The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

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marbling in the mihrab has been stripped, but the original minbar has survived. This is one of the finest of the period and its radiating geometrical forms and inlaid ivory equal in quality those of Qa’it Bay’s other minbar, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Surmounting the mihrab and window grille arches is a gilded band of calligraphy, and above this are four brilliant stained glass windows divided by an oculus in the centre. The gem-like intensity of colour in these is echoed in the windows and oculus on the wall opposite in the smaller north-western iwan. above: The interior of the madrasa in the funerary complex of Qa’it Bay. The Architecture of the Burji Mamluks 223
above: The sabil-kuttab of Qa’it Bay. 224 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Cairo The funerary complex of Qa’it Bay demonstrates the continuing capacity of Mamluk architecture to change and adapt in an inventive, open-ended way. It displays yet another composite solution to the multi-purpose complexes that characterize so much of late Mamluk architecture. Besides the mosque, mausoleum and madrasa, this building also incorporated an internal reception loggia known as a maq’ad (second-storey loggia) – another feature, like the qa’a, derived from domestic architecture. The complex also provided accommodation for Sufis and a rab’ built over the storerooms of a waqala (urban caravansarai). 18 The sabil-kuttab forms a significant part of the design and these structures now become a distinct feature in Mamluk architecture. Their popularity continued well into the Ottoman period when they frequently appeared in free-standing form, contributing enormously to the character of Cairo’s urban landscape. It was Qa’it Bay who was responsible for the first free-standing sabil-kuttab in Cairo, built in 1479 and located in Saliba street between Ibn Tulun’s mosque and the Citadel. The composition of the building, with its tall trilobed portal, loosely resembles the northern section of his funerary complex, but its decoration is much more elaborate. The façade is covered with ablaq masonry, polychrome patterns of marble and ceramics, joggled voussoirs, medallions, interlacing arabesques, geometrical shapes and inscriptions. As in the funerary complex, two large ground-floor window grilles form key base elements in the fenestration, with the rest consisting of smaller, narrow uprights, banded across three storeys on the northern façade and flanking the portal on the western side. The wooden structure of the restored kuttab, with its cantilevered roofs and projecting balconies, has a much higher profile than that of the funerary complex. Supported on wooden brackets, the kuttab balconies express an airy fragility in their light slender columns, fretted woodwork and mashrabiyya lattices. The reticulated patterns in the woodwork echo in a lighter key the darker, heavier tones of the bronze window grilles below. Surmounting each of the large sabil window grilles are nine panels containing polychrome patterns of inlaid marble and ceramics. The first panel forms a lintel decorated with interlacing arabesques picked out in white, terracotta-red and dark blue. Above this is a lintel with black and white joggled voussoirs shaped like branches with trefoil leaves. They give an illusion of concavity, breaking the surface of the lintel, but two-dimensional order is restored by the surface tension in the geometrical forms of the smaller side panels. The three panels above this lintel contain
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THE ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF ISLAMIC
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THE ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF ISLAMIC
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Contents Map of Cairo vi Preface 1
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Preface When I first visited Egypt
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Art and Architecture of Islam, 650-
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exploitation and persecution under
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The ecumenical councils defined ort
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any further conquest of Egypt would
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negotiations took place between Cyr
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altogether, Amr subsequently played
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as ‘a people who love death bette
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point for urban development, but as
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He ordered them to place the stone
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Amr frequently preached the khutba
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After Salah al-Din, Sultan Baibars
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Its daily use in Amr’s time, serv
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AL-QATA’I With the fall of the Um
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throne in 870 he divided the empire
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in those days to recycle and use ex
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in an anti-clockwise direction up t
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on the north-west and south-east si
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plaster with cement or concrete. It
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organic and geometrical form. The r
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that of his wives in heroic size, a
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significant and legitimate minority
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knowledge of Egypt, both before and
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evidence here supports that view (t
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Bab al-Futuh, like Bal al-Nasr, is
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Although little remains of its orig
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oth al-Azhar and the palace were wi
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with fluted hoods. The whole façad
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Madrasa and tomb of Gawhar al-Qanaq
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vegetarian dish known as mulukhiyya
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monument, being restored by a numbe
