1 * i bO BY ■-' I \NL EY La n e ^ „ p mmm ^m m ^^i«i«;w« fyxmll Winivmiiji^ Jibtatg Srvww ^Xs. ^.A^CSXi- <3!\,NJ0> . -^CsAv*™ A ..i oao o oi .'ii V>?rr\ 7673-3 N 7381.L26 """ ""'"*"«>' '■■'.rary The original of tliis bool< is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924010060402 SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS. ART OF THE SARACENS IN EGYPT. PART I. 7r3(oB5''?6') MOSQUE OF KAIT BEV. Frontispiece. THE ART OF THE SARACENS IN EGYPT BY STANLEY LANE-POOLE, B.A., M.R.A S. Hon. Member of the Egyptian Commission for the Preservation of the Monuments of Arab Art ^ttb 108 aaxroJtttts IN TWO PARTS— PART I. Published for the Committee of Council on Education, BY CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited II, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1886 /■\ . 2. O «\ © ( 1 LONDON : PRINTED BY J. 3. VIRTUE AND CTO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD. PREFACE. The subject of the following chapters is what has been commonly known as ' Arab ' or * Mohammadan ' Art. Both these terms are misleading — ^for the artists in this style were seldom Arabs, and many of them were Christians — and the general term ' Saracenic ' has there- fore been substituted. * Saracen,' which means simply Eastern, was the universal designation of Muslims in the Middle Ages, whether the paynims referred to were Syrian or Egyptian princes, like Saladin, or Barbary chiefs, or Moorish Alcaydes in Spain ; and the mediaeval ring of the term Saracenic — which recalls the " proud Sarrasin " of the ballads, the Sarrasina artist of Italy, the Bysant Saracenatus of the Crusaders, and the stuff Sara- cenatum, or, as we spell it, " sarcenet ' — is specially appropriate to the art about to be described. Saracenic art possesses an unmistakable style, which is instantly recognised wherever it occurs, from the pillars of Hercules and the Alcazar of Seville to the mosques of Samarkand and the ruins of Gaur in Bengal ; and this style was developed and brought to perfection in the Middle Ages, The word Saracenic, implying the two ideas of Oriental and mediaeval, exactly fulfils, the con- ditions of a general term for the art with which we are concerned. n PREFACE. There is a Saracenic art of Syria, with Damascus for its centre ; there is a Saracenic art of Egypt ; another variety is seen in the buildings of the Barbary States and Morocco ; Andalusia, in the extreme west of the Mohammadan dominions; Persia, India, and Central Asia in the east; and Anatolia, Armenia, and even Turkey in Europe, between, have each their special de- velopment of the Saracenic style. Some of these varie- ties are perhaps better designated by their geographical positions ; we speak of Persian art, Indian art; or again, the Moresque decoration, and so forth ; but we must not forget that all these are but modifications of the Saracenic styfe, produced by the differentiating elements which were found in each country conquered by the Arabs, or introduced by the genius of some special school of artists. The mere classification of the various branches of Saracenic art, with a list of the monuments and objects illustrating each branch, would occupy a volume : so large a subject requires subdivision, and the present work therefore treats of the Egyptian branch alone, with but occasional passing glances at contemporary or derived developments. In soime respects the Egyptian is the most important example of the style ; for the, mosques of Cairo furnish a fuller, longer, and more con- tinuous record of the arts employed in their construction and decoration than any other series of monuments in a single Mohammadan city, and the simple lines and restrained decoration of the Egyptian artists exhibit to perfection the essential character of the Saracenic style. The mosques of Cairo give us the normal character of the art ; we may go eastwards to Delhi, or west to the Alhambra, to see what a fanciful taste could add to the PREFACE. vii normal elements; but we shall come back with the conviction that the purest form of Saracenic art, and that which most rests and satisfies the eye, is to be seen in Egypt. In this account of the Egyptian development of Saracenic art, I have worked an almost unexplored vein. The only previous attempt to describe the art of Cairo, as a whole, is M. Prisse d' Avenues' L'Art Arabe, a magnificent work, unapproached in its coloured illustrations ; but its volume of text is of slight value. M. Prisse, who was not in a position to consult the Arabic historians, or to decipher the inscriptions which so often determine the date of an object of Saracenic art, is naturally an uncertain guide when it is a question of an5rthing beyond draughtsmanship. We must not trust his facts ; but for his plates we cannot be too grate- ful. Coste's work, the Monuments du Caire, deserves all credit as the first of its kind, but here again the letter- press is of no scientific value, and even the drawings exhibit an imaginative power, which, however admirable it may be in the creation of works of art, is not desirable in their reproduction. M. Bourgoin's Les Arts Arabes, and the smaller Elements, are finely illustrated, but their text is occupied almost entirely with a minute examina- tion of the principle of geometrical ornament in Sara- cenic decoration, for which there is no better authority. The first attempt at a scientific examination of the origin and development of Saracenic art was made by my father, the late Edward Stanley Poole, of the Science and Art