations, rather than any doctrine of art. The
+only mode of combatting the shrinking and warping effects of the sun was
+found in a skilful division of the surfaces into panels small enough,
+and sufficiently easy in their setting, to permit of slight shrinking
+without injury to the general outline. The little panels of a Cairo door
+or pulpit may expand without encountering enough resistance to cause any
+cracking or splitting in the surrounding portions, and the Egyptian
+workmen soon learned to accommodate themselves to the conditions of
+their art in a hot climate.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32.—CARVED PANEL OF PULPIT (⅑th).
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+Wood is the prevailing material employed for the fittings and furniture
+of a mosque. The furniture is, however, of a much more restricted
+character than that of a Christian church or cathedral. Where the
+ministers and congregation sit cross-legged on the floor, and in a
+service where there is no music and therefore no choir or organ, we
+cannot look for carved chancel-stalls, _misereres_, choir-screens,
+organ-lofts, or other points of decoration in our more ornate churches.
+The niche towards Mekka takes the place of our altar, and though it is
+sumptuously adorned with marbles and mosaic, it does not afford the
+opportunity for wood-carving which is found in our chancels.
+Nevertheless, the Mohammadan church has its points of wood-carving.
+These are the pulpit, the lectern or Korān desk, the doors of the
+recesses or cupboards which contain the various objects required by the
+ministers of the mosque; and although there is no choir-screen, in the
+splendid sense familiar in our cathedrals, the sanctuary or eastern
+arcade of the mosque is sometimes railed off from the court by a turned
+wooden screen. And as many of the mosques of Cairo have chapels, where
+the founder or members of his family are interred, the Muslim artist
+would sometimes employ his skill in carving the wooden casing of the
+tomb with elaborate arabesques, arranged in intricate panels.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 33.—CARVED PANEL OF PULPIT (⅙th).
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+The form of a Cairo pulpit, termed in Arabic منبر _minbar_ (pronounced
+_mimbar_), is seen in fig. 34. It represents a pulpit, now in the South
+Kensington Museum, which bears the name and titles of the Mamlūk Sultan
+Kāït Bey, who reigned in the last third of the sixteenth century, but
+the precise mosque from which it came is not known. As one Sultan would
+sometimes place a pulpit in the mosque of another, and Kāït Bey was
+especially generous in this kind of restoration, it is possible that the
+pulpit did not come from any of his own mosques; and the tradition is
+that it belonged to that of El-Muayyad, which, however, has a pulpit of
+its own, bearing its founder’s name. Wherever it originally stood, the
+pulpit is an admirable example of the typical Cairene _mimbar_. It
+consists of a staircase, entered through folding doors, and enclosed by
+high sides, and terminating at the top in a sort of niche, surmounted by
+stalactites and a copper cupola. The position of the pulpit was always
+on the left side of the niche, as you look out towards the court, and
+the doors were turned to face the congregation. The _mimbar_ is only
+required during the Friday (or Muslim Sunday) prayers, when the weekly
+sermon is preached by the Imām or Khatīb of the mosque, who is a layman
+selected from the people of the neighbourhood, and in no special sense a
+priest. Standing on the topmost step but one, and holding in his right
+hand a long wooden sword, which is kept for the purpose behind the doors
+of the pulpit, he delivers the oration of the Friday Service. The reason
+for the position on the second step is rather curious: Mohammad the
+Prophet always preached from the top step, and the Khalifs, his
+successors, modestly descended each a step lower than the preceding, in
+order to reserve the post of honour to the most worthy. But when two or
+three steps had thus been descended, it was discovered that the process
+if continued long enough would land the preacher in the bowels of the
+earth, and it was accordingly decided to reserve the top step for
+Mohammad himself, and to preach from the next lower on all future
+occasions.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 34.—PULPIT OF SULTAN KAIT BEY.
+
+Fifteenth Century. (_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+The ornament of the pulpit is generally elaborate. Some of the more
+modern pulpits are indeed very plain, and constructed merely of panelled
+and painted wood. On the other hand, one _mimbar_, erected by Kāït Bey
+in the mosque of Barkūk, in the eastern burial-ground of Cairo, is of
+solid stone slabs, admirably carved with arabesques and geometrical
+designs (fig. 16). But most of the pulpits are like that of Kāït Bey,
+engraved in fig. 34, and are covered with carving and inlaid with ivory
+and ebony. The amount of work involved in the complicated arrangement of
+little panels, each of which is supported in a frame of wood beading,
+which is itself chiselled and sometimes made in two or three envelopes,
+must have been very considerable; and the carving of the panels with
+arabesques of varying designs, no two of which are alike, in work of the
+best period, must have involved incredible toil and ingenuity. It may be
+taken as a rule, which is exemplified in most arts, that the older the
+work is, the simpler, freer, and more varied it is; while complexity,
+intricacy, and a tendency to repetition, are signs of a later style.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 36.
+
+FIG. 37.
+
+FIG. 35.
+
+FIG. 38.
+
+CARVED PANELS OF LAGIN’S PULPIT, ONCE IN THE MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN. A.D.
+1296.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+The specimens engraved in figs. 35-43 will convey a fairly complete
+conception of the character of this typically Cairene mode of carving.
+The panels figs. 35-40 originally formed part of a pulpit which the
+Mamlūk Sultan Lāgīn erected in the mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn in the year 1296
+A.D., when he undertook the restoration of this ancient mosque. In the
+present day there is a very inferior pulpit there, and this must have
+been introduced when the fine work of which these panels formed part was
+taken away, by whom we do not know. The removal must however have been
+effected in comparatively recent times, for when Mr. James Wild, the
+present Curator of Sir John Soane’s Museum, was in Cairo, about 1845,
+the older pulpit was still standing; and he made a drawing of the
+geometrical arrangement of the panels, which is still preserved in his
+sketch-books, and which was turned to advantage some years ago, when the
+fragments of the pulpit sides were acquired by the South Kensington
+Museum from M. Meymar. This sketch shows that the side included one
+large circular geometrical arrangement (comprising eight large octagonal
+panels, carved alternately with stars and arabesques round a central
+star), and four half-systems of the same plan, two of which were placed
+so that their diameters coincided with the edge of the balustrade or
+border of the pulpit, while the other two touched the back. The
+balustrade was of open lattice work, something like the narrow open
+panels in the Kāït Bey pulpit engraved in fig. 34, and the length of the
+base and back of the triangular portion of the side, occupied by the
+carved panels, was 15 feet 9 inches. The doors were filled with carved
+geometrical panels, with the usual arrangement of two horizontal panels,
+filled with Arabic inscriptions, one above and one below each door, and
+a longer inscription on the lintel. The pulpit did not arrive in England
+in its original shape, but consisted merely of a collection of loose
+panels, which Mr. Wild, with the help of his sketch, arranged in a
+square, which now hangs on the walls of the Museum (no. 1051); with the
+exception of a few pieces which remained over, and some of the
+horizontal panels, two of which contain the name of the Sultan Lāgīn and
+the date of the erection of the pulpit, A.H. 696, while others are
+filled with scroll-work. Two of these are engraved in figs. 39 and 40;
+one has an arabesque scroll, and the other the inscription الملك المنصور
+حسام الدنيا والدين لاجين “The victorious king, sword-blade of the State
+and Church Lāgīn.” When the Museum acquired the magnificent collection
+of M. de St. Maurice, in 1884, I was able to identify the fine panels
+which the late owner had fitted into the frame-work of a modern and ill-
+proportioned door as portions of the same pulpit, and some of these are
+engraved in figs. 37 and 38.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 39.—ARABESQUE PANEL OF LAGIN’S PULPIT, ONCE IN THE
+MOSQUE OF IBN-TULUN.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 40.—PANEL OF LAGIN’S PULPIT, BEARING HIS NAME AND
+TITLES.]
+
+The panels of Lāgīn’s pulpit show the Cairene carving in its boldest and
+finest style. Later arabesques may be more delicate and graceful, but no
+carvers in Egypt excelled those who made this pulpit, in freedom of
+design and skill of execution. As is usual in the best Saracenic work,
+no two designs of this pulpit are absolutely identical: some fresh turn,
+some ingenious variation in the lines of the arabesque, show the
+independence of the artist from servile copying. The panels are enclosed
+by two thin lines of light-coloured wood inlaid in the darker wood of
+the panel, but the borders are not carved in the manner usual in later
+work, nor is there any ivory inlay.
+
+The next dated examples are the carved panels from the mosque of El-
+Māridāny, a Mamlūk Amīr of the court of En-Nāsir ibn Kalaūn, which was
+built in the year 739 of the Hijra, A.D. 1338. These panels are partly
+comprised in the top of a French table belonging to the collection of M.
+Meymar, now in the South Kensington Museum, and the setting and beading
+is modern; but the geometrical panels are fortunately intact. Horizontal
+panels, which must have been originally placed above and below the
+carved doors of this pulpit, or over the little doors of the side
+cupboard (such as is seen open in fig. 34), present the following
+inscription twice over:—
+
+
+  ذخر الارامل والمنقطعين ‏|‏ كهف الفقرا والمساكين ‏|‏
+
+  العبد الفقير الى الله تعالى ‏|‏ الطنبغا الساقى الملكى الناصرى ‏|‏
+
+
+“Provider for the widowed and destitute, Refuge of the poor and
+miserable, The humble servant of God most high, Altunbugha, the cup-
+bearer, the [Mamlūk] of El-Melik En-Nāsir,”—which shows that not only
+was this Amīr a Mamlūk, or retainer of the Sultan En-Nāsir, but that he
+held the office of cup-bearer, which was among the most influential and
+coveted posts in the court. The carving of the arabesques on the
+geometrical panels of El-Māridāny’s pulpit is more delicate and
+intricate than that of Lāgīn’s, and inlaid borders (consisting in a
+double ivory line, separated by others ornamented with a scroll pattern)
+are enclosed in a series of thin wooden beadings. Like Lāgīn’s carvings,
+those of El-Māridāny are executed in two reliefs; the principal lines of
+the design being more prominent than the scroll-work of the background,
+which, however, is still in sufficient relief.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 41.—CARVED PANELS FROM PULPIT (OF KUSUN?).
+
+Fourteenth Century. (_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+Nearly contemporary with the pulpit of El-Māridāny are the panels, figs.
+41 and 42, which are taken from one of M. de St. Maurice’s doors in the
+South Kensington Museum. In the case of a modern application of the
+original panels it is not always safe to assume that all the pieces
+belong to the same pulpit; and especially doubtful is the connection
+between the geometrical panels and the horizontal inscriptional friezes
+above and below, which are more likely to be selected because they fit
+the present scale of the door, than because they belonged to the same
+pulpit as the geometrical panels they accompany. In the present instance
+the horizontal panels give the name of the Sultan Zeyn-ed-dīn Hasan—
+
+
+  النصر الدائم والجاه القائم لمولانا السلطان
+
+  الملك العادل الناصر المظفر زين الدين حسن
+
+
+the peculiarity of which lies in the substitution of the surname _Zeyn-
+ed-dīn_ for the Nāsir-ed-dīn, which is invariably applied to Hasan on
+his coins and public buildings. The inscription, however, is no forgery,
+and there is no other Sultan Hasan to whom it could apply. The only
+question is whether it belongs to the geometrical panels in whose
+company it is found. If it does not, which I am far from asserting, at
+least the geometrical panels belong to a period very nearly coinciding
+with the reign of Sultan Hasan (1347-1361). Mr. Wild has preserved a
+sketch of the pulpit of the mosque of Kūsūn, now destroyed, which
+contained panels of the same curious octagonal shape, with very obtuse
+angles, like those in fig. 42.[42] The Amīr Kūsūn was one of the Mamlūks
+of En-Nāsir, Hasan’s father, and his mosque was built in 1329. It does
+not necessarily follow that the pulpit was set up at once; a temporary
+pulpit may have served at first. But the similarity of the panels (fig.
+42) to those sketched by Mr. Wild seems to indicate that if the St.
+Maurice door is not actually made up from the fragments of the vanished
+_mimbar_ of Kūsūn, the pulpit that was thus desecrated undoubtedly
+belonged to a period nearly coinciding with the death of that Amīr in
+1341. If the panels with Sultan Hasan’s name on them belong to the rest,
+the pulpit must have been built after his accession in 1347, in which
+case it may have been placed in Kūsūn’s mosque by Sultan Hasan, in
+accordance with a not uncommon practice. The work is very like El-
+Māridāny’s, but even more delicate, and there cannot be a long interval
+between them. It should be stated that the outer beading enclosing both
+these and the Lāgīn panels is absolutely modern. It is reproduced in the
+engraving only to show the position of the panels towards one another.
+The original panels are inlaid with a line of ivory inside which is a
+border of dots.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 42.—CARVED PANELS FROM PULPIT (OF KUSUN?).
+
+Fourteenth Century. (_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+After the time of El-Māridāny’s carvings, the style of work seems to
+have gradually deteriorated. Sheykhū’s pulpit, in his mosque built in
+1358, is good, but ordinary; El-Muayyad’s, in 1420, shows a decided
+falling off in the execution. With the pulpit of Kāït Bey, fig. 34, we
+come to the end of the history of this description of wood-carving in
+Cairo, so far at least as dated specimens are within our reach. The art
+may have continued for some generations longer, but it had already lost
+much of its character and beauty. In form and arrangement, and also in
+general effect, the pulpit of Kāït Bey may challenge comparison with
+almost any other; but when we come to look closely into the work it
+becomes apparent that the art of the carver had undergone a serious
+process of deterioration. The designs are mechanical, hard, and prone to
+repetition: they will not bear comparison with the panels of Lāgīn or
+El-Māridāny. This is no doubt partly due to the substance used. The
+wooden panels are merely shells to contain smaller ivory panels of the
+same outline, and the latter alone are carved. Ivory is less easily
+worked than wood, though capable of even more delicate treatment; but
+the artists who were accustomed to work in wood must have found the
+ivory difficult to handle in the same flowing lines. Ivory carving of
+this type is usually somewhat hard in treatment, as may be seen in the
+beautiful but somewhat stiff panels of a mosque door engraved in fig.
+69. These, however, belong to a much better period than those of the
+Kāït Bey pulpit, as may be seen at a glance; and it is indisputable that
+in the time of Kāït Bey the carving had changed character for the worse.
+This is the more remarkable, since the reign of this Sultan was famous
+for the multitude of admirable architectural works promoted by himself.
+The stone carving of the time is perhaps unequalled in any other period
+of Cairene art. Perhaps the whole energy of the carvers was absorbed in
+stone work, and the softer material was neglected. After the dominion of
+the Mamlūks was transferred to the Pashas appointed from Constantinople,
+the art of carving pulpit panels seems to have died out. The ordinary
+Turkish mosque of Cairo has a painted _mimbar_, of the same shape as its
+carved predecessor, but with red-ochre and green painting, of no special
+character, in place of the intricate geometrical panelling of the best
+period.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 43.—CARVED PANELS OF THE TOMB OF ES-SALIH AYYUB.
+
+Thirteenth Century.]
+
+The _kursy_, or lectern, a V shaped desk, on which the Korān was placed
+for reading, was sometimes constructed, like the pulpit, of
+geometrically arranged carved and inlaid panels. An example may be seen
+engraved in Prisse, Pl. 18, where the fine carved kursy with open work
+at the top belonged to the mosque of Barkūk in the eastern cemetery.
+Carved panelling of the same style is also sometimes employed for the
+wooden casing of the tombs which occupy the founder’s chapel in a
+mosque. The ordinary Muslim tomb is simply an oblong erection of stone,
+with a short pillar at each end, one of which has the representation of
+a turban carved upon it. Even the graves of the greatest of Mamlūk
+Sultans were constructed after this simple model. Such is the tomb of
+Kalaūn, the plainness of which is partly concealed by the clumsy lattice
+screen of heavy baluster-work which encloses the grave and the relics of
+the Sultan. The tombs of Sultan Hasan, Barkūk, and indeed of most of the
+sovereigns of Egypt, are of this unpretending character. So long as
+there was room inside for the occupant to sit up and say his Catechism
+to the examining angels, Munkar and Nekīr, the outside of the grave was
+of small consequence. The real tomb of the Sultan was the mosque, with
+its glorious dome, which rose above the humble stone grave. But in some
+instances the grave itself was a subject for artistic treatment. The
+tomb of Es-Sālih Ayyūb, built in 1249, is the earliest example of the
+carved panel-work with which we are acquainted.[43] It is fifty years
+earlier than Lāgīn’s panels, described above; and evidence of priority,
+apart from the known date of erection, is presented in the simplicity of
+the arabesque designs, as seen in the cut (fig. 43), which is taken from
+a paper squeeze made under my eye in 1883. Another mode of ornamenting a
+tomb, which appears to have been usual at an earlier date still, was by
+a frieze of wooden planks surrounding the oblong grave at its upper
+edge. This is the method employed for the tombs of the members of the
+‘Abbāsy family, buried in the chapel behind the mosque of Sitta Nefīsa.
+Each grave consists externally of a square stone box, standing about
+four feet from the ground, and ornamented only by a band of wood, carved
+with inscriptions, about six inches in width, running round the four
+sides at their upper edge. The dates of these tombs range from A.H. 640
+(A.D. 1242) to A.H. 768 (A.D. 1366).[44] The ornament here is simply
+inscriptional. But there is at least one instance of a more elaborate
+decoration of a frieze of this kind. The grave of a sheykh, in one of
+the cemeteries which surround Cairo, was formerly ornamented by a wooden
+frieze, carved not only with inscriptions but with exceedingly soft and
+delicate arabesques. One of the sides is represented in fig. 44. It is
+made of some soft yet close-textured wood, which has evidently offered
+little resistance to the friction of the desert sand, the effects of
+which are seen in the singularly soft appearance of the surface, which
+looks as though it had been intentionally rubbed with emery paper. Each
+side of the frieze is made of four long parallel strips, with
+intervening panels of various lengths; and the tenons by which it was
+mortised to the next side are seen in the cut. The back of the frieze is
+carved with a large bold arabesque design which belongs in style to the
+period of Ibn-Tūlūn, or a little later. A Kūfy inscription over the door
+of the mausoleum indicates an earlier interment of the year 304 (A.D.
+916), and it is safe to assume that the original carving belonged to
+this earlier grave. Thus the frieze was carved on materials that had
+been seasoned for perhaps three centuries, and this will explain the
+somewhat large surfaces having escaped the effects of the sun. The
+carving is unusually fine: a border of Korānic inscription at the top is
+supported by an exquisite arabesque scroll-border, and the main band of
+the frieze is ornamented with panels of arabesques surrounded by
+inscriptions in high relief, on a ground of arabesque scrolls. The
+inscriptions here are partly from the Korān, partly benedictory to the
+deceased, whose name they give, together with the date of his death,
+which is legible in the right-hand bottom corner of the engraving, A.H.
+613 (A.D. 1216).
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 44.—CARVED PANEL OF A SHEYKH’S TOMB (⅒th).
+
+A.D. 1216. (_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+Thus far we have seen no Cairo carving that traverses the law of the
+Mohammadan religion against the reproduction in art of the forms of
+animate creatures: arabesques, and scrolls of endless variety, have been
+the staple of the ornament. These are the characteristic features of
+Cairo carving. But it would be a mistake to imagine that the prohibition
+against the representation of living things was universally observed. We
+shall see when we come to discuss the early metal-work of Egypt, and
+also the textile fabrics, that figures are at certain periods the rule,
+not the exception. So in wood-carving, though not to the same extent, if
+one may judge from existing examples, the law about figures was not
+always observed. Panels carved with representations of birds exist in
+the South Kensington Museum and in the Arab Museum at Cairo. But the
+most remarkable example of figure carving in Cairo is found in the doors
+of the Māristān, or mosque-hospital of the Mamlūk Sultan Kalaūn, the
+father of En-Nāsir Mohammad. M. Prisse d’Avennes fortunately studied
+these extraordinary panels when they were better preserved than they are
+now, and from the squeezes he then took he was able to restore the
+designs to the almost too perfect outlines presented in his plates (nos.
+83 and 84), from which the engravings, figs. 46-8, are taken. There are
+eight panels altogether, of pine wood, and each is carved with
+representations of the sports, amusements, and occupations of the Arab,
+or rather of the Persian, for there can be no doubt that the source of
+these admirable designs was the art of Mesopotamia, where the traditions
+of ancient Persian and Assyrian art still survived in the metal-work of
+the artists of Mōsil and other towns.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 45.—PANEL OF A DOOR FROM DAMIETTA.
+
+(_Cairo Museum._)]
+
+In the centre of the first panel we see on a ground of rather crude
+scroll-work a centaur, winged like an Assyrian beast, and wearing a
+crown exactly resembling the tiara that is found on similar centaur
+huntsmen on the figured metal-work of Mōsil. He has stretched a bow and
+is discharging an arrow at a unicorn behind him; a corresponding unicorn
+paws the ground on the opposite side. The scene is just what we find
+through the whole range of Mesopotamian design, from the oldest Assyrian
+bas-reliefs downwards.
+
+[Illustration: FIGS. 46 AND 47.—CARVED PANELS FROM THE MARISTAN OF
+KALAUN.
+
+(After Prisse d’Avennes.) Late Thirteenth Century.]
+
+In the second panel a peacock stands in the middle, in a geometrical
+figure formed of a lozenge and quatrefoil combined. Large leaf scrolls
+winding round form a sort of division in the band of figures, and the
+sections thus marked off are filled with (on the left) two running
+servants, holding ewers and glasses, and (on the right) a player on the
+square lute and a seated figure with drinking-vessels. Simple scroll
+borders enclose the central band above and below.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 48.—CARVED PANEL FROM THE MARISTAN OF KALAUN.]
+
+In the vertical panel, which is divided into various compartments by the
+curling lines of the scroll-work which forms the background, is a
+kneeling figure in the act of rising, with a slain deer flung over his
+shoulders and held in position by one arm thrown round its neck and the
+other round its hind-legs. Over this figure two eagles are perched,
+breast to breast, but with beaks averted; and on either side of these,
+in exaggerated proportions, are two long-tailed cockatoos, fronting
+inwards, but with heads averted like the eagles; over the cockatoos are
+a corresponding pair of deer, each with an eagle on his back, with wings
+spread, having just alighted on his prey; and, to crown the panel, is a
+central representation of two combatant ducks,—their webbed feet clearly
+visible—beak to beak. These upper designs are matched, below the
+cockatoos, by similarly arranged figures: to balance the eagles and
+deer, a pair of winged Assyrian monsters or centaurs, resembling that on
+the first panel described above, with the same three-pointed crown; and
+underneath these, in the centre, to correspond with the ducks, a pair of
+long-eared rabbits confronted. These figures are depicted in a spirited
+style that has no parallel in Eastern carving, at least in Egypt or
+Syria; and they mark a distinct epoch in the history of Cairo art.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 49.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+As has been already said, there is but one source to which these
+remarkable carvings can be traced. The artists who engraved the hunting
+scenes, the water-fowl, the drinking-bouts, of the bowls and other
+vessels of bronze and brass made at Mōsil or in the neighbouring
+cities—the artists, in short, who had inherited the traditions of animal
+design from the workmen of the Sassanians, the Parthians, and the
+Assyrians, these were the men who inspired, if they did not actually
+execute the carved panels of Kalaūn. The birds face to face refer no
+doubt to the cockfights which the Persians included among their
+favourite sports, and the adoption of the duck instead of the cock has
+its explanation in the name of the Sultan for whose hospital these
+panels were carved; for Kalaūn was a slave from Kipchak, and his name
+means “duck” in his native Tartar tongue. It is strange that so
+admirable a style of decoration did not find wider acceptance among the
+founders and architects of mosques in Cairo. No near parallel to these
+carvings of Kalaūn can be found in any mosque of the period, still less
+in any of later date. A few pieces carved with parrots and peacocks have
+been noticed, but these, since they are separated from their original
+surroundings, may have come from the same source as the panels still
+remaining at the Māristān of Kalaūn.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 50.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+It is perhaps rash to speculate upon the causes which led to the sudden
+adoption and as sudden abandonment of a remarkable and characteristic
+style of carving; but in the present case there is some evidence that
+may help us to an explanation. In the chapter on metal-work we shall
+have to describe a similar sequence of adoption and abandonment with
+respect to the figured style of Mōsil, which closely resembles the style
+of Kalaūn’s carvings. The chased bowls and caskets, covered with
+representations of hunting and drinking scenes, beasts of the chase, and
+the like, made their appearance in Cairo about the end of the first
+quarter of the thirteenth century, so far as existing specimens allow us
+to judge. The style was brought from Mesopotamia by the princes of the
+family of Ayyūb, of which Saladin was the most celebrated member. The
+Ayyūbis passed through the country watered by the Tigris and Euphrates
+before they arrived in Syria, or attempted to worm themselves into the
+sovereignty of Egypt. Saladin and his kinsmen were the officers of the
+great Sultan Nūr-ed-dīn, of Aleppo and Damascus, who came of the stock
+of the Beny Zenky of Mōsil. The Beny Zenky had been among the earliest
+to adopt the novelty of a figured coinage: they adorned their money with
+the saints and holy personages of the Byzantine coinage, or with symbols
+taken from Persian astrology, in place of the sternly simple
+inscriptions which covered the faces of the coins of the orthodox
+Khalifate. These innovations were carried into Syria by Nūr-ed-dīn, who
+entertained as few prejudices on the subject of representations of
+living things as the rest of the Kurdish and Tartar princes, who now
+ruled the best provinces of the Khalifs of Baghdād. Saladin (though a
+very pious and orthodox prince) brought the heretical novelty to Cairo,
+where he carved his own cognizance, an eagle,[45] on the wall of the
+Citadel which he built on a spur of Mount Mukattam. There is a brass and
+silver casket of Saladin’s grandnephew in the South Kensington Museum,
+covered with figures of huntsmen, &c., which shows that the Ayyūby kings
+of Egypt continued to patronize the art introduced by their great
+kinsman. So, too, the earlier Mamlūks found no spiritual injury to
+result from the representation of men and animals on their cups and
+perfume-burners, their trays and bowls. Evidence of this will be found
+in the chapter on metal-work; and the lion, the cognizance of Beybars,
+the most powerful of the early Mamlūk Sultans, occurring on coins,
+doors, and walls, shows that this indifference to a minor regulation of
+the Arabian prophet extended to more forms of art than one. Beybars’
+lions or chītahs on his coins and bronze mosque doors, Beysary’s eagles
+on his perfume-burner, El-Ādil’s hunting-scenes on his coffret, Kalaūn’s
+centaurs and drinking-bouts on his hospital doors, all point to a
+general acquiescence for awhile in this flagrant disregard of what had
+always been held a binding precept in Islām. But with the reign of En-
+Nāsir, Kalaūn’s son, a new style of metal-work came into fashion:
+rosettes of flowers and leaves, arabesques, and scrolls, and the rest of
+the legitimate materials of the Mohammadan artist, obtained a hold on
+Cairo work in all branches that was never again lost. At precisely the
+same time, the figured carving, which seemed to promise so fine a field
+for mosque and palace decoration, was abandoned in favour of the small
+carved and inlaid arabesque panels, which have already been examined in
+detail. It is not unreasonable to ascribe the change in the wood-work to
+the same cause as that which operated in the metal-work; and this seems
+to have been natural enough. The barbarous Kurds and Tartars, who had
+swarmed over the lands of the Khalifate, and entered Egypt, might for a
+while, by dint of sheer imperious insistance, make a form of art popular
+which was nevertheless unorthodox; but as the barbarians settled down in
+the cities of the Muslims, which they did so much to beautify, they must
+have gradually become assimilated to the people they governed, and their
+first ignorant indifference about so vital a part of religion as the
+prohibition of images of animate things must have given place to a
+proper iconoclastic feeling, or at least they must have learned to weigh
+more accurately the sentiments of the pious on the subject. Thus the
+imported art of figure carving, which was the temporary _protégé_ of the
+Tartar princes, before they knew better, gave place to the arabesque and
+geometrical ornament which had long before been settled upon as most
+consonant with the letter and spirit of Mohammad’s precept. The figure
+art was foreign to Cairo; it was heretical; and it was little suited to
+the small panelling which was a condition of the carver’s art in so hot
+a climate: the large panels of Kalaūn’s doors have suffered severely
+from the heat, and the size is against all the precautions of joinery in
+hot climates. On the other hand, carved panelling, in small sizes,
+worked into intricate geometrical patterns, formed the native art of
+Cairo, was exactly adapted to the conditions of climate, and offended no
+law of God or man. It was clear that the figure carving had no chance
+against so well accredited a rival.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 51.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 52.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+When we say that the small arabesque carving described in detail, and
+illustrated by specimens from numerous pulpits, was a native Egyptian
+art, we may be thought to be going too fast. The evidence is certainly
+incomplete for so definite an assertion, it will be said; and until we
+know something more about early Egyptian carving, say in Fātimy times,
+it is hardly reasonable to expect a cautious student to assent to any
+proposition about “native” arts in Egypt. But I believe that the
+evidence for the indigenous nature of the particular style of carving
+referred to is strong enough to warrant the appellation of native art.
+It is to be noted that in no other Mohammadan country do we find the
+same character of wood carving except in isolated examples, which may be
+due to Cairene influences. Damascus carving is absolutely different in
+style; it consists in rich flowery decorations in high relief, and not
+of arabesques in small geometrical panels and comparatively low relief.
+Persia has nothing of the kind, nor, so far as we know, has the opposite
+region of Mauritania. The carved panelling of Cairo seems to be peculiar
+to Egypt. This is in itself a strong argument for an Egyptian origin of
+the art. But there is other evidence, which, if at present not so
+complete as could be desired, still offers a considerable presumption as
+to the history of the art. The finest specimens of carved geometrical
+panelling are found, not in the Mohammadan mosques, but in the Christian
+churches of the Copts, in Babylon, near Old Cairo. The screens of these
+Coptic churches are often one broad expanse of elaborate inlay and
+carving in wood and ivory, arranged like the mosque pulpits in
+geometrical panels of small size. The designs are naturally founded more
+or less upon the cross, which is also inlaid very frequently in the
+screens; but the character of the work is very similar to that of mosque
+pulpits, and in some instances, the designs of the carving are as nearly
+identical as the originality of the Cairo artist would permit any two
+designs to be. A glance at the lectern engraved in Mr. A. J. Butler’s
+admirable work on the Coptic churches of Egypt,[46] will show the
+identity of the two, and there is every probability that the workmen who
+made the Coptic screens and lecterns made also the Muslim pulpits. It is
+historically ascertained that the Copts were the most skilful of the
+artists of Egypt, and were employed by the Mohammadans to execute some
+of their mosques; and when the excellence of the carvings in the Coptic
+churches is considered, it is not unnatural to assume that this was
+among the arts which the Copts lent to their Muslim masters. The
+question of date is not so easily settled. It is of course necessary to
+the absolute establishing of this view of the origin of Cairo panel-
+carving that examples of Coptic carving should be found earlier than any
+in the mosques, but in this respect the evidence is not convincing. Mr.
