The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

elow: Brass basin inlaid with silver and gold
(British Museum).
174 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo
white and red. The two horizontal bands which frame this inscription
are decorated with flying birds – a good example of the chinoiserie
that was beginning to penetrate Mamluk art at this time.
Tuquztimur’s blazon also appears on a metal basin (c. 1344) and
vase (before 1345) in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo. The latter of
these beautifully inlaid brass vessels displays chinoiserie in the form
of delicate silver arabesques with lotus flowers, peonies and flying
ducks. The insignia of the cup-bearer in a circular shield also appears
on a brass inlaid candlestick belonging to Sultan Kitbugha in the
Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (1290–3). It was the office that
Kitbugha had long held at court, and he proudly continued to use
this device on his coinage, and objects like this, long after he became
sultan. Other examples of the device can be seen on two brass inlaid
vessels in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, which belonged to the
Amir Toqto, an officer in the court of Sultan al-Ashraf. They are a
basin and ewer bearing the cup-bearer’s blazon between two bars. The
brass basin is a particularly fine specimen in which the bold Thuluth
inscription, inlaid with silver, forms the dominant motif.
CHINOISERIE
Following al-Nasir Muhammad’s peace treaty with the Ilkhanids,
Chinese motifs became a significant feature in many of the decorative
arts during the first half of the fourteenth century. They were
transmitted from China through the Ilkhanid dynasty and links
with Egypt were strengthened by the Mongol background of many
Mamluks, such as the sultan Kitbugha (1295–7). This can clearly be
seen in the lotus flowers in an exquisite brass basin, inlaid with gold
and silver, belonging to al-Nasir Muhammad in the British Museum
(1330–41). The roundels of lotus flowers contain inscriptions at the
centre proclaiming ‘Glory to our Lord the Sultan’, and al-Nasir
Muhammad’s titles are writ large in the bold
calligraphy that fills the remaining cartouches.
In the collection of the Galleria Estense,
Modena, another bowl belonging to one of al-Nasir
Muhammad’s amirs shows similar lotus flowers and
Thuluth script. It also depicts a number of mythological
creatures and, like the Baptistère of Saint Louis, the base
inside is covered with fishes. Fish motifs on the base are
featured in a number of water basins, and one with a
similar design, with fish swimming around a central
whorl, is engraved on the base of a brass bowl in the