Department, in an Appendix to the fifth edition of Lane's Modern Egyptians, 1 860, and very little of import- ance has been added to the results set forth in that essay Till PREFACE. twenty-six years ago. It is still the best authority on the subject of the sources of Arabian architecture, and the relation of the earliest buildings of the Arabs to Byzantine and Sassanian models ; but of other arts, besides architecture, this essay does not treat. My own work, while it necessarily includes an outline of the principal forms and characteristics of Cairo buildings, does not presume to offer a history of Cairene architec- ture, for which both space and materials are at present wanting. The decorative arts, which were employed to embellish the mosques and palaces of mediaeval Egypt, form the subject of the following chapters ; the history of mural sculpture, of mosaic work, wood and ivory carving, glass, pottery, and the like, is traced by means of dated examples down to the decadence which followed the Turkish conquest of Egypt ; and the general charac- teristics of each period having thus been established at fixed points by dated specimens, the classification of undated examples becomes comparatively easy. I may perhaps be thought to have wasted time over the exact determination of the chronological sequence in each separate art, but there is so much vague generalisation abroad, and sucTi extremely hazardous opinions are constantly ventilated, on the subject of Oriental art, that I have considered it a matter of the first conse- quence to cast aside all merely aesthetic canons and prejudices, and base the history of the arts I describe strictly upon sound historical evidence. An art critic is none the worse off when the date of an object is fixed by historical proofs ; and those who are not versed in the principles of art .criticism will be glad to have definite facts to go upon. PREFACE. ix The authorities of which I have made use will be found referred to in the footnotes. Beyond the materials supplied'by accurate drawings, like those of Prisse and Girault de Prangey, European books on this subject are few, and consist chiefly in short papers in periodical publications, such as M. Adrian de Longp^rier's in the Revue Archiologique, or M. Lavoix' in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts ; or else notes, scattered through the pages of books like Colonel Yule's invaluable Marco Polo, or M. Schefer's Nasir-i-Khzisrau. Reinaud's description of the Duke de Blacas' collection {Monuments Musul- mans) deserves special notice, as the first scientific account of any large series of Saracenic works of art, and also because it abounds in valuable information, especially in reference to metal-work. In my great- uncle's Modern Egyptians the buildings and fiirniture of Cairo are carefiiUy and clearly described, but the subject of Mr. Lane's book was the manners and customs of the modem people, and not the art of their forefathers. In special departments, Mr. Nesbitt's Catalogue of the Glass Vessels in the South Kensington Museum, Mr. Fortnum's corresponding Catalogue of the Maiolica, &c., and Fischbach's Geschichte der Textil-Kunst have been consulted. Eastern historians are as a rule singularly destitute of the sort of information we require about the art of the various dynasties and capitals : they tell us how many pieces of gold a certain mosque or pulpit cost, but they seldom record where or how it was made, or who were its designers. Nevertheless there are a certain number of valuable indications scattered among the Arabic writers, and these have beep collected, from the works of such historians and travellers as El-Mes'udy, X PREFACE. Es-Suyuty, Ibn-Khaldun, El-Makkary, Ibn-Batuta, Nasir- i-Khusrau, 'Abd-el-Latlf, &c., &c., and, above all, from the treasure-house of the mediaeval topography and history of Egypt, El-Makrlzy's Khitat and History of the Mamluks. I have to acknowledge much private assistance from friends who have made Saracenic art their study. Mr. J. W. Wild, the curator of Sir John Soane's Museum, than whom there lives no better authority on the archi- tecture of Cairo, has kindly read and approved the second, third, and fourth chapters, on architecture, stone and plaster, and mosaic, and generously placed his interesting Egyptian notes and sketch-books at my disposal. Mr. H. C. Kay, whose long residence in Egypt and special study of Arabic mural inscriptions - give his criticisms a high value, has read the proof sheets of most of the work, and some important additions have been made at his suggestion. Mr. A. W. Franks, the keeper of mediaeval antiquities in the British Museum, and his assistant, Mr. C. H. Read, have given me every aid in studying the fine collection of Saracenic jnetal-work under their care, and have also seen the chapters on metal-work, glass, and pottery in the proofs. M. Charles Schefer has sent me some useful references from his valuable notes and materials. To Franz Pasha, the architect to the Ministry of Wakfs in Cairo, I am in- debted, not only for giving me every facility when in Cairo in 1883 for studying, photographing, and taking casts from, the monuments, but also for having ever since kept me supplied with photographs and reports of great value for the present work. With regard to the orthography of Eastern names, I PREFACE. xi have tried to be accurate without pedantry. I have neglected diacritical points, which were not required in a book destined for the general student, and I have not spelt Koran with a Q. The vowels a, e, i, u, with the prolonged sounds a, I, u, axe to be sounded as in Italian ; ey is to be sounded as in they ; aw as " ow " in now ; (') represents the guttural ' eyn, and g (or more strictly g), may be pronounced either as English j or har^ g. The latter is the usual Cairo pronunciation. I must not conclude without expressing my obliga- tions to Mr. J. D. Cooper, who has expended even more than his usual care and skill upon the execution of the woodcuts illustrating this work. S. L.