+Butler states, for example, that the screen of the convent of Abu-s-
+Seyfeyn, near Cairo, dates from A.D. 927, and the priest of the convent
+said that it was nine hundred years old. But Coptic priests are bad
+authorities on such a point, and the comparison of style which Mr.
+Butler institutes with the restoration pulpit of the mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn
+tends to give a thirteenth instead of a tenth century date. But there
+are various structural arguments which, in the opinion of Mr. Butler,
+who speaks with the highest authority on Coptic art, prove that some of
+these carvings go back as far as the tenth century at least, while the
+doors at El-Adra, in the Nitrian valley, are stated to be certainly of
+the eighth century; and if this be accepted, there can be no further
+question as to the origin of the art of panel-carving and inlaying in
+Cairo. The Coptic churches are mostly earlier than the tenth century,
+and must have had screens from their foundation; and there is no reason
+to suppose that the screens have been often renewed, or that it was
+impossible to carve as well in the tenth century as in the thirteenth;
+indeed the fine stucco designs of Ibn-Tūlūn, which was built by a Coptic
+architect in the ninth century, point to a skill in working plaster
+ornament even then. It was, moreover, natural that the Copts, the old
+inhabitants of Egypt, should have early discovered the method of
+defeating the warping tendencies of their hot climate by means of a
+minute subdivision into panels. Taking these various considerations, it
+is not so rash as it seemed to assume that the art of carving panels in
+the style characteristic of Coptic screens and Muslim pulpits was native
+to Egypt, and was the special property of the Copts.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 53.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 54.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 55.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+The Coptic churches also contain some examples of figure carving,
+somewhat resembling the hunting figures of Mōsil metal-work. A noble
+triforium screen in the church of St. Barbara, and another in the church
+of St. Sergius (Abu-Sargah), in Old Cairo, are decorated with warrior
+saints and beasts much after the model of the horsemen of Mesopotamian
+art. There may of course be a connection between these and Kalaūn’s
+panels, described above, but it is not necessary to trace the two to the
+same source. There can be no doubt of the Mesopotamian origin of
+Kalaūn’s carvings; but those of St. Sergius may not improbably be
+directly derived from Byzantine models, with which they show more
+affinity than with the Mōsil style. Had these carvings been derived from
+the Mesopotamian school, we should expect to find a prevailing hunting
+character, interspersed with scenes of festivity, wine-cups, and musical
+instruments; instead of which the subjects are principally warrior
+saints of the Byzantine style, and the beasts that accompany them may be
+due as much to the animal decoration of the Lower Empire as to the
+hunting-scenes of Persian art. The St. Barbara carvings, however,
+closely resemble Mōsil work, and have even the winged centaur. It is,
+after all, merely a question of the immediate source, of the Coptic
+figure carvings, for it can hardly be doubted that the Byzantine figures
+and beasts were the offspring of the Sassanian and Assyrian style, as
+much as the figured metal-work of Mōsil and Cairo and the carvings of
+Kalaūn. There is always much that is hypothetical in the attempt to
+trace the origin of any special art; many influences combine to form a
+style, and it is contrary to experience to ascribe the whole of the
+elements that go to make up a style to one source. But whatever may be
+the subsidiary influences in Cairo carving, we cannot be wrong in
+ascribing the development of arabesque panel-carving to Coptic workmen,
+and the employment of figures to the influence of Mesopotamian models,
+either directly, or through the medium of Byzantine examples.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 56.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+The wood-work in the mosques of Cairo is principally of the carved and
+panelled style; pulpits, lecterns, doors, are subjects for panel-work,
+inlaid and carved, in geometrical patterns; inscriptional friezes, when
+of wood, are carved and generally painted or gilt; and the casings of
+the tombs, when there are any, are panelled like the pulpits. But there
+is another manner of treating wood which is commonly adopted in mosques:
+this is the open lattice-work which, from its most familiar application,
+in the projecting windows of houses, is commonly known to us as
+_meshrebīya_ work. The earlier mosques show us a style of lattice which
+is much less graceful than what is usually understood by meshrebīya
+work. This oldest lattice consists in a frame of stout quarterings,
+divided into compartments of a couple of feet square, each of which is
+filled with a number of upright balusters, square in parts and round in
+others. The effect of such a screen, as seen in the enclosure of the
+tomb of Kalaūn, is clumsy and heavy. A more usual kind of lattice is the
+wide open grille, resembling the cross-bars of a prison window, and
+having no pretensions to elaboration. The ordinary graceful lattice-work
+of the meshrebīyas is not common in mosques, though occasionally the
+sanctuary is screened off by such a lattice, and in one of the Coptic
+churches a screen of this kind forms a cheap but graceful substitute for
+the more elaborate wood and ivory carving.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 56A.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+It is in the houses of Cairo that this lattice-work is seen in its
+greatest profusion and variety. Fig. 12 gives several excellent examples
+in a single street. The number of such streets is daily diminishing,
+partly in consequence of the dread of fire, which used to leap from
+window to window in the old city with frightful rapidity, and partly
+because the modern Cairenes are enamoured of the unsightly architecture
+and plate-glass of Europe (which is unhappily seen introduced in the
+foremost window in fig. 12). The South Kensington Museum is peculiarly
+rich in examples of fine lattice-work. The two best are from a single
+house in Cairo, which was in course of destruction, after being
+condemned by the Ministry of Works as unsafe, when I was in Cairo, in
+1883; and I was thus enabled to purchase for the Museum the complete
+room (no. 1193), and the meshrebīya (no. 1194), without violating any
+standing monument of Cairo art. The lattices of these two windows are of
+a fine period, probably the early part of the eighteenth century, and
+the small compartments of the larger one are filled with turned lattice
+of a singularly delicate character, which gives the effect almost of
+lace when viewed from inside with the light shining through. One of
+these panels is represented in fig. 49. There are now more than forty
+different specimens of lattice-work in the South Kensington Museum, and
+most of them present some variety in the design. It would not seem that
+there was much opportunity for variety of effect in the mere combination
+of short turned bobbins of wood in a lattice screen; but the Cairo
+workmen found out an infinity of changes that could be rung on their
+simple materials. The engravings, figs. 49-58, which represent ten
+different styles in the South Kensington Museum, will show how variously
+the component parts of a lattice may be arranged. The essential feature
+of the work is a series of oval turned balls connected together by short
+turned links, which fit into holes in the balls. It is in the
+arrangement and number of these links, of which 2000 are often contained
+in the space of a square yard, that the variety of design is effected.
+Sometimes the balls are supported by four links or arms forming a cross,
+sometimes by six or eight, like a star; and the distance between the
+balls may be extended, so as to permit of a smaller nob at the crossing
+of the arms, a modification that produces a singularly delicate and
+lace-like effect. Sometimes these intermediate balls are so distributed
+as to form a pattern upon the ground of the wider design, as in fig. 58,
+where the finer interlacing forms the outline of a lamp suspended in the
+more open lattice. The lamp is the most usual design in such interlaced
+meshrebīyas, but Solomon’s seal and other simple designs are also found,
+and sometimes an Arabic inscription is formed by the skilful arrangement
+of the lattice. An example of interlacing cypresses may be seen in the
+South Kensington Museum, (no. 1471-1871,) and of a Coptic cross formed
+by the lattice-work (1492-1871). The meshrebīya no. 140 (1881), has an
+interlacing inscription
+
+
+  نصر من الله وفتح قريب وبشر المومنين يا محمد
+
+
+“Help is from God, and approaching victory, and give glad tidings to the
+Faithful, O Mohammad!” The meshrebīya from the St. Maurice collection,
+(no. 892-1884,) shows several examples of interlacing designs, Solomon’s
+seals, hanging lamps, and the Kūfy inscription [Inscription] (رأس الحكم
+مخافة الله) “The chief of wisdom is in the fear of God.” Another piece
+of lattice-work, of a finer and more elaborate character than is
+commonly seen, has the inscription in fine Kūfy letters, الله وملاىكه
+صلى على النبى “God and his angels bless the Prophet,” formed by pieces
+of thicker wood, inlaid with ivory lines.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 57.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 58.—LATTICE-WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 59.—FRONT.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 60.—BACK.
+
+CARVED AND INLAID LATTICE-WORK.]
+
+This more elaborate style of _meshrebīya_ work deserves special mention.
+It is more particularly used for the open panels of the balustrade of
+pulpits, of which narrow examples are seen in fig. 34, but it is also
+found in the upper panels of the partition screens of mosque
+sanctuaries, and in other positions. The principle of construction is
+the same as in ordinary lattice-work, but the component parts are
+carved, and sometimes inlaid with ivory. A fine example in the St.
+Maurice collection is engraved in figs. 59 and 60, in which the front
+and back are quite different in treatment and effect. The lattice,
+instead of comprising oval balls and round links, is composed of
+hexagons joined by triangles and turned links, and the hexagons and
+triangles are carved and inlaid. On one side the triangles are inlaid
+with carved ebony triangles pointing the opposite way to the triangles
+in which they are set, and the hexagons are studded with dark wooden
+bosses. On the other side the triangles are carved with trefoils, and
+the hexagons with sixfoils, each set in ebony and ivory borders. Work of
+this description is uncommon.
+
+Turned lattice-work may unquestionably be included among the native arts
+of Cairo, though it was also made elsewhere. According to M. Prisse,
+this craft is not practised now in Cairo, and the modern specimens come
+from Arabia, notably Jedda. It is unfortunately true that very little of
+this work is now done in Cairo, but it is not wholly extinct, and in the
+earlier half of the century it was still a considerable industry, though
+Lane records that the work was then inferior to the old style. The
+Egyptian turner sits cross-legged to his work, and uses a primitive
+lathe, which he causes to revolve with a bow, employing his toes as well
+as his fingers.
+
+Lattice _meshrebīyas_ form the principal wood-work in a Cairo house; but
+there are other uses of wood to be described. The delicate carved and
+inlaid panelling which is usual in mosque pulpits is seldom employed in
+houses, though probably the old palaces of the Mamlūks, had they been
+preserved, would have displayed examples of such work as rich and
+elaborate as any in the mosques. The panelling generally seen in the
+doors of the wall-cupboards (which surmount the divan in Cairo rooms,
+and consist of a central cupboard with double door, surrounded by little
+arched recesses for pottery and other ornaments), and also used in the
+interior doors of rooms, is of a simple kind, intended more to guard
+against the warping effects of the heat than to serve as an ornament to
+the room. Nevertheless, the effect is sometimes very pleasing, as in
+some of the doors engraved in figs. 61-4, where the panels are
+ingeniously arranged in a sort of L pattern, reminding one of some of
+the designs of Saracenic metal-work, or in chevrons, or in a hexagonal
+figure with a central star, or, finally, with a Coptic cross (fig. 64),
+which indicates that the door in question belonged to a Christian house.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 61.—PANELLED DOOR FROM A COPT’S HOUSE.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+This simple panelling of the door and wall-cupboard, and the fine
+lattice-work of the _meshrebīya_, constitute the most conspicuous
+ornaments in wood of the ordinary Cairo room; but there is yet another
+manner of treating wood, which holds an important place in the better
+chambers, and also in the mosques. This is seen in the ceilings, which
+are often the most beautiful part of a room, and are elaborately
+decorated in both mosques and houses. The coffered ceiling of the finest
+class consists of, first, the beams of the roof, which are suffered to
+appear in their natural position, with that true appreciation of the
+principles of good decoration, in which structural features are turned
+to account, instead of being hidden, which characterized the Cairo
+architect. The beams are of rough pine trunks, of considerable
+thickness, and are either left in their natural round or half-round
+shape, or more generally are covered with thin boards, which are
+frequently made in a square form. The latter is the common plan in the
+mosques, but in houses the round outline of the beams is often preserved
+to within a couple of feet of the end, when stalactites mask the
+transition to the square. The beams, whether round or square, are
+covered with a coating of canvas saturated with plaster, like the
+Italian _gesso_, and decorated in colours, generally red and blue, with
+gold and white to give light; and the deep hollows between the beams are
+divided into small coffers and similarly coated and painted, or the bare
+planks are similarly painted, with arabesques and other designs of great
+beauty. All this work, Mr. Wild informs me, is done on the ground, and
+only put up in its place when finished.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 62.
+
+FIG. 63.
+
+FIG. 64.
+
+PANELLED DOORS.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+The whole effect of this kind of ceiling,—with its contrasts between the
+heavy beams and the delicate patterns between them, and the gleam of
+gold in relief against the deep-toned blue and red decoration,—is
+exceedingly rich.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 65.—CEILING OF APPLIQUÉ WORK.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+Another mode of decorating a ceiling is by nailing thin strips of wood
+on the planks that constitute the roof, in a geometrical design, and
+covering the whole with a thin surface of plaster, on which various
+arabesque and floral ornaments are then squeezed while the material is
+soft, and the whole is then painted and gilt. The cut, fig. 67,
+represents a ceiling in the St. Maurice collection, acquired by the
+South Kensington Museum. The design is raised by means of strips of wood
+about half an inch thick, and these strips are gilt, with lines of red
+to shade the gold; the intervening arabesques are in plaster, gilt, with
+edges of red and blue. The general effect is very handsome. Sometimes
+the ceilings are made in this _appliqué_ style with no decoration in the
+interstices. Such is the example (fig. 65), which comes from a
+comparatively modern and poor class of room. The strips of wood are
+nailed on the planks in a geometrical pattern, with a few bosses to form
+centres, and the whole is tinted with red ochre. This and the preceding
+ceiling (fig. 67) belonged to meshrebīyas, and the style was only
+employed for ceilings of small size, where no heavy beams were required,
+such as those over meshrebīyas and over the durkā‘as of small rooms. It
+should be noticed that a somewhat similar style of _appliqué_ work is
+used for the bases, as well as for the ceilings, of meshrebīyas. In the
+illustration (fig. 12), the corbelling of the nearest meshrebīya is
+covered with rosettes and stalactites, all of which are first cut out
+with a chisel and fret-saw, and then nailed on to the window. Fret-work
+is also used for the pendentive eave which surmounts all good
+meshrebīyas.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 66.—TABLE (KURSY).
+
+(_Cairo Museum._)]
+
+The furniture of a Mohammadan house is so limited, that it is not
+difficult to sum up the chief wooden objects. An ordinary room in Cairo
+contains,—beside such structural wood-work as the lattice-window and the
+panelled wall-cupboard, and the simple shelf that runs round above the
+latter, supported by common gallows-brackets,—nothing but divans,
+supported on a frame, which is not ornamented, and perhaps a little
+table (_kursy_), and a desk for the Korān. The _kursy_ (which must not
+be confounded with the lectern of mosques, also called Kursy) is
+generally of inlaid ivory or mother-of-pearl, but some are of turned
+wood, as in the engraving fig. 66, which is from a table preserved in
+the Cairo Museum. Portions of the stalactites are broken off, but the
+design is sufficiently preserved for us to judge of the effect, which is
+heavy, and inferior to the mother-of-pearl tables with which we are more
+familiar. The reading-desk is of the crossed-leg or camp-stool order,
+and is generally inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which covers the greater
+part of the surface of the table, and is fixed with glue. The ordinary
+Cairo patterns are very simple, and consist in stars and geometrical
+designs; but the Syrian tables, of the same shape and material, are
+carved with figures on the mother-of-pearl, and touched with red and
+green paint. In both kinds the mother-of-pearl is set off by black
+wedge-shaped pieces of horn or bituminous composition. Rarer objects are
+the thrones or chairs of carved and lattice-work, used formerly for a
+bride’s robes. A seat of lattice-work (_dikka_) also stands in the
+entrance of many houses for the door-keeper.
+
+The age of the wood-work, other than carved, is not easy to determine.
+The meshrebīyas, exposed to the weather, do not seem able to last very
+long, and we shall be probably right in assuming none of them to be
+older than the seventeenth century. The more elaborate and squarer form
+of meshrebīya, used in mosques, is of course older than this, and may
+date from the fourteenth century. The ceilings vary in date with the
+mosques or houses to which they belong, but they are not found in
+mosques earlier than the fourteenth century, and no Cairo houses can be
+ascribed with certainty to even that period.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 67.—CEILING OF A MESHREBIYA.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                                 IVORY.
+
+
+In the preceding chapter we have often had occasion to mention inlaid
+lines of ivory set round carved wooden panels, and even whole panels of
+ivory set in wooden borders (pp. 132-138). The artists of Cairo
+preferred this combination of substances, and the use of ivory alone is
+rare, though the Egyptians had every opportunity of obtaining large
+quantities of it through the Sūdān trade. In the Coptic churches of Old
+Cairo, indeed, we find ivory more prevailingly used than in mosques or
+Muslim houses. Mr. Butler thus describes the screen of the church of
+Abu-s-Seyfeyn:[47] “It is a massive partition of ebony, divided into
+three large panels—doorway and two side panels—which are framed in
+masonry. At each side of the doorway is a square pillar plastered and
+painted; on the left is portrayed the Crucifixion, and over it the sun
+shining full; on the right the Taking Down from the Cross, and over it
+the sun eclipsed. . . . In the centre a double door, opening choirwards,
+is covered with elaborate mouldings, enclosing ivory crosses in high
+relief. All round the framing of the doors, tablets of solid ivory,
+chased with arabesques, are inlet, and the topmost part of each panel is
+marked off for an even richer display of chased tablets and crosses.
+Each of the side panels of the screen is one mass of superbly cut
+crosses of ivory, inlaid in even lines, so as to form a kind of broken
+trellis-work in the ebony background. The spaces between the crosses are
+filled with little squares, pentagons, hexagons, and other figures of
+ivory, variously designed, and chiselled with exquisite skill. The order
+is only broken in the centre of the panel, where a small sliding window,
+fourteen inches square, is fitted; on the slide a single large cross is
+inlaid, above and below which is an ivory tablet containing an Arabic
+inscription interlaced with scroll-work. In these ivories there is no
+through-carving; the block is first shaped in the form required—cross,
+square, or the like; next the design is chased in high relief, retaining
+the ivory ground and a raised border; and the piece is then set in the
+wood-work and framed round with mouldings of ebony, or ebony and ivory
+alternately. It is difficult to give any idea of the extraordinary
+richness and delicacy of the details. or the splendour of the whole
+effect.” Mr. Butler ascribes this screen, in accordance with the
+tradition of the church, to the tenth century, and though the style of
+the arabesques would lead us to infer a date later by two or three
+centuries, his authoritative statement must not be disregarded.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 68.—CARVED IVORY PANEL.
+
+(_S. K. M._)]
+
+Another screen, in the church called El-Mu’allaka, in the fortress of
+Babylon, is unique of its kind. “Above and below are narrow panels of
+carved cedar and ebony, alternately, chased with rich scroll-work and
+interwoven with Kufic inscriptions; the framework is also of cedar,
+wrought into unusual star-like devices, and the intervals are filled
+with thin plates of ivory, through which, when the screen was in its
+original position, the light of the lamps behind fell with a soft rose-
+coloured glow, extremely pleasing. There is an almost magical effect
+peculiar to this screen, for the design seems to change in a
+kaleidoscopic manner, according as the spectator varies his distance
+from it.”[48] This changing effect has often been remarked as a
+characteristic of Saracenic geometrical design, and is due to the
+combination of large and small patterns in such a manner that different
+parts of the design stand out more conspicuously at varying distances.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 69.—CARVED IVORY PANELS OF A PULPIT DOOR.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+These Coptic screens are undoubtedly the models upon which the ivory
+carvings of the mosques were founded. Probably Coptic artists were
+employed for the work just as Coptic architects had been proved the most
+skilful for the planning of the mosques themselves. There is a close
+analogy between the style of the Coptic screens and that of the Muslim
+pulpits, with the necessary exception that the cross which forms so
+prominent a feature in the former is omitted in the latter, and the
+designs are restricted to geometrical patterns filled in with
+arabesques. A fine example of the Muslim development of the art is seen
+in the pair of pulpit-doors in the South Kensington Museum (nos. 886 and
+886a, of the St. Maurice collection), one of which is engraved in part
+in fig. 69. The doors in their present modern frame-work are 6ft. 7in.
+high, and each leaf is 1ft. 6in. wide. The design is marked out by
+wooden mouldings, and the interstices are filled with ivory tablets,
+carved with delicate arabesques, no two of which are the same. Above and
+below each leaf is a horizontal panel filled with ivory scroll-work. It
+will be noticed, that fine as is the style of carving, the effect is
+harder than that of the best period of wood-carving in Cairo, though
+these doors probably belong to the same epoch, the fourteenth century.
+The stiffness is the fault, one must conclude, of the material, not of
+the artist; for the men who chiselled the panels of El-Māridāny and
+Kūsūn (pp. 132-138) were in all probability the mates of those who
+carved the ivory panels of these doors. The designs are also very
+similar, though varied with the marvellous ingenuity of the Saracenic
+artist. The softer material, however, seems to have lent itself more
+readily to the expression of these graceful outlines.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 70.—INLAID IVORY AND EBONY DOOR.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+The four panels (no. 885) of the St. Maurice collection, one of which is
+engraved in fig. 68, are in a similar style. The work is of the late
+fourteenth or early fifteenth century type, but very well executed, and
+much softer in effect than those described above; and the panels have
+this peculiarity—a sign of rather late date—that the designs of all four
+are absolutely identical. Another style of wood and ivory pulpit-door is
+seen in fig. 70, where small panels of perfectly plain ivory alternate
+with pentagonal mosaics of inlaid ivory and ebony tesserae. This style
+may be referred roughly to the fifteenth century, but we are at present
+without exact evidence as to the precise date. The beautiful panel of
+inlaid ivory and ebony (fig. 71) is from a table in the Arab Museum at
+Cairo, and belonged to the mosque of Umm-Sha‘bān, built in 1368.
+
+Ivory work, except in combination with wood, is rare in Egypt. Two
+pieces, which I had the good fortune to secure in Cairo in 1883, are now
+in the South Kensington Museum, and both are dated. The first is a
+little cup, engraved with a band near the lip, containing between scroll
+borders a verse from the Korān, lxxvi. 5—ان الابرار يشربون من كأس مزاجها
+كافور “Verily the righteous shall drink from a cup flavoured with
+camphor,” describing the drink of the blessed in Paradise; while on the
+bottom we read, “Made by Mohammad Sālih at El-Kāhira [Cairo] in the year
+927,” A.D. 1521. The second is an ink-horn (fig. 72) of the usual
+Eastern shape, to hold ink in the cavity at the head, and reed pens in
+the handle; and worn in the girdle by the Egyptian scribes and learned
+men, who do their writing often on the backs of their donkeys. The head
+is covered with floral ornament of a late style, and the sides with
+Arabic verses between scroll borders; and on the bottom of the head are
+inscribed the words, “Made by the Seyyid Mohammad Sālih at Misr [also
+Cairo] in the year 1082,” A.D. 1672.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 71.—INLAID IVORY AND EBONY PANEL FROM A TABLE.
+
+(_Cairo Museum._)]
+
+The verses are these:—
+
+
+  لا تحسبوا ان حسن الخط ينفعنى
+
+  ولا سماحة كف الحاتم الطائ
+
+  وانما انا محتاج لواحدة
+
+  لنقل نقطة حرف الخاءِ للطاءِ
+
+
+  “Think not the grace of the pen’s my desire,
+
+    Or the Arab chief’s generosity:
+
+   For one thing only do I require,
+
+    That the point be moved from the _h_ to the _t_.”
+
+
+The meaning is, that by transferring the diacritical point of الخط
+(“penmanship” or “writing”) to the second letter, thus الحظ, the word is
+changed to “good fortune.” The Arabic gives the name of _Hātim Tāy_, the
+typical Arab hero, renowned for his prodigal hospitality and unselfish
+chivalry, and the subject of numerous Eastern legends and poems.
+
+It looks as though the art of ivory carving had remained hereditary in
+one family, and the second Mohammad Sālih were a descendant of the
+first; but the names are common enough, and the identity may be purely
+accidental. These are the only specimens of Cairo ivory vessels with
+detailed dates and names with which I am acquainted. They are late, but
+for that reason all the more interesting, for our Museums are
+particularly poor in specimens of sixteenth and seventeenth century
+carvings.
+
+The ink-horn of the shape shown in fig. 72 is usually made of brass or
+copper, but some of the better sort are of silver, though I have never
+seen one of this material; and one is mentioned in history as made of
+glass, but this was taken as a proof of extreme humility. A not uncommon
+kind is made of plain ivory, inlaid with little brass annulets filled
+with coloured ivory and brass mosaic, in the style familiar on Shīrāz
+muskets; but this is not of Cairo manufacture. An example is shown in
+the South Kensington Museum.
+
+Ivory was also used as a base on which silver plates were laid. Such is
+the style of the Bayeux casket (illustrated in Prisse, iii., pl. 157),
+which belongs probably to the eleventh century. Figure carving in ivory
+is not found in the Egyptian school of art, but it certainly obtained in
+Spain, as is proved by the splendid ivory box made for Ziyād ibn Aflah
+in A.H. 359, A.D. 969, now in the South Kensington Museum, on which are
+various spirited representations of figures and animals, even winged
+centaurs, closely resembling the Mōsil decoration of metal objects.
+There can be little doubt that, wherever made, this box represents the
+influence of Mesopotamian artists, probably conveyed through the Fātimy
+Khalifs of Africa to Spain and Sicily.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 72.—IVORY INK-HORN.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+                              METAL-WORK.
+
+
+                      1. _Brass and Bronze Inlay._
+
+
+Saracenic metal-work, so far as we are acquainted with existing dated
+specimens, begins in Mesopotamia in the early part of the thirteenth
+century of our era. That the art must, however, have been developing for
+centuries before this date, possibly at other places, is clear from the
+perfection of the workmanship displayed on the very earliest pieces;
+indeed, the oldest are as a rule the most elaborate and finished.
+Moreover, there is every reason to believe that the art of metal-
+working, engraving, and chasing, existed in a continuous development
+from very ancient times in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates. The
+earliest Saracenic bowls are decorated with hunting-scenes which remind
+one at once of the favourite designs of the Assyrian bas-reliefs; the
+bronze gates of Balawat, and the Sassanian cups which have come down to
+us,[49] present many points of close resemblance to these first examples
+of the Saracen artist. There was, however, a special reason for a
+notable extension and development of the art in the thirteenth
+century.[50] During the earlier ages of Mohammadan rule, though the
+Khalifs were not remarkable for their piety or observance of the laws of
+the Korān, a certain decent outward appearance of conformity to the
+regulations of Mohammad seems to have prevailed. Among other
+prohibitions, that which forbade the representation in art of animate
+creatures was particularly observed. The rulers may have cared little
+about such laws, but the people probably had not yet shaken off the
+impression of Mohammad’s puritanical teaching, and there were enough
+orthodox Arabs about the court of the Khalifs to make any flagrant
+deviation from such a law as that which proscribed images dangerous in
+the extreme. The coins of the period prove that this was the case. ‘Abd-
+el-Melik’s abortive attempt to follow the Byzantine model, and place his
+own image on the coinage, was succeeded by a strictly plain currency, on
+which no approach to the representation of a living thing appeared for
+five centuries. But when the Turkish guards, whom the Khalifs unwisely
+imported for their own safety, were followed by Turkish hordes, who
+founded dynasties and by degrees abstracted the whole power of the
+Khalifs, the observance of the law against images became less stringent.
+The Turkish immigrants were Mohammadans, but they did not adhere to the
+straitest sect of the Muslim Pharisees, and took a lenient view of the
+minor regulations of Islām. We cannot be too thankful to them for this
+happy indifference, for we owe the highest development of Saracenic art
+in the East to Turkish or Tartar rulers. Among the earliest to introduce
+the representation of images on the coinage were the small dynasties of
+Mesopotamia, who followed in the wake of the great Seljūk invasion. The
+large copper coins of the Urtukīs and Beny Zenky abound with figures of
+men, saints, princes, and beasts, some derived from Byzantine coins,
+others taken from the symbols of astrology.[51] Christ and the Virgin
+are among the images employed by these indiscriminating coiners, while
+such emblems as the two-headed eagle and the centaur-like figure of
+Sagittarius show an oriental and probably Assyrian derivation. Coins of
+this kind begin to be common in the twelfth century, and it is not hard
+to trace a connection between this sudden appearance of imaged coins and
+the almost contemporary fabrication of metal bowls and cups and caskets
+bearing similar images and emblems. The two-headed eagle, the signs of
+the zodiac, the images of aureoled saints or horsemen engaged in the
+chase, are found alike on coins and vessels, but in much greater
+abundance and variety on the latter, where the large surfaces naturally
+afforded more room for their display. We cannot be far wrong in assuming
+that the art of metal-working, which had for ages been characteristic of
+Mesopotamia, where the needful mines were found,[52] after slumbering
+under the Khalifs, received, like the coinage, a sudden stimulus from
+the advent of the Turkish dynasties. Up to the twelfth or thirteenth
+century the arts doubtless lingered on under the stigma of the orthodox,
+and it needed only the favour of the powerful, especially of princes so
+fond of display and gorgeous surroundings as the Tartar dynasts, to give
+a new life to the long-restrained skill of the Mesopotamian artists, and
+to encourage them to higher efforts.
+
+The Mesopotamian, or, to use a shorter term, derived from its chief
+seat, the Mōsil style is characterized by a predominant use of figures
+of men and animals. Aureoled horsemen engaged in the various methods of
+the chase, to which the Persians had ever been addicted, surround the
+bowls or other vessels in broad bands; with lance or bow, with leopard
+or chītah on the crupper, with hawk on wrist, or attended by hounds,
+they pursue the bear or lion or antelope or other quarry; crowned and
+aureoled princes, seated cross-legged on high-backed thrones, attended
+by pages, and holding the forbidden wine-cup in the hand, occupy panels
+or medallions; musicians with cymbals, lute or pipe, dancers, and other
+types of festivity, or the personified Signs of the Zodiac combined with
+their ruling planets, vary the monotony of the hunting-scenes; and
+combats between animals, birds, and men, are among the subjects of the
+engraver’s skill. In one instance the bottom of a large bowl is covered
+with the spirited representation of a sporting party on the water: a
+boat is pulled by three men, two others shoot wild ducks with their
+arrows, another is engaged in cutting the throat of a wounded duck, a
+seventh sits at the mast-head on the look-out, and another dives
+beneath, pursued by an alligator.[53] Long chains of beasts of the
+chase, lions, panthers, chītahs, antelopes, hounds and birds, pursue one
+another in narrow borders, and bands of scroll-work or twist-pattern
+divide the different zones of the ornamentation, while the intervening
+spaces are filled with ducks and other water-fowl. The ground is
+generally covered with bold arabesques, or with a kind of hook or key
+pattern, and little medallions or annulets filled with a simple rose
+design serve to divide the borders into equal sections. Arabic
+inscriptions, in the Naskhy character, run round the vessels in narrow
+bands, sometimes (but rarely) having the tops of the letters chased in
+the image of human faces or interwoven with the legs of an upper border
+of beasts of the chase (fig. 73). Occasionally a meaningless
+inscription, consisting of a few decorative letters frequently repeated,
+takes the place of the genuine inscription, and so far is this from
+being an indication of late date, (though it is perhaps most common on
+late work,) that it is found on objects which undoubtedly belong to the
+thirteenth century, and occurs, for example, on a cup found buried with
+the body of Bertrand de Malzand, Abbot of Montmajour, who died in that
+century.[54] As a rule, the shoals of fish, which are so common at a
+slightly later period on the bottom of drinking vessels and other
+utensils intended to hold liquids, do not occur on the early Mōsil work.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 73.—INSCRIPTION INTERWOVEN WITH FIGURES ON THE
+“BAPTISTERY OF ST. LOUIS.”]
