The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

these garments that generally have greater width than height.
The design of the neck border is like a necklace, unlike the more
robust geometrical borders found in samplers and other
tunics, such as that dating from the fifteenth century in
the Newberry collection. 45 This shows a richly embroidered
collar as well as quaintly stylized animals and
tassel motifs. Other embroidered fragments in the
Newberry collection, such as that decorating the
end of a trouser leg, provide revealing details about
Mamluk dress and the popular taste for vertical and
diagonal striped patterns.
Among the most attractive and best-preserved
items in the Newberry collection are a number of
Mamluk caps embroidered with silk patchwork, eyelets, gilded
leather strips and metal threads. One, displaying a long yellow
silk tassel, is covered in bright red silk with patchwork on the sides
and crown, sprinkled all over with eyelets that form roundels,
rosettes, medallions and finials. The other is covered with blue silk
decorated with sunburst motifs and the fleur-de-lis blazon that
was associated with Sultan Qala’un. 46 Among other embroidered
blazons in the collection are two lions which probably date from
the reign of Baibars.
Finally, one distinctive design in the Newberry collection is a
roundel made of patchwork inlay with a star at the centre formed by
interlacing stems, lanceolate leaves and palmettes. This interlacing
design can be seen in the other arts of the period such as the
sgraffiato goblet-shaped bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum
described earlier. Similar designs can be seen today in the appliqué
work sold in the tent-makers’ bazaar near Bab Zuwaila.
After the Black Death in 1348 the textile industry went into
steady decline, the tiraz factories closed and between 1394 and
1434 the number of silk looms in Alexandria fell from 14,000 to
800. 47 With the exception of the brilliant age of Qa’it Bay, when all
the arts flourished, the decorative arts went into a steady decline.
Intermittent plague, despotic government, mismanagement and
economic decline marked the fate of Egypt during the fifteenth
century. The final blow came when the Portuguese discovered
direct trade routes to India, and Egypt became marginalized and
deprived of her monopoly over the spice trade. Such factors had a
devastating impact on the decorative arts, but architecture fared
much better and the Burji Mamluks, as we shall see, did leave some
outstanding buildings for posterity.
above: Mamluk cap (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).
The Decorative Arts of the Ayyubids and Mamluks 197