-P. RlCHMQfJD, February, 1886. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE The Saracens of Egypt i CHAPTER n. Architecture 47 CHAPTER in. Stone and Plaster . . 95 CHAPTER IV. Mosaic 115 CHAPTER V. Wood-work 124 CHAPTER VI. Ivory . . 171 CHAPTER VII. Mktal-work 180 CHAPTER VIII. Glass 247 xfv CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. PAGE Heraldry on Glass and Metal .... . . 268 CHAPTER X. Pottery .... ... ... 274 CHAPTER XI. Textile Fabrics . . . . 281 CHAPTER XII. Illuminated Manuscripts . ... 298 Index of Names, &c . 309 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. ( "G. PAGE 1. Mosque of Kait Bey Frontispiece 2. East Colonnade of the Mosque of 'Amr . . . -So 3. Plan of the Mosque of 'Amr 51 (4. Mosque of Ibn-Tulun 55 S- Arcades in Mosque of Ibn-Tulun (Ninth Century) . . 59 (6. Diagram showing proportions of a Dome ... 62 7. Plan of the Mosque of Sultan Hasan .... 63 8. Ornament from the Portal of Sultan Hasan . . 69 9. Kufic Frieze in Mosque of Sultan Hasan (Fourteenth Century) . . . . . . . . . . • 7' ID. Doorway of Smaller Mosque of Kait Bey (Fifteenth Century) 75 n. Doorway of a Private House 79 12. A Street in Cairo 81 ;' 13. Plan of a Cairo House. — Ground Floor . . . 83 1 3 A. „ „ First Floor .... 84 I 13B. „ „ Second Floor .... 85 14. Rosette in Mosque of Suyurghatmish (Fourteenth Century) . 93 15. Rosette in Mosque of Sultan Hasan (Fourteenth Century) 97 16. Stone Pulpit in Mosque of Barkuk (Early Fifteenth Century) 99 17. 18. Geometrical Ornaments from theWekala of Kait Bey loi ;x V i LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS. riG. PAGE 19. Arched Ornament of the Wekala of Kait Bey (Fifteenth Century) 103 20. Geometrical Ornament of the Wekala of Kait Bey. (Fifteenth Century) 107 21. Elevation op part of the Shop-fronts of the Wekala OF Kait Bey 108 22. Arabesque Ornament of Wekala of Kait Bey (Fifteenth Century) 109 23. 24. Geometrical Ornaments of the Wekala of Kait Bey 110 25. Rosette of the Wekala of Kait Bey (Fifteenth Century) 1 1 1 26. Arabesque of the Wekala of Kait Bey . . -113 27. Geometrical Ornament of the Wekala op Kait Bey 114 28. Mosaic Dado 117 29. Mosaic Pavement 118 30. Mode of Bevelling Mosaics 119 31. Mosaic Pavement 122 32. Carved Panel of Pulpit 125 33. Carved Panel of Pulpit 126 34. Pulpit of Sultan Kait Bey (Fifteenth Century) . . .127 35i 36, 37. 38- Carved Panels of Lagin's Pulpit, once in the Mosque of Ibn-Tulun. a.d. 1296 130 39. Arabesque Panel of Lagin's Pulpit, once in the Mosque of Ibn-Tulun 131 40. Panel of Lagin's Pulpit, bearing his Name and Titles 131 41. Carved Panels from Pulpit (of Kusun ?) (Fourteenth Century) j,, 42. Carved Panels from Pulpit (of Kusun ?) (Fourteenth Century) j,r 43. Carved Panels of the tomb of Es-Salih Ayyub (Thirteenth Century) j,- 44. Carved Panel of a Sheykh's Tomb. a.d. 1216 . . 141 45. Panel of a Door from Damietta ,.2 46. 47. Carved Panels from the Maristan of Kalaun (Thirteenth Century) j ^ 48. Carved Panel from the Maristan of Kalaun 145 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xvii *'°- PAGE 49. Lattice-work 146 50. Lattice-wokk 148 51. Lattice-work .... 150 52. Lattice-work 151 53. Lati'ice-work . . » 152 54. Lattice-work 1S3 SS- Lattice-work 154 56. Lattice-work 155 S6a. Lattice- work .... 157 57. Lattice-work 159 58. Lattice-work 160 59. 60. Carved and Inlaid Lattice-work . . . .161 61. Panelled Door from a Copt's House . . . .163 62, 63, 64. Panelled Doors 165 65. Ceiling of Appliqu£ work 166 66. Table (Kursy) 167 67. Ceiling of a Meshrebiya 169 68. Carved Ivory Panel 172 69. Carved Ivory Panels of a Pulpit Door . . . -173 70. Inlaid Ivory and Ebony Door 175 71. Inlaid Ivory and Ebony Panel from a Table . . .177 72. Ivory Ink Horn 179 73. Inscription interwoven with figures on the " Baptistery of St. Louis" 183 74. Table from Maristan of Kalaun (Thirteenth Century) 187 75. Panel of Table of En-Nasir, son of KalAun . . . 190 76. Lamp of Sultan Beybars II. (a.d. 1309-10) . . . .191 77. Base of Chandelier of Sultan El-Ghory (Sixteenth Century) 19S 78. Lantern of Sheykh 'Abd-el-Basit 197 79. Cover of Sherbet Bowl (Sixteenth Century) . . .201 80. Casket of El-'Adil, Grand Nephew of Saladin (Thir- teenth Century) 20s 81. Perfume-burner of Beysary (Thirteenth Century) . .211 xviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. PAGB 82. Inlaid Silver Panels of the "Baptistery of St. Louis" 219 83, 84, 85, 86. Bronze Plaques from Door of Beybars I. . 224 87. Brass Bowl inlaid with Silver (Fourteenth Century) . . 231 88. Brass Candlestick inlaid with Silver (Fourteenth Century) 235 89. Brass Bowl of Kait Bey (Fifteenth Century) . . .237 90. Lamp from Jerusalem 241 91. Arms for Lion-hunting . . 245 92.- Diagram of Glass Lamp 252 93. Glass Lamp of Akeugha (Fourteenth Century) . . .257 94. Vase of Sultan Beybars II. . . . . . 262 95. 96. Stained Glass Windows . 264 97, 98. Stained Glass Windows . .... 265 99. ASYUT Coffee-pot 275 100. Silk Fabric of Iconium (Thirteenth Century) . . . 