+
+But the main characteristic of Mōsil and all early Saracenic metal-work
+is the lavish use of silver inlay. Gold does not appear to have been
+employed by the Mōsil artists, but in silver they were prodigal. Every
+part of the design was covered with plates of the precious metal, and
+the intervening spaces, amounting to little more than narrow lines, were
+generally filled with a black bituminous composition which concealed the
+copper or brass, and set off the brilliancy of the silver designs. The
+silver inlay is as nearly as possible let in to the level of the brass
+base, and is secured by no pins or solder. The delicate hold obtained by
+the process employed has unfortunately in most instances permitted the
+greater part of the inlay to escape in the course of wear, and we are
+thus enabled to observe accurately the method of inlaying adopted by the
+Saracen workmen. This consisted, in all work of the best period, in
+cutting away the surface to be inlaid in planes deepening towards the
+edges, slightly undercutting the edges themselves, and then forcing the
+silver into the cavity thus excavated, and burnishing the rebated edges
+over the inlaid plaque.[55] In the case of large surfaces, in order to
+get a better hold, the edges were not only undercut, but slightly
+toothed or serrated, but this is by no means universal, and is often a
+sign of a later repairing of the vessel by less skilful hands. In the
+inlaying of very narrow lines, where there was hardly room for
+undercutting, a series of notches were punched along the line with an
+oblong-headed instrument, and the inlay beaten or pressed with agate or
+jade into the holes, which served to hold the thin thread. The earliest
+work is never treated in the mode which became common in Venetian and
+later inlay, by the process of stippling the whole of a large surface
+with little triangular notches, which served like teeth to hold the
+metal plates. Whenever we find such stippling on ancient work, it is a
+sign that the inlay has dropped off, and has been restored by a later
+hand. The only approach to stippling in early work is the punching
+oblong (not triangular) notches in inlaying thin threads of silver or
+gold.
+
+M. Lavoix, in an interesting paper on “Les Azziministes,”[56]
+distinguishes three methods of inlaying; (1) incrustation, where a
+thread of gold is inserted in an under-cut groove; (2) plating, where a
+plate of metal is enclosed between slightly raised walls, which, he
+says, is the Damascus manner; and (3) where the workman runs a sort of
+spur-tool rapidly over the surface to be inlaid, so as to make a series
+of notches, and then presses on the thin leaf of metal.[57] The last
+method, he adds, is that chiefly in vogue in Persia, or _Al-Ajam_, to
+give the country its Arabic name, whence the art came to be known in
+Europe as _Alla gemina_, _Algeminia_, _All’ Azzimina_, and the inlayers
+took the name of _Algemina_, or _Azzimina_. The Comte de
+Rochechouart[58] describes the three processes of damascening or
+inlaying still employed in Persia. He distinguishes the processes as
+follows: (1) _Zarkhonden_, damascening in relief, where the base is cut
+out and the edges under-cut, and the precious metal pinned on with gold
+nails, after which the surface is chased. (2) _Zarnichanest_,
+damascening in the flat, where the same process is used, but the gold is
+pressed in with a piece of jade, and all that projects is burnished off.
+(3) _Zarkouft_, which, he says, is the most usual way, where the design
+is traced with the graver, but is not cut out, and the surface is
+toothed with a special tool, and the gold leaf, which is used very thin,
+is pressed on with jade, and then exposed to the fire till it sweats,
+after which it is again burnished with jade, and the process is repeated
+until the incrustation is firmly fixed. The last process is very cheap,
+as little gold is used. It is evident that in this last process (which
+preserves only the name of the old _Keft_ work), we have an inferior
+development of the stippling process employed by the Oriental artists of
+Venice, and by the late repairers of Mōsil work. The difference is, that
+instead of using an honest plate of gold or silver and really inlaying
+it in a sunken bed, relying on the stippling only to keep the central
+portions down, the modern Persian method depends wholly on the stippling
+and the heating, and is not inlay at all, but a cheap imitation. Another
+process, mentioned by Sir Digby Wyatt (in Waring’s _Art Treasures_,
+1857), is described as consisting in punching little holes round the
+outline of the surface to be covered, and burnishing down the silver
+till it is forced into the holes and thus held; but I cannot recall any
+example of this process among the Saracenic objects I have examined.
+
+When with incredible labour the whole surface of a bowl or other object
+had been excavated in the intended designs, and the edges had been
+under-cut, and the silver plates burnished into the recesses thus
+prepared, the work of the Mōsil artist was only half done. He had next
+to chase the surface of each plate with details which could not be
+represented in the outline. The faces and dress of the horsemen and
+princes, the fur of the beasts, the feathers of every bird, and
+countless other details, had to be slowly and minutely engraved on the
+surface of each little plate of silver, till the extraordinarily
+delicate and finished effect which is characteristic of true Saracenic
+work had been attained. There were no half-measures, no scamped work,
+with the Saracen artists; every part of the inlay, if only the size of a
+pea, if it represented anything but the smooth face of an Arabic letter,
+must be chased; and these old-fashioned workmen had not yet learned the
+economical practice of modern artisans, who neglect whatever part is not
+likely to be seen, but took as much pains with the portions of their
+work that were not to be seen as with those that were meant to be always
+visible. Mahmūd the Kurd, a Saracen artist of Venice, carried this
+principle of honest work so far, that when he made use of the stippling
+process to retain his silver plates in their places, he traced his
+stipples in a graceful scroll-pattern, although he knew that they would
+immediately be concealed by the silver they were designed to hold. If
+the silver had not accidentally been worn off, we should never have
+suspected the true artist’s spirit hidden beneath.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 74.—TABLE FROM THE MARISTAN OF KALAUN.
+
+Thirteenth Century. (_Cairo Museum._)]
+
+What has been said about the processes of inlaying and chasing applies
+to the whole of the best period of Saracenic art in the East, to the
+Syrian and Mamlūk styles, as well as to the Mōsil work, but the
+predominance in 14th century Mamlūk work of large inscriptions, which
+need no chasing, instead of the multitudinous figures of the Mōsil
+artist, renders the later work slightly less elaborate, though even here
+the prevalence of ducks and birds in the ground-decoration demands
+prodigious labour in chasing.
+
+Between the Mōsil work and the commoner Mamlūk style, I have
+distinguished a class to which I have ventured to give the name of
+_Syrian_. It combines some of the characteristics of the earliest Mōsil
+style with others that belong to the succeeding art of the Mamlūks. Thus
+it shows on some examples the usual Mōsil decoration of figures, while
+it presents numerous examples of the confronted birds, or fighting
+cocks, and groups of four or six ducks or other fowl arranged in a
+circle with their heads together, and also the rosette of flowers and
+leaves which remind one of Damascus titles,—all of which are typical of
+the later work of the Mamlūks. One special ornament is to be noticed in
+this class: this is a medallion filled with a sort of key ornament,
+consisting of a number of Z’s arranged in a circle, and inlaid with gold
+wire. These little medallions occur in large numbers all over the
+writing-boxes, which appear to have been the special product of this
+school of metal-work, and they seldom recur in similar abundance at any
+other period. The reasons which lead me to regard this class as the
+fabric of some Syrian city, probably Damascus or Aleppo, are these:—the
+style is certainly distinct from both that of Mōsil and the later art of
+Cairo; gold inlay is historically known to have been a favourite
+decoration with the Damascus artists, of whom, according to M. Lavoix,
+there was a distinct school;[59] the rosettes of flowers and leaves have
+a decidedly Damascus look; the only name, or rather title, that can with
+probability be identified on the objects classed under this division,
+appears to refer to a prince of Aleppo, whose slave or Mamlūk made the
+writing-box described on p. 222.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 75.—PANEL OF TABLE OF EN-NASIR, SON OF KALAUN.
+
+(_Cairo Museum._)]
+
+The third, or Mamlūk, class is at once the most numerous and best
+identified by inscriptions. The greater number of examples belong to the
+time of the Sultan En-Nāsir Mohammad ibn Kalaūn and his many and wealthy
+courtiers, the Nāsiry Mamlūks, and it is probable that the style
+acquired its distinctive character during this period of sumptuous
+magnificence in the fourteenth century. Indeed we shall see that
+Beysary, who lived through Kalāūn’s reign, employed the art of Mōsil for
+his perfume-burner. Kalāūn, again, to judge by his carved doors in the
+Māristān, preferred the Mōsil style of figure-work, which still probably
+held the market as the best of its kind. It is, therefore, not
+unreasonable to place the beginning of what I have called the Mamlūk
+style at the accession of En-Nāsir Mohammad, who reigned from A.H. 693
+to 741 (A.D. 1293 to 1341). From this time onwards, at least until the
+conquest of Egypt by the Othmānly Turks, the Sultāns and Amīrs of Egypt
+delighted to surround themselves with exquisitely chased and inlaid
+vessels and furniture. The Museum at Cairo contains two inlaid tables
+(figs. 74 and 75), one of which bears the name and titles of the Sultan
+En-Nāsir ibn Kalāūn, in brass filigree work, inlaid with silver
+medallions, panels of flowers, and geometrical designs, and Naskhy and
+Kūfy inscriptions. These tables were used to support such a tray as the
+splendid specimen preserved in the South Kensington Museum, described at
+p. 229, on which the Sultān’s repasts, and the wine service that
+followed, were spread in the usual Eastern manner. The doors of the
+mosques of this period were covered, not with the rough but effective
+plaques of _cast_ bronze, which we see on the doors of Beybars (figs.
+83-6) in the thirteenth century, but with _cut_ bronze plates, chased
+and sometimes inlaid with silver. Mosque lamps, when they were not of
+enamelled glass, were of exquisite filigree silver inlay (fig. 76).
+Large chandeliers hung in front of the niches of many of the mosques,
+made of _repoussé_ bronze in an arabesque design and covered with
+chasing, or of iron filigree work (fig. 78), with zones of shining
+copper, bright as red gold. Korāns were enclosed in gold cases adorned
+with precious stones.[60] The utensils of the royal and aristocratic
+palaces were of inlaid brass and bronze; large bowls or tanks, small
+cups and trays, censers, candlesticks of ungainly form but beautiful
+workmanship, ewers, caskets, writing-boxes, all were covered with silver
+ornament, arabesques, flowers, inscriptions, and geometrical designs,
+with, not seldom, the heraldic badges of their owner. The specimens
+described below range from the beginning of the fourteenth to the end of
+the fifteenth century, when the art of inlaying was already on the wane;
+but an examination of the numerous collections, public and private, of
+Europe would doubtless carry the history of the art to a somewhat later
+date. In the present day the Cairo workmen engrave brass trays and
+vessels of considerable merit, and if they do not now produce to any
+appreciable extent the inlaid work of their ancestors it is probably
+because it is too costly for most purchasers, and is neglected by the
+modern Pasha.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 76.—LAMP OF SULTAN BEYBARS II.
+
+A.D. 1309-1310.]
+
+There can be no doubt that most of this Mamlūk work was made at Cairo.
+Although the figured work of Mōsil, taking a new start in the 12th and
+13th centuries, seems to have at first dominated the artists of the
+Mohammadan East, and to have influenced schools of design far from its
+centre, there is no question that inlaid metal-work existed in Egypt
+before the 13th century. The inventory of the palace of the Fātimy
+Khalif El-Mustansir, in the 11th century, contains numerous entries of
+inlaid metal-work,—gold plates enamelled in colours; writing-boxes in
+gold and silver; great vats for washing clothes, standing on three legs,
+representing animals; mirrors inlaid with gold and silver in borders of
+precious stones; quantities of vessels adorned with chased gold; six
+thousand gold narcissus vases; and even row-galleys coated with gold
+plates. Nāsir-i-Khusrau, who saw this Khalif holding a state reception,
+says his throne was covered with gold, on which were depicted scenes of
+the chase, huntsmen and dogs, and inscriptions; the balustrade was of
+gold trellis-work of a beauty defying description, and the steps behind
+the throne were of silver.[61] The same observer tells us of a
+magnificent silver chandelier placed in the mosque of ‘Amr by the Khalif
+El-Hākim, which was so large that they had to break down the door to get
+it into the mosque.[62]
+
+Fātimy work spread to Sicily, where we find very early and singularly
+perfect metal-work made by Mohammadans. The Bayeaux ivory casket
+(Prisse, iii., pl. 157), with its finely chased silver plates, has an
+unmistakable Fātimy inscription in combination with confronted birds,
+peacocks beak to beak, parrots, and other Mōsil characteristics. The
+ivory box of Ziyād ibn Aflah, in the South Kensington Museum, with the
+date 359 (A.D. 971), is probably due to Fātimy workmen. The crystal vase
+preserved in the treasure of St. Mark at Venice bears the name of
+El-‘Azīz, a Fātimy Khalif of the last quarter of the tenth century, and
+is closely similar to another crystal vase of St. Denis, now in the
+Louvre, which bears inscriptions of the same character as those on the
+Nürnberg mantle, which was made at Palermo in 1133 under the rule of
+Roger.[63] These crystal vases, of which examples with the name of
+El-‘Azīz are mentioned by El-Makrīzy, and the embroidered silks, show a
+power of design and execution which implies similar proficiency in
+metal-work. In fine, there is no doubt that the artists of Egypt under
+the Fātimis were skilled to a degree that found no parallel in the
+handicrafts of Europe. The art may have succumbed for a while to the
+influence of the Mōsil school, which would naturally be imported by
+rulers like Saladin and his successors, who came from the very region of
+the Mōsil silversmiths; and the Fātimy work may have owed much of its
+perfection to the teaching of Mesopotamian artists of a date earlier
+than any existing specimens;[64] but it is impossible to overlook the
+existence of an ancient skill in arts of all kinds in Egypt itself, and
+to ascribe much of the merits of the Mamlūk work to the traditions of
+the Fātimis. The derivation is the more likely, inasmuch as the Mamlūk
+work betrays more of the arabesque and floral influence of the Egyptian
+school, as we see it displayed in the older mosques of Cairo, than that
+of the figure ornament of Mōsil. The ducks of the Mesopotamian swamps
+indeed survive and are emphasized, in deference, as I believe, to the
+name of the founder of En-Nāsir’s dynasty, Ḳalāūn (the “duck”); but the
+general character of the Mamlūk style is certainly different from that
+of Mōsil, and partakes of the general Saracenic character of arabesque
+and geometrical design, which was no doubt inherited from the earlier
+rulers of Egypt, and was probably to a large extent fostered by skilful
+artists among the Copts.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 77.—BASE OF CHANDELIER OF SULTAN EL-GHORY.
+
+Beginning of 16th Century. (_Cairo Museum._)]
+
+It is unfortunate that so few examples of Coptic art can be ascribed
+with certainty to fixed dates; for the establishment of the existence of
+an early Coptic school of art, derived from Byzantium, would explain
+much that is obscure in the history of Egyptian art. From what Mr.
+Butler has been able to bring together in his valuable work on the
+_Coptic Churches of Egypt_, it seems clear that, however deeply the
+Saracens were indebted to the Copts for their designs and methods in
+wood and ivory carving and inlay, they did not draw their metal-work
+from the same source. Coptic metal-work shows no trace of affinity to
+the Saracenic bowls, trays, and censers described in the present
+chapter. The lamps, crosses, textus cases, and flabella of the Copts are
+more nearly related to European and Byzantine models than to
+contemporary Saracenic work. Yet the remark made above, that Coptic
+influence is traceable even in this art, holds good; since it is not
+uncommon to find one art suggesting ideas to another, and the Coptic
+designs in wood and ivory may have helped to form the Mamlūk style in
+brass and silver.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 78.—LANTERN OF SHEYKH ‘ABD-EL-BASIT.
+
+(_Cairo Museum._)]
+
+But it may be asked, especially when the prevalence of what I have
+described as a Damascus-looking rosette on Mamlūk work is considered,
+whether the metal-work of the Mamlūks was not manufactured at their
+second capital, Damascus, rather than at Cairo, and whether the old
+Fātimy art had not become extinct, to be succeeded by a Damascus school
+taking up new ground? There is no reason for supposing that the artists
+of Damascus stopped with the style described under my second class—if
+indeed that be really Syrian; doubtless they continued to execute
+equally fine specimens, and some of the objects bearing Mamlūk names may
+have been made at Damascus. But it should be noted that there is
+practically no metal-work of any merit at Damascus now, while the Cairo
+workmen are still skilful; and further, I can quote a passage from El-
+Makrīzy which mentions a flourishing school of metal artists under the
+Mamlūks at Cairo.
+
+“_Sūḳ El-Keftīyīn_ (‘market of the inlayers’). This market . . .
+contains a number of shops for the making of _keft_, which is inlaying
+copper vessels with silver and gold. There was a great sale for this
+kind of work in the houses of Miṣr [Fusṭāṭ], and the people had a keen
+relish for inlaid copper. We have seen it in such quantities that it
+could not be counted, and there was hardly a house in Cairo or Miṣr
+which had not many pieces of inlaid copper. The equipment (شورة) of a
+wedding was not complete without a _dikka_ (or stand) of inlaid copper.
+The dikka means a thing like a divan-frame, made of wood inlaid with
+ivory and ebony, or painted. Upon the dikka were set cups of yellow
+copper [brass] inlaid with silver, and the set consisted of seven
+pieces, some smaller than others, the largest holding about an ardebb of
+wheat. The length of the [bands of] silver inlay, on those of the larger
+size, was about a third of a cubit, and the breadth two fingers. And
+similar to this was a set of plates, in number seven, one fitting into
+the other, the largest reaching to about two cubits and more. And
+besides that [inlaid work was used for] lanterns, and lamps, and vessels
+for الاشنان, and basins, and ewers, and perfume burners. The price of a
+dikka of inlaid copper thus mounted up to 200 dinārs of gold. If the
+bride were of the daughters of the Amīrs and the Wezīrs and the chief
+secretaries and the chiefs of the merchants, the outfit of the marriage
+included seven dikkas, one of silver, another of inlaid copper, another
+of white copper, another of painted wood, another of china, another of
+crystal, another of _kedāhy_—and this is of pieces of painted sheets
+[papier-maché?] brought from China: we have seen very many in the
+houses, but the art is now lacking in Misr.”[65]
+
+El-Makrīzy goes on to describe the dikka of the Kādy ‘Alā-ed-dīn,
+Muhtesib (or inspector of the markets) of Cairo, who married a daughter
+of the merchants, named Sitt El-‘Amāïm (“Lady of the Turbans”), of which
+the metal alone consisted of a hundred thousand pure silver pieces; and
+then mentions the wedding of a daughter of Sultan Hasan with an Amīr of
+Sultān Sha‘bān, and describes the fine trousseau she had, including a
+dikka, or service, of crystal, with a crystal bucket engraved with
+representations of wild beasts and birds, big enough to hold the
+contents of a water-skin. He concludes the section with the remark that
+“the demand for this inlaid copper-work has fallen off in our times, and
+since many years the people have turned away from purchasing what was to
+be sold of it, so that but a small remnant of the workers of inlay
+survive in this market.”[66]
+
+The passage above quoted from El-Makrīzy establishes beyond doubt the
+fact that there was a school of inlayers and metal-workers at Cairo
+which survived, though in diminished numbers and prosperity, to his own
+day, _i.e._ about the year 1420; and the bowl (fig. 89) described below
+p. 238, with the name of Kāït Bey, fifty years later, must, if it is of
+Cairo workmanship, as I believe, have been made by the remnant the
+historian describes as still occupying the Sūk El-Keftīyīn.[67]
+
+The general characteristics of the class which I have termed Mamlūk work
+are easily recognizable. The Arabic inscriptions are large and bold, and
+often, in the case of trays or other flat surfaces, radiating; small
+inscriptions containing the name or title of the Sultān on a fess, or
+perhaps a coat-of-arms, are enclosed in a medallion surrounded by a belt
+of flowers and leaves of the kind familiar on Damascus tiles; the ground
+is freely sprinkled with ducks and other fowl, and the bottom inside the
+bowls is generally ornamented with a shoal of fish, suggestive of the
+purposes for which the vessel was intended; the borders, generally of
+arabesque or flower scrolls, but sometimes of beasts pursuing each
+other, are broken by little whorls, typical of the style, and there are
+no figures, except when the bowl or other vessel is intended for magical
+or astrological purposes. The style is very distinct, and once seen can
+never be mistaken.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 79.—COVER OF SHERBET BOWL.
+
+Made by Mahmud El-Kurdy at Venice. Sixteenth Century.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+There remains one more important branch of the history of Saracenic
+metal-work which must not be passed over, although it does not belong to
+our special subject of Egyptian Art. This branch is the Saracenic art of
+Italy, and notably Venice. It stands to reason that the exquisite
+workmanship of the chased vases and bowls of the Saracens must have soon
+found its market in Europe, and there is plenty of evidence that even
+before the Crusades the monasteries of the West had learned to prize
+chalices made by the infidels. A strong impetus must have been afforded
+by the Mohammadan proclivities of Frederic II., and his extensive
+employment of Saracen mercenaries in his campaigns against Gregory IX.
+These foreign troops were settled in various cities of Italy, where they
+left their traces in the names as well as in the blood and civilization
+of the places they inhabited. Thus Lucera came to be called Nocera delli
+pagani; thus Pisa, which was occupied by Saracen troops for the greater
+part of the thirteenth century, had its Oriental quarter, known as the
+“Kinsica,” and even in the preceding century the poet Donizo had
+lamented the city being “delivered over to Moors, Indians, and Turks;”
+thus, too, there was a “Via Sarracena” at Ferrara. Saracenic artists
+lived at Genoa and Florence, and no doubt taught their art to the native
+workmen. Cellini says he copied Oriental poniards and improved upon
+them. Before the Crusades, Amalfi was the port whence pilgrims started
+for the Holy Land, and it was frequented by merchants from Egypt and the
+East. Here was opportunity enough for the introduction of Saracenic art
+into Europe. But beyond all these lesser entrances, Venice was the chief
+port for Eastern wares. Venice had her colonies in the coasts of the
+Levant, in Turkey, Greece, and Palestine; Venice had treaty rights in
+Egypt and Syria; Venice welcomed the merchants of the East with equal
+privileges, and assigned them the old palace of the Dukes of Ferrara for
+their habitation; and at Venice the name of the “Fondaco dei Turchi”
+still survives.[68]
+
+This almost Oriental city was the centre of Saracenic metal-work in
+Italy. Numerous salvers, cups, censers, and other articles, bear the
+unmistakable stamp of Venetian handicraft. The first and most salient
+distinction of this European branch of Saracenic work is in the form;
+the somewhat crude outlines of the true Saracenic bowls and candlesticks
+give place to more graceful and obviously Western shapes. In the
+decoration considerable alterations are made. In place of the
+inscriptional medallions or simple Mamlūk shields, European coats-of-
+arms are introduced; and the general treatment of the decoration is
+different. The arabesques remain, but they are more elaborate, and at
+the same time more mechanical. Silver inlay is sparingly used, and in
+many instances is entirely wanting; and the design is brought out, not
+by the contrast of metals, but by relief; the pattern being raised, and
+the surrounding ground cut away to a lower level. When there is inlay,
+it is generally in thin lines, secured between slightly raised and
+serrated edges, and further held by stippling the surface beneath the
+plate with little notches; but even then the design is in relief. The
+artists who produced this extremely delicate and beautiful work were at
+first and probably for some time Easterns. The most famous name we meet
+with on the sherbet-bowls and trays of Venice is that of Mahmūd El-
+Kurdy, who must have come from the Kurd country in the neighbourhood of
+the Euphrates, and was thus an heir to the traditions of the
+Mesopotamian metal-workers. The number of these Venetian and Italian
+specimens in the British Museum is considerable, and the series has been
+instructively arranged, so that one can trace the gradual transition
+from the Mamlūk style through the Venetian school to the other still
+semi-oriental salvers of mediaeval Europe. The South Kensington Museum
+has also a few fine examples of the Venetian style of metal-work,
+including a specimen of Mahmūd El-Kurdy’s skill which is engraved in
+fig. 79. Presently the native Italian workmen took up the art, calling
+themselves Azzimini—workers, _all’ Agemina_, “in the Persian style”—as
+did Paulus Ageminius, who made the vase described by M. Lavoix, and
+Giorgio Ghisi Azzimina of Mantua, a great name among them: but in their
+hands the art changed character, and we have to go to the East again to
+see what remains of Saracenic art in the well-chased brass trays of
+Cairo, the floral decoration of Persian _narghilas_, and the rude
+arabesque bowls of Syria and Tōkāt.
+
+I now proceed to describe some typical examples of Saracenic metal-work
+in our English Museums.
+
+
+                             I. MŌṢIL-WORK.
+
+
+1. EWER.—_Brass inlaid with silver._ Made by Shugā‘ ibn Hanfar, at
+Mōsil, in A.H. 629 (A.D. 1232).
+
+On a ground of key-pattern, zones of scenes of the chase and festivity,
+benedictory inscriptions, and the date (at the junction of the neck) نقش
+شجاع ابن حنفر الموصلى فى شهر الله المبارك شهر رجب فى سنة تسع وعشرين
+وستماىة بالموصل “Engraved by Shugā‘ ibn Hanfar of Mōsil, in the blessed
+month of God, the month Regeb, in the year 629, at Mōsil.” The figures
+are arranged in four zones, two of which comprise each ten seated
+figures, enclosed in quatrefoils, playing musical instruments, drinking
+from cups, &c.; while the other two zones are adorned with large mounted
+figures, to wit:—Upper large zone: 1. Horsemen with chītah on rump; 2.
+Figure seated on throne holding cup and attended by two squires; 3.
+Horseman with hawk on wrist, rabbit before horse, dog beneath; 4.
+Archer, bending one knee, shooting ducks; 5. Two men fighting together
+with swords and round shields; 6. Horseman with beast on rump, a dog
+beneath; 7. Figure seated on throne, with two attendants, bird above; 8.
+Horseman spearing lion beneath horse’s head; 9 and 10 were occupied by
+handle and spout (the latter missing). Lower large zone:—1. Man and
+woman in howdah on camel’s back, and man leading; 2. Archer drawing bow,
+and woman in pillion, on a camel; 3. Two seated figures, one playing
+harp, the other pipe; 4. Horseman with sword and round shield combatting
+foot man similarly armed; 5. Seated figure, with jug held by servant; 6.
+Two women playing lute and cymbals; 7. Horseman, with uplifted arms,
+launching leopard or chītah from the crupper in pursuit of a deer; 8.
+Two women, with bottle, bowls, and fan; 9. Horseman shooting arrow down
+throat of boar; 10. Seated king, wearing turban, receiving homage, of a
+man who prostrates himself before throne and kisses king’s hand; a woman
+stands behind. Suns (with human faces) divide the ten figures of the
+lower zone, and floral medallions those of the upper zone. Between the
+two is a frieze of hunting-scenes broken by octagons of key-pattern: men
+and beasts and birds contending in fantastic attitudes.
+
+                           [Brit. Mus., Blacas. Coll. Reinaud, ii. 423.]
+
+[Illustration: COVER.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 80.—CASKET OF EL-‘ADIL, GRAND-NEPHEW OF SALADIN.
+
+Thirteenth Century. (_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+
+2. CENSER.—_Brass inlaid with silver._ Dated A.H. 641 (A.D. 1243).
+
+Shape, a cylinder on three feet; with a dome-shaped upper part, hinged
+to open and shut, and perforated in a zone round middle. The upper part
+is divided into four zones. Beginning at the button at top, the first
+zone contains an Arabic inscription:—انا فى باطنى الجحيم ولاكن ظاهرى قتر
+رائحات احبّات عمل فى سنة احد واربعين وستمائة “Within me is hellfire; but
+without float sweetest odours: it was made in the year 641.”
+
+The second zone is composed of a three-strand plait-pattern.
+
+The third zone, pierced with small holes, is covered with arabesques,
+except four medallions which are filled with the characteristic key-
+pattern [Illustration] &c.
+
+The fourth zone has the same plait-pattern as the second.
+
+The lower part is ornamented with three medallions (one reserved for a
+handle, which is missing) of key-pattern, with scroll border; and three
+arabesque quatrefoils, each surrounded by four stars; on a ground of
+key-pattern; and a benedictory Arabic inscription between the medallions
+and quatrefoils. The feet are engraved with arabesques.
+
+The bottom is of a later date, and is ornamented with an interlacing
+geometrical design in five star centres round central star. On the rim
+of the original bottom are traces of illegible inscription.
+
+                                                [B. M., Henderson, 678.]
+
+This is not a typical example of Mōsil-work; but its early date procures
+it the second place, and the key-pattern is characteristic, and will be
+found repeated on later specimens of unmistakably Mōsil fabric. With
+regard to the material, I should state that without chemical tests it is
+often impossible to be sure whether the alloy contains tin or zinc,
+whether, in other words, it is bronze or brass. The colour is a very
+unsafe guide, as I have proved during a series of chemical assays of the
+South Kensington collection performed by Professor Hodgkinson.
+
+
+3. BOX.—_Brass inlaid with silver._ Made for Bedr ed-dīn Lulu, Prince of
+Mōsil, who reigned A.H. 631-657 (A.D. 1233-1259.)
+
+Shape, cylindrical, with a hinged lid and hasp; edge of lid bevelled.
+
+On the bevel of the lid is an Arabic inscription:—
+
+عز لمولانا اتابك (؟) الملك الرحيم العالم العادل المؤيد المظفر المنصور
+المجاهد المرابط بدر الدنيا والدين لؤلؤ حسام امير المؤمنين
+
+“Glory to our lord, the merciful king, wise, just, God-aided triumphant,
+victorious, fighting for the Faith, warden of Islām, Full-moon of state
+and church, Lulu [Pearl], sword-blade of the Prince of the Faithful.”
+
+Round of the edge of the lid, a plait-border.
+
+On the surface of the lid, a shoal of fish, interlaced, within
+quatrefoil, surrounded by a key-pattern, within scroll-border.
+
+Round the lower part, in quatrefoil panels, four aureoled seated figures
+holding wine-cups, &c., alternating with four bold arabesques; these
+eight panels separated by other panels, enclosing a rosette of annulets,
+and beasts of the chase and water-fowl; ground of key-pattern; a fine
+arabesque border above and beneath.
+
+                                                [B. M., Henderson, 674.]
+
+Here we have a vessel made for a well-known Atābek of Mōsil, presenting
+the key-pattern, plait-border, medallions, quatrefoils, &c., already
+noticed in No. 1, but with the addition of the aureoled figures, beasts
+of the chase, water-fowl, and fish, which now become characteristic of
+thirteenth century work. If the hunting and hunted animals are typical
+of the Assyrian and Sassanian source of the art, the fish and water-fowl
+are no less natural in the swamps of Mesopotamia.
