The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

of speech through gesture demonstrate the continuity of Byzantine
classicism within Mamluk painting. Dialogue and gesture signify
the importance of rhetoric within Arab culture, and the decorum
and sign language of the Greeks, seen in Byzantine mosaics, was
absorbed into Arab painting. In the domain of literature,
Ettinghausen also sees the role of dialogue, whether through
persons or animals, as the bond between such works as the Maqamat
and Kalila and Dimna fables. Also springing from the Hellenistic
tradition he notes the use of architectural representation as a persistent
theme in works attributed to Syria. A more obvious example
of the symbiotic relationship between Arab and Greek culture can
be seen in the numerous illustrated scientific works on astronomy,
medicine, botany and mechanics. Of Eastern influences on Arab
painting Ettinghausen singles out the theme of royalty, with its
roots in pre-Islamic Persia, as a dominant theme, but he qualifies his
definition of the East by pointing out that Sassanian art was an
Eastern mutation of late classicism. 40
Eastern influences, however, became more manifest in the
decorative arts as a whole as the Arab world became increasingly
dominated by Persian and Turkish culture. A fourteenth-century
manuscript in the Library of the Süleyman Mosque, Istanbul,
illustrating The Disclosure of Secrets (dealing with the purpose of
plants, birds and animals), by Ibn Ghanim al-Maqdisi, shows a
synthesis of Mamluk and Persian styles. The architectural framework
and classical form of the drapery suggest Syrian origin, but
the symmetry, surface decoration and spatial ambiguities show
Persian influence. Such hybridization is indicative of the ascendency
of the Persians and Turks in the Arab world, and, like the impact of
chinoiserie, it reflects the Eastern taste and origins of the ruling
Mamluk class. Eastern influences might also be explained by the
number of migrant artists seeking refuge in the Mamluk empire
after the Mongol invasions and the subsequent political instability
of Persia. The presence of such artists could also account for one
significant innovation that occurred in the late fifteenth century –
the sudden appearance of knotted pile carpets in Egypt.
CARPETS
The development of knotted pile carpets seems unprecedented
because there is no evidence that Egypt had any tradition for this
kind of knotted pile weaving with its asymmetrical Persian knot.
The knotting technique is Persian, but the designs, with their
The Decorative Arts of the Ayyubids and Mamluks 193