283 loi. Damask, worn by Henry the Saint (Eleventh Century) . 291 102. Silk Fabric of Egypt or Sicily 295 103. Illuminated Koran of Sultan Sha'ban (Fourteenth Century) 299 104. Illuminated Koran of Sultan Sha'ban (Fourteenth Century) 303 105. Illuminated Koran of Sultan El-Muayyad (Fifteenth Century) 305 *4* The Department is indebted to Mr. John Murray for the use of Figs. 3 and 7 ; to Messrs. Virtue & Co. for Figs. 2, 4, 25, 66, 71, 74 — 8, gg; to Messrs, Cassell for Figs. S, g, 13, gi, 94, loi— 5 ; to M. Leroux for Figs. 73, 82, go ; and to M. Giraud for Fig. 100, THE ART OF THE SARACENS IN EGYPT. CHAPTER I. THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. The study of any branch of art supposes some acquaintance with the history of the people among whom the art was practised. Without such knowledge not only is much of the interest lost by the inability to enjoy the associations which the imagination winds about the possessions and works of historical personages, — always a strong attraction in antiquarian studies, — but we even lack the data upon which to construct a true and natural sequence of the art itself. Especially important is the aid lent by history to Mohammadan art. It frequently happens that the analogies that go to make up the style of a given period are obscure and difficult to seize in the scattered rehcs of Saracenic handiwork, and our only safe guides are the names of princes and nobles which the artist, allured by the fluent grace of the Arabic writing as much as by the desire to record the name of the nobleman who expended his treasure upon skilful work, was accustomed to engrave upon most of his productions. These inscriptions, which seldom record the name of the artist himself, but frequently that of the great man for whom the work was executed, are a prominent feature in Saracenic art, and form an invaluable aid to the student in establishing a definite and indisputable sequence of styles. The mosques were naturally inscribed with the name of the pious 2 ART OF THE SARACENS. founder ; and when a later grandee devoted his wealth to restor- ing the sacred building, he too would place his deed on record, over the entrance, or above the niche, and his new pulpit or carved door would be duly inscribed with his name : thus we are fur- nished with the dates both of foundation and restoration, — a circumstance of the utmost value in Egyptian architecture. Most of the smaller objects of art, such as metal bowls, glass lamps, and trays, have inscriptions, and a large proportion of these contain the name of some Sultan or noble who is well known to history. From such information we are able in most branches of Saracenic art to weld a chain of artistic development which enables us with little difficulty to class most of the undated specimens. In the following pages such a chain of examples of known date will be found illustrated and described ; but it is not the less necessary to provide the reader with the means of ascertaining for himself the date of an example which he may possess, and which may not be susceptible of positive identification by the help of the engravings in this work. For this purpose a slight knowledge, at least, of the history of Egypt under the Saracens is necessary, and the details, which cannot be given in so brief an outline as is possible in the present limits of space, may be to some extent supplied by the chronological tables which are appended to this chapter. The writer on the art and history of the Mohammadan East labours under the disadvantage of being obliged to begin at the very beginning ; to assume in his reader an ignorance not merely of the chief names of Saracenic history, but even of whole dy- nasties, and their places in general history. A person of ordinary education may possess some acquaintance with the early events of the Muslim empire, the life of the Prophet Mohammad, the first sweep of conquest, and perhaps even the Khalifates of Da- mascus, Baghdad, and Cordova. In the later history of the Arab empire, a name here and there, a Saladin or Nureddin, a Hakim or a Boabdil, may be known ; but the rest is naturally a THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 3 blank. People have enough to learn in the present day without attempting Oriental history. In describing the art of Greece or of Italy we are generally on familiar ground ; the names of Pericles and Hiero, of the Medici and the Sforze, ought to be as well known as that of Wolsey or William of Wykeham. In Eastern history we must perforce take nothing as known until it has been explained ; and in doing so now, no discourtesy is designed to- wards those few who are acquainted with the history, and who will, I am sure, forgive repetition for the sake of the larger number whose studies have not been directed to Oriental subjects. The history of Egypt under Mohamraadan rulers extends from the middle of the seventh century to the present day ; but we are only concerned with that portion of those twelve centuries which bears an intimate relation to the development of Saracenic art. The earliest monument which undoubtedly preserves its original design and ornament is the mosque of Ibn-Tulun, built in the latter part of the ninth century (878) ; after this we have but five or six monuments of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth cen- turies, and then the most brilliant period of mediaeval Egyptian art opens with the accession of the Mamluks. Again, after the destruction of the Mamluk power by the Ottoman conqueror Selira