+
+
+4. BOX.—_Brass inlaid with silver._ Made for the Ayyūby Sultan El-‘Ādil
+Abū-Bekr II. (A.D. 1238-40) grand-nephew of Saladin. Fig. 80.
+
+Cylindrical, the edge of the cover bevelled and engraved with an Arabic
+inscription:—عز لمولانا السلطان الملك العادل الزاهد العابد المويد المظفر
+المنصور المجاهد المربط سيف الدنيا والدين ابى بكر ابن محمد بن ابى بكر بن
+ايوب “Glory to our lord the Sultān, the king, just, virtuous, devout,
+God-aided, triumphant, victorious, fighter for the Faith, warden of
+Islam, Sword of state and church, Abū-Bekr son of Mohammad son of Abū-
+Bekr son of Ayyūb.”
+
+The sides are covered with six aureoled figures:—1. Horseman hawk on
+wrist, dog below; 2. Man spearing beast; 3. Horseman spearing beast on
+crupper; 4. Man spearing beast; 5. As 1.; 6. Man slaying beast with
+sword.
+
+On the cover, diaper of hexagrams enclosing six seated turbaned figures
+of the planets round central sun, within a zone of the Signs of the
+Zodiac. Scroll border beneath bevel. Prevailing ornaments, scrolls and
+[Illustration]
+
+An inscription on the bottom برسم الطشت خاناه العادلية, “Made for the
+Tisht-Khānāh of El-‘Ādil,” refers to the magazine or store-room, where
+the dresses and utensils, &c., of the Sultan were kept, and the clothes
+washed. It was managed by a superintendent (مهتار) and a number of
+servants (طشتدار).[69]
+
+                          H. 4½ in., diam. 4¼ in. [S. K. M., 8508-1863.]
+
+
+5. PERFUME-BURNER.—_Brass inlaid with silver._ Made for the Amīr
+Beysary, a Turkish Mamlūk of Egypt. Circ. A.H. 670 (A.D. 1271). Fig. 81.
+
+Globular: in two hemispheres, pierced with small holes, with a ring at
+the top.
+
+The upper hemisphere is ornamented with five medallions enclosing two-
+headed eagles with spreading tails, separated by five smaller medallions
+filled with the key-pattern in the shape of a six-pointed star, the
+surrounding ground engraved with free arabesque scroll-work.
+
+Above and below the design are two zones of Arabic inscriptions. Below:
+
+   مما عمل برسم المقر الكريم العالى المولولى (_sic_) الاميرى الكبيرى
+ المحترمى المخدومى السفهسلارى المجاهدى المرابط (_sic_) المتاعزى المؤيدى
+                                المظفرى
+
+“Of what was made by order of his excellency, the generous, exalted,
+lord, great Amīr, honoured, master, Marshal, fighter for the Faith,
+warden of Islam, the powerful, the God-aided the victorious.” Above: بدر
+الدين بيسرى الظاهرى السعيدى الشمسى المنصورى البدرى “Full-moon of the
+Faith, Beysary, the liegeman of Edh-Dhāhir, of Es-Sa‘īd, of Shems-ed-
+dīn, of El-Mansūr, of Bedr-ed-dīn.” Within which, round the ring, is a
+zone of five two-headed eagles in open work.
+
+Lower hemisphere, same as upper, but omitting المولالى, and substituting
+الاسفهسلارى for السفهسلارى, adding ى to المرابط, and affixing عز نصره to
+الشمسى.
+
+                                                [B. M., Henderson, 682.]
+
+Lord Beysary was one of the retainers of Es-Sālih Ayyūb, the last ruling
+king of Egypt of the house of Saladin; rising by degrees, he became one
+of the most powerful of the Amīrs of the time of Beybars. When El-Melik
+Es-Sa‘īd Baraka, the son of Beybars, was deposed, Beysary was offered
+the throne, and refused it. Kalaūn (1279-90) threw him into prison,
+whence he was liberated, after eleven years’ captivity, by El-Ashraf
+Khalīl in 1293, who restored him to his rank of centurion, or captain
+over too men, while the Amīrs showered congratulations and presents upon
+him. Henceforward he styled himself El-Ashrafy, “follower[70] of El-
+Ashraf,” instead of his old title of Esh-Shemsy. On the death of Khalīl
+he was again offered the throne, and again declined the honour. The
+Sultan Ketbughā allotted him sixty Mamlūks, to each of whom Beysary gave
+two horses and a mule. The tide of fortune changed in 1297, when the
+Sultan Lāgīn, moved to jealousy by a rival lord, again consigned Beysary
+to prison, where he died in 1298, and was buried in his tomb outside the
+Bāb-en-Nasr. He was lavish in his generosity, prodigal of immense gifts,
+and perpetually in debt to the amount of 400,000 dirhems (about
+£16,000); for he had no sooner cleared off one debt than he hastened to
+contract another. Generosity was his pride, and he would accept no
+remonstrances from his servants on his prodigality, but straightway
+dismissed the economical critic. He never drank twice out of the same
+cup, but took a new vessel each time. At the time of the accession to
+power of Kalaūn, Beysary is stated to have been wholly given over to
+wine and gambling. No man approached him in the amount and importance of
+his charities. His palace, Dār El-Beysarīyeh, in the Beyn-el-Kasreyn,
+was originally intended, in late Fātimy times, for a residence for
+Frankish ambassadors, and one actually had resided there to receive
+certain tribute; but under Beybars, Lord Beysary Es-Sālihy Esh-Shemsy
+En-Negmy began to rebuild the palace in 1261, and spent immense sums on
+adorning it. It occupied, with its stables, garden, and bath, about two
+acres (feddāns): the marbles employed for it were the best that were
+used in Cairo, and excellently wrought. The palace remained in the
+possession of his heirs till 1332. Kūsūn wished to own it, and asked the
+Sultan En-Nāsir Mohammad for permission to treat for it: it was valued
+at 190,000 dirhems, and the garden brought it up to 200,000; it
+subsequently passed through many hands, and at the time of El-Makrīzy
+belonged to a daughter of Barkūk. The door of the house had a panel
+which was one of the most beautiful ever made at Cairo.[71]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 81.—PERFUME-BURNER OF BEYSARY.
+
+Thirteenth Century. (_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+It may be questioned whether the South Kensington box and Beysary’s
+perfume-burner were made at Mōsil or at Cairo. The statement on the
+former that it was made “by order of El-‘Ādil’s tisht-khānāh” does not
+necessarily infer that the order was executed in Cairo: a Mōsil workman
+may have been employed at Mōsil or have been fetched to Cairo. The two
+pieces, however, are of the style which is identified by other examples
+as the fabric of Mōsil, and the two-headed eagle is a familiar device on
+Mesopotamian coin of the twelfth and thirteenth century; and if either
+was made at Cairo the artists must have been trained in the Mōsil
+school. That such work was sometimes done at Cairo is shown by an
+astrolabe in the British Museum, with the inscription—
+
+  صنعه عبد الكريم المصرى الاسطرلابى بمصر الملكى الاشرفى الملكى المعزى
+                       الشهابى فى سنة خلج هجرية,
+
+“‘Abd-El-Kerīm made it, the Cairene [Misry], the Astrolabist, at Cairo,
+the [follower] of El-Melik El-Ashraf and El-Melik El-Mu‘izz, and of
+Shihāb-ed-dīn, in the year 633.”
+
+This astrolabe has the key ornament, good arabesques, and of course
+planets and zodiacal figures; and is inlaid with silver and gold by
+under-cutting and toothed edges. The El-Mu‘izz, whom he once served, was
+no doubt the prince of Mesopotamia, and El-Ashraf the Ayyūby of
+Diyārbekr, both of whom reigned in the first quarter of the thirteenth
+century. This would show that Mesopotamian artists came to Cairo, where
+there was, as we have seen, a _Sūk El-Keftīyīn_, or market of the
+inlayers.
+
+
+6. PERFUME-BURNER.—_Brass inlaid with silver._ No date. [Thirteenth
+century.]
+
+Shape similar to No. 2.
+
+On the lower part are three arabesque frames, one occupied by handle,
+the other two filled with two aureoled figures seated cross-legged on
+high-backed thrones, with bird on either side; between which are other
+medallions filled with quatrefoils; and beasts of the chase; ground of
+arabesque scroll-work.
+
+On the top, nine seated figures holding cups, cymbals, &c.; and round
+the button a zone of Arabic inscription:—
+
+               العز الدائم والعمر السالم والاقبال الزائد
+
+“Enduring glory and sound life and growing prosperity.”
+
+                                                [B. M., Henderson, 681.]
+
+The seated figures on high thrones are similar to some on coins of
+Saladin, of 1190, and of the Urtukīs of Māridīn of the year 1230: cross-
+legged figures are common on the Mesopotamian currency of the thirteenth
+century.
+
+
+7. DEEP SALVER.—_Brass inlaid with silver._ No date. [Thirteenth
+century.]
+
+On a ground of key-pattern, a band of hunting-scenes, and cross-legged
+figures holding crescent moon, alternately, with occasional water-fowl,
+and a border of hounds. The hunting-scenes depict a horseman attacking,
+with drawn sword, a leopard on horse’s rump, another shooting a hare
+with bow and arrow, a third cutting down a deer in front of the horse,
+and three pairs of seated Byzantine-looking figures, two of these
+holding cups and the third a hawk, while the companions hold sword or
+spear. Meaningless Kufic inscription لعالعالعا, &c. Within the curve of
+the rim, a border of medallions enclosing figures holding wine-cups,
+&c., and also pairs of figures resembling the Madonna and Child. The
+central and chief device consists of a seated cross-legged figure on
+high-backed throne, attended by two squires, holding cup and sword
+(other cups sprinkled in the field); at the foot of the throne two lions
+couchant, and beneath them a two-headed eagle, closely resembling that
+of Beysary, between two bowmen shooting each at one of its heads.
+
+                                                [B. M., Henderson, 706.]
+
+
+8. EWER.—_Brass inlaid with silver._ No date. [Thirteenth century.]
+
+The decoration on the body is arranged in a series of zones on an
+arabesque ground.
+
+The topmost zone consists of a band of falcons, back to back, with
+silver eyes, tails crossed, and heads standing out in very bold relief,
+so as to form a sort of parapet of knobs.
+
+Second zone: Arabic benedictory inscription, tops of _alifs_, _lāms_,
+&c., terminating in chased human faces.
+
+Third zone: Beasts of the chase.
+
+Fourth or central zone, wider than the rest: Large arabesques enclosing
+twelve quasi-medallions, filled with personified signs of the zodiac
+combined with the seven planets, viz. (1) Mars on Aries, warrior holding
+decapitated human head, and riding ram; (2) Venus on Taurus, woman (with
+lute) riding bull; (3) Mercury and Gemini, two figures linked together
+with a staff (pen?) between them, terminating in human faces; (4) Moon
+and Cancer, crab surmounted by human head in crescent formed by claws;
+(5) Sun and Leo, lion surmounted by sun; (6) [Mercury and] Virgo, woman
+with two ears of corn; (7) Venus and Libra, balance held up by a woman;
+(8) Mars and Scorpio, man holding two scorpions; (9) Jupiter and
+Sagittarius, centaur shooting arrow down gaping mouth of dragon (formed
+out of his own tail); (10) Saturn and Capricornus, bearded man with long
+staff, riding goat; (11) Saturn and Aquarius, bearded man and well-
+bucket; (12) Jupiter and Pisces, two fish (Jupiter covered by handle).
+
+Fifth zone: Beasts of the chase.
+
+Sixth zone: Arabic benedictory inscription.
+
+Seventh zone: Long-necked birds within borders, necks intertwined.
+
+Eighth zone: Arabic benedictory inscription.
+
+On the _neck_ is a zone of Arabic benedictory inscription, with a fine
+lion sejant at either side; a zone of birds with red copper eyes; the
+ground consists of beautiful free arabesques. Up the spout and sides of
+handle run strings of beasts of the chase, and up the back of the handle
+a string of birds; at the junction of handle with body is a seated
+figure, cross-legged, holding two serpents.
+
+(B. M. Engraved in Labarte’s _Handbook of the Arts of the Middle Ages_,
+ed. Palliser, p. 423.)
+
+The silver inlay of this ewer is effected by undercutting the edges, and
+not by stippling the surface (what stipples there are belong to a later
+repairing), and the straight lines are inlaid by punching all along them
+with a small oblong-headed punch.
+
+
+9. BOWL.—_Bronze inlaid with silver._ No date. [Thirteenth century.]
+
+The decoration consists _without_, in two zones of Arabic religious
+inscriptions divided by key-medallions, and a double row of medallions
+enclosing aureoled figures playing musical instruments and drinking from
+cups; _within_, a zone of medallions enclosing hunting-scenes, aureoled
+figures fighting with lions, carrying falcons, riding an elephant, and a
+Bedawy on camel, the interstices filled with key-pattern; at the bottom,
+inside, a boat rowed by three men, while two others shoot wild ducks,
+another cuts a duck’s throat, a seventh sits at the mast-head, and
+another dives beneath, pursued by an alligator; three zones of Arabic
+religious and unmeaning inscriptions; on rim, border of animals of the
+chase, elephants, and a winged centaur. Height 8 in., diam. 19 in.
+
+                                                  [S. K. M., 2734-1856.]
+
+The foregoing is one of the finest pieces of Mōsil work in England. The
+elephant and camel are specially noteworthy; above all, the spirited
+scene on the bottom of a shooting party on the water, such as is
+recorded in the accounts of the sports of Persian princes.
+
+
+10. STAND.—_Brass inlaid with silver and gold._ No date. [Thirteenth
+century.]
+
+Nine-sided; chased with representations of nine figures of aureoled
+horsemen, holding falcons, fighting with dragon, brandishing bow, spear,
+and other weapons; above, nine cross-legged seated aureoled figures
+clashing cymbals, blowing pipe, holding candles, and putting wine-glass
+to lips; the interstices filled with black bituminous enamel; on a
+background of silver scroll-work; above and below, imitation Arabic
+inscription (لسا لسا, &c.). Height 5¾ in., diam. 9½ in.
+
+                                                  [S. K. M., 917.-1884.]
+
+The workmanship of the preceding is unusually delicate and intricate,
+and the shape is peculiar. It may have formed the base of a candlestick.
+The black enamel, composed really of pitch, is here well preserved, and
+it is probable that the majority of the inlaid works of this period were
+treated in a similar manner; so that the black composition concealed
+most of those intervening portions of brass which the silver plates did
+not cover.
+
+It is impossible to conclude this section without referring to the most
+famous example of figured Mōsil work in Europe, the so-called
+“Baptistery of St. Louis,” preserved in the Louvre.[72] This splendid
+bowl, which belongs in style to the class of Mōsil work of the
+thirteenth century, measures five feet in circumference, and is covered
+inside and out with bands of figures richly inlaid with silver, so that
+little of the copper is visible. On the band inside are two medallions,
+each enclosing a prince seated cross-legged on a throne with a high
+pinnacled back and two lions under the feet, and holding a wine-cup,
+attended by two servants, one on the left of the prince bearing a sword,
+the other on the right holding a casket inscribed دواة (“writing-case”).
+On the back of the throne is the inscription “made by Ibn-ez-Zeyn,” or
+(as it is written elsewhere on the bowl) عمل المعلم محمد ابن الزين غفر
+له, “Made by master Mohammad ibn-ez-Zeyn, save him!” The little cups
+held by the princes in the medallions are also signed with his name, as
+though they represented the vessels actually made in his workshop.
+Between the medallions are, on the one hand, six horsemen fighting with
+lances, bows, and maces; on the other, six huntsmen pursuing beasts and
+game. One carries a chītah on the crupper—one of those “leopardi qui
+sciant equitare” which the mighty hunter Frederic II. loved to see
+engraved upon his cups.
+
+On the exterior a frieze of figures, ten centimètres high, is broken by
+four medallions, each containing a prince on horseback killing a bear, a
+lion, or a dragon, with lance or arrows. Between, his servants bring him
+arms, falcons, a slain antelope, dogs in leash, and leopards; one offers
+a flask and cup (inscribed with Ibn-ez-Zeyn’s name); another, a plate,
+inscribed انا بجفيز لحمل الطعام, “I hasten to bring food.” This frieze
+is bounded by two borders of beasts of the chase, divided by eight
+medallions, containing each a fleur-de-lis—probably a later European
+addition.
+
+Such, in effect, is M. de Longpérier’s description of this magnificent
+work of art, to which the engravings inserted to illustrate his article
+do scant justice. Some of the zones are reproduced from these engravings
+fig. 82. Mr. W. Burges (in Sir Digby Wyatt’s _Metal Work_) says that the
+inlay of this bowl is effected by sinking the designs, especially deeply
+towards the edges, which are under-cut in a rebate, into which the edges
+of the inlaid plate are forced.
+
+Before dismissing the Mōsil work, some reference must be made to the
+numerous mirrors which were made in that part, as well as elsewhere.
+They have been brought from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and especially from the
+South of Russia, where they are often found buried in the graves of
+Tartars. They are generally cast, with a good deal of silver in the
+bronze; in form they are round or square, and vary in size from two
+inches to a foot. Several are preserved in the British Museum, including
+those described by Reinaud, from the Duc de Blacas’ Collection. The
+ornament is on the back, and generally consists of little more than
+benedictory inscriptions; but one has a pair of Assyrian winged
+monsters, resembling Kalaūn’s winged kings.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 82.—INLAID SILVER PANELS OF THE “BAPTISTERY OF ST.
+LOUIS.”
+
+(_Louvre._)]
+
+
+                         II. EARLY SYRIAN WORK.
+
+
+11. COFFRET.—_Brass, inlaid with silver and gold._ No date. [Late
+thirteenth century?]
+
+Oblong, with sloping lid and silver chains to support it when open. It
+is covered with silver plates, chased with foliage, birds, and human-
+headed lions; and inlaid with medallions of designs and religious or
+unmeaning (العالعالعا) Arabic inscriptions in gold.
+
+On the lid are eight large and small bosses. Height 5⅜ in., L. 5⁷⁄₁₆
+in., W. 4 in.
+
+                                                  [S. K. M., 459.-1873.]
+
+Other specimens of the same sort are engraved in Prisse, where one is
+stated to have belonged to En Nāsir ibn Kalaūn.
+
+
+12. WRITING-BOX.—_Brass, inlaid with silver and copper._ With hinge and
+hasp. No date. [Late thirteenth century?]
+
+Oblong, with compartments for pens, ink, sand, &c.
+
+Along the front, sides, and back of lower part, the signs of the zodiac
+are represented in combination with the planets, much as on No. 8, but
+with copper as well as silver inlay; the ground is of closely interwoven
+arabesques, inlaid and chased on the surface. On the bottom are four
+groups of four water-fowls each, with the heads together. On the lid,
+three medallions filled with key-pattern; arabesque ground; and border
+of decorative Kūfy inscription, nearly illegible. Inside the lid is an
+Arabic benedictory inscription and a Kūfy inscription on the top inside,
+with a central panel, and arabesque ground.
+
+                                            [B. M., A. W. Franks, 1884.]
+
+
+13. WRITING-BOX.—_Brass, inlaid with silver and a little gold._ No date.
+[Late thirteenth century?]
+
+Similar to 12, but with rounded ends; seventeen figures, riding,
+drinking, or playing on musical instruments, on the lid and bottom,
+inside and out; water-fowl confronted in pairs, back to back, and also a
+group of six; small medallions of key-pattern inlaid with gold wire.
+
+                                                    [B. M., Burges, 19.]
+
+
+14. WRITING-BOX.—_Brass, inlaid with silver and a little gold._ No date.
+[Late thirteenth century.]
+
+Similar to 12 in shape and general treatment, but the leaves of the
+arabesque ground are now frequently converted into birds, and there are
+no figures: the two birds fighting beak to beak, in chased silver inlay,
+occur repeatedly, and also the key-pattern medallions in gold: Arabic
+benedictory inscriptions on top and round sides, and on bottom
+arabesques on a key-pattern ground: inside, fine rosettes of flowers and
+leaves like Damascus tiles, numerous key-pattern medallions in gold
+wire, flower-scroll borders, wild-fowl in panels of six, two Arabic
+benedictory inscriptions, and one circular radiating inscription, viz.:
+
+    الجناب العالى المولموى الكبيرى المالكى السيدى الهمامى الغياثى الدخرى
+
+“His Highness exalted, lordly, great, royal, master, valiant,
+_Ghiyāthy_, munificent.”
+
+                                                    [B. M., Burges, 20.]
+
+It is dangerous to hazard conjecture as to the identity of the prince
+Ghiyāth-ed-dīn from whom this Mamlūk (retainer) took his epithet
+Ghiyāthy, for the name is not uncommon. It does not, however, occur
+among the Beny Zenky or the Bahry Mamlūks, and it is not unreasonable to
+suppose it to refer to either Edh-Dhāhir or El-‘Azīz, son and grandson
+of Saladin, who both bore the surname, and ruled Aleppo from 1186 to
+1236. A retainer of the latter might easily be living in the second half
+of the thirteenth century.
+
+
+15. BOX.—_Brass inlaid with silver and a little gold._ No date. [Late
+thirteenth century?]
+
+Oblong, curved outline. Gold inlay chiefly distributed in key-pattern
+medallions and stars; silver in the confronted birds &c.; two groups of
+four birds within eightfoils on top; on front, two birds confronted and
+two beasts confronted within eightfoil, four times repeated, in
+alternation with arabesques likewise enclosed in eightfoils; ground of
+key-pattern; border of beasts of the chase.
+
+                                                [B. M., Henderson, 677.]
+
+The last three pieces were in all probability made by the same school of
+artists. They began with the Mōsil-like system of zodiacal and other
+figures (but in a much more finished and delicate manner), adding the
+characteristic mark of this group—the gold-inlaid key-pattern
+medallions—and then omitted the figures and introduced more of the
+waterfowl that afterwards became most prominent on Mamlūk work, and also
+added the typical Damascus rosette ornament. These boxes constitute a
+class by themselves, and arguing from the Damascus ornament and the
+(probably) Aleppo epithet, I have provisionally termed it _Syrian_. A
+similar writing-box in the South Kensington Museum (8993-1863) has a
+long series of Mamlūk titles, none of which identify its provenance.
+
+
+                           III. MAMLUK WORK.
+
+The rule of the Mamlūks in Egypt extended from the middle of the 13th to
+the beginning of the 16th century; but there are hardly any examples of
+their metal-work of the 13th century, and the finest and most numerous
+class is that of the Nāsiry Amīrs, or courtiers of the Sultan En-Nāsir
+Mohammad, in the 14th century: this is the style which is meant when the
+term Mamlūk work is employed. Of the earlier century, besides the
+perfume-burner of Mōsil style already described bearing the name of
+Beysary, the chief specimen of 13th century work made in Cairo is the
+bronze plating of the doors of Beybars’ mosque _extra muros_.
+
+
+16. DOOR-PLATING OF THE MOSQUE OF BEYBARS I., A.D. 1268.
+
+These plaques are now in the South Kensington Museum, having been
+acquired in 1884 from M. de St. Maurice. They consist of a central boss,
+bearing the crest of Beybars, a lion passant (fig. 83), with twelve
+geometrically shaped plaques arranged round it, each of which contains
+an arabesque design in open filigree-work (fig. 84); a smaller boss
+surrounded by nine similar plaques; a knocker (fig. 85); and a border of
+open arabesque-work (fig. 86) and a portion of an Arabic inscription
+(الاتابكى الملكى الظاهرى) also in open work. Two other sets consist of a
+knocker, bosses, and geometrical plaques filled with arabesque designs
+in open work, arabesque borders, and a portion of a Korān inscription.
+The plaques form systems of 10 in these sets; of 12 and 9 in the first
+set. All these pieces are _cast_, not cut, and are therefore identical
+each with its fellows in the same system, in contrast to the usual
+character of Cairene work, where we seldom find two patterns alike. The
+arabesques are, however, very free and flowing, and the appearance of
+the numerous plaques, fastened all over the door by ribbed studs, must
+have been highly effective. The mosque where these doors once hung was
+built by Sultan Beybars, in the Huseynīya quarter of Cairo, in 665-7
+(A.D. 1266-8), and contains many remarkable features.
+
+[Illustration: FIGS. 83-86.—BRONZE PLAQUES FROM DOOR OF BEYBARS I.
+
+(_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+These bronze-plaque doors of Beybars are of a different character from
+the bronze doors of the later Mamlūks.[73] The mosques of Cairo present
+many splendid examples of this later style, which usually consists in
+covering the doors with large plates of thin bronze (about ¼ inch), cut
+out in various arabesque patterns, or cast in embossed designs, and
+chased on the surface, and generally distributed in the form of a
+central circle or oval and four corner-pieces, or spandrils, with a
+border round the four sides, secured by ribbed-headed nails. The door
+itself is of wooden planks nailed on to a frame-work behind, and
+strengthened by bronze bands near the top and bottom, which run through,
+according to Mr. Wild, and turn round at the edges, being formed into
+panels by the arabesque border on the front side: it turns on pivots,
+not hinges. Some of these doors are admirably represented in Prisse
+d’Avenne’s _L’Art Arabe_: for example, the beautiful door of Almās (vol.
+ii. plate 100), where the whole surface is covered with bronze plaques,
+more like the style of Beybars than is common on later mosques; that of
+Sultan Barkūk (pl. 96) with a central circular plaque, pointed at top
+and bottom, four corner-pieces, and narrow border; that of Sultan Kansūh
+El-Ghōry (pl. 102) arranged somewhat similarly; and that of Talāi‘ ibn
+Ruzeyk, as restored by Bektemir in the 14th century (pl. 95). There is a
+splendid bronze door to the mosque of El-Muayyad (A.H. 818-23), which
+was taken from the mosque of Sultan Hasan, where, however, the entrance
+to the tomb chamber is still closed by a magnificent gate of bronze
+inlaid with silver.
+
+From the bronze doors of Beybars, the history of metal-work in Cairo
+leaps over four Sultans to En-Nāsir Mohammad ibn Kalaūn, who reigned
+A.D. 1293-4, 1299-1309, and 1310-41, or (omitting the first brief rule)
+during most of the first half of the 14th century. En-Nāsir built two
+noble mosques, and the number of works in metal bearing his name and
+those of his courtiers is very large. Among the finest is the beautiful
+table preserved in the Arab Museum at Cairo.
+
+
+17. TABLE (KURSY).—_Brass, inlaid with silver._ Made for the Mamlūk
+Sultan En-Nāsir Mohammad. Fourteenth century.
+
+It is made of filigree brass inlaid with arabesques, flowers, water-
+fowl, and Arabic inscriptions in silver, and is chased all over in
+elaborate profusion. One of the panels, forming a folding door, through
+which no doubt a pan of live charcoal was introduced, to warm the tray
+of food which was placed upon the table, is represented in fig. 75,
+where the inscriptions on the top border read, عز لمولانا السطان الملك
+الناصر ناصر الدنيا والدين محمد بن السلطان الملك المنصور الشهيد قلاون
+الصالحى غز انصاره
+
+“Glory to our lord the Sultan, the king, En-Nāsir [the Succourer or
+Helper], Aid of the church and state, Mohammad, son of the Sultan, the
+king, El-Mansūr [the victorious], the martyr [_i.e._ defunct] Kalaūn,
+[liegeman] of Es-Sālih [Ayyūb], be his triumphs magnified!” The
+inscriptions in the three other narrow borders are practically identical
+with the above. The large inscription in the upper panel is محيى العدل
+فى العالمين ‏|‏ ناصر الدنيا والدين “Upholder of justice in the world,
+Aid of the state and church;” while in the circular medallions is
+distributed the inscription, “Glory to our master the Sultan | El-Melik
+En-Nāsir Mohammad ibn | El-Melik El-Mansūr Kalaūn.”[74]
+
+                                                          [Musée Arabe.]
+
+
+18. Another brass and silver filigree Table (_kursy_), preserved in the
+same museum, and stated to have belonged to the Māristān of Kalaūn, is
+represented in fig. 74. It has no inscriptions, but undoubtedly belongs
+to the same period as the first.
+
+The characteristic designs of the Cairo metal-workers under En-Nāsir
+Mohammad may, however, best be seen in the large bowl or tank described
+below. As a rule, but not without exceptions, we may set down, as
+characteristic of 14th century Cairo work, the absence of figures
+(except on vessels having astrological uses), the prevalence of ducks or
+other birds in the ground decoration, the medallions (enclosing a sort
+of fess bearing the name of the Sultan,) surrounded by a rosette of
+flowers and leaves resembling the patterns of Damascus tiles, the shoals
+of fish at the bottom of bowls, the broad bands of tall bold silver-
+inlaid letters, the large surfaces of inlay, and the little whorl
+ornament [Illustration] which takes the place of the key-pattern
+medallion already noticed.
+
+
+19. LARGE AND DEEP BOWL.—_Brass, inlaid with silver._ Made for the
+Sultan En-Nāsir Mohammad ibn Kalaūn (A.D. 1293-1341).
+
+Ornamented with broad bold zones of Arabic inscriptions, filled in with
+waterfowl and flowers and leaves (which seem to be conventionalized
+ducks’ wings), and divided at regular intervals by medallions, enclosing
+titles on a fess, and enclosed in rosette of flowers and leaves.
+
+Large inscription round the outside:—
+
+عز لمولانا السلطان الملك ‏◯‏ لناصر العامل العادل المجاهد ‏◯‏ ناصر الدنيا
+                                                والدين محمد بن قلاون ‏◯‏
+
+“Glory to our lord the Sultan, the king, the helper [El-Melik En-Nāsir],
+ruler, leonine, fighter for the Faith, Aid of the state and church,
+Mohammad son of Kalaūn.” The medallions enclosed in rosettes of flowers
+indicated by ◯ contain, on a fess, عز لمولانا السلطان ا “Glory to our
+master the Sultan the” (_sic_).
+
+Above and below the large inscription, on a floral ground, six little
+medallions contain عز لمولانا السلطان “Glory to our master the Sultan,”
+twelve times repeated.
+
+Scratched under rim by later hand الصبر عبادة “Patience is worship.”
+
+Large inscription inside:—
+
+   عز لمولانا السلطان الملك الناصر ‏◯‏ العالم العامل العادى المجاهدا ‏◯‏
+                     لمرابط ناصر الدنيا والدين محمد بن قلاون عز نصره ‏◯‏
+
+“Glory to our lord the Sultan El-Melik En-Nāsir, wise, ruler, leonine,
+fighter for the Faith, warden of Islam, Aid of the state and church,
+Mohammad son of Kalaūn, be his triumph magnified!” The medallions marked
+◯ are filled as on the outside: but there are no small medallions in the
+floral border beneath, or in the double scroll border above inscription;
+but the last is divided by six whorls.
+
+The bottom is covered with a shoal of fish, in a circular spiked border.
+
+                                                      [B. M., 51. 1. 4.]
