The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo
The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo
The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo
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top: Doors <strong>of</strong> the Sultan Hasan mosque.<br />
above: Detail <strong>of</strong> door <strong>of</strong> the Sultan Hasan mosque.<br />
178 <strong>The</strong> <strong>Art</strong> and <strong>Architecture</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Islamic</strong> <strong>Cairo</strong><br />
inlaid, chased or embossed by means <strong>of</strong> casting or repoussé<br />
work. Chasing involved punching and indenting the surface<br />
without removing the metal, and repoussé was a technique for<br />
embossing forms by hammering thin sheets <strong>of</strong> metal against a<br />
firm but yielding substance (usually, in the case <strong>of</strong> vessels, from<br />
the inside out). 20 Repoussé work was <strong>of</strong>ten pierced into filigree<br />
patterns, and this technique can be seen in the bosses and lobes<br />
that appear in the radiating patterns in the entrance doors to<br />
Sultan Hasan’s mosque (now installed in the mosque <strong>of</strong> Sultan<br />
al-Mu’ayyad Shaykh). <strong>The</strong> quality <strong>of</strong> metalwork in these and<br />
other doors throughout this mosque, particularly those in the<br />
minbar, is unsurpassed.<br />
Similar repoussé work can be seen in the bronze entrance<br />
doors to the madrasa-khanqah <strong>of</strong> Sultan Barquq (1384–6) in al-<br />
Mu’izz street. Here the surface is made up <strong>of</strong> radiating patterns <strong>of</strong><br />
twelve- and six-sided figures which spring into relief in the<br />
repoussé bosses, hexagons and lobes. Unlike at the Sultan Hasan<br />
mosque, these surfaces are not pierced but engraved and inlaid<br />
with silver and composed <strong>of</strong> a varied range <strong>of</strong> flat and convex lobes<br />
and regular and irregular hexagons, engraved and inlaid with fine<br />
arabesques, lotus flowers and rosettes. Throughout the latter half <strong>of</strong><br />
the fourteenth century bronze became more scarce and sycamore<br />
more readily available. For this reason the madrasa doors in the<br />
inner sahn contain less bronze and the doors to the mausoleum are<br />
made entirely <strong>of</strong> wood. <strong>The</strong> wooden planks <strong>of</strong> the madrasa doors<br />
are clearly visible, providing the ground for the copper facing <strong>of</strong><br />
open-work arabesques in the central medallions, cornerpieces and<br />
borders. More reminiscent <strong>of</strong> carpet patterns and contemporary<br />
bookbinding, these finely engraved filigree arabesques have a lightness<br />
<strong>of</strong> touch in keeping with the fleur-de-lis patterns in the joggled<br />
voussoirs <strong>of</strong> the door lintel above. 21<br />
Perhaps more remarkable than the technical skills involved<br />
in these door facings is their complexity <strong>of</strong> geometric design. <strong>The</strong><br />
entrance doors <strong>of</strong> the Sultan Hasan mosque display a typical<br />
Mamluk pattern in which sixteen- and twelve-sided figures are<br />
locked together into one dynamic surface by the intermediary<br />
<strong>of</strong> overlapping subsidiary polygons. In his book <strong>Islamic</strong><br />
Patterns, Keith Critchlow examines a similar design, and the<br />
following analysis is worth quoting because it is pertinent not<br />
only to this particular example (<strong>of</strong> a minbar), but to Mamluk<br />
geometric design as whole: