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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where it was developed in glass making as early as the sixth and<br />
seventh centuries. After the Muslim conquest, the earliest surviving<br />
piece <strong>of</strong> lustre glass, bearing the name <strong>of</strong> the Egyptian governor Abd<br />
al-Samad ibn Ali, dates from the eighth century. This technique was<br />
quickly adapted to ceramic design in Iraq during the eighth century,<br />
but the earliest datable examples are found in the tiles adorning the<br />
mihrab <strong>of</strong> the Great Mosque <strong>of</strong> Qairawan in Tunisia (862–3). At first,<br />
lustre ware in Iraq imitated the moulded and embossed forms <strong>of</strong> gold,<br />
silver and copper ware. <strong>The</strong> clay was pressed into a mould and the<br />
embossed decoration, glazed in gold and other metallic colours, was<br />
frequently derived from Hellenistic and Sassanian designs.<br />
Besides lustre ware, glazed moulded dishes were also produced<br />
in Egypt during this period, a technique that goes back to Roman<br />
times. <strong>The</strong> body clay in Egyptian ceramics is slightly coarser than<br />
similar work in Iraq and the brown, green and purple glazes differ.<br />
One example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, displays<br />
a familiar half palmette motif glazed in brown and green, and<br />
another piece in the same collection depicts a number <strong>of</strong> birds<br />
executed with remarkable detail and naturalism. It is possible that<br />
this moulded technique was exported to Iraq, and we know that<br />
later a number <strong>of</strong> Iraqi potters settled in Egypt. Some came at the<br />
invitation <strong>of</strong> Ibn Tulun, but it is thought that many came from<br />
southern Iraq following a slave rebellion that destroyed the city <strong>of</strong><br />
Basra in the latter half <strong>of</strong> the ninth century. A deeply hollowed<br />
condiment dish with green and yellow lead glazes in the British<br />
Museum, London, has the inscription ‘<strong>The</strong> work <strong>of</strong> Abu Nasr <strong>of</strong><br />
Basra, in Egypt’. Another example <strong>of</strong> moulded ware, also in the<br />
British Museum, is a small lobed oval ninth-century bowl moulded<br />
with a central rosette, pine cones and herring-bone decoration. Its<br />
design is derived from Chinese Tang silverware and it represents an<br />
interesting and unusual instance <strong>of</strong> Chinese influence on moulded<br />
ceramics. More plentiful is a whole genre <strong>of</strong> ceramics that existed in<br />
Egypt right up to the eleventh century once thought to have been<br />
influenced by eighth-century Tang splashwares. <strong>The</strong>se are characterized,<br />
like the ninth-century pottery <strong>of</strong> Iraq and Nishapur, by their<br />
splashed and mottled overrun glazes. 2<br />
TEXTILES IN THE TULUNID PERIOD<br />
In the field <strong>of</strong> textiles there is evidence <strong>of</strong> an emerging <strong>Islamic</strong><br />
identity in woven and embroidered Kufic inscriptions known as tiraz.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se consist <strong>of</strong> bands <strong>of</strong> honorific inscriptions woven in silk and<br />
<strong>The</strong> Decorative <strong>Art</strong>s <strong>of</strong> the Tulunids and Fatimids 73