+
+These large inscriptions offer a good example of the method of inlaying
+silver plates. Each letter was scooped out and deepened towards the
+edges, which were slightly under-cut and very delicately serrated. As
+the weak hold thus obtained let the silver escape, a later workman seems
+to have repaired the tank, and re-inlaid it by stippling the surfaces
+with a triangular point and rudely serrating the edges. Very little of
+the silver now remains: what there is shows that the surface was
+delicately chased when the subject required it (_e.g._ birds’ wings).
+
+The South Kensington Museum possesses a large tray of the same Sultan,
+of the sort that is used to carry a meal, splendidly engraved and
+inlaid, as follows:—
+
+
+20. TRAY.—_Brass, inlaid with gold and silver._ Made for the Sultan En-
+Nāsir ibn Kalaūn (A.D. 1293-1341).
+
+The principal inscription (_a_) occupies a large zone on the upper
+surface, and is composed of bold Naskhy letters:—
+
+    عز لملانا السلطان ا (_m_) لملك العالم العا (_m_) مل العادل العادل عز
+                                                              نصره (_m_)
+
+“Glory to our lord, the Sultan, the king, wise, just, ruler, be his
+triumph magnified!”
+
+At (_m_) the inscription is broken by medallions containing the words
+الملك الناصر El-Melik El-Nāṣir, on a fess; and round each medallion runs
+an inscription (_b_) similar to (_a_), but adding, after العادر, المجاهد
+المرابط المتاعز المؤيد; the whole enclosed in a belt of leaves and
+flowers.
+
+An inner zone of inscription is similar to (_b_), but continued with the
+words المنصور سلطان الاسلام والمسلمين عز نصره, “The victorious, Sultan
+of Islam and the Muslims: be his triumph magnified,” and divided by
+three similar pairs of medallions joined together by a panel of flowers
+and leaves. The right-hand medallion of each pair contains on a fess the
+words (_c_) عز لمولانا السلطان, the left, on a shield, an antelope in an
+enclosure.
+
+A third innermost zone of inscription is similar to _a_, but substitutes
+المجاهد for عز نصره
+
+On the outer surface of the rim is the following inscription, divided at
+◯ by sets of three medallions like (_c_), joined by panels of flowers:—
+
+     عز لمولانا السلطان الملك الناصر العامل العادل ◯ flowers ◯ flowers ◯
+العادر المجاهد المرابط المتاعز المؤيد المنضور ناصر الدينا والد ◯ fl. fl.
+ ◯ ين قاتل الكفرة والمشركين محيى العدل فى العالمين والفقرا ◯ fl. ◯ fl. ◯
+         والمساكين السلطان الملك المنصور ناصرالدنيا والدين ◯ fl. ◯ fl. ◯
+
+“Glory to our lord the Sultan, El-Melik En-Nāsir,” &c.
+
+                                       Diam. 31 in. [S. K. M. 420-1854].
+
+
+21. BOX.—_Brass, inlaid with silver._ Made for the Overseer Ahmad.
+[Fourteenth century.]
+
+The lid is hinged and fastens with a hasp: on the top is a radiate
+Arabic inscription surrounding a shield (on a fess a lozenge):—
+
+ مما عمل برسم العبد الفقير الرجى الغفران من الرب المنان [ا] لمهتار احمد
+                  مهتار الامير محمد بن ساطلمش الجلالى
+
+“Of what was made by order of the humble servant, hoping for forgiveness
+from the benevolent Lord, the Overseer Ahmad, Overseer to the Amīr
+Mohammad son of Sātilmish, the Gelāly.”
+
+On the hollowed rim of the lid is a border of flower-scrolls divided by
+whorls, and below this a border of beasts of the chase divided by
+shields: on a fess, a lozenge.
+
+On the lower part, divided by four medallions containing water-fowl, on
+a ground of large arabesques of early style, are the Arabic benedictory
+verses:
+
+
+  ولا برحت مدا الايام فى سعة ‏|‏ بانعم ومسرّات وافضالى
+
+  لا زلت يا مالكى ما دمت فى دعة ‏|‏ وانت من كلّ همّ خالى البالى
+
+
+  Cease not through all thy days to dwell at ease,
+
+    Where comforts solace thee, and pleasure charms:
+
+  While breath shall last, my Master, cherish peace;
+
+    High rest thy heart above the world’s alarms.
+
+
+On the bottom, a beautiful arabesque border surrounds a whorl.
+
+                                      [B. M., Blacas. Reinaud, ii. 422.]
+
+The name of the Amīr Mohammad ibn Sātilmish has not yet been identified;
+but a Mamlūk called Sātilmish is mentioned in the latter half of the
+thirteenth century as taking part in the court at Cairo; and the style
+of arabesques on the box, the character of the inscriptions, the whorls
+and shields, undoubtedly indicate a Cairo fabric. The title _Mihtār_, or
+Overseer, was given to the officers who presided over the different
+departments of a princely household.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 87.—BRASS BOWL INLAID WITH SILVER.
+
+Fourteenth Century. (_British Museum._)]
+
+
+22. BOWL.—_Brass, inlaid with silver._ Made for a Courtier of En-Nāsir.
+[Fourteenth century.] (Fig. 87.)
+
+Outside, whorl at bottom surrounded by sort of sixfoil, round which a
+lozenge-diaper ornament; ground of Damascus flowers and water-fowl;
+border inscription divided by six whorls enclosed in a ring of flying
+ducks:—
+
+المقر الكريم العا ‏◯‏ لى المولوى الاميرى ‏◯‏ الكبيرى العالمى ‏◯‏ العاملى
+                  العادى ‏◯‏ المجاهدى المرابطى ا ‏◯‏ لملكى الناصرى ا ‏◯‏
+
+“His Excellency, generous, exalted, lordly, great Amīr, wise, ruler,
+leonine, fighter for the Faith, warden of Islām [liegeman] of El-Melik
+En-Nāsir.”
+
+On the bottom, inside, a shoal of fish round a whorl.
+
+                                                [B. M., Henderson, 686.]
+
+
+23. CANDLESTICK WITH THREE FEET.—_Brass, inlaid with silver._ Made for a
+Centurion of En-Nāsir. [Fourteenth century.]
+
+Engraved with birds and arabesques, the interstices filled with black
+enamel. Round central band, inscriptions in silver inlay, recording
+fourteenth century Mamlūk titles, (including that of Captain over 100,)
+divided by three medallions enclosing birds and whorls of eight rays.
+Height 12 in., diam. 10½ in.
+
+                                                  [S. K. M., 912.-1884.]
+
+Another candlestick in the South Kensington Museum (4505-1858), is
+engraved in fig. 88.
+
+
+24. STAND FOR TRAY.—_Brass (with an alloy of silver)._ Made for a Chief
+Secretary. [Fourteenth century.]
+
+Dice-box shape; engraved with Arabic inscriptions, divided by medallions
+containing coats of arms in floral borders; the spaces filled with
+floral ornaments outlined with black enamel. The inscription reads:
+
+     الجناب العالى المولوى ا ‏◯‏ السيفى امير دوادار اتابك عز انصاره
+
+“His Highness, exalted, lordly, [liegeman] of Seyf-ed-dīn, Chief
+Secretary, Atābek: be his triumphs magnified!”
+
+                      Height 9½ in., diam. 7⅝ in. [S. K. M., 934.-1884.]
+
+The floral ornaments are of the kind already described, the Damascus-
+like leaves and flowers; and the medallions and floral borders form a
+kind of rosette very characteristic of the Nāsiry period. The coats of
+arms consist of a fess bearing a large goblet between two smaller ones;
+above the fess is a hieroglyphic inscription [Hieroglyphic], denoting
+“lord of the Upper and Lower country”—which the Mamlūks must have
+constantly seen on the ancient monuments, but were undoubtedly unable to
+interpret—and beneath is a lozenge. The subject of heraldic bearings on
+Mamlūk works of art has been extensively discussed by the late Rogers
+Bey in a paper published in the _Bulletin de l’Institut Egyptien_. This
+particular coat of arms is not described by Mr. Rogers; but several
+nearly resembling it belong to the Amīrs of the fourteenth century. The
+cup, as a charge, indicates that the bearer held the post of Sāky, or
+cupbearer, to the Sultan or to some great noble.
+
+
+25. BATH VESSEL.—_Bronze, inlaid with silver._ Made for a Courtier of
+En-Nāsir. [Fourteenth century.]
+
+Round edge, Arabic inscription, divided by four shields, containing a
+bend between two stars:
+
+  المقر العالى المولوى المالكى ا 🛡 العادلى العاملى العالمى الا (_sic_) 🛡
+          المجاهدى المرابطى المتاعزى الما 🛡 لكى العادلى الملكى الناصرى 🛡
+
+“His Excellence, exalted, lordly, royal, just, worker, wise, fighting
+for the Faith, warden of Islām, powerful, royal, just, [liegeman] of El-
+Melik En-Nāsir.”
+
+                                                    [B. M., Burges, 22.]
+
+The intention of the next bowl is certainly magical: the planets are to
+be used astrologically, to secure auspicious results. The bowl would be
+filled with water, which became imbued with the mysterious influences of
+the planets, and then the water would be drunk off, or sprinkled on the
+person. These cups were often made at Mekka, in view of the Ka‘ba, which
+is sometimes represented: so much is stated on a cup in the Vatican.
+
+
+26. BOWL OR CUP.—_Brass, inlaid with silver._ Made for a Courtier of En-
+Nāsir. [Fourteenth century.]
+
+Outside, on bottom, seated figures of the planets: the moon, a crowned
+human figure, holding a crescent in two uplifted hands; Mars, helmeted
+and holding sword and bleeding head; Mercury, holding a carpenter’s
+square; Jupiter, seated judge-like, between two fish; Venus with pear-
+shaped lute and wine-cup; Saturn with raised staff and purse; the sun
+should have occupied the centre, but is worn off. Ground of arabesques.
+An inscription round the side, divided by three seated aureoled figures
+holding wine-cups, records usual Mamlūk titles of El-Nāsir’s court.
+
+Inside, at bottom, a shoal of fish, arranged in form of whorl.
+
+                    [B. M., Blacas. Reinaud, ii. 359, ff., and pl. vii.]
+
+
+27. TRAY.—_Brass inlaid with silver._ Made for Sultan Sha‘bān, who
+reigned A.H. 746-7 (A.D. 1345-6).
+
+Ornamented somewhat in the Nāsiry style, with rosettes and geometrical
+designs, on a ground of bold and rather coarse arabesques.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 88.—BRASS CANDLESTICK INLAID WITH SILVER.
+
+Fourteenth Century. (_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+A. Large zone of inscription:
+
+    عز لمولانا السلطان الملك ا ‏◯‏ لكامل العالم العامل العادل ‏◯‏ العاذر
+                             المجاهد سيف الدنيا والدين شعبان عز نصره ‏◯‏
+
+“Glory to our lord the Sultan, the king, perfect, wise, ruler, just,
+lenient, fighter for the Faith, sword of the state and church, Sha‘bān:
+be his triumph magnified!”
+
+B. At ◯, medallions:—الملك الكامل surrounded by a circular inscription,
+C, similar to that above, but omitting العامل العادل and عز نصره; the
+whole enclosed in border of boldly drawn flowers and leaves.
+
+In the centre of the tray is a sixfoil enclosed in ring of inscription
+(same as C) within double trefoil, outside which a ring of inscription
+similar to A (omitting عز نصره), divided into three parts by panels of
+flowers between whorls.
+
+The rim is covered with floral borders and whorls.
+
+                                       [B. M., Blacas. Reinaud ii. 439].
+
+A beautiful writing-box, with the name of the same Sultan, and decorated
+with ducks, whorls, and key-pattern, is engraved in Prisse.
+
+Reinaud (ii. 441, _n._) describes a tray, nearly four feet in diameter,
+which he saw in Paris, and which bore the name of Farag son of Barkūk,
+second of the Burgy or Circassian Mamlūks, who reigned (with a year’s
+interruption) from A.H. 801 to 815 (A.D. 1398-1412). Unfortunately he
+does not tell us the style of decoration, the metal or metals, or other
+details, nor does he mention what has become of the tray. The
+inscription in the midst ran: عز لمولانا السلطان الملك الناصر فرج بن
+برقوق عز نصره; while a larger inscription included a long string of
+titles. These long and sounding titles are often clearly regulated by
+the space at the artist’s command, and even the words themselves are
+apparently varied to suit the taste. It is probable that العادر, العادى,
+&c., are merely fanciful alterations of الغازى.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 89.—BRASS BOWL OF KAIT BEY.
+
+Fifteenth Century. (_South Kensington Museum._)]
+
+Fig. 89 represents the back of a very beautiful brass bowl of the Mamlūk
+Sultan Kāït-Bey (A.D. 1468-96), which is preserved in the South
+Kensington Museum (no. 1325-1856). It is specially noteworthy for the
+back being ornamented with a _repoussé_ arabesque design of great
+beauty, covered with delicate chasing. The inscription on the side,
+inlaid with silver, runs:
+
+ عز لمولانا السلطان الملك ‏◯‏ العادل المجاهد المرابط ا ‏◯‏ لمؤيد المنصور
+  سلطان الاسلام ‏◯‏ والمسلمين الملك الاشرف ابو النصر قائتباى عز نصره ‏◯‏
+
+“Glory to our master the Sultan, the king, just, fighter for the Faith,
+warden of Islām, God-aided, victorious, Sultan of Islām and the Muslims,
+the most noble king [El-Melik El-Ashraf], Father of Victory, Kāït Bey:
+be his triumph magnified.” At ◯ are four medallions, characteristic of
+Kāït Bey’s monuments and all his works; they contain his name and style,
+as below:—
+
+[Illustration:
+
+ابو النصر قائتباى
+
+عز لمولانا السلطان الملك الاشرف
+
+عز نصره
+
+]
+
+Among the purposes to which metal-work was applied was the manufacture
+of large chandeliers or lanterns for mosques. Some of these are still
+hanging before the niches but most of them have been taken away. Coste
+illustrates a bronze lamp of Sultan Hasan (fig. 23), and two are seen
+hanging in his representation of that mosque (fig. 25), besides the
+usual small plain glass lamps: but Coste was quite capable of inserting
+such details for the sake of artistic effect, and their presence in his
+drawing is hardly a proof that they really existed. Coste also gives a
+large lamp to the mosque of Kāït-Bey; and in Prisse there is an
+illustration (reproduced in fig. 76) of a silver lamp of Beybars II. of
+the shape of the usual enamelled glass lamps, but made of filigree work,
+hung by fine metal straps, which, however, are imperfectly rendered in
+the woodcut. An engraving of an early undated metal lamp of the same
+form, which comes from Jerusalem, and is now in the Louvre, is
+reproduced (fig. 90) from M. de Longpérier’s _Œuvres_. Another form is
+that of a chandelier, of a conical shape, surrounded by numerous little
+glass globes to hold oil and wicks. An example of this kind (from the
+mosque of ‘Abd-el-Basit, and now in the Arab Museum at Cairo), made of
+filigree iron with a bright copper band, is shown in fig. 77, and fig.
+78 represents a bronze tray (intended to be suspended beneath a
+chandelier), covered with chasing, and bearing the name and titles of
+the last of the Mamlūk Sultans, Kansūh El-Ghōry (A.D. 1501-1516).
+
+The art of metal-working survives in Cairo, as has been said, to the
+present day. The finer style of bronze door was made in perfection so
+late as last century, as may be seen from M. Prisse’s engraving of the
+door of ‘Abd-er-Rahmān Kikhya (A.D. 1760), which is as delicately
+wrought as any earlier example. In the present day the coppersmiths of
+Cairo make trays and ewers and other common utensils decorated with
+considerable skill in the style of the Mamlūk work, and sometimes with
+much elaboration of ornament, including inlay of gold wire.
+
+
+The results of the foregoing examination of the history of Saracenic
+metal-work may be roughly summarized in the following genealogical
+tree:—
+
+                           MŌSIL WORK.
+  [Descended from the Assyrian metal-workers, and probably existing in
+  very early times and in continuous development, but represented in
+  collections not earlier than the thirteenth century, and apparently
+  ceasing to produce the best work in the same or the fourteenth
+  century.]
+                               |
+          +--------------------+-----------------------------+
+          |                                                  |
+     FĀTIMY WORK.                                            |
+                                                             |
+ [Probably the offspring                                     |
+ of Mōsil, but at a very                                     |
+ early period, perhaps                                       |
+ ninth or tenth century.                                     |
+ The art rests on                                            |
+ historical evidence;                                        |
+ but there is a lack of                                      |
+ examples in metal-work                                      |
+ in the collections.]                                        |
+          +-------------------+                              |
+          |                   |                     EARLY SYRIAN WORK.
+          |                   |
+          |                   |                  [Containing Mōsil
+          |                   |                  elements with certain
+          |                   |                  local characteristics,
+          |                   |                  probably peculiar to a
+          |                   |                  Damascus or Aleppo
+          |                   |                  school. Examples belong
+          |                   |                  probably to late
+          |                   |                  thirteenth century.]
+          |                   |      +-----------------------+
+    SICILIAN WORK.            |      |                       |
+                              |      |                       |
+                            MAMLŪK WORK.                     |
+                                                             |
+                    [Containing Fātimy (or Mōsil)            |
+                    and Syrian characteristics.              |
+                    Numerous examples, chiefly of            |
+                    the fourteenth century.]                 |
+                                 +---------------------+     |
+                                                       |     |
+                                                       |     |
+                                                      SARACENIC WORK
+                                                        OF VENICE.
+
+                                                [Derived from Syrian and
+                                                Mamlūk schools. Examples
+                                                chiefly from the early
+                                                sixteenth century.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 90.—LAMP FROM JERUSALEM.
+
+(_Louvre._)]
+
+
+                  2. _Goldsmith’s work and Jewellery._
+
+
+The Prophet Mohammad entertained a religious dislike to the luxury of
+gold ornament, and cautioned the women of Arabia against the use of
+tinkling anklets. Nature, however, was occasionally too strong for the
+Prophet, and although the mass of the male Muslims observe a strict
+sobriety in their dress, weave cotton with their silk, and prefer silver
+to gold for their sole ornament, the signet ring, there are always some
+whose passion for display overcomes the scruples of conscience; and the
+women, of course, cannot exist without a little jewellery. We read in
+the annals of Egypt of extraordinary quantities of precious stones
+preserved in the treasuries of princesses and khalifs. ‘Abda, the
+daughter of the Fātimy Khalif El-Mu‘izz, left at her death five bushels
+of emeralds and a prodigious amount of rubies and precious stones of all
+sorts. The Khalif El-Mustansir, this lady’s nephew, possessed quantities
+of emeralds, pearl necklaces, gold and silver and amber rings, caskets
+set with jewels, figures of birds and animals adorned with precious
+stones, a table of sardonyx, and a jewelled turban. As a rule, however,
+we read more of large objects set with jewels than of small ornaments of
+attire, and this is explained by the fact that jewellery is principally
+employed by women, and therefore cannot be described in detail by
+Mohammadan historians, who are bound in delicacy to ignore the fair sex.
+Thus the seclusion of ladies in the East makes it difficult to trace the
+history of Saracenic jewellery, and the difficulty becomes insuperable
+when it is discovered that no specimens of the mediaeval jewellery of
+the Egyptian ladies have come down to us with a certain date.
+
+In the absence of dated examples of mediaeval Egyptian jewellery, we are
+forced to work backwards from the existing productions of the jeweller’s
+market at Cairo, and endeavour to deduce the probable character of the
+earlier work. There can be little doubt that many of the ornaments now
+manufactured in Cairo represent ancient patterns, which have been handed
+from father to son in the goldsmiths’ traditions for several centuries.
+The ordinary bracelet, composed of two plain bands enclosing a double or
+single twisted band is certainly an old design, and has worn the same
+shape and shown the same character of ornament for many generations. So,
+no doubt, have the anklets with square heads cut in facets. A
+description of the ornaments now made at Cairo—which is all that is
+attainable—may therefore not improbably represent the same general
+character of jewellery as that worn by the famous Queen Sheger-ed-durr,
+“Tree of Pearls,” who repulsed St. Louis with her gallant Mamlūk troops.
+
+The modern jewellery of Cairo has been so exhaustively described and
+illustrated by Mr. Lane, in an Appendix to his _Modern Egyptians_, that
+it is only necessary to summarize his account and refer to his
+engravings. A Cairo lady’s ornaments consist in various additions to her
+head-dress and hair, in ear-rings, necklace, bracelets, anklets, and
+amulets. The head-dress is composed of a tarbūsh or fez, round which is
+wound a kerchief (_rabta_). To the crown of the tarbūsh is sewn the
+boss-like ornament called a _kurs_, about five inches in diameter, and
+ornamented with diamonds set in gold filigree-work. In the present day
+the diamonds and gold are alike of poor quality, and a good _kurs_ is
+not worth more than £150. Even the wives of tradesmen, who are usually
+devoted to diamonds, manage to buy some sort of _kurs_, though it is a
+heavy, uncomfortable ornament, and produces headache when put on, and
+also when taken off, so that many ladies, when once their heads are
+hardened to its weight, wear it night and day. A common kind of _kurs_
+is made of a thin gold plate, embossed with a pattern, and having a
+false emerald set in the middle.
+
+Attached to the kerchief, over the forehead, is worn the _kursa_, a band
+of diamonds, emeralds, or rubies, set in gold, generally with pendants,
+about seven inches long. On either side of the kerchief hang festoons of
+pearls, connected together by a pierced emerald, and fastened at the
+front to the _kursa_, and at the other end to the back of the kerchief,
+or to the ear-ring. Sometimes a sprig (_rīsha_) or crescent (_hilāl_) of
+diamonds set in gold or silver is worn, instead of the _kursa_ and
+pearls, on the front or side of the kerchief; and another favourite
+ornament is the _kamara_, or pear-shaped gold plate, embossed with
+Arabic letters or a pattern, and having flat gold pendants hanging
+beneath. There are several varieties of this ornament, in the shape of a
+_sakīya_, or water-wheel, a comb, &c., with distinctive names, the most
+curious of which is _‘Ūd-es-Salīb_, “Wood of the Cross,” which is
+clearly of Coptic origin.
+
+The ear-rings (_halak_) are not remarkable. They consist of diamonds,
+pearls, emeralds, rubies, &c., set in gold, with sometimes a sprig of
+floral filigree-work above the drop. The necklace (_‘ikd_) is seen in
+great variety, but with this peculiarity, that it does not completely
+encircle the neck, being but ten inches long; the connecting piece of
+string is covered by the hair, which is generally ornamented with
+strings of gold ornaments and coins. There is usually a bead or link
+larger than the rest in the middle, or also at fixed intervals. Pearls
+strung, diamonds set in gold, and hollow gold beads, form the usual
+links of the necklace.
+
+Cairene jewellers do not cut their diamonds and emeralds in facets, as
+this would induce a belief that they were false; but they commonly
+pierce the emeralds. Both customs, of course, destroy the beauty of the
+jewels.
+
+More characteristic than the necklaces are the bracelets (_asāwir_) and
+anklets (_khulkāl_), which are commonly of solid silver, or even gold.
+Simple twist for gold, and a twist set in plain bands for silver, are
+the most usual patterns of bracelets, and are doubtless of high
+antiquity. The anklets are heavy, and clank together as the lady walks,
+so that the poet says:
+
+
+  “The clink of thine anklets has bereft me of reason.”
+
+
+The amulet (_higāb_) is a little silver or gold box, embossed and
+adorned with pendants, containing a chapter from the Korān or other
+charm, covered with waxed cloth, and is suspended at the right side
+above the girdle by a cord passing over the left shoulder.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 91.—ARMS FOR LION HUNTING.]
+
+
+There is another branch of metal-work of which nothing has been said: we
+know almost nothing of Mamlūk armour; and although there is undoubtedly
+a “Market of Arms” in Cairo which once plied a busy trade, it is
+doubtful whether their work did not chiefly consist in fitting and
+adapting the weapons and armour of Persia and the Indies. Two helmets in
+the Tower of London have indeed an Egyptian look, and I should be
+inclined to ascribe them to Cairo workmen of the period of Kalaūn (end
+of the thirteenth century). These are, however, quite exceptional; and
+most of the arms attributed to Egypt are undoubtedly Syrian or Persian.
+It must not be forgotten that, to the Mamlūks, Damascus was almost as
+much their capital as Cairo; and while Damascus blades were to be had
+there was little inducement for the establishment of an Egyptian school
+of armourers. The list of Beybars’ presents (p. 28) includes Damascus
+weapons, and pikes tempered by the Arabs, but no Cairo armour is
+mentioned.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                                 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.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+                      HERALDRY ON GLASS AND METAL.
+
+
+In describing various objects in brass, bronze, and glass, especially
+the glass mosque-lamps, several coats of arms have been noticed. The
+subject deserves a section to itself, partly on account of its
+unexpectedness, and partly because it has a bearing upon the origin of
+our own heraldry. It is probable that the Crusaders brought back to
+Europe, together with lessons in chivalry and civilization, the germ of
+our system of heraldic bearings which has since been so carefully
+developed. The circumstance that coats of arms do not seem to have been
+borne in Europe before the end of the eleventh century, and were then
+very rudimentary, favours the conclusion that they had their source in
+the devices carried by the Saracen adversaries of the Crusaders. It is
+true, we are not able to point to any decided use of armorial badges in
+the East before the year 1190,[81] when the coins of ‘Imād-ed-dīn Zenky,
+Prince of Singār, present the two-headed eagle which soon afterwards
+becomes common on the coinage of the Urtuky rulers of Āmīd, and is found
+sculptured on the walls of that city. This is early enough as regards
+the emblem in question, for the Imperial Eagle was not adopted in Europe
+before 1345, but it cannot be regarded as satisfactory for all coats of
+arms. If other armorial bearings were known in Europe in the eleventh
+century, it is possible that they were carried to the East by the
+Crusaders, instead of being brought thence to the West. Several
+considerations, however, militate against this view. One is the Eastern
+origin of many of our heraldic terms: thus _gules_ is the Persian _gul_,
+a rose; _azure_ is also Persian _lazurd_, blue; _ermine_ is the fur of
+an Armenian beast; the pelican, ibis, griffin, and other charges of our
+coats of arms are clearly of Oriental derivation. Moreover, we know,
+from the researches of H. Brugsch Pasha, that the ancient Egyptian nomes
+had each their sign or badge, and that the temples were distinguished by
+separate devices on their banners. Various animals and birds were used
+for these purposes, and we even find the Star and Crescent, which, with
+the Lion and Sun, forms the sole remnant of heraldry among the modern
+Muslims. There is thus reason to believe that the heraldic bearings,
+which, as we shall see, were of common application during the 13th,
+14th, and 15th centuries, were of Oriental descent, and though probably
+their frequency was a part of the general revival of the arts which
+accompanied the irruption of Turkish tribes into Syria and Egypt in the
+12th and 13th centuries, they doubtless represent a custom that may have
+fallen into desuetude, but was never entirely forgotten, in the East.
+
+The cause of the sudden abundance of these armorial shields, especially
+in the 14th century, was the military constitution of the Mamlūk empire.
+The various corps of the Mamlūk army were distinguished each by its
+separate banner, with its individual device. The Arabic and Persian word
+for a heraldic badge, or arms, _renk_, meant originally “colour,” and
+then came to mean, like our own expression, the “colours” of a regiment,
+and hence any distinguishing “badge” or “bearing,” “coat of arms.” In
+the history of the Mamlūks we constantly meet with references to the
+_renks_ of various Amīrs and Sultans, and of such _renks_ being assigned
+by the Sultan to a given Amīr. When Es-Sālih Ayyūb made Aybek his Taster
+(Jāshenkīr), he gave him for his armorial badge a small table, in
+allusion to his office, which consisted in tasting all the food destined
+for the Sultan’s table. This was the usual origin of these badges; they
+were not hereditary, and it is only by accident that the same _renk_ is
+found to have been borne by two persons. Among the historical references
+to specific arms, we may mention the description of the _lion passant_,
+which was the crest or bearing first of Ibn-Tūlūn in the ninth century,
+and afterwards of the Sultan Beybars I., A.D. 1260-77, and which gave
+its name to the “Bridge of Lions,” and also the “Garden of the Lion and
+Hyaena,” which were ornamented by two lions carved in stone on the
+gateway. Abu-l-Mahāsin mentions another coat of arms, argent, on a fess
+vert, a scimitar gules, and adds that this elegant coat was much beloved
+by the ladies of Cairo, who used to tattoo their fingers with it. The
+same historian says that the arms of the Amīr Salār were black and
+white.
+
+Saladin’s crest was probably an _eagle_; Barkūk bore a white _Sunkur_,
+or falcon, which is the king of birds among the Arabs; and Kalaūn bore a
+“canting” coat, the representation of his own name, a _duck_.
+
+Two finely sculptured single-headed eagles in the Arab Museum at Cairo,
+with well-chiselled wing and breast feathers, and spreading tails, set
+in pear-shaped shields, with a cup in the base, may have been
+Tukuzdemir’s arms (see above, p. 259).
+
+A great many coats of arms have come down to us, some in metal, when the
+colours are of course uncertain, others in glass, when the enamel
+preserves the original tinctures. Some few devices are also preserved in
+mosaic, wood, and ivory, or inscribed on the walls of buildings. The
+circular medallions sculptured on the edifices of Kāït Bey and other
+Sultans may almost be regarded as blazons, and so may the similar
+medallions on glass lamps. The late E. T. Rogers Bey, whose long
+residence in the East and intimate acquaintance with Arabic literature
+rendered him a high authority on all branches of Saracenic art, devoted
+considerable research to this subject, and collected a large number of
+Mamlūk coats of arms in a valuable memoir published in the _Bulletin de
+l’Institut Egyptien_, 1880. The following _résumé_ of his discoveries,
+together with a few additions from my own observation, will be useful to
+those who do not possess the original monograph.
+
+The general character of Saracenic armorial bearings is monotonous. The
+shield is almost always a circle, divided by a broad fess; though a
+glass lamp at the British Museum has the true shield form, and no fess.
+The usual charges are a cup (most frequent of all, and indicating that
+the bearer held the office of cup-bearer to the Sultan), a lozenge, a
+sword, a pair of cornucopias, a pair of polo sticks (indicating the
+office of Jōkendār, or polo-master), keys (the badge of a chamberlain or
+governor), an eagle, and a target. These are often combined in various
+modes, of which the commonest consists in placing a cup on the fess, a
+second cup in the base, and a lozenge in the chief. The cornucopias are
+generally arranged on either side of one or other of the preceding
+charges. A very frequent bearing, which suggests curious speculations,
+is the hieroglyphic formula already referred to, p. 233. It is found as
+a sole charge, or in chief with other emblems, or inscribed upon the
+body of a cup, and its meaning is “Lord of the Upper and Lower country.”