in the beginning of the sixteenth century, though a few rare sur- vivals of the ancient artistic genius of the Saracens are found, and in the smaller branches of skilled industry, in wood-work, glass, and mosaic, the workmen of Egypt continued to produce some excellent results, the energy and enthusiasm of the artists lan- guished for lack of encouragement, and as a rule the period of Turkish domination furnishes but the record of a long and dreary process of degradation in every branch of art, until the nadir of Eastern art was reached in the palaces of the Khedives. The period of the finest and most abundant works of art is that of the Mamluks, from the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, and to these three centuries we must devote our chief attention. Of the earlier periods a very slight outline is B 2 4 ART OF THE SARACENS. all that can be attempted. The rule of the Fatimy Khalifs indeed is recorded to have been signalized by extraordinary artistic productiveness : but too few examples of this period have come down to us to justify us in giving it a rank equal to that of the Mamluks. The history of Mohammadan Egypt falls into eight divisions : (i) the period of governors appointed by the Khalifs of Damascus and of Baghdad {^r^^d i (") the dynasty of Tulun (H^p ; {3) an interval of governors appointed by the Khalifs of Baghdad C-u^S)'' (4) the dynasty of Ikhshid Q^) ; (5) the Fatimy Khalifs (^1^) ; (6) the Ayyuby house of Saladin (i|^o) : (7) the Mamluks, Turkish (Bahry) and Circassian (Burgy), (ilSfre) '> and (8) the period of Turkish Pashas, ending in the dynasty of Mohammad 'Aly (Mehemet All). I. In A.D. 639, the eighteenth year after the Higra or Flight of Mohammad from Mekka to Medina, 'Amr, the general of the Khalif 'Omar, invaded the Egyptian province of the Byzantine empire. Aided by the factious divisions which sundered the Greek and Coptic Christians, and made the latter eager to welcome any invader who would bring down the arrogance of the Melekites, 'Amr was soon able to march on Alexandria, the first city of the East, and after a siege of fourteen months, on the first day of the Mohammadan year 21 (loth December 641), captured it. The victorious general was named the first Muslim governor of Egypt, and the spot where he pitched his tent (in Arabic, Fustat) became the site of th? new capital of Egypt, El-Fustat, which speedily grew to handsome proportions. From the time of 'Amr, a.h. 21, to the appointment of Ibn-Tulun in a.h. 254, a period of 233 years, 98 governors, nominated by the Khalifs of Damascus and , Baghdad, ruled the province of Misr or Egypt (the name Misr is given both to the country and to its capital); and as some of these enjoyed more than one term of office, there were 105 changes of THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 5 government in 233 years, giving an average of about two years and a quarter for each governor. A ruler liable to be removed at any moment, and enjoying so brief a term of office, was not likely to occupy himself with the embellishment of a capital which after a few months' or years' reign he might never see again, and he probably directed his energies, like a Turkish Pasha, to accumu- lating all the wealth he could with his brief opportunities. We have no monuments of the period of the governors, with the exception of the mosque of 'Amr, at Fustat, which has been too often restored to furnish trustworthy evidence as to the style of architecture or decoration. The governors indeed built other edifices ; the representatives of the 'Abbasy Khalifs founded in 133 a new quarter of the capital, adjoining Fustat, which was called El-'Askar, or " the Camp," because the soldiers first had their quarters there ; and here they erected a government house and a mosque, of which, however, no trace now remains. El- 'Askar was never more than an official quarter : the capital was still Fustat. 2. Ahmad Ibn-Tulun was a Turkish governor appointed by the 'Abbasy Khalif, in 868, but after a year he asserted his inde- pendence, while still rendering homage to the Khalif as his spiritual lord by retaining his name on the coinage and in the public prayers. Ibn-Tulun was the first Mohammadan ruler who founded a dynasty in Egypt ; he was also the first to unite Syria with Egypt, as did all independent sovereigns of Egypt afterwards; and he was the first great encourager of Saracenic Art ; for he abandoned the old government house at El-'Askar, and built a new suburb, connecting that quarter with the citadel hill, which he called El-Katai', or "the Wards," either because a large part of it was given in feof to the numerous colonels of his 30,000 troops, or because the new suburb was partitioned into various quarters allotted to different nations and. separate trades. Both El-'Askar and El-Katai' were fashionable suburbs, where the nobility and men of position resided ; and the streets were full of splendid 6 ART OF THE SARACENS. houses. But the glory of the latest suburb was the mosque of Ibn-Tulun, of which we shall have more to say hereafter. It is the first undoubted example of true Saracenic art in Egypt, and one of the noblest monuments in the East. Ibn-Tulun also built himself a stately palace, with a meyddn or race-course attached, where the Sultan and his courtiers played at polo. One of the many splendid gates of this meydan was called the " Gate of Lions," because it was surmounted by two lions in plaster ; another was called, the Sag gate, since it was made of that wood. Around