The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

above: Frontispiece of a Qur’an written by Muhammad
ibn al-Wahid and illuminated by Muhammad ibn
Mubadir and Aydughdi ibn Abd Allah al-Badri: 1304
(British Library).
184 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo
commissioned in editions of up to thirty volumes. Perhaps the
greatest masterpiece of the Mamluk era is the seven-volumed
Qur’an in the British Museum commissioned by Baibars
al-Jashankir for his khanqah. It was commissioned before he
became sultan when he was high chamberlain, and was copied by
Muhammad ibn al-Wahid and illuminated by Muhammad ibn
Mubadir and Aydughdi ibn Abd Alah al-Badri in 1304. The doublepage
frontispiece to the first volume consists of a gold, white and
blue design based on a ground plan of interlacing circles. Enmeshed
within this structure is a framework of rectangular and stellar panels
containing inscriptions on a delicate background tracery of
arabesque. Two forms of calligraphy are used: the cursive Thuluth in
the central panels and Eastern Kufic in the upper and lower panels.
The white Thuluth inscriptions state ‘The first’ and ‘The seventh’
respectively, and the text for the Kufic inscriptions comes from sura