+Rogers Bey was of opinion that the Mamlūks who employed this coat must
+have been aware of its meaning, and that perhaps the interpretation of
+hieroglyphics had not become extinct in the fourteenth century. It is
+possible that, while the general hieroglyphic inscriptions were no
+longer understood, the particular title, which is of frequent occurrence
+on the temple walls, may have been preserved by the Copts; or the
+Mamlūks, without knowing the meaning, may have inferred from its
+frequency that it was a title of honour. In any case, its common
+appearance upon Saracenic objects is sufficiently surprising.
+
+The following are some of the principal coats of arms belonging to
+historical Amīrs and Sultans, in addition to the badges (lions, eagles,
+&c.) already mentioned:—
+
+Sheykhū † A.H. 758 (1357). Per fess, gules and sable, on a fess or, a
+cup gules. (British Museum, and Linant Pasha’s Collection.)
+
+Bahādur, † 739 (1339). Two horizontal bars.
+
+El-Māridāny, † 744 (1343). Gules, on a fess argent, a lozenge of the
+first.
+
+Kahlīs, an Amīr of En-Nāsir (14th century). Gules, on a fess argent, a
+scimitar sable, mounted of the second. (S. K. M.)
+
+Tukuzdemir, † 746 (1345). Gules, in chief an eagle displayed or, in base
+a cup of the last. (British Museum.)
+
+Almās, † 734 (1334). Argent, a target or, with a bull’s eye gules.
+(Linant Pasha’s Collection.)
+
+Arkatāy, † 750 (1349) (Governor of Safad). Two keys.
+
+Ezbek, A.H. 905 (1499). On a fess, a cup supported by daggers (?);
+chief, a lozenge between cornucopias; base a cup between lozenges.
+
+Beshtāk, A.H. 736 (1335). On a fess, a cup inscribed with the usual
+hieroglyphics, in chief diamond, in base a cup. This occurs on a bronze
+plate, and is consequently without tinctures; it is also seen on the
+ruin known as the “Bath of Beshtāk,” near the mosque of Sultan Hasan.
+
+Sultan Kāït Bey, † 901 (1495). On a fess, a cup between cornucopias;
+above a lozenge; beneath a second cup. The same coat was borne by the
+Amīr Janbalāt, one of Kāït Bey’s officers, and afterwards Sultan.
+
+Many other combinations of cups and lozenges and the like might be
+enumerated, but these have not been identified with historical
+personages, and the student may refer for them to Rogers Bey’s memoir.
+Among the more remarkable combinations, however, may be noted a flag
+upon the body of a cup, which probably refers to some military or court
+office; and in colours, a rare arrangement is seen of Bektuman En-
+Nāsiry, azure on a fess argent, a cup gules. A common badge is the
+fleur-de-lis, generally very distinctly represented. It was borne, among
+others, by El-Ashraf Sha‘bān, El-Mansūr ‘Aly, and Es-Sālih Hājjy,
+Sultans who all reigned in the second half of the fourteenth century,
+and it also occurs on the Māristān of Kalāūn at the beginning of the
+same century.
+
+Two coats of arms preserved in the South Kensington Museum are different
+in details from any of those collected by Rogers Bey. The first occurs
+on a brass stand (see p. 233) which bears the title of a chief secretary
+of the fourteenth century; the second is from a scale-pan (no. 929,
+1884), with no name, but is probably of the fifteenth century; the arms
+show the usual hieroglyphics on a fess, with a lozenge between trefoils
+in the chief, and a cup between trefoils in the base.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+                                POTTERY.
+
+
+The only pottery now made in Egypt is the porous unglazed ware, made
+principally at Ballasa, Kiné, and Semenhūd, which is used for water-
+bottles and utensils for the kitchen, and the roughly glazed variety of
+Asyūt, which is chiefly made for coffee-cups and ornaments, pipes, ash-
+trays, &c. Both are of red earth (or, the latter, sometimes black, as
+fig. 99), and are turned on the ordinary wheel. The ornament, when there
+is any, is coarse, but the forms are generally simple and graceful. Some
+of the shapes of the common porous drinking-bottles are singularly pure,
+and might serve as models to the most finished potter of Europe.[82]
+
+No fine pottery is now made in Egypt with the floral decoration and pure
+siliceous glaze, such as we see in the well-known Damascus and Rhodian
+pottery. It is even a disputed point whether any of the tiles which
+adorn the mosques and houses of Cairo were made there, and some critics
+would have all fine earthenware to have been imported from Damascus and
+Persia. The mere fact that no fine pottery is now made in Cairo is no
+argument against its having been made there formerly. Anyone who will
+wander among the rubbish mounds of Old Cairo (Fustāt), after a high wind
+has disturbed the sand, will be rewarded by picking up fragments of
+glazed earthenware of a great variety of styles. These are the potsherds
+of former centuries, for no ware like these can be discovered in the
+present day. That these fragments represent wares actually made at
+Fustāt, is proved by the fact that the “cockspurs” or clay tripods, upon
+which they were placed during the firing, are found with them; and that
+they were made before the almost total destruction of Fustāt by fire in
+1168 is at least probable, from their abundance and the absence of any
+similar ware made in Cairo at later periods. Many of these fragments
+have a gold or copper lustre; others are decorated with streaks of red
+and white; and a large proportion show coarse black designs on a
+turquoise or blue-green ground, resembling the ancient black and blue
+ware of Syria. It is only natural to conclude that the Saracens (or
+their subjects), who cultivated the potter’s art with remarkable success
+in Persia and Syria, should have carried the same proficiency to so
+important a city of their empire as Cairo.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 99.—ASYUT COFFEE-POT.]
+
+Fortunately there are a few references to Egyptian pottery scattered
+among the works of the historians and travellers of the East, though
+much fewer than could be desired. The most important is the statement of
+Nāsir-i-Khusrau, who visited Egypt in the middle of the eleventh century
+of our Era. “At Misr” (i.e. Fustāt), he writes, “they make earthenware
+of all kinds, so fine and diaphanous that one can see one’s hand through
+it. They make bowls, cups, plates, and other vessels; decorate them with
+colours resembling [the iridescent stuff called] Būkalamūn, so that the
+shades change according to the position in which the vessel is
+held.”[83] This can only refer to an iridescent ware like the fragments
+found among the rubbish mounds of Fustāt, which have the metallic lustre
+described by Nāsir-i-Khusrau, and are painted with arabesque designs,
+inscriptions (unhappily not indicative of date), and sometimes with
+figures of animals. The fragments, however, are not translucent, as was
+the ware described by the Persian traveller; but this may be explained
+by the likelihood of the more fragile ware having been reduced almost to
+powder, and thus escaping observation. The fact remains that fine
+pottery was manufactured at or near Cairo in the eleventh century; and
+this point once established, there is no reason to seek for a different
+source for many of the tiles that are found in the decoration of the
+mosques and houses.
+
+Tiles were the Saracenic substitute for mosaic. The last was used in
+mosques and palaces, though not to cover the upper portions of the
+walls; but for private houses, and sometimes for mosques, a cheaper
+substitute was found in siliceous glazed tiles. We find them commonly in
+the dados of the reception-rooms in the better class of houses. How
+early they were introduced is not known, but the coating of the
+remarkable minarets of the mosque of En-Nāsir Mohammad in the citadel of
+Cairo is of glazed blue tiles, and this carries them back to the first
+quarter of the fourteenth century. It is worth noting that the Egyptians
+call wall-tiles _Kāshāny_, “pertaining to Kāshān,” a Persian city, and
+the name points to the possible derivation of Syrian and Cairene faience
+from the early lustred earthenware of Persia. The fragments picked up at
+Fustāt, however, bear little resemblance to the early Persian ware, nor
+have the devices of the later Damascus and Cairo tiles much in common
+with the golden arabesques of the true Persian. There is nothing to
+prove that the Persian pottery was the parent of the Cairene: it is
+equally possible that the Fustāt fragments represent the origin of the
+Persian wares. But wherever the art originated, it is reasonable to
+assume that the Tartar invaders of Egypt in the twelfth and thirteenth
+centuries brought with them the idea of coating the walls of a tomb or
+house with tiles, such as they had seen on their route through Persia.
+The usual dates of the Persian star-shaped tiles are of the thirteenth
+century. This would give sufficient time for the art to be carried to
+Cairo by the Mamlūks, and used for the decoration of En-Nāsir’s mosque
+in 1318. It is true that the Cairo tiles are not star-shaped, nor do
+they resemble their Persian contemporaries in colour or general
+treatment; they are not lustred, nor have they inscriptions or dates.
+Moreover, the potter’s art was practised successfully in Egypt in the
+days of the Pharaohs. Still, the notion of _using tiles as wall
+coverings_ may have come from the Persian tombs, though the material and
+process had long been familiar. It was in the adaptation and revival of
+old arts that the Saracens excelled.
+
+Which of the numerous varieties of tiles, still to be seen _in situ_ on
+the walls of Cairo buildings, are of native manufacture is a problem
+which does not appear likely to be solved until we have discovered tiles
+inscribed with names or dates, or obtained some fresh historical
+evidence. Some of the designs are so obviously akin to those known to
+have been made at Damascus, that it seems difficult to resist the
+conclusion that they were imported from that city. There is, however,
+another explanation of the similarity which is equally probable. It was,
+we know, the custom of the Mamlūk and other princes to send to various
+distant cities for artists and workmen, when they contemplated the
+erection of a great mosque or palace. We read of painters brought to
+Cairo from Basra and Wāsit, in Mesopotamia; of artisans furnished by the
+Greek Emperor to the Khalifs at Damascus; of a Cairo mason, sent in 1287
+by Kalaūn, to chisel that Sultan’s name on a mosque then being built by
+Baraka Khan in the Crimea; of an architect of Tebrīz, who built the two
+minarets of the mosque of Kūsūn, at Cairo, on the model of the minaret
+set up in Tebrīz by Khwāja ‘Aly Shāh, the Vizīr of the Mongol King of
+Persia Abū-Sa‘īd. This principle of collecting workmen from the chief
+centres of their arts may have operated in producing the mixed character
+of the tile-work of Cairo. Potters may have been brought from Damascus,
+Brūsa, Kutahia, and the other centres of tile-work, to ornament the
+mosques and houses of Cairo, and this would account for the purely
+Damascus patterns which we frequently see. Sometimes, no doubt, the
+tiles were actually imported. Ibn-Sa‘īd tells us that quantities of
+_azulejos_ (a word formed from the Persian _lazūrd_, lapis lazuli) were
+exported from Andalusia, and the mosque of Sheykū at Cairo was decorated
+with these Moorish tiles, some of which are now in the South Kensington
+Museum (St. Maurice Collection). In a similar way, the Lady Chapel of
+St. Mary Redcliffe, at Bristol, is paved with _azulejos_, which formed
+the cargo of a ship captured off the coast.
+
+What has now been said will show that it is not easy to decide which
+tiles may be ascribed to the native potteries of Cairo. Some general
+principles, based on observation of prevailing types, may however be
+laid down. It is supposed, with some show of reason, that the thinner
+tiles are Cairene; as distinguished from the thick ware of Damascus. The
+Cairo colouring appears to be chiefly blue, in two shades, dark and
+turquoise, and the designs are floral, but simpler than those of
+Damascus. Puce and sage-green (typical tints of Damascus) are not among
+the colours of the Cairene tile potter. We do not find such large panels
+of tile-work at Cairo as in Syria, nor are the individual tiles larger
+than about ten inches square. In point of firing, the Cairo tiles are
+less flat and more often crackled than those of Damascus, and the tints
+often run into one another.
+
+Some fine examples of Cairo tiles, or what are supposed to be such, are
+illustrated in Prisse d’Avenne’s _L’Art Arabe_. Plates 119 and 120 show
+the magnificent tiled wall of the mosque of Āksunkur, built in A.H.
+747-8 (1347). El-Makrīzy tells us that this mosque was built of stone,
+with a vaulted roof, and was paved with marble. Āksunkur himself took a
+share in the labour. In 815 the Amīr Tughān added a fountain in the
+middle of the court, the water of which was supplied by a wheel turned
+by an ox; the fountain was covered by a roof resting on marble columns,
+which the Amīr took from the mosque of El-Khandak, which he had pulled
+down. But the historian provokingly says nothing about the tiles, and we
+are forced to believe that, as he could hardly have omitted to mention
+so salient and almost unique a feature if it had existed in his time,
+the tiles must have been inserted when Ibrāhīm Āghā restored the mosque
+in 1652. No more splendid example of the use of tiles in large surfaces
+can be seen in Cairo. It is impossible to give any idea of this
+magnificent wall, covered with tiles from top to bottom, and displaying
+the typical Cairene pattern of blue flowers and leaves in the utmost
+perfection. The _sebīls_ or street fountains, are also sometimes lined
+with beautiful tiles; for example, that of ‘Abd-er-Rahmān Kikhya,
+erected in the eighteenth century. Other tiles of Cairo style may be
+seen in the South Kensington Museum. I succeeded myself in bringing
+back, in 1883, several batches of tiles of identical pattern, with a
+view to showing their effect when combined in large surfaces; and there
+can be little doubt that these long series were made at the city where
+they were found, and probably by native potters. Cairo tiles, like those
+of Damascus, are bevelled at the edges, to allow the thick plaster bed
+in which they are set to penetrate between them at the back and thus
+give a hold, and also to save trouble in exactly squaring the edges.
+
+We have not attempted to assign dates to any given tiles, except those
+of the mosque of En-Nāsir, for the sufficient reason that any such
+attempt must be entirely hypothetical. It is not easy to say which tiles
+are really of Cairo make; but it is even more difficult to assign any
+fixed date to them. The Ibrāhīm Āghā tiles are, indeed, probably of the
+date of the restoration in the seventeenth century; but the same
+patterns seem to have been copied for so long a period that these, even
+if the date were absolutely certain, would form no safe guide as to the
+date of other tiles of the same pattern.
+
+Of other pottery than tiles, except the fragments found among the
+rubbish mounds, there is very little that can be safely attributed to
+Cairo. An opaque white ware of a creamy glaze, of which there are
+specimens in the South Kensington Museum, is said to be Cairene; and I
+am disposed to ascribe certain coarse blue and white dishes, with floral
+patterns, of which two are in the St. Maurice Collection, to Cairo
+potters, chiefly because they came from Cairo, and are unlike any other
+known ware of the East.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+                            TEXTILE FABRICS.
+
+
+The East is the home of sumptuous apparel, and among the arts of the
+Saracens the manufacture of the materials of dress naturally occupied a
+prominent place. The very names which we still use for various kinds of
+silken and other stuffs recall their Eastern origin. Sarcenet is
+_saracenatum_, muslin is named after the famous _Mosil_ fabric, tabby is
+the watered or striped stuff, named, after a street in Baghdād, ‘Attaby
+or ‘Uttaby; the silken canopies called _baudekins_ or _baldacchini_ were
+so named from Baldac, a western corruption of Baghdād;[84] Cramoisy is
+derived from the dye furnished by the Kermis insect; the German word for
+satin, _atlas_, means the smooth satin of Syria and Armenia; samite is
+probably Shāmy, “Syrian” fabric; the Genoese _mezzare_ and the Spanish
+_almaizar_ are but the Arab garment called _mizar_; and _jupe, jupon,
+giuppa_, are French and Italian descendants of the _gubba_, which
+Egyptian gentlemen still wear. European sovereigns who had a mind to
+dress in purple and fine linen naturally took their lessons in regal
+attire from the robes of Eastern princes. Italian tailors derived much
+of their materials and ideas from the superb models brought by merchants
+from Damascus, Cairo, and Baghdād; and Sicily became a noted centre of
+rich textile fabrics under the Saracens and their successors the Norman
+kings. Ma‘din, in Armenia, wrought the most beautiful _atlas_ satin;
+Baghdād was famous for its tabby silk, Ba‘lbekk supplied the finest
+white cotton, Tyre maintained its industrial fame by making carpets and
+mats, Rūm or Anatolia was celebrated for its silk and satin—we read of
+the Rūmian silk in the _Arabian Nights_—and wool came from Malatīa and
+Angora. Egypt was not backward in the arts of adornment. Cairo and
+Alexandria indeed imported many European stuffs, cloth, and other
+fabrics, from Venice, and fine linen and silks from Sicily; but they had
+also their own looms, and their produce was famous for its excellent
+quality. Alexandria had its special silk fabric, and Cairo was renowned
+for its manufacture of yellow silk standards: so fine was the texture of
+the best Cairene fabric that a whole robe could be passed through a
+finger-ring. Some of the smaller towns of Egypt were well-known centres
+of textile industry. Ibn Batūta joins with all Eastern authorities in
+praising the white woollen cloth of Behnesa. Debīk was famous for its
+silks. “At Asyūt,” says Nāsir-i-Khusrau, “they make woollen stuff for
+turbans which are unequalled in the whole world. The fine woollens of
+Persia, called Misry, all come from Upper Egypt, for they do not weave
+wool at Misr [Fustāt]. I saw at Asyūt a woollen waistcloth, such as I
+have not seen equalled at Lahōr or Multān—you might have mistaken it for
+silk tissue.” Tinnīs was renowned throughout the East for its fine
+cambric (_kasab_) used for turbans. White _kasab_ was made at Damietta,
+whence our term ‘dimity’ (_Arabicè, dimyāty_), but that of Tinnīs was
+woven of all colours by Coptic weavers, and was much preferred. Nāsir-i-
+Khusrau tells us that the products (_tiraz_) of the royal factory at
+Tinnīs were reserved exclusively for the sovereign of Egypt, and could
+neither be sold nor given to any one else. “A king of Fars,” he adds,
+“offered 20,000 pieces of gold for a complete robe made of the Tinnīs
+stuff at the royal factory, but, after trying for several years to
+obtain it, his agent was compelled to abandon the attempt. A royal
+turban of this fabric cost 500 gold pieces.” At Tinnīs also was made the
+wonderful iridescent fabric called _Būkalamūn_,—probably from Abū-
+Kalamūn, the chameleon, as Col. Yule suggests,—which was said to change
+colour at different hours of the day, and was used for saddle-cloths and
+for covering the royal litters. At Beny Suweyf was manufactured an
+excellent sort of linen, called Alexandrian, which was exported to
+Europe.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 100.—SILK FABRIC OF ICONIUM.
+
+Thirteenth Century. (_Lyons Museum._)]
+
+All these manufactures were in great demand during the centuries of
+luxurious splendour which the independent rulers of Egypt enjoyed. The
+Fātimy Khalifs were fond of display beyond the dreams of even Oriental
+potentates, and many records of their sumptuous attire, their “gloss of
+satin and glimmer of pearls,” have come down to us. There is a piece
+bearing the name of the Fātimy El-Hākim preserved at Nôtre-Dame at
+Paris, which shows the richness of the materials and the splendour of
+the colours; and El-Makrīzy and other historians are full of the
+wonderful fabrics in which “the soul of my lord delighted.” Some of
+these, like the countless dresses of ‘Abda, daughter of the Khalīf El-
+Mu‘izz, were of Sicilian manufacture; but others were Persian,
+Anatolian, and native. We read of quantities of silk, shot with gold,
+and embroidered with the portraits of kings, and the tale of their
+deeds; of a piece of silk made at Tustar, in Persia, by order of the
+Khalif El-Mu‘izz, in 964, which represented in gold and colours, on a
+blue ground, a sort of map of the various countries in the world, with
+cities, rivers, roads, and mountains, and their names embroidered in
+gold, and it is not surprising that this work cost 22,000 gold dīnārs.
+Among the objects described in the celebrated inventory of the
+possessions of the Fātimy Khalif El-Mustansir (to which the preceding
+example belonged) were several magnificent tents made of cloth of gold,
+velvet, satin, damask and silk; some plain, some covered with
+representations of men, elephants, lions, peacocks and horses, and lined
+within with velvet or satin, silk from China, Tustar or Rūm, shot with
+fine gold. One huge pavilion of this kind was made for the Vizir Yāzūry;
+the pole, which was sixty-five cubits high and six and two-thirds thick,
+was a gift from the Greek Emperor; the stuff was embroidered with
+figures of animals and the like, and the making of it is said to have
+occupied 150 men for nine years, at a cost of 30,000 dīnārs. Another
+tent of this description, made at Aleppo, was supported by the mainmast
+of a Venetian galley, and it required seventy camels to transport it to
+the place where it was set up. A third was named _El-Katūl_, “the
+killer,” because a man was sure to be crushed in pitching it. Behnesa
+was the place where such tents were often made, as well as many kinds of
+royal stuffs, embroideries and needlework, and large carpets, thirty
+cubits long, which were worth 10,000 grains of gold. The chief weavers
+and embroiderers of these magnificent fabrics were Copts, and to their
+influence may be ascribed the introduction of figures of animals and
+portraits of heroes and princes, a practice against the spirit of
+Mohammadan art, but quite in accordance with the traditions of the
+decorative work of the Lower Empire. Some concession was, however, made
+to Muslim prejudice by the skilful workmen of the Fātimis. If they would
+at times introduce the forbidden portrait of an animate being—under pain
+of being ordered on the Day of Judgment to find a soul for their
+portrait, or else to be dragged on their faces to hell—they would
+oftener depict such fabulous creatures as the griffin and the winged
+lion of Assyria, which fitly portrayed, to the Muslim mind, the fabulous
+beast Borāk on which the blessed Prophet made his miraculous dream-
+journey; or they would represent the harmless form of the _hom_, or tree
+of life. The employment of Christians to weave such unorthodox designs
+as beasts and even human beings, however, was in itself a salve to the
+Muslim conscience: for the Christian weaver and not the Mohammadan
+wearer might be expected to receive the punishment. And the same
+consolation soothed the religious mind when it contemplated the rich
+silk tissues which the same impious infidel, unmindful of the Prophet’s
+command that silk was not permissible to his followers, had wrought for
+the believer’s attire. A frequent characteristic of Saracen (and modern
+Eastern) weaving is the mixture of cotton or linen thread with the silk;
+and this was only another mode of evading the disagreeable ordinance of
+the tasteless Prophet of Islam.
+
+Nāsir-i-Khusrau, who travelled in Egypt during the reign of El-
+Mustansir, gives us a glimpse of the magnificence of the Fātimy Court,
+in the eleventh century, which, coming from an eyewitness, is even more
+valuable than the traditions reported by El-Makrīzy. He describes the
+Khalif’s tent as made of satin of Rūm, covered with gold embroidery, and
+sown with precious stones. The furniture inside was of the same
+material, and so large was the pavilion that a hundred horsemen could
+stand in it. The entrance passage was lined with the “chameleon” fabric
+of Tinnīs. The Khalif’s state escort of 10,000 horsemen had all saddle-
+cloths of satin and “chameleon,” and even the trappings of the camels
+and asses were covered with gold plates and precious stones. At the
+cutting of the Canal, always an imposing ceremony at Cairo, the Khalif
+appeared clad in a white robe with a large tunic, costing 10,000 dīnārs,
+a turban of white stuff, and a valuable whip in his hand. Three hundred
+attendants preceded him, attired in Rūm brocade, and bearing pikes and
+axes, with bandelets on their legs; and the dress of the bearer of the
+jewelled parasol over the Khalif cost 10,000 dīnārs. These values are
+doubtless exaggerated, and the figures run suspiciously often to ten
+thousand; but the main fact is that Nāsir-i-Khusrau, a competent and
+travelled witness, was dazzled with the splendour of the fabrics which
+he saw at the Fātimy Court.
+
+Although it belongs to a later period, the engraving, fig. 100, may
+serve to give some idea of the silk fabric of Rūm. It is reproduced from
+an engraving which has been kindly lent me by M. Giraud, the keeper of
+the Archaeological Museum at Lyons, and it has been made the subject of
+a special essay by M. Pariset. Like the cope of St. Mexme, preserved in
+the church of St. Etienne, at Chinon, this silk garment of Lyons had
+been converted into a church vestment—a chasuble. The following is an
+abridgment of M. Pariset’s description of this remarkable specimen,
+which, though not itself of Egyptian manufacture, may nevertheless be
+held an example of the kind of silk weaving done by Saracen looms in the
+first half of the thirteenth century.[85]
+
+The warp is of crimson silk, in two parts; one laid on ribands forms the
+plain ground, the other makes the pattern. The woof is also of red silk,
+of a delicate shade, but fast, and perfectly preserved, produced with
+cochineal (or perhaps kermis). The fabric thus belongs to the class
+called _holosericum_, because entirely made of silk, with no mixture of
+cotton. The present specimen, however, is enriched by a second woof, of
+gold, which alternates with the silk woof, and, traversing the whole
+breadth of the material, helps to form the design, while the silk woof
+makes the red ground. Such stuff was highly prized in the middle ages
+under the name of _chrysoclavum fundatum_. The gold thread consists of a
+silk core covered with gilt paper. Drawn gold thread was not used in
+ancient times, and leaf gold was the ordinary form of the precious metal
+employed for embroidery. The Chinese invented the process of laying thin
+gold leaf upon paper and rolling it round silk thread, and the Arabs,
+always in intimate trade relations with China, learned the process from
+the Celestials, and regularly employed it from the tenth to the
+fourteenth centuries. Great strength was attained when thin cows’ hide
+or other skin was used instead of paper.[86] Though the object of the
+gold paper is of course to economise the precious metal, the gold used
+for this example is very pure and rich. The arrangement of the woof is a
+proof of Oriental origin, and the design confirms this conclusion.
+Simple as it is—a pair of lions or griffins back to back, in a circular
+medallion bordered with flowers—it is characteristically Eastern. We
+have seen many instances of such opposed animals and birds on the metal-
+work and carving of the thirteenth century, and there is no doubt that
+the design is much older than Mohammadan times, and goes back to the
+productions of the old artists of Mesopotamia and Persia. We read in
+Quintus Curtius of robes worn by Persian satraps, adorned with birds
+beak to beak—_aurei accipitres veluti rostri in se irruerent pallam
+adornabant_. Plautus mentions Alexandrian carpets ornamented with
+beasts: _Alexandrina belluata conchyliata tapetia_.[87] There is indeed
+reason to believe that the notion of such pairs of birds or beasts may
+have originated with the weavers of ancient Persia, and have been
+borrowed from them by the engravers of metal-work; for the advantage of
+such double figures would be specially obvious to a weaver. The
+symmetrical repetition of the figure of the bird or animal, reversed,
+saved both labour and elaboration of the loom. The old weavers, not yet
+masters of mechanical improvements, were obliged to work their warp up
+and down by means of strings, and the larger the design the more
+numerous became these strings and the more complicated the loom. Hence,
+to be able to repeat the pattern in reverse was a considerable economy
+of labour, and could be effected very simply on a loom constructed to
+work _à pointe et à reverse_. Examples of such repetitions of patterns,
+especially of symmetrical pairs of animals within circles, are common in
+Byzantine and Sassanian woven work, and the Saracens followed these
+models. Finally our piece of silk bears part of an Arabic inscription,
+which runs _‘Ala-ed-dīn Abu-l-Feth Kay-Kubād, son of Kay Khusrau,
+witness to the Prince of the Faithful_. This Kay-Kubād was a Seljūk
+Sultan of Rūm, and reigned at Iconium, &c., from 1214 to 1239 A.D., and
+the occurrence of his name on the garment shows that it was a _tirāz_
+made at a special royal factory, reserved, like that at Tinnīs, for the
+exclusive use of the particular sovereign. This factory was no doubt in
+Rūm, and probably at the capital, Kōniya (Iconium), or perhaps one of
+the other large cities. “In Turcomania,” says Marco Polo, “they weave
+the finest and handsomest carpets in the world, and also a great
+quantity of fine and rich silks of cramoisy and other colours, and
+plenty of other stuffs. Their chief cities are Conia, Savast [Sīvās],
+and Casaria [Kaysarīya].”[88] At all events there can be no doubt that
+this is the silk of Rūm of which we read so often in the records of
+state ceremonies and robes of honour in the Arabic histories.
+
+An interesting parallel to the royal silk factory, or _Dār-et-tirāz_, of
+Kay-Kubād, and to that of the Fātimy Khalif at Tinnīs, is found in the
+similar institution at Palermo, which owed its foundation to the Kelby
+Amīrs who ruled Sicily as vassals of the Fātimis in the ninth and tenth
+centuries, though it maintained its special character and excellence of
+work under the Norman kings. The factory was in the palace, and the
+weavers were Mohammadans, as indeed is obvious from a glance at the
+famous silk cloth preserved at Vienna, and called the “Mantle of
+Nürnberg,” where a long Arabic inscription testifies to the hands that
+made it, by order of King Roger, in the year of the Hijra 528, or A.D.
+1133.[89] Just as our piece of silk from Rūm is the _locus classicus_,
+so to say, for Anatolian weaving in the thirteenth century, and the
+Nôtre Dame silk for the Fātimy work of the beginning of the eleventh
+century, so this Nürnberg mantle gives us the type of Siculo-Arab work
+in the twelfth century, and enables us to form some conception of what
+manner of hangings William of Palermo intended when he described the
+palace of Roger of Sicily:—
+
+
+  To enter fu encertines
+
+  De dras de soie à or ouvres
+
+  À œuvres d’or et à paintures,
+
+  À maintes diverses figures
+
+  D’oisiax, de bestes, et de gens.
+
+  Les chambres furent par dedans.
+
+  Paintes et bien enluminées.[90]
+
+
+Of the thirty examples of “Saracenic” fabrics illustrated in Fischbach’s
+beautiful work, “The Ornament of Textile Fabrics,” the great majority
+are Sicilian, and although they are chiefly of the twelfth and
+thirteenth centuries, and most of them evidently woven by artists who
+were ignorant of Arabic, the designs are unmistakably Saracenic. The
+medallion arrangement of earlier times gives place on these Palermo
+fabrics to bands or rows of fabulous beasts, birds, and fish, generally
+in blue and green, on a deep-red ground, divided by bands of mutilated
+Arabic inscriptions or arabesque and geometrical panels.
+
+This description of the silk chasuble of Rūm has brought us nearly to
+the time of the Mamlūks, and we shall find that these sumptuous
+sovereigns were as ardent patrons of the textile art as the Fātimis.
+Some of the Mamlūk Sultans indeed prided themselves on a distinguished
+simplicity of attire, but the same cannot be said of their followers.
+The Amīr Salār, in the time of En-Nāsir, made himself famous by (among
+other services to the State) introducing a novel style of vest of white
+Ba‘lbekk linen, sometimes strewn with precious stones. Another Mamlūk
+lord, of the court of Beybars, was allowed two gold brocade caps a
+month, each worth fifty dīnārs, and a turban at forty; and Beybars
+himself, though he preferred to dress simply in black silk with no gold
+or jewels, made amends for his austerity by the rich apparel of his
+suite, and by the portable mosque, entirely constructed of woven stuffs,
+attached to his tent. A pavilion of red satin, with silken cords and
+pegs of sandalwood, strengthened with bands of silver gilt, was the
+Mamlūk idea of elegance. The description in Chapter I. of a state
+pageant under Beybars shows what display the Mamlūks thought suitable to
+their dignity; and the golden silk standards, the dresses of the pages,
+and rich housings of the horses, must have made the silk weavers a very
+flourishing community at that time. Silk was a passion with the Mamlūks;
+they lined their cuirasses with silk, housed their chargers in silk,
+wrapped their letters in silken covers, waved it in the air as flags,
+trod it under foot as drugget, hung it along the streets and over the
+shops on gala days; they wore it on their heads, and on their bodies;
+everything must be of silk brocade; their fairest slaves were exposed
+for sale in silken veils shot with gold thread; and though the Sultan
+Lāgīn tried to put a stop to this bravery of attire, and issued
+sumptuary laws against gold embroidery in the caps and turbans of his
+Mamlūks, the reform was but temporary. The inventor of the new waistcoat
+flourished after Lāgīn’s reforms had been forgotten, and Barkūk soon
+introduced the Cherkis caps, with their spiral ornament and capacious
+dimensions.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 101.—DAMASK, WORN BY HENRY THE SAINT.
+
+Eleventh Century. (_Bamberg Museum._)]
+
+Apart from royal robes, the most handsome stuffs were devoted to the
+manufacture of the dresses of honour (_Khil‘as_) which Mohammadan
+princes were pleased to bestow on those who had succeeded in winning
+their royal approbation. A welcome ambassador, the bringer of good news,
+a Court favourite, a newly appointed official, or a servant who had done
+something (or nothing) that pleased his master, would be forthwith
+presented with a robe of honour perfumed with amber and musk. There was
+a precise etiquette about these dresses, and it was a matter of deep
+moment that the robe should be appropriate to the rank of the person to
+be thus distinguished. To give the wrong dress would be like giving the
+Michael and George to an Indian officer, or the C.I.E. to an Australian.
+El-Makrīzy carefully distinguishes between the _Khil‘as_ bestowed on men
+of the sword and those given to men of the pen. Of the former, the
+Centurions, or captains over 100, who were mighty lords, enjoyed the
+finest kind of robes. Red satin of Rūm, lined with yellow satin from the
+same country, formed the chief material, but the outer garment was
+embroidered with gold, and trimmed with miniver and beaver. A little cap
+of gold brocade was worn under the turban, the fine muslin of which was
+adorned with silk embroidery, while the extremities were formed by bands
+of white silk, bearing the titles of the Sultan. A girdle, enriched with
+rubies, emeralds, and pearls; a sword, inlaid with gold; a horse and
+gold housings from the royal stable, completed the equipment of a person
+distinguished by a dress of honour of the first rank. The prince of
+Hamāh, says El-Makrīzy, received such a dress as this, only instead of
+muslin, the _shāsh_ or turban was made of silk, shot with gold,
+manufactured at Alexandria. Less noble personages received a _Khil‘a_ of
+the silk fabric called, from its designs, _tardwahsh_, “beast-hunts,”
+which was also manufactured at Alexandria, as well as at Misr [Cairo]
+and Damascus. The dress was made of several bands of different colours,
+intermingled with gold-shot cambric, with embroidery between, and a
+border of cambric. The gold cap, girdle, and turban, as before,
+completed the dress of honour for a petty lord. The lower the rank the
+plainer and simpler became the robe of honour, and the degrees of
+difference were finely graduated. Vizīrs, and men of the pen, were
+arrayed in robes of white _kangy_, or stuff of Kanga, trimmed with
+beaver, and lined with miniver. The under garment was of green _kangy_,
+and the turban of _dimity_, or linen of Damietta, embroidered. Lower
+ranks were deprived of the miniver lining, and had no fur on their
+sleeves. Judges and learned men had their robes of honour made of wool,
+without borders, white outside, and green underneath.
+
+The number of specimens of mediaeval textiles made by the Saracens that
+have been preserved to this day is unhappily very small. Naturally silk
+is more perishable than stone or metal, and it was not to be expected
+that dresses should have outlived the vicissitudes of wear and fire to
+which such materials are exposed. The fine series of “Saracenic” stuffs
+lithographed by Fischbach in his “Ornament of Textile Fabrics” are, in
+my judgment, very rarely the work of Saracens. Most of them were
+probably made by Sarrasinas, or imitators of Saracenic style, at
+Palermo, Lucca, and other towns, where enterprising rulers imported
+Byzantine, Greek, and Oriental weavers to teach their own subjects. The
+mutilation of the Arabic inscriptions and the European development of
+the Saracenic ornament are signs of copyists, who were doubtless the
+successors of true Saracen artists, or at least were originally in
+communication with the chief centres of loom-industry in the East.[91]
+Nos. 144 and 145 of that work are, however, exceptions to the generally
+European character of the “Saracenic” illustrations. They belong to a
+cloak at Regensburg (Ratisbon), said to have been worn by the Emperor
+Henry VI., who died at Messina, and who may have had it as a present
+from the Norman King of Sicily. An Arabic inscription worked in the
+fabric states that it was made by Ustād (foreman) ‘Abd-el-‘Azīz for King
+William II., who reigned in Sicily from 1169 to 1189. Another Arabic
+inscription contains a benedictory formula. This example is
+characteristically Saracenic: beasts of the chase, whorls, rosettes, and
+medallions, filled with geometrical ornament, and a large gold band of
+benedictory inscription, recall Mamlūk decoration.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 102.—SILK FABRIC OF EGYPT OR SICILY.
+
+(_Nurnberg Museum._)]
+
+The illustration fig. 101 represents a damask garment, worn by Henry the
+Saint, 1002-1024, now in the Bamberg Museum. Here we see the system of
+ornament in medallions which the Saracens adopted from the Sassanian
+weavers of Persia. The pairs of lions (or chītahs), winged griffins, and
+parrots, closely resemble the style of Mōsil metal-work, and the
+geometrical borders are no less characteristic. Wherever the stuff was
+made (a point on which information is wanting), there can be no doubt
+that it is a typical example of early Saracenic weaving, which was
+founded upon and closely resembled the textile fabrics of the Sassanians
+and Byzantines. Fig. 100, the Seljūk silk, already described, preserves
+the main design of pairs of animals in medallions, but the surrounding
+ornament betrays the influence of the arabesque style. Fig. 102
+represents a silk fabric at Nürnberg, which Fischbach describes as
+Siculo-Saracenic, and on which the human-headed sphinxes suggest an
+Egyptian influence, such as was exerted by the Fātimy Khalifs upon their
+Sicilian vassals. The ground is dark-red, the sphinxes are woven in gold
+thread, and the foliage is green. Prisse d’Avennes has also some
+excellent illustrations of Saracenic textiles: one from the Utrecht
+Museum, with stiff-looking green and red peacocks, beak to beak like the
+_aurei accipitres_ of Q. Curtius, may be of the twelfth or thirteenth
+century, and an even earlier date may be claimed for the silk preserved
+at Toulouse, with its bird decoration, and benedictory Kufic
+inscriptions.
+
+The history of textile ornament is strikingly illustrated by such
+mediaeval fabrics as have been preserved in royal and ecclesiastical
+vestments, formed out of the spoils which the Crusading collector or the
+ambassador to Eastern Courts brought home. An attentive study of the
+admirable series of 160 plates published by Fischbach leaves no doubt
+either of the Sassano-Byzantine origin of Saracenic weaving, or of the
+penetrating influence of Saracenic design over the early loom-workers of
+Italy and Sicily. How much Europe owes to Eastern design in textile
+fabrics may be judged from the prevailing Saracenic character of all the
+Italian work of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries;
+whence all Europe derived the artistic impulse.
+
+The art of weaving, if it has languished in some centres where once it
+flourished, has not altogether died out in Egypt and Syria. A large
+proportion of the beautiful mixed silk and cotton stuffs that are
+offered for sale in the bazaars of Cairo are of native manufacture,
+though European dyes have not improved the colours. Kufīyas of yellow,
+red, and blue striped silk, shot with gold, familiar to all travellers
+in the East, are still made of exquisite beauty and delicacy, and the
+striped _gubbas_ still worn by tradespeople, and, till the frock-coat
+invaded the East, by gentlemen, in Egypt, are generally made by Oriental
+weavers. Damietta indeed no longer manufactures its famous dimity, but
+there are plenty of cotton factories in Egypt, at Demenhur, Ikhmīm and
+Cairo, and silk is still woven at the capital. Beny Suweyf, once famous
+for its linen, now makes only a coarse kind for the common people,
+besides woollen carpets; and linen and cotton factories are still seen
+at Mansūra.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+                        ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS.
+
+
+Among the minor arts of the Mohammadans, none is more individual and
+characteristic than that of illuminating manuscripts. Possessing in the
+Naskhy or cursive hand a script unrivalled in flexuous elegance, the art
+of calligraphy may be said to have been forced upon the Saracens.
+Penmanship soon took its place next to scholarship in the estimation of
+the wise, and the names of great calligraphists, like Ibn-Mukla and
+Yākūt Er-Rūmy, became almost as famous as those of the poets and
+historians who provided them with the materials upon which to exercise
+their art. Many of the ordinary books of reference, such as dictionaries
+and annals, were transcribed with fastidious care in the fine bold
+Naskhy character, and a further step was taken when illumination was
+added to the beauty of penmanship. This embellishment was, however,
+reserved for the book of books, the “noble Korān,” alone.[92] Ordinary
+manuscripts might be beautifully written, but the Korān only was
+ornamented with the rich illuminated title-pages and marginal medallions
+which form the chief points of decoration in Arabic manuscripts. It is
+only necessary to turn over the leaves of the thirteenth century Korān,
+preserved in the British Museum (Orient. 1009), to realise what infinite
+pains, what elaboration of the few decorative elements at their
+disposal, what skill in the arrangement and application of gold and
+colours, the Mohammadan illuminators expended upon their sacred book.
+The first two and last two pages are the subjects of specially rich
+decoration. They form each a rich panel, resembling a magnificent
+carpet. A central ornament of intricate geometrical or arabesque design,
+with the usual inscription, “Let none touch it save the purified,” (by
+which the Muslim warns those who would handle the sacred volume to first
+perform the prescribed religious ablutions,) is surrounded by three
+borders, composed (1) of a sort of key-pattern, like what we have seen
+on Mōsil metal-work, on a gold ground, (2) of flowers in various colours
+on a prevailing blue ground, and (3) of free scroll-work, showing the
+simple elements of the arabesque, which afterwards received such
+manifold elaboration. There are generally four or five such full-page
+illuminations in the best Korāns, two or three at each end of the
+volume. The remaining pages are less richly ornamented: the headings of
+chapters alone are framed in gold and colours, with arabesque and
+geometrical borders, and the outer margins of the leaves are enriched
+with numerous medallions, filled with arabesques and other designs. In
+the example referred to, these medallions are exceptionally numerous and
+varied. There are about three to each page, and their designs,
+notwithstanding their small compass—for a floral border enclosing a gold
+rosette is the prevailing type—present every change and contrast that
+the illuminator’s ingenuity could suggest. The colours are chiefly
+carmine, deep blue, black and gold, but green and yellow sometimes
+appear. The bold writing—called _Thuluth_, or “Thrice-Naskhy”—of the
+text is lightened by gold rosettes and other ornaments, to indicate the
+punctuation and other directions to the person who chanted the Korān.
+The character of the flowers and arabesques, and the scarceness of pure
+geometrical ornament, lead to the impression that this beautiful
+manuscript was illuminated at Damascus; but it may have been the work of
+Cairo artists, trained in the Syrian school. Its date can hardly be
+later than the thirteenth century.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 103.—ILLUMINATED KORAN OF SULTAN SHA‘BAN.
+
+Fourteenth Century. (_Viceregal Library, Cairo._)]
+
+Another very splendid copy of the Korān in the British Museum (Add.
+22,406) bears inscriptions which prove that it was written for Beybars
+Gāshenkīr in the years 704-5, or A.D. 1304-5, while he was still
+_Ustāddār_, or major-domo, to the Sultan En-Nāsir ibn Kalaūn, and had
+not yet ascended the throne himself. It was no doubt prepared for his
+Khāngāh, or conventual mosque, which was completed in 706, and is still
+standing. This magnificent manuscript is in seven volumes, and is
+written from beginning to end in gold letters (within a delicate ink
+outline) on a ground resembling the key-pattern of the early metal-work.
+The first two pages are, as usual, fully illuminated, and covered with
+splendid arabesques in gold, on blue and red ground, with the
+inscription “Let none touch it save the purified” in white. The next two
+pages are framed with interlaced borders; but the rest of the volume,
+except the last page, has only the customary medallions, to mark the
+divisions of the text, and the rosettes and whorls, of red, blue, and
+gold, which are inserted in the writing for purposes of punctuation and
+accent. The marginal medallions are much less frequent than in the
+previously described Korān, and the designs are more monotonous. On the
+last page, within a gold frame with interlaced border, is the
+inscription
+
+ امر بكتابة هذا السبع الشريف واحواته المقر الكريم العالى المولوى الاميرى
+    الكبيرى الركنى استاد الدار العالية اعز الله نصره وكتب محمد بن الوحيد
+
+“The writing of this noble Seventh and its sisters was ordered by his
+excellency, the generous, the exalted, the lord, the great Amīr, Rukn-
+ed-dīn, major domo altissimo, God magnify his triumphs; and Mohammad ibn
+El-Wahīd wrote it.” In the marginal medallions of the same page are the
+words ذهبه محمد بن مبادر عفا الله عنه, “Mohammad ibn Mubādir gilded it,
+God assoil him!” Another of the seven volumes, or “sisters,” opens with
+magnificent geometrical panels filled with arabesques within a free
+scroll border; the pages are literally stiff with gold. At the end is an
+inscription similar to that already translated, but with the addition
+“and he finished the whole of it in the year 705.” A portion of the
+margin of another volume gives the name of Sandal as the gilder, تذهيب
+صندل; and the seventh part has the further information that this volume
+“was incrusted (زمك) by Aydaghdy ibn ‘Abd-Allah el-Bedry,” which raises
+a difficulty as to what this “incrustation” was. The word is frequently
+employed to designate the laying on both of ink and of gold on a
+manuscript; but the previous use of the words كتب and ذهب for these two
+processes seems to suggest some different operation in the case of
+Aydaghdy. Dr. Rieu thinks it may refer to the delicate outlining of the
+characters, but this would more probably be termed كتابة. Perhaps the
+زمك was the laying on of the colours, as distinguished from the تذهيب,
+or gilding. It should be noticed that in this example the colours of the
+medallions, &c., are _painted over the gold_, which gives them a
+peculiar brilliancy.
+
+A third Korān in the British Museum (Orient. 1401) is later—probably of
+the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century—and the
+decoration is very inferior to that of the two preceding examples. The
+rosettes and medallions are comparatively few, and the ornament is over-
+intricate, with something of the Alhambra effect. The headings of
+chapters are good, but the execution is coarse; the full pages at the
+beginning and end present some fine arabesques, but none of the designs
+approach in delicacy those of the first Korān described above. The
+colours are again laid over gold.
+
+In the South Kensington Museum are the first two pages of a magnificent
+Korān, belonging to the fourteenth century. They contain the first
+chapter and the beginning of the second chapter of the Korān, in gold
+letters on a ground shaded with red lines, and covered with beautiful
+scrolls in two shades of blue; the border is of gold arabesque scroll-
+work on a blue ground, with here and there a red flower-like ornament.
+In the same Museum are a pair of fine leather boards, forming the
+binding of a Korān, upon which little less skill has been expended than
+upon the illumination of the manuscript itself. One of these is covered
+with gold tooling, and has a border containing “the Beautiful Names” of
+God; the other is tooled with a floral design with an oval centre. These
+are fine specimens of Saracenic book-binding, and probably date from the
+fourteenth or fifteenth century.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 104.—ILLUMINATED KORAN OF SULTAN SHA‘BAN.
+
+Fourteenth Century. (_Viceregal Library, Cairo._)]
+
+The finest illuminated Korāns in the world, however, are still preserved
+in Cairo, where the Khedive’s library contains the volumes which have
+been rescued from the chief mosques of the city. Like the glass lamps,
+these precious manuscripts were no longer safe in the custody of the
+mosque guardians; enterprising collectors proved dangerous to mosque
+treasures; and the score of splendid _mushafs_, or copies of the Korān,
+now stored in the Darb-el-Gemāmīz, were prudently saved in time. The
+earliest of these is said to date from the second century of the flight,
+and thus to be nearly twelve hundred years old; but the tradition is
+somewhat apocryphal. The best examples, from the point of view of
+illumination, belong to the period of the Mamlūk Sultans, like most
+other works of art in Egypt. Three specimens of these Mamlūk manuscripts
+are given in figs. 103-5, after Professor Ebers’ “Egypt,” but the size
+of the present volume unfortunately precludes the possibility of
+representing more than a quarter of each page. The designs are, however,
+sufficiently shown even in this mutilated form, and perfect justice
+could not be done to them without reproduction in the true colours and
+gilt. The following is the description of the chief Korāns in the
+Khedive’s library, as described by Spitta Bey, the late
+librarian:[93]—The first is a Korān of Sultan Mohammad En-Nāsir ibn
+Kalaūn (1293-1341), 21 by 14 inches, written by Ahmad Yūsuf, a Turk, in
+730 of the Higra. It is written entirely in gilded characters, and there
+is also a second copy of a similar description. Several other Korāns
+date from the reign of Sultan Sha‘bān (A.D. 1363-77), grandson of the
+last named, to whose mosque they were dedicated. The first of these,
+dating from 769, 27½ by 19½ inches, has not its titles written in the
+usual Cufic character, and the headings “in the name of God the all-
+merciful” are in gold. Of the same date and similar size is the Korān of
+Khawend Baraka, mother of Sha‘bān. The first two pages are written in
+gilded and coloured characters, blue being the prevailing colour, and
+are illuminated with stars and arabesques; the next two are in gold,
+embellished with faint arabesques; and the whole work is written in a
+bold and excellent style. Another copy of Sultan Sha‘bān, dating from
+770, of the same width, but a little longer, contains some beautiful
+workmanship on the early pages. The text is wider than that of the last,
+and the book is bound in two volumes. Another and still larger copy,
+dating from the same year, measures 32¾ by 21 inches. All these last
+were destined for the school in the Khutt et-Tabbāneh (street of the
+straw-sellers), founded by Baraka, the Sultan’s mother. Lastly we may
+mention another copy written in 778 (1377), by order of the same prince,
+by ‘Aly ibn Mohammad El-Mukettib, and gilded by Ibrāhīm El-Amidy. This
+copy measures 28 by 20¼ inches, and above each sūra is recorded the
+number of words and letters it contains. All these masāhif are written
+on thick and strong paper, and vie with each other in magnificence. The
+designs exhibit no great variety, but they are executed with the most
+elaborate care and neatness. The text of these Korāns is provided with
+red letters written above certain passages to indicate where the tone of
+the reader’s voice is to be raised, lowered, or prolonged.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 105.—ILLUMINATED KORAN OF SULTAN EL-MUAYYAD.
+
+Early Fifteenth Century. (_Viceregal Library, Cairo._)]
+
+The collection contains three Korāns of the reign of Sultan Barkūk
+(1382-99), the oldest of which measures 41 by 32 inches. It was written
+by order of Mohammad ibn Mohammad, surnamed Ibn-el-Butūt, by
+‘Abderrahmān Es-Sāigh, with one pen, in sixty days, and revised by
+Mohammad ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Aly, surnamed El-Kufty. A second copy, of the
+same Sultan’s reign, and of similar size, has its first and last pages
+restored in the same style as those of other copies, but the modern
+workmanship is inferior to the ancient. A smaller Korān, of the year
+801, measuring 23 by 19½ inches, is written entirely in gilded
+characters.
+
+To Sultan Farag (1399-1412), the son of Barkūk, once belonged a copy of
+the Korān dating from 814, and brought to the library from the mosque of
+El-Muayyad. It measures 37 by 29¼ inches, and was also written by
+‘Abderrahmān Es-Sāigh, the same skilful penman who had been previously
+employed by Barkūk, and the author of a pamphlet, entitled “Sanā-at el-
+Kitāba” (‘the art of writing’), and now preserved in this library. From
+the year 810 dates a fine copy, 38½ by 27 inches, written by Mūsa ibn
+Isma‘īl el-Kināny, surnamed Gagīny, for Sultan El-Muayyad (1412-21).
+
+A copy which once belonged to the mosque of Kāït-Bey, dating from the
+year 909, or a century later than the last, and unfortunately in a very
+injured condition, is the largest Korān in the collection, measuring 44¾
+by 35 inches. To the period of the Ottoman Sultans belongs the small
+mushaf of Safīya, mother of Sultan Mohammad Khān, who caused fifty-two
+copies to be written by Mohammad ibn Ahmad El-Khalīl Et-Tebrīzy. It
+dates from 988, and measures 14 by 9⅓ inches. In it, as in one of the
+other copies, a black line alternates with a gilded one, and the first
+few pages are very beautifully executed. A copy of Huseyn-Bey
+Khemashūrgy, 21½ by 16¾ inches, is written in a smaller character.
+
+The description of such manuscripts fitly concludes a book on Saracenic
+art. In illumination, as in other branches of decoration, the peculiar
+character of Saracen ornament is clearly expressed. The effect is that
+of rich embroidery, or gold brocade; in other words, illumination, like
+mosaic, plaster, wood, and ivory, shows the tapestry motives of
+Saracenic art. In the sanctuary of a mosque, or the kā‘a of a house, in
+the complicated panelling of pulpit or ceiling, and in the chasing of
+vessels of silver,—everywhere the same carpet-like effect strikes one.
+Another salient feature of Saracenic work is exhibited in these
+manuscripts: rich as they are,—as rich even as the exquisite Book of
+Kells,—they suffer from the inevitable restrictions of religion.
+Mohammad forbade portraits of animate things; and though we have
+sometimes seen the prohibition evaded or defied, as a rule Mohammadan
+art is figureless, and the illuminated Korāns exhibit this peculiarity.
+Yet, without this same arid creed, the special features of Saracenic
+decoration would never have been developed for the benefit and example
+of Europe.
+
+
+
+
+                                 INDEX
+
+                     OF NAMES, TITLES, AND PLACES.
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+
+  ‘Abda, 10 _n._, 242, 284.
+
+  ‘Abd-el-‘Azīz, 294.
+
+  ‘Abd-el-Kerīm, 213.
+
+  ‘Abd-er-Rahmān Kikhyā, 88, 239, 279.
+
+  ‘Adil, El-, 12;—208.
+
+  Akbugha, 256.
+
+  Aksunkur, 52, 279.
+
+  Almās, 188, 225, 250, 272.
+
+  ‘Aly, El-Mansūr, 20.
+
+  Amīr, 17.
+
+  Amīr Akhōr, 30.
+
+  Amīr ‘Alam, 25, 31.
+
+  Amīr Bābdār, 34.
+
+  Amīr el-Kebīr, 29.
+
+  Amīr Gandār, 30.
+
+  Amīr Meglis, 31.
+
+  Amīr Shikār, 31.
+
+  Amīr Silāh, 30.
+
+  Amīr Tablkhānāh, 31.
+
+  Amīr Tabar, 31.
+
+  ‘Amr, 4, 51, 52, 64.
+
+  Arkatāy, 272.
+
+  Ashraf, El-, 112; see _Bars Bey_.
+
+  Ashrafy, 18, 210 _n._
+
+  ‘Askar, El-, 5, 9.
+
+  Asyūt, 123, 274, 282.
+
+  Atābek, 29.
+
+  Aybek, 13.
+
+  Aydaghdy, 302.
+
+  Aydekīn, 27.
+
+  Ayyūbīs, 10, 148.
+
+  Azhar, El-, 8, 9, 52, 64, 66, 98.
+
+  ‘Azīz, El-, 194.
+
+  ‘Azīz, Ibn, 196 _n._
+
+  Ba‘albekk, 290.
+
+  Bāb-en-Nasr, 66, 261 _n._
+
+  Bahādur, 272.
+
+  Bahry, 12.
+
+  Ballāsa, 274.
+
+  Barkūk, 52, 62, 64, 100, 128, 138, 225, 254, 270, 306.
+
+  Bars Bey, 62, 118.
+
+  Bashmakdār, 31.
+
+  Bawwāb, 80.
+
+  Bedr el-Gemāly, 9.
+
+  Behnesa, 282, 285.
+
+  Bektemir, 98 _n._, 225.
+
+  Beshtāk, 272.
+
+  Beybars, 12, 16 _n._, 25-8, 32, 34 _n._, 52, 65, 98, 122, 192, 223
+  ff., 270, 290.
+
+  Beyn-el-Kasreyn, 8, 28, 53, 76.
+
+  Beysary, 21, 23, 38, 209 ff.
+
+  Bundukdāry, El-, 27.
+
+  Dar-el-‘Adl, 11.
+
+  Dawādār, 31, 233.
+
+  Debīk, 282.
+
+  Dikka, 58, 80, 169, 199.
+
+  Dimyāt (Damietta), 282, 297.
+
+  Dīnār, 56 _n._
+
+  Durkā‘a, 82.
+
+  Ezbek, 272.
+
+  Farag, 236, 261, 307.
+
+  Fārisy, El-, 194 _n._
+
+  Fātimy, 193 f., 248, 284.
+
+  Ferghāna, 54 _n._
+
+  Firash-khānāh, 32.
+
+  Fustāt, El-, 4, 9, 274 ff.
+
+  Gamakdār, 33.
+
+  Gāmdār, 31.
+
+  Gandār, 30.
+
+  Gāshenkīr, 30.
+
+  Gauhar, 8.
+
+  Gāwaly, El-, 123.
+
+  Gemāly, El-, 9, 268 _n._
+
+  Ghāshia, 33.
+
+  Ghōry, El-, 53, 116, 120, 225.
+
+  Gīza, 11, 122.
+
+  Gubba, 32.
+
+  Gūkendār, 31, 33.
+
+  Hāgib, 30.
+
+  Hākim, El-, 9, 52, 62, 64, 98, 284.
+
+  Halka, 16.
+
+  Hanafīya, 70.
+
+  Hasan, Sultan, 53, 66-74, 100, 120, 134, 136, 225, 250, 251.
+
+  Hawāig-kash, 32.
+
+  Hawāig-khānāh, 32.
+
+  Ikhshīd, 7.
+
+  Imām, 128.
+
+  Ispeh-silary, 210.
+
+  Kā‘a, 80 ff.
+
+  Ka‘ba, 52, 225.
+
+  Kāfūr, 7.
+
+  Kāfūr Es-Sālihy, 255.
+
+  Kāhira, El-, 8, 9.
+
+  Kahlīs, 258, 272.
+
+  Kāït Bey, 53, 62, 74, 76, 100-112, 118, 126, 128, 136, 238, 270, 272.
+
+  Kalaūn, 12, 15, 18, 20, 76-8, 98, 116, 139, 142 ff., 156.
+
+  Kamarīyas, 263 ff.
+
+  Kāmil, El-, 12, 53, 98.
+
+  Karāfa, 74, 100, 194 _n._
+
+  Karākūsh, 11.
+
+  Kāshān, 276.
+
+  Kasīr, El-, 196 _n._
+
+  Kasr Yūsuf, 11.
+
+  Katāi‘, El-, 5, 9, 54.
+
+  Kātim-es-Sirr, 31.
+
+  Kebsh, El-, 19.
+
+  Ketbughā, 18-21.
+
+  Kettāmy, El-, 196 _n._
+
+  Khalif, 4, 8, 21, 139.
+
+  Khalīl, 18, 20.
+
+  Khān, 87.
+
+  Khān el-Khalīly, 18.
+
+  Khatīb, 128.
+
+  Khil‘a, 292.
+
+  Khumaraweyh, 6.
+
+  Kibla, 58, 70 _n._
+
+  Kiné, 274.
+
+  Kūfy, 68 _n._
+
+  Kurdy, El-, 203.
+
+  Kursy, 138, 168, 226.
+
+  Kūsun, 52, 65, 66, 134, 136.
+
+  Kusūr-ez-Zāhira, El-, 8.
+
+  Lāgīn, 14, 16 _n._, 20-4, 64, 130-3.
+
+  Līwān, 57.
+
+  Lulu, 207.
+
+  Mak‘ad, 80.
+
+  Malkaf, 84.
+
+  Mamlūk, 12 ff., 18 _n._, 189 ff., 223 ff.
+
+  Mandara, 80 ff.
+
+  Mangutimūr, 16 _n._, 23.
+
+  Mansūr ‘Aly, El-, 20.
+
+  Mansūra, 12.
+
+  Māridāny, El-, 52, 60, 64, 66, 132, 272.
+
+  Māristān, 12, 76-8, 142 ff.
+
+  Masr-el-‘Atīka, 9.
+
+  Mastaba, 80.
+
+  Medina, 49.
+
+  Meshrebīya, 80 ff., 156 ff., 266.
+
+  Meydā‘, 70.
+
+  Meydān, 6.
+
+  Mibkhara, 62.
+
+  Mihrāb, 58, 70.
+
+  Mihtār, 32, 230.
+
+  Mimbar, 58, 126 ff.
+
+  Misr, 4, 250.
+
+  Mohammad: see _Nāsir_.
+
+  Mohammad ibn El-Wāhid, 301.
+
+  Mōsil (style), 144 ff., 182 ff., 204 ff.
+
+  Mu‘allim, Beny, 196 _n._
+
+  Muayyad, El-, 52, 64, 66, 68 _n._, 126, 136, 225, 307.
+
+  Mubāshir, 29.
+
+  Muhtesib, 32.
+
+  Mu‘izz, El-, 7, 8, 194 _n._, 284.
+
+  Mukaddam, 30.
+
+  Mushidd, 32.
+
+  Mustansir, El-, 9, 10, 121, 193, 242, 284, 286.
+
+  Nāïb-es-Saltana, 18, 20, 29.
+
+  Nāsir Mohammad, En-, 11, 18, 34, 52, 66, 98, 149, 192, 225 ff., 276,
+  304.
+
+  Naskhy, 57 _n._
+
+  Nāzūk, En-, 196 _n._
+
+  Nefīsa, Sitta, 139.
+
+  Nūr-ed-dīn, 148.
+
+  Rakhwāny, 32.
+
+  Ramla, 121-23.
+
+  Ras Nauba, 29.
+
+  Rashīda, 9 _n._
+
+  Rikāb-khānāh, 32.
+
+  Rōda, 12.
+
+  Rukeyya, Sitta, 139 _n._
+
+  Rūm, 284, 286 ff.
+
+  Sāg, 6.
+
+  Sahn-el-Gāmi‘, 70.
+
+  Sāky, 30.
+
+  Saladin, 10, 11, 16 _n._, 148, 149, 270.
+
+  Salār, 270, 290.
+
+  Sālih, Es-, 12, 13, 15, 27, 139.
+
+  Sālih, Mohammad, 176, 177.
+
+  Saphadin, 12.
+
+  Sātilmish, 230.
+
+  Sebīl, 87, 108.
+
+  Selāhkhōry, 30.
+
+  Selīm, 3.
+
+  Semenhūd, 274.
+
+  Shadd, 32.
+
+  Shāfi‘y, Esh-, 12.
+
+  Sha‘bān, 306.
+
+  Sha‘bān, Umm-, 176.
+
+  Sharabdār, 32.
+
+  Sharab-khānāh, 32.