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strong horizontal ribs at the botto
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formal religious gatherings found a
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out invocations, weeping and entrea
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Egypt and Sunni territory ruled by
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wooden fragments of this period in
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where it was developed in glass mak
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ecause this tiraz was woven in the
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sense of legitimacy in the wake of
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that of the delicate stucco mihrab
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craftsmen, although their origin is
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St Catherine’s monastery, Sinai,
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and to her left is a bottle-shaped
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oken by a spotted white underbelly
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and grotesques, and what distinguis
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decorated with palmettes, but the K
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lustre-painted bottle in the David
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from the second quarter of the elev
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shows a central palm tree dividing
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most illustrious lord al-Afdal, the
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Raynard of Chatillon’s attacks on
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0 0 100 200 100 200 Tomb of Sayyida
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the main Citadel, fortifications we
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Ibn Jubayr’s account is supported
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gone so far as to offer his sister
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largest. Its plan is divided into t
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height of 29 metres is almost that
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disciplined spirit of the age. The
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Mausoleum Madrasa Qibla iwan North-
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this new centre of government in th
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imprisonment in the Red Tower on th
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doors on the exterior are matched i
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literature, the sciences, art and a
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chase he was murdered, but accounts
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tough unyielding personality of its
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over the world. The intellectual cl
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left: The minaret and dome of the S
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patterns of the central window gril
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138 The Art and Architecture of Isl
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above: The sahn of the madrasa of S
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elow: The minaret of the madrasa of
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ight: The khanqah- madrasa of Amir
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elow: The khanqah of Baibars al-Jas
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top: The mosque of al-Maridani. abo
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elow: Mosque of Sultan Hasan taken
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elow: Plan of the Sultan Hasan mosq
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above: The qibla iwan of the Sultan
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above: Mausoleum of Gur-i Amir, Sam
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CHAPTER SIX The Decorative Arts of
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above: Twelfth-century Persian frit
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above: Brass basin incised and inla
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top: Brass candlestick inlaid with
Page 181 and 182: above: Incense burner: 1268-79 (Bri
Page 183 and 184: elow: Brass basin inlaid with silve
Page 185 and 186: top: Mosque lamp: c. 1350-60. above
Page 187 and 188: top: Doors of the Sultan Hasan mosq
Page 189 and 190: above: Panel from the mausoleum of
Page 191 and 192: top: Stone minbar in the khanqah of
Page 193 and 194: above: Frontispiece of a Qur’an w
Page 195 and 196: 186 The Art and Architecture of Isl
Page 199 and 200: above: ‘Hand-Washing Machine’ f
Page 201 and 202: above: Frontispiece to the Maqamat
Page 203 and 204: above: The Simonetti Carpet: late f
Page 205 and 206: above: Child’s tunic: late fourte
Page 207 and 208: CHAPTER SEVEN The Architecture of t
Page 211 and 212: above: View of the Eastern Cemetery
Page 213 and 214: above: The domes of the khanqah of
Page 215 and 216: above: One of the mausoleum chamber
Page 221 and 222: above: Khanqah-madrasa complex of B
Page 223 and 224: top: Plan of funerary complex of Su
Page 225 and 226: elow: Plan of funerary complex of A
Page 227 and 228: elow: Plan of funerary complex of Q
Page 230 and 231: masonry and bands of joggled lintel
Page 234 and 235: oundels. The largest in the centre
Page 236 and 237: al-Ahmar and Sharia Abu Huraybah, n
Page 238 and 239: The Mamluk factions that precipitat
Page 240 and 241: lower floors contained latrines, ni
Page 242 and 243: cessors. Egypt then became a provin
Page 244: The use of terracotta- and biscuit-
Page 247 and 248: above: Interior of the mosque of Mu
Page 249 and 250: Notes and References 240 The Art an
Page 265 and 266: Chronology of Dynasties and Rulers
Page 267 and 268: Table of Dynasties Islamic Calendar
Page 273 and 274: Acknowledgements The Publishers wou
Page 275 and 276: Armenian district 104 Armenians 46,
Page 277 and 278: ewers (aquamaniles) metalwork 83-4,
Page 279 and 280: al-Salih’s (Salihiya) 116-18, 137
Page 281 and 282: 60-1, 225 Philo of Byzantium 188 Ph
Page 283 and 284:
ulers 257 textiles 73-6, 195 woodwo
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The Art And Architecture of Islamic Cairo

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