rose the handsome palaces of the generals ; the mosques and the baths ; the windmills and brick-kilns ; the great hospital; the markets for the assayers, perfumers, cloth merchants, fruiterers, cooks, and other trades, all well built and densely populated. The palace, mosque, race-course, and hospital, together cost a sum of nearly 300,000 dinars of gold ; and the annual revenue from taxes, to meet this vast outlay, and the expenses of government, was placed at 4,300,000 dinars. To which fact may be added the instructive comment that at the time of Ahmad's death no less than 18,000 persons were found in the prisons. His son Khumaraweyh, who succeeded in 883, carried this passion of splendid luxury to its height. He turned the meydan into a garden, filled with lilies, gilliflowers, saffron, and palms and trees., of all sorts, the trunks of which he coated with copper gilt, behind which leaden pipes supplied fountains which gushed forth to water the garden . In the midst rose an aviary tower of sag wood ; the walls were carved with figures and painted with various colours. Peacocks, guinea-fowls, doves and pigeons, with rare birds from Nubia, had their home in the garden and aviary. There was also a menagerie, and especially a blue-eyed lion who crouched beside his master when he sat at table, and guarded him when he slept. In the palace, Khumaraweyh built the " Golden Hall," the walls whereof were covered with gold and azure, in admirable designs, and varied by bas-reliefs of himself and his wives (if we are to credit the historians), and even of the prime THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 7 donne of the court. They were carved in wood, life-size, and painted with exquisite art, so that the folds of the drapery- seemed natural ; they wore crowns of pure gold and turbans set with precious stones, and jewelled earrings. Such figures are unparalleled in Saracenic art ; yet the account is too detailed to be altogether a fiction. But the chief wonder of Khumaraweyh's palace remains to be described : it was a lake of quicksilver. On the surface of the lake, lay a leather bed inflated with air, fastened by silk bands to four silver supports at the corners ; here alone the insomnolent sovereign could take his rest. Of all these marvels, and the splendid harim rooms, the spacious stables, the furniture, wine-cups, rich silk robes, inlaid swords, and shields of steel, nothing has come down to us. We are obliged to take the mosque of Ibn-Tulun as witness to the consummate luxury and artistic eminence of the period. 3. After the fall of the dynasty of Tulun, owing to the weakness of the later members of the family, who paid the common penalty of their Capua, governors appointed by the Khalifs once more exercised their monotonous sway over Egypt, and again there is nothing to record in works of art. 4. Nor did the accession of Mohammad El-Ikhshld, in 935, bring any change for the better iii this respect. El-Ikhshid followed the example of Ibn-Tulun, and made himself independent ruler of both Egypt and Syria, but he left no great works behind him, nor did his dynasty contribute to the monuments of the Saracens. His two sons were under the tutorship of the eunuch Abu-1-Misk Kafur, " Father of Musk, Camphor," who ruled the kingdom well, kept a generous open table, where 1700 pounds of meat were con- sumed daily, but was unable to resist the invasion of the Fatimy Khalif, El-Mu'izz, who conquered Egypt in 969, and Syria in the following year, and also annexed the Arabian provinces of the Higaz and the Yemen. 5. Hitherto the rulers of Egypt had been at least appointed bv the lawful heads of the Mohammadan Empire, the Khalifs, first of 8 ART OF THE SARACENS. Damascus, and then of Baghdad ; many of them were Turks or Tartars, notably Ibn Tulun and El-Ikhshid, who both came from beyond the Oxus ; but they were not the less the servants of the Khalifs. In the Fatimy KhaHfs we see for the first time an heretical line of rulers invading the empire of the Khalifs, and owning no sort of allegiance to them. The Fatimy Khalifs had created a kingdom in Tunis upon the ruins of the Aghlaby power, and now they proceeded to add the dominions of the Ikhshidis to their realm. They transferred their seat of government from Tunis to Egypt (and thereby soon lost their western provinces), and founded a new suburb, or rather a vast palace, which was called El-Kdhira, or Cairo. The design of the Fatimy general Gauhar was simply to build a palace for his master, the Khalif, where that sacred personage might be able to enjoy perfect seclusion ; and it was only in much later times, after the burning of Fustat, that El-Kahira became really a city. El-Kahira was, in fact, originally but a walled enclosure with double earthworks, about three quarters of a mile long and half a mile broad, containing the two royal palaces, one called the Great Palace (which was so extensive that on the fall of the Fatimy dynasty, in 1171, it was found to contain i z,ooo women and eunuchs), the other, the Small Palace, overlooking the pleasure-grounds ; and the two were connected under the open space which divided them (and which is still known as the street Beyn-el-Kasreyn, "Betwixt the Palaces "), by a subter- ranean passage. Close to the Eastern or Great Palace was the Imperial Mausoleum, in which El-Mu'izz deposited the bones of his ancestors, which he brought with him from their places of > sepulture in the west. Further south was the mosque, also built ' by Gauhar, in which the