+
+  Sheger-ed-durr, 13.
+
+  Sheykhū, 136, 250, 258, 272.
+
+  Shugā‘ ibn Hanfar, 204.
+
+  Shugāy, 18.
+
+  Sicily, 10, 194, 282, 290, 294.
+
+  Silāhdār, 30.
+
+  Sūk-el-Keftīyīn, 198.
+
+  Sūr (Tyre), 249.
+
+  Suyūfy, 60.
+
+  Syrian style, 189, 220 ff.
+
+  Tabardār, 31, 33.
+
+  Tabl-khānāh, 31.
+
+  Takhtabōsh, 80.
+
+  Talāi‘ ibn Ruzeyk, 98, 134 _n._, 225.
+
+  Tebrīz, 278, 307.
+
+  Tinnīs, 282.
+
+  Tirāz, 289.
+
+  Tishtdār, 32.
+
+  Tisht-khānāh, 32, 209.
+
+  Titles, Mamlūk, 18 _n._
+
+  Tughān, 279.
+
+  Tukuzdemir, 259, 270, 274.
+
+  Tūlūn, Ibn, 3, 5, 6, 22, 52, 53-65, 95, 96, 130-32, 154, 270.
+
+  Turkish and Tartar names, 14 _n._
+
+  Tustar, 284.
+
+  Ujāky, 29.
+
+  Ustāddār, 29, 31, 294.
+
+  Venice, 202, 249.
+
+  Vizīr, 18, 29.
+
+  Wāly, 32.
+
+  Wekāla, 87, 101-112.
+
+  Yelbugha, 261.
+
+  Zard-khānāh, 30.
+
+  Zenky, Beny, 148, 181, 268.
+
+  Zeyn, Ibn-ez-, 218.
+
+  Zimamdār, 31.
+
+  Zuheyr, 36.
+
+  Zunnāry, 33.
+
+  Zuweyla, Bāb, 19.
+
+
+                               * * * * *
+
+      PRINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+
+[Footnote 1: H. C. Kay, _Al-Kahirah and its Gates_. _Journ. R. Asiatic
+Society_, 1882.]
+
+[Footnote 2: _E.g._, in A.H. 442 died Rashidah, daughter of the Khalif
+El-Mu‘izz, leaving an inheritance valued at 2,700,000 dīnars; in her
+house were 12,000 robes of different colours. All the Khalifs since El-
+Mu‘izz had impatiently expected her death. In the same year her sister
+‘Abda also died and left an immense fortune. Forty pounds of wax were
+needed to put seals on her rooms and coffer. Among her treasures were
+3000 vases of silver, enamelled and chased; 400 swords, damascened in
+gold; 30,000 pieces of Sicilian stuff; quantities of emeralds, rubies,
+and other precious stones; 90 basins and 90 ewers of purest crystal, &c.
+(El-Makrīzy.)]
+
+[Footnote 3: Among the principal Mamlūk nobles of the thirteenth and
+fourteenth centuries the following names most frequently occur; they are
+Turkish or Tartar, and Mr. J. W. Redhouse, C.M.G., has kindly given me
+their significations: Beybars, and Bars Bey, Prince Panther; Altunbugha,
+Gold (yellow) Bull; Ketbughā, Lucky Bull; Kurt, Wolf; Tunkuz, Boar;
+Aktai, White Colt; Karakush, Black bird of prey, Eagle; Tughan, Falcon;
+Sunkur Ashkar, Bay Falcon; Aksunkur, Jerfalcon; Karasunkur, Black
+Falcon; Lāgīn, Perigrine Hawk; Balban, Goshawk; Singar, Bird of prey;
+Kalaun, Duck. The preceding names are derived from animals and birds of
+prey, and it is probable that corresponding images were blazoned on
+their owners’ shields. Names connected with the moon are common: _e.g._
+Tūlūn, Setting Moon; Aybek, Moon Prince; Aydaghdy, The Moon has risen;
+Aytekīn, Moon-touching, tall; others relate to steel, as Janbalāt, Whose
+soul is steel; Aydemir, Battle-axe; Erdemir, Male Iron (tempered steel);
+Bektemir, Prince Iron; Esendemir, Sound Iron; Tukuzdemir, Pig-iron (?).
+Others refer to some personal characteristic, as Beysary, Prince Auburn;
+Salār, The Attacker; Karamūn, Black Man; Aghirlu, Sedate; Bektūt, Prince
+Mulberry; Kagkar and Kagkīn, Fleet in running; Kurgy means Armour-
+bearer; Takgi, Mountaineer; Suyurghatmish, A present; Ezbek, True
+Prince; Bektāsh, Prince-peer; Satilmish, Who was sold.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Beybars, following the example of Saladin, organized a
+feudal system by granting lands to the chief lords of his court in
+return for service in the field, and his arrangement appears to have
+lasted until the time of Lāgīn, when we find the whole land of Egypt was
+divided into twenty-four kīrāts, of which four belonged to the Sultan,
+ten to the Amīrs and the holders of royal grants, and ten to the
+soldiers of the guard. Lāgīn made a fresh survey and reconstructed the
+feofs: ten kīrāts were allotted to the Amīrs and guard together, one was
+reserved for compensating the dissatisfied, four as before belonged to
+the Sultan, and the remaining nine were assigned to the cost of levying
+a new body of troops. We learn that the Sultan’s sixth part comprised
+Boheyra, Atfih, Alexandria, Damietta, Manfalūt, with their villages, and
+Kōm Ahmar. The feof of Mangūtimūr, the viceroy, included Semhoud, Edfū,
+Kūs, and others, and brought in a revenue of more than 100,000 ardebbs
+(each of five bushels) of grain, without reckoning money-payments,
+sugar-candy (for which there were seventeen factories), fruits, cattle,
+and wood. The only lands excepted from this general distribution among
+the Amīrs and soldiers were the pious foundations, heritages, and the
+like. Lāgīn considerably reduced the value of the individual feofs,
+which had previously been worth, at the time of Kalaūn, at least 10,000
+francs a year.—El-Makrīzy (Quatremère), II. ii. 65 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 5: It will be useful here to explain the system of Mamlūk
+names and titles. Every Mamlūk had (1) a proper name, such as Ketbugha,
+Lāgīn, Beybars, Kalaūn, generally of Tartar derivation; (2) a surname or
+honourable epithet, as Husām-ed-dīn, “Sword-blade of the Faith,” Nūr-ed-
+dīn, “Light of the Faith,” Nāsir-ed-dīn, “Succourer of the Faith;” (3)
+generally a pseudo-patronymic, as Abu-l-Feth, “Father of Victory,” Abu-
+n-Nasr, “Father of Succour;” (4) if a Sultan, an epithet affixed to the
+title of Sultan or King, as El-Melik Es-Sa‘īd, “The Fortunate King,” El-
+Melik En-Nāsir, “The Succouring King,” El-Melik El-Mansūr, “The
+Victorious King;” (5) a title of possession, implying, by its relative
+termination _y_ or _ī_, that the subject has been owned as a slave (or
+has been employed as an officer or retainer) by some Sultan or Lord, as
+El-Ashrafy, “The Slave or Mamlūk of the Sultan El-Ashraf,” El-Mansūry,
+“The Mamlūk of the Sultan El-Mansūr.” The order of these titles was as
+follows: first the royal title, then the honourable surname, third the
+patronymic, fourth the proper name, and last the possessive: as Es-
+Sultān El-Melik El-Mansūr Husām-ed-dīn Abu-l-Feth Lāgīn El-Mansūry, “The
+Sultan, Victorious King, Sword-blade of the Faith, Father of Victory,
+Lāgīn, Mamlūk of the Sultan El-Mansūr.” It is usual, in abbreviating
+these numerous names, to style a Sultan by his title, El-Mansūr, &c., or
+by his proper name, Lāgīn, &c., omitting the rest, while a Noble (Amīr)
+is conveniently denoted by his proper name alone. It may be added that
+the word _ibn_, of frequent occurrence in these pages, means “son;” as,
+Ahmad ibn Tūlūn, “Son of Tūlūn.”]
+
+[Footnote 6: The greater part of the translation above is Col. Yule’s
+(_Marco Polo_, i. 25): the Arabic text and French version are given by
+Quatremère, in El-Makrīzy’s _Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks_, I. ii.
+190-194.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Col. H. Yule, _Marco Polo_, i. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 8: The Sultan never forgot that he had risen from the ranks of
+the Mamlūks, and was accustomed to address his late comrades in
+brotherly style. “The Mamlūk” was a common title much esteemed by the
+Sultan and retained in the days of his greatest power.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Joinville describes the Sultan Beybars’ camp at Damietta:
+It was entered through a tower of fir-poles covered round with coloured
+stuff, and inside was the tent where the lords left their weapons when
+they sought audience of the Sultan. “Behind this tent there was a
+doorway similar to the first, by which you entered a large tent, which
+was the Sultan’s hall. Behind the hall there was a tower like the one in
+front, through which you entered the Sultan’s chamber. Behind the
+Sultan’s chamber there was an enclosed space, and in the centre of this
+enclosure a tower, loftier than all the others, from which the Sultan
+looked out over the whole camp and country. From the enclosure a pathway
+went down to the river, to the spot where the Sultan had spread a tent
+over the water for the purpose of bathing. The whole of this encampment
+was enclosed within a trellis of wood-work, and on the outer side the
+trellises were spread with blue calico (?) . . . and the four towers
+were also covered with calico.” Hutton’s trans. p. 94.]
+
+[Footnote 10: Nāsir i-Khusrau (eleventh century) says that 50,000
+donkeys were on hire at Cairo in his time. They stood at street-corners,
+with gay saddles, and everybody rode them.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Admirably translated by the late Prof. E. H. Palmer.
+(Cambridge, 1877.)]
+
+[Footnote 12: It is worth remarking that the almost contemporary
+Nilometer was built by an architect from Ferghāna.]
+
+[Footnote 13: By gold piece I mean a _dīnār_, a coin about the size of a
+half-sovereign, which then weighed 63 grains on the average, and was of
+nearly pure gold.]
+
+[Footnote 14: As is well known, the prayers of Mohammadans are said with
+the face directed towards Mekka, which at Cairo means south-east. The
+older mosques are more correctly placed in the proper direction than the
+later. In referring to the Mekka side of a mosque the term “east end”
+will be used, as it conveys a more familiar idea to Europeans than
+south-east.]
+
+[Footnote 15: Kūfy is a form of Arabic writing, older in its general
+application than the ordinary cursive hand, which is termed Naskhy,
+though the latter existed contemporaneously with the Kūfy in the first
+century of the Hijra. Kūfy is a stiff rectangular monumental script,
+whilst Naskhy is rounded and flowing. An example of the former may be
+seen in fig. 9, and of the latter in fig. 10. The oldest Kūfy is more
+rectangular than the later, which allows various curves and tails which
+were not used in the earliest form of the character.]
+
+[Footnote 16: The bricks, according to Mr. Wild’s measurements, are
+small and flat, about 7½ inches long, by 2½ inches wide, and 1¾ inches
+thick; the joints of mortar are very thick, generally about an inch.
+Wooden beams are introduced here and there to tie the brickwork
+together, especially at the spring of the arches.]
+
+[Footnote 17: El-Māridāny’s mosque is well illustrated in Ebers’
+_Egypt_, ii. 70; and the minaret is separately engraved in i. 61. It is
+converted from the square into an octagon very near the base, and thence
+at the first stalactite gallery into the round; above the second gallery
+(there are but two) is a stone neck or pinnacle, twelve courses high
+supporting a conical bulb-like crown.]
+
+[Footnote 18: See the plates in Bourgoin’s _Les Arts Arabes_, and Owen
+Jones’ _Grammar of Ornament_. And for Kūsūn’s grilles, see Prisse
+d’Avennes, pl. 46.]
+
+[Footnote 19: These were put up in 1422. The original platform and steps
+had been destroyed, together with the galleries of the minarets, by
+Barkūk, in 1391, in order to prevent the military factions using the
+lofty position afforded by the mosque as a battery upon the Citadel
+opposite. Guns have been frequently engaged between the Citadel and the
+mosque; and some of Napoleon’s shot can still be seen embedded in the
+wall. The original bronze door and lantern were also removed during the
+period of interdict referred to, and were bought by the Sultan El-
+Muayyad for his own mosque.]
+
+[Footnote 20: Fair views of Sultan Hasan’s mosque, exterior, portal, and
+interior, may be seen in Coste, _Architecture Arabe_, pl. 21-6; Ebers’
+_Egypt_, i. 238, 262, 268; and my supplement to _Picturesque Palestine,
+Sinai, and Egypt_, entitled _Social Life in Egypt_, 95.]
+
+[Footnote 21: This direction or point of the compass is called the
+_kibla_, and the common application of this term to the niche itself is
+an error.]
+
+[Footnote 22: It is worth noticing that the courses of stone in a mosque
+or house are always 13 or 14 inches high, and are hardly ever
+subdivided. The windows, doors, and ornament are therefore regulated by
+the courses, and are four or six courses, or whatever the number, and
+not four-and-a-half, &c. It is thus easy to calculate the height of a
+building of stone by counting its courses.]
+
+[Footnote 23: For illustrations of Kalaūn’s Māristān and mausoleum, see
+my _Social Life in Egypt_, 91; Ebers’ _Egypt_, i. 247-50. Both these
+works contain several large engravings of mosque interiors, which should
+be studied in connection with this chapter.]
+
+[Footnote 24: These various details of the Cairo room will be more fully
+described under their respective headings.]
+
+[Footnote 25: Some mandaras, however, have two daïses, like the Kā‘a.]
+
+[Footnote 26: R. S. Poole, in a lecture delivered before the Royal
+Academy, and summarised in the _Builder_ of 14th February, 1885.]
+
+[Footnote 27: Nāsir-i-Khusrau, _Sefer Nameh_, ed. C. Schefer, 133.]
+
+[Footnote 28: For illustrations of the chief mosques and other buildings
+of Cairo, consult (besides Coste and Prisse d’Avennes) Ebers’ _Egypt_,
+where there are some admirable interiors of houses after Mr. Frank
+Dillon’s pictures, besides good views of various portions of the mosques
+of El-Māridāny (i., 202, ii., 70), the Māristān, &c. (i., 247, 249,
+250), Sultan Hasan (i., 238, 262, 268), El-Muayyad (i., 273, 274), Ezbek
+(i., 281), Kāït Bey (i., 284), and El-Ghōry (i., 286). My Egyptian
+chapters in _Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt_, vol. iv., contain
+some fine woodcuts of El-Ashraf Bars Bey (142), Sultan Hasan (143),
+Barkūk (145), Kāït Bey (148), and others, with useful street views; and
+in the supplementary volume, _Social Life in Egypt_, are illustrations
+of El-Hākim’s minarets (90), Kalaūn’s mausoleum (91), Sultan Hasan (95),
+and Kāït Bey (99-101), besides many objects of Saracenic Art from the
+Cairo museum.]
+
+[Footnote 29: Franz Pasha, in his admirable essay prefixed to Baedeker’s
+“Lower Egypt.”]
+
+[Footnote 30: E. Stanley Poole, in an essay on Arabian architecture
+appended to Lane’s _Modern Egyptians_, 5th ed. This sketch of my
+Father’s was the first serious attempt to deal with the problems of the
+origin and development of Saracenic art in Cairo.]
+
+[Footnote 31: Compare the illustrations on pp. 306 and 307 (vol. i.) of
+Perrot and Chipiez, _The History of Art in Chaldaea and Assyria_. The
+knop and flower pattern is there seen combined with rosettes closely
+resembling those of Ibn-Tūlūn. See also Mr. Wild’s drawings of the
+decoration of Ibn-Tūlūn in the _Grammar of Ornament_.]
+
+[Footnote 32: There are also some remains of tenth century Fātimy work
+in the mosque of Talāi‘ ibn Ruzeyk; but most of the ornament belongs to
+the restoration by Bektemir in the fourteenth century.]
+
+[Footnote 33: M. Bourgoin has made an exhaustive study of the
+geometrical ornament of the Saracens in his _Eléments de l’Art Arabe_.]
+
+[Footnote 34: This gateway is illustrated by Coste, _Architecture
+Arabe_; but the details are a little imaginative.]
+
+[Footnote 35: A plaster cast of this column is in the South Kensington
+Museum.]
+
+[Footnote 36: The origin of the pendentive may be traced in the rude
+brick-work, projecting course above course, in the corners of the
+Kertsch tumulus, of which an illustration is given in Lane’s _Modern
+Egyptians_, Appendix F, 587.]
+
+[Footnote 37: E. Stanley Poole, in Lane’s _Modern Egyptians_, 5th ed.,
+pp. 586-588.]
+
+[Footnote 38: A. J. Butler, _Coptic Churches_, vol. i., pp. 37, 38. That
+the Egyptian mosaic-work was derived from the art of the Lower Empire is
+supported by the circumstance that the common Arabic name for a tessera
+of mosaic is _fuseyfisā_, which is of course the Greek ψῆφος. The term
+_faṣṣ_ is also employed in the same sense, and _mufaṣṣaṣ_ means “inlaid
+with squares of marble,” or “covered with mosaic.” The Greek emperor
+furnished the Khalīf El-Welīd with mosaics and workmen for his mosque at
+Jerusalem.]
+
+[Footnote 39: An engraving of a mosaic floor, surrounding a fountain of
+the simpler kind usual in good Cairene houses, may be seen in Lane’s
+_Modern Egyptians_, pp. 12, 13, 5th ed.]
+
+[Footnote 40: _Sefer Nameh_, ed. Ch. Schefer, p. 65.]
+
+[Footnote 41: The wood commonly used for lattice windows is the pitch
+pine, which is imported from Asia Minor in lengths of about twenty
+feet.]
+
+[Footnote 42: The same shape is seen in the plaques of the bronze door
+of the mosque of Talāi‘ ibn Ruzeyk, as restored by Bektemir in the 14th
+century: see Prisse, ii., pl. 95. Some portions of the original mosque
+of Talāi‘ are still standing.]
+
+[Footnote 43: A very similar style of work is seen in the carved wooden
+niche from the mausoleum of Sitta Rukeyya, which may belong to a time
+very nearly contemporary with Es-Sālih Ayyūb. This niche is now in the
+Arab Museum at Cairo, and a photograph of it may be seen in the
+portfolio of objects in the _Musée Arabe_, of which a copy is in the Art
+Library at South Kensington.]
+
+[Footnote 44: E. T. Rogers Bey: _Rapport sur le lieu de sépulture des
+Khalifs Abbassides_, &c. (Com. Conserv. Mon. de l’Art Arabe).]
+
+[Footnote 45: It may, however, be the crest of Karākūsh, the eunuch, who
+was commissioned by Saladin to build the Citadel. Karākūsh means “black
+bird of prey.”]
+
+[Footnote 46: _The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt_, ii. 66, 67.]
+
+[Footnote 47: _The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt_, vol. i., pp. 86,
+87.]
+
+[Footnote 48: _The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt_, vol. i., p. 212.]
+
+[Footnote 49: A. de Longpérier, _Œuvres_, i., 71, 254.]
+
+[Footnote 50: Compare what has been said above, pp. 126 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 51: S. Lane-Poole, _Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British
+Museum_, vol. iii.; _International Numismata Orientalia_, vol. i., pt.
+2.]
+
+[Footnote 52: Mesopotamia and the adjacent districts have been famous
+from remote antiquity for copper mines, and in the present day near
+Māridīn is a kiln where the copper is refined which is extracted from
+the mine of Argana Ma‘din; and copper vessels are still made at Tōkāt,
+and exported to Syria and Egypt.]
+
+[Footnote 53: In the Arsacid relief of Takhti-Bostan, the king hunts
+from a boat, exactly as on this bowl.]
+
+[Footnote 54: A. de Longpérier, _Œuvres_, i. 390.]
+
+[Footnote 55: This inlaying, or rather the precious metal thus inlaid,
+is termed in Arabic _keft_ كَفْت. كفّت (2nd conj.) means to plate or
+cover with a leaf of metal. We read in El-Makrīzy of نحاس مكفت بالذهب
+والفضة, “Copper, plated with gold and silver;” نحاس اصفر مكفت بالفضة,
+“Brass, plated with silver;” and elsewhere of فولاد مكفت بالذهب, “Steel,
+plated with gold;” and saddles, bridles, and precious stones, مكفت,
+“plated” with, or set in, gold and silver. الطعيم (from طعّم) means
+“incrustation,” “inlaying;” and مطعّم practically the same as مكفت, only
+it does not necessarily imply metal-plates. El-Makrīzy writes—الكفت هو
+ما تطعم به اوانى النحاس من الذهب والفضة, which shows that مطعّم is
+applied to inlaid metal-work as well as مكفت. But it is also used for
+inlaid ivory and wood: _e.g._ خشب مطعّم بالعاج والابنوس, “Wood, inlaid
+with ivory and ebony,” صنع تابوتا من ابنوس مطعّم بالصدف, “He made a box
+of ebony inlaid with mother-of-pearl.” See El-Makrīzy, _Hist. des
+Mamlouks_, (Quatremère,) ii. i. 114, _note_.]
+
+[Footnote 56: _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_, xii. 64-74.]
+
+[Footnote 57: With regard to these distinctions, I must say that the
+first, which is real Damascening, is the only method employed on early
+Saracenic work, and it is used alike for large surfaces and small; but
+_not_ for mere threads, which are, I believe, generally fixed by the
+punched mode described above. Raised walls, mentioned in M. Lavoix’s
+second method, are not known to early Saracenic art, and certainly do
+not apply to Damascus work: they only came in when the Venetian style of
+cutting away the whole surface except the pattern became the vogue. The
+third method is the late and bad one.]
+
+[Footnote 58: _Souvenirs d’un Voyage en Perse_, 1867, pp. 236-9.]
+
+[Footnote 59: “I have seen,” says Nāsir-i-Khusrau, in the 11th century,
+“copper bowls of Damascus containing each 30 menn of water; they shine
+like gold. They tell me that a woman owns 5000 of them, and lets them
+out daily for a dirhem a month.”]
+
+[Footnote 60: El-Makrīzy, _Mamlouks_, ii. 246.]
+
+[Footnote 61: _Sefer Nameh_, 158.]
+
+[Footnote 62: _Sefer Nameh_, 149; El-Makrīzy, _Mamlouks_, ii. 250.]
+
+[Footnote 63: A. de Longpérier, _Œuvres_, i. 453-5.]
+
+[Footnote 64: We know that Basra painters were brought to Egypt in
+Fātimy times. El-Makrīzy tells us that the “Mosque of the Karāfa,”
+erected by Taghrīd Darzān, the wife of El-Mu‘izz, was built by a Persian
+architect, El-Hasan El-Fārisy, and resembled the Azhar. Its chief gate
+was cased with iron, and fourteen square brick gates led into the
+sanctuary: before each of them was an arch resting on two marble
+columns, in three parts, blue, red, and green, and other colours. The
+ceilings were decorated in various colours _by workmen from Basra_, and
+the Beny Mu‘allim, the masters of El-Kettamy and En-Nāzūk. Opposite the
+seventh doorway was an arch on the two sides whereof were painted
+fountains with steps, which looked real. Painters used to come to see
+it, but could not imitate it. Two rival painters, El-Kasīr and Ibn-‘Azīz
+(of ‘Irāk), were pitted one against the other by the Vizir El-Yāzūry;
+the first painted a picture of a dancing-girl in white robes on a black
+blind arch, as though she were inside it, and the second a similar girl
+in crimson robes on a yellow ground, as though she were standing out of
+the arch.]
+
+[Footnote 65: _Khitat_ (Būlāk ed.), ii. 105.]
+
+[Footnote 66: When El-Makrīzy speaks of white and yellow copper, he
+means of course brass or bronze. The greater number of the inlaid
+objects I have seen are of brass, and not of copper; though of course
+the word _En-Nahās_ may be taken to include “yellow copper” (or brass)
+as well as pure red copper. In the South Kensington collection, which
+has had the advantage of the chemical tests of Dr. Hodgkinson (F.R.S.E.,
+Professor at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and of the Royal
+College of Chemistry), there are 20 brass objects to 8 of bronze, while
+what copper there is has a coating of an alloy of lead and antimony,
+which gives a grey appearance to the bowls thus treated. Some of the
+bronzes are zinc bronzes, _i.e._ contain zinc as well as tin, but as a
+rule they contain a large proportion of tin.]
+
+[Footnote 67: There is no “market of the inlayers” in Cairo now; but
+workmen may still be found who can inlay copper with silver after a
+somewhat rude fashion, using a simple graver, and beating silver wire
+into the excavated design.]
+
+[Footnote 68: See M. Lavoix, _Les Azziministes_, _ubi supr._, for these
+and other indications.]
+
+[Footnote 69: El-Makrīzy, _Hist. des Mamlouks_, Quatremère, II. i. 115,
+_n._]
+
+[Footnote 70: The relative termination, _y_, affixed to a name, though
+originally implying the relation of slave to master (as _El-Ashrafy_,
+the Mamlūk of El-Ashraf), came to signify also the mere relation of a
+retainer, liegeman, or even courtier, without the notion of ownership.
+Beysary was called El-Ashrafy, as one of the courtiers of El-Ashraf
+Khalīl, the Sultan’s “man;” but he was not his slave.]
+
+[Footnote 71: El-Makrīzy, l. c. II. ii. 135 _n._]
+
+[Footnote 72: It has been fully described by M. de Longpérier, in the
+_Revue Archéologique_ (N. S. vii. 306-9), and the article reappears in
+the first volume of his _Œuvres_ (pp. 460-6).]
+
+[Footnote 73: Ibn Batūta (i. 75) tells us that the monastery attached to
+the mosque where Huseyn’s head was buried at Cairo had doors plated with
+silver, and silver rings. En-Nāsir Mohammad, in 733, furnished a door
+for the Ka‘ba at Mekka, which was made of ebony, covered with silver
+plates of great weight.]
+
+[Footnote 74: An engraving of the top of the table, showing the Arabic
+inscriptions in Kūfy and Naskhy, and the ornament of ducks, &c., may be
+seen in my _Social Life in Egypt_, p. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 75: A. Nesbitt, _Descriptive Catalogue of the Glass Vessels in
+the South Kensington Museum_, lxiv., &c.]
+
+[Footnote 76: A. Nesbitt, _Descriptive Catalogue of the Glass Vessels in
+the South Kensington Museum_, lxiv., &c.]
+
+[Footnote 77: They were called _Kandīl Kalaūny_, “Kalaūn’s lamp.”]
+
+[Footnote 78: _Sefer Nameh_, ed. C. Schefer, 152.]
+
+[Footnote 79: An engraving of one of them was published in the _Art
+Journal_, and afterwards in my _Social Life in Egypt_, 98.]
+
+[Footnote 80: The descriptions of this and the two following lamps are
+taken partly from Mr. Nesbitt’s _Catalogue of Glass in the South
+Kensington Museum_, to which I contributed the interpretation of the
+Arabic inscriptions. I have, however, after an interval of ten years,
+made a second examination of the lamps, which has resulted in some
+important corrections of my earlier readings of the inscriptions, and I
+have also amplified Mr. Nesbitt’s descriptions.]
+
+[Footnote 81: The badges on the Gate of Cairo, called the “Bāb-en-Nasr,”
+may, perhaps, be the arms of the builder, El-Gemāly, and, if so, the use
+of armorial bearings in Egypt in the eleventh century is proved. They
+consist of a circular shield sculptured with a sixfoil ornament, and
+crossed behind by a straight sword; and of a pear-shaped shield with
+four studs or bosses and a serrated edge.]
+
+[Footnote 82: See the engravings in Lane’s _Modern Egyptians_.]
+
+[Footnote 83: _Sefer Nameh_, ed. C. Schefer.]
+
+[Footnote 84: See Col. Yule’s admirable translation of Marco Polo. “At
+Baudas [Baghdād] they weave many different kinds of silk stuffs and gold
+brocades . . . wrought with figures of beasts and birds.”—i. 67.]
+
+[Footnote 85: _Note sur un drap d’or arabe que possède le Musée
+Industriel de Lyon: lue à l’Académie de Lyon, 30 Mai_, 1882, par M.
+Pariset.]
+
+[Footnote 86: The gold leaf was attached to the paper or skin by
+gelatine, and then cut and rolled round the thread. The early Italian
+weavers imported this peculiar Saracenic gold thread: hence the
+_mysterium auri filati_ of the chroniclers. See the interesting account
+of gold tissue in Fischbach, _Geschichte der Textil-Kunst_, 76, ff.]
+
+[Footnote 87: For other notices, see Col. Yule’s notes in his
+translation of Marco Polo, i. 67, 68, &c.]
+
+[Footnote 88: Col. Yule, i. 45-6.]
+
+[Footnote 89: J. B. Giraud, _Les Origines de la Soie, son Histoire chez
+des Peuples de l’Orient_, p. 60.]
+
+[Footnote 90: F. Michel, _Recherches sur le Commerce et la Fabrication
+des Etoffes de soie, d’or et d’argent_, ii. 133.]
+
+[Footnote 91: Mr. Fischbach almost admits as much himself, when he
+occasionally notes his hesitation in ascribing a Saracenic stuff to an
+Eastern loom or to Sarrasinas at Lucca; and some of his “Saracenic”
+examples are even vaguely attributed to “Asia Minor or Greece.” He has
+enjoyed the scholarly assistance of Prof. Karabacek, who has made
+considerable use of Col. Yule’s and Sir George Birdwood’s discoveries,
+and added the results of his own researches. The attribution of no. 13
+to Ibrāhīm of Dehlī, however, is not warranted by the Arabic inscription
+in the lithograph, which does not show the name of that Sultan. 88a,
+again, which “cannot be read,” shows the name ‘Abd-Allah clearly.
+Fischbach’s _Geschichte der Textil-Kunst_ contains Prof. Karabacek’s
+information, but the Saracenic divisions are unhappily full of
+misprints, which detract from the scholarly aspect.]
+
+[Footnote 92: The curious figures in certain MSS. of El-Harīry’s Makamāt
+are quite exceptional, and probably the work of Christians.]
+
+[Footnote 93: Baedeker’s _Lower Egypt_, 268.]
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+
+  pg 34, footnote 9, Changed: "were sprea with blue calico" to: "spread"
+
+  pg 105, Changed: "eighth by a spendid arched gateway" to: "splendid"
+
+  pg 121, footnote 39, Changed: "may be seen in Lane’s _Modern
+  Egyytians_" to: "_Egyptians_"
+
+  pg 153, Changed: "Coptic carving should be ound earlier" to: "found"
+
+  pg 200, Missing reference to note 67 added after "the Sūk
+  El-Keftīyīn."
+
+  pg 226, footnote 74, Changed: "inscriptions in Kū y and Naskhy" to:
+  "Kūfy"
+
+  pg 296, Changed: "stiff-looking green and read peacocks" to: "red"
+
+  pg 311, Changed: "[Muayyad, El-,] 69 _n._" to: "68 _n._"
+
+  Some minor changes in spelling and punctuation have been done
+  silently.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78943 ***