Bayt Al Fann Profile picture
Mar 5 18 tweets 9 min read
In Mamluk Egypt, enameled glass oil lamps were used to light the interiors of mosques. These fragile vessels were suspended from the ceiling by chains attached to the glass loops on their sides

A thread on mosque lamps from Mamluk Egypt, found in museums across the world...
1/ Mosque Lamp
1320-1330, Egypt, Mamluk

This mosque lamp was made for Qijlis, a high official who had been the sultan’s armourer. His emblem was a sword, which can be seen in the large roundels with a quotation from the Qur’an that mentions ‘the mosques of God’

@V_and_A
2/ Mosque Lamp
1310-1314, Egypt, Mamluk

Mosque lamp: made in Cairo, Egypt, in the reign of Sultan al-Malik al-Nasir, enamelled with a verse from the Qur'an as well as the sultan's name

On display in the Out of Storage Gallery at NMI-CollinsBarracks

@NMIreland
3/ Mosque Lamp
1360-1390, Egypt, Mamluk

Mosque-lamp. With depressed base. Made of brown and gilded and polychrome enamelled glass (bubbly).

@britishmuseum
4/ Mosque Lamp
1385, Egypt, Mamluk

During the Mamluk period, various pious institutions founded by sultans & amirs brought a demand for elaborately enamelled and gilt glass lamps to light them. Suspended from their rims were beaker-like containers filled with oi

@KhaliliOnline
5/ Mosque Lamp
1386, Egypt, Mamluk

Inscribed with the name of Emir Tankizbugha
Since Antiquity, light has been perceived as a visible manifestation of invisible powers.

@LouvreAbuDhabi
6/ Mosque Lamp of Amir Qawsun
1329–35, Egypt, Mamluk

Lamp bears the name of its patron Qawsun (d. 1342), amir of the Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalaun & was probably intended for one of his two architectural commissions in Cairo a mosque or a tomb-hospice complex

@metmuseum
7/ Mosque Lamp
1330, Egypt, Mamluk

Lamp (mosque). Made for Saif al-Din Shaikhu al-`Umar (d. 1357).
Brownish colourless glass; blue, white, red and yellow enamels; and gold. Free blown, tooled, applied, enamelled and gilded; worked on the pontil.

@britishmuseum
8/ Mosque Lamp
13th-14th century, Egypt, Mamluk

The lamp holds extensive enamelled decoration on the mouth, body and foot, enhanced by gilding; the mouth having a large Qur’anic inscription in thuluth script executed in blue enamel and outlined in red.

@NtlMuseumsScot
9/ Mosque Lamp
13th-14th century, Egypt, Mamluk

Enameled glass lamps like this hung from a mosque ceiling on chains. The illuminated glow of the lamp symbolized divine light and, by extension, the presence of God.

@brooklynmuseum
10/ Mosque Lamp
1299-1340, Egypt, Mamluk

As with this example, such lamps were often decorated with part of a famous verse (Verse 24:35, The Light Verse) from the Qur’an, illustrating the importance of both light and lamps.

@AshmoleanMuseum
11/ Mosque Lamp
1299-1340, Egypt, Mamluk

Its inscription, from the Qur’an, sura 24, the Sūrat al-Nūr (Verse of Light), means, ‘God I the Light of the heavens and the earth; the likeness of His light is as a niche, wherein is a lamp’.

@WallaceMuseum
12/ Mosque Lamp
13th-14th century, Egypt, Mamluk

Decorated on the upper part of the neck in nashki script with a passage from the Qur'an, Sura XXIV, 35, the Sura of Light, broken by three circular medallions containing a red cup.

@FitzMuseum_UK
13/ Mosque Lamp
14th century, Egypt, Mamluk

Made on the the order of the Amir Shaykhu, either for his mosque or his khanqah, which still survive. Inscribed on the neck with the beginning of a well-known verse of the Qur’an, the Ayat al-Nur (Verse of the Light 24:35)

@LACMA
14/ Mosque Lamp
1360, Egypt, Mamluk

Sultan Hasan (reigned 1347–51 and 1354-61) ordered a great number of these polychrome lamps, including this example, for his celebrated madrasa built in Cairo in 1356-62.

@NatAsianArt
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More from @BaytAlFann

Mar 1
In Ottoman Damascus, ornate tile panels were common decorations, set into the walls of mosques, shrines and other buildings. Many were taken & are now in museums.
 