Khalif, as Imam of his subjects, conducted the Friday prayers. The palaces received the name of El-Kusur ez-Zdhira, " the Splendid Palaces," and the mosque that of El-Azhar, " the Most Splendid," which it still retains, and under which it has long been widely known as the great seat of Mohammadan learning, frequented by students from the most THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 9 distant countries of Islam. In addition to the garrison's quarters, many other buildings are enumerated, sufficient to account for the remaining space ; such were the treasury, mint, library, audience- halls, arsenals, provision-stores, and imperial stables. No person was allowed to enter within the walls of El-Kahira but the soldiers of the garrison and the highest officials of the state, whose greatest privilege was that of approaching the sacred person of the Khalif . Ambassadors from foreign lands were obliged to dismount at the gates of the fortress, and were conducted thence to the audience- hall on foot, an official on either side grasping their hands.* The old gates of Cairo are the gates of this palace or fort, built by order of Bedr el-Gemaly, in 1087, by three Greeks. Thus the capital of Egypt underwent a third move to the north- east : first was El-Fustat, founded by 'Amr, close to the Roman fortress of Babylon ; then El-'Askar, a move north-east, built by the 'Abbasy governors ; thirdly, El-Katai', the creation of Ibn-Tulun (which remained an important suburb until desolated by the great famine of El-Mustansir's reign) ; and now, fourthly, Cairo, the site of the Fatiray palace. Of these, the scanty remains of El-Fustat are seen in what is called Masr-el-Atika, or " Old Cairo ; " El-'Askar and El-Katai' have disappeared, save the mosque of Ibn-Tulun, and part of their site has been covered by later houses ; El-Kahira is Cairo, but has greatly expanded since the time when it com- prised little more than the huge palace of the Fatimy Khalifs : new suburbs have joined it to the Citadel on one side, and prolonged it beyond the northern gates on the other. Yet Cairo is practically the Fatiray capital, though, unfortunately, beyond the mosques of the Azhar and El-Hakim, built in 97 1 and 990, and a fragment here and there, nothing remains of all the splendour which the historians attribute to these celebrated Khalifs. + Refer- * H. C. Kay, Al-Kahirah and its Gates. Journ. R. Asiatic Society, 1882. t E.^., in A.H. 442 died Rashidah, daughter of the Khalif iEl-Mu'izz, leaving an inheritance valued at 2,700,000 dinars ; in her house were 12,000 robes of different colours. All the Khalifs since El-Mu'izz had impatiently expected her lo ART OF THE SARACENS. ence will frequently be found in the following pages to the costly possessions of these rulers, especially those included in the well- known Inventory of El-Mustansir, and it will suffice here to remark that the Fatimis even surpassed Ibn-Tulun in magnifi- cence and the encouragement of every branch of art, and that to them, more perhaps than to any other Eastern dynasty, we owe the introduction of Saracenic design into southern Europe. The Mohammadan Amirs of Sicily, who left so rich a legacy of art to the Norman kings, were vassals of the Fatimy Khalifs. 6. How Saladin — or, to be accurate, Salah-ed-din Yusuf, son of Ayyub — was despatched to Egypt with the troops of Nur- ed-din, Sultan of Damascus, to support the cause of one of those powerful vizirs who by their arrogance and rivalry had prepared the downfall of the Egyptian Government, and how the brilliant young soldier and statesman soon found his way to depose the last of the Fatimy Khalifs and assume the supreme authority himself, are almost matters of European history. The period of Ayyuby rule from 1 1 7 1 , when the prayers were ordered to be said no longer in the name of the heretical Khalif, but in that of the Khalif of Baghdad, the orthodox head of Islam, to the year 1250, when the sovereignty descended to the Mamluks, falls within a century, but it was filled with wars and deeds that have made this period known even to European readers. El-Mu'izz the Fatimy had changed Egypt from a province into a kingdom with a definite political significance; Saladin transformed the kingdom into a powerful empire. The long struggle with the Crusaders, the victory of Tiberias, the conquest of Jerusalem, the well-known treaty with Richard Coeur de Lion, though most famiUar to us, death. In the same year her sister 'Abda also died and left an immense fortune. Forty pounds of wax were needed to put seals on her rooms and coifer. Among her treasures were 3000 vases of silver, enamelled and chased ; 400 swords, damascened in gold ; 30,000 pieces of Sicilian stuff ; quantities of emeralds, rubies, and other precious stones ; 90 basins and 90 ewers of purest crystal, &c. (El-Makrizy.) THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. ii form but a part of Saladin's exploits. He made his power felt far beyond the borders of Palestine ; his arms triumphed over hosts of valiant princes to the banks of the Tigris, and when he died, in 1193, at the early age of 57, he left to his sons and kinsmen, not, only the example of the most chivalrous, honourable, and magna- nimous of kings, but substantial legacies of rich provinces, extend- ing from Aleppo and Mesopotamia to Arabia and the Country of the Blacks. And, like so many of his successors the Mamluks, Saladin combined in a marked degree the passion for war with the love of the beautiful. The third wall, and the Citadel of Cairo, with its magnificent buildings, now alas destroyed, bore witness to his encouragement of architecture. The citadel was begun in 1176, with materials obtained from some of the smaller pyra- mids of Giza, and so strongly and carefully was it constructed that when Saladin died the fortress was not yet completed, but remained unfinished until the year 604=1207. The eunuch Karakush, " Black Eagle," was entrusted with the superintend- ence of the work, and this may account for the sculpture of an eagle on the Citadel wall. The present massive gate, within which is the passage where the massacre of the last descendants of the Mamluks by Mohammad 'Aly took place in 181 1, is an eighteenth century work, but the walls and part of the internal masonry belong to Saladin's fortress. Of the mosque and palace, however, no trace remains. The so-called " Hall of Joseph," or Kasr F«J2^ (which was Saladin's name as well as the patriarch's), pulled down about 1830, was really the Dar-el-Adl, or " Hall of Justice," of the Mamluk Sultan En-Nasir, more than a century later. The deep well with its massive masonry is, however, attributed to Saladin, and there used to be ruins of a solid and beautifully decorated mansion which was known, rightly or not, as the " House of Salah-ed-din .Yusuf." Saladin's empire needed a strong hand to keep it united, and the number of relations, sons and nephews, who demanded their 12 ART OF THE SARACENS. share of the wide provinces, rendered the survival of the Ayyuby dominion precarious. Saladin's brother, El-'Adil, the "Sapha- din" of the Crusades, indeed controlled the centrifugal tendencies of his kindred for a while, and his son El-Kamil gloriously defeated Jean de Brienne on the spot where the commemorative city of El-Mansura, " the Victorious," was afterwards erected by the conqueror. After his death, in 1237, however, the forces which made for disintegration became too strong to be resisted; various petty dynasties of the Ayyuby family were temporarily established in the chief provinces, only to make way • shortly for the Tartars, and in Egypt and Syria notably for the Mamluks, who in 1250 succeeded to the glories of Saladin. The monuments of the Ayyubis that are still standing, besides the Citadel and third wall, are very few. The fine ornament of the interior in the tomb-mosc^ue of Esh-Shafi'y belongs at least in part to El-Kamil ; the tomb and college of Es-Salih Ayyub, son of El- Kamil, are still partly preserved opposite Kalaun's Maristan ; and there are, or were, fragments of his once splendid castle on the Island of Roda, on the Nile — the island which gave his Mamluks the epithet of Bahry, or " River-y " — the materials of which were used in the construction of En-Nasir's Mosque in the Citadel. The Kamiliya Mosque has unhappily disappeared, though not before some valuable sketches had been made by Mr. James Wild. 7. The word Mamluk means "owned," and is applied to white slaves, acquired by capture in war or purchase in the market. The two dynasties of Mamluks were lines of white slaves, imported for the protection of the Ayyuby Es-Salih against his kinsmen and the Franks, and who presently acquired the power and the govern- ment of Egypt. They were reinforced from time to time by fresh purchases, for the climate of Egypt was unfavourable to the fertility of foreign immigrants, and the stock had to be refreshed from outside. Es-Salih's Mamluks were loyal servants ; they defended his kingdom while he lived, and it was their brilliant charge under Beybars that routed the French army and brought about the cap- THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 13 ture of St. Louis himself. Es-Salih's son was a drunken debauchee, and helpless to meet the difficulties in which his kingdom was involved. In circumstances that hardly left an alternative, he was put out of the way, and a lady, Sheger-ed-durr, " Tree of Pearls," ascended the throne of her late husband and master Es-Salih, as the first Slave Monarch of Mohammadan Egypt. Her rule was but brief; jealousy led her to murder the Mamluk chief Aybek, whom she had married for political reasons, and she paid the penalty of her crime by being herself beaten to death with the bath-clogs of some female slaves who sympathized with her rival. After her death began that singular succession of Mamluk Sultans, which lasted, in spite of special tendencies to dissolution, for two hundred and seventy-five years. The external history of these years is monotonous. Wars to repel the invasions of the Tartars or to drive the Christians from the Holy Land, struggles between rival claimants to the throne, embassies to and from foreign powers, including France and Venice, the Khan of Persia, and the King of Abyssinia, constitute the staple of foreign aifairs. To enumerate the events of each reign, or even the names of the fifty Mamluks who sat on the throne at Cairo, would be wearisome and unprofitable to the reader : the chronological tables at the end of this chapter will tell all that need be told. But it is different with the internal affairs of the Mamluk period. In this flowering time of Saracenic art, a real interest belongs to the life and social condition of the people who made and encouraged the finest productions of the Moham- madan artist, and it will not be superfluous to explain briefly what the condition of Egypt was under her Mamluk rulers. Some consideration of this subject is almost demanded by the startling contrasts offered by the spectacle