A thread on beautiful 17th century fritware tile panels from Damascus, Syria, found in museums across the world...
1/ Tile panel Circa 1550 CE - Circa 1699 1699 CE, Ottoman, Damascus, Syria

@FitzMuseum_UK

collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/17533
2/ A set of forty-eight tiles decorated with vases and cyprus trees amid flowers dates back to 17th century Damascus, Syria, under the Ottoman Empire.

@AshmoleanMuseum

collections.ashmolean.org/object/353424
Read 14 tweets
Feb 19
Mina’i ceramics were made in Iran during the 12th & 13th centuries. Mina’i ware scenes depict courtly pursuits such as feasting, fighting, or poetry & music performances.

Many Mina’i ceramics were taken & put in museums across the world.

A thread on Mina’i ceramics in museums…
Mina’i bowl, late 12th-early 13th century Iran, Kashan

It can be imagined that the performer here, is delivering the verses inscribed along the rim of the bowl: "If the beloved leaves me, what am I to do? If s/he does not see the wisdom of our union, what am I to do?"

@LACMA
Mina’i bowl, late 12th-early 13th century (Seljuq), Iran.

The ruler and courtiers depicted in this scene all wear costumes with embroidered tiraz armbands of the type traditionally given by Muslim rulers as honorific gifts to their subjects.

@brooklynmuseum
Read 20 tweets
Feb 12
İznik is a town in northwestern Turkey, renowned for its Ottoman-era hand painted ceramics & tiles.

İznik tiles decorated walls of shrines, mosques & palaces. Many were taken & put in museums & private collections across the globe.

A thread on exquisite İznik tiles in museums…
Two Iznik Tiles with Continuous Floral Pattern
Ottoman dynasty (1299–1923), c.1560

Pattern is typical of the ‘saz style’ a term that derives from the words saz kalem, or “reed pen.” The style developed in album drawings in black ink during second half of 16thc.

@artinstitutechi
Iznik tile, 1560-1600, Ottoman, Turkey

Tile-work was normally used to provide rich splashes of colour on building exteriors, or to emphasise important areas of the interiors.

@V_and_A
Read 30 tweets
Feb 8
Most ancient Qur’an manuscripts are now fragments scattered around the world in museums, libraries & collections

Kufic script is one of the oldest forms of Arabic calligraphy, & was used as a preferred script for the Qur’an, many fragments are found in global museums

A thread…
Folio from the "Tashkent Qur'an"
late 8th–early 9th century

Magnificent in size, this folio comes from one of the oldest surviving Qur'an manuscripts in existence. It is written in an early version of the kufic script with no diacritical marks to distinguish the letters

@LACMA
Qur'an (Koran) page (detached) 9thC-10thC Iraq

eleven lines of Kufic script in black ink on vellum recto and verso; vocalisations shown with red dots; traces of binding on the right.

@britishmuseum
Read 21 tweets
Feb 1
Eight-pointed star tiles decorated walls of shrines, mosques & palaces in Iran.

Many of these tiles were taken by archaeologists & are found scattered across the world in museums & collections, fragmented & decontextualized.

A thread on beautiful Iranian star tiles in museums…
1. Eight-pointed Star Tile, Date 1262 (AH Muharram 661)
Dynasty: Il-Khanid Dynasty (1256-1353) or earlier
Made in Iran

Kashan (probable place of creation)
Imamzada Yahya shrine (original location)

@AshmoleanMuseum
2. Eight-pointed Star-Shaped Tile, second half 13th–14th century, Iran

decorated using a method called lajvardina, a term that references lapis lazuli, & would have been part of a star-and-cross panel adorning the walls of an Ilkhanid palace, mosque, or mausoleum.

@metmuseum
Read 18 tweets
Jan 15
Different types of Islamic miniatures:

-Ottoman (Istanbul)

-Safavid (Shiraz)

-Timurid (Herat)

-Mughal (Delhi)

A thread… ImageImageImageImage
Ottoman…

The Ottoman court became invested in writing its own history.

The court historian (şehnameci), a new position established in the 1550s, set to work producing manuscripts with illustrations.

Sultan Murad III (r. 1574-1595) in his Library @harvartmuseums Image
Safavid…

The best artists from across the empire were brought together & under the direction of Bihzad, the famed miniaturist from Herat, and formed a new Safavid style of painting. Image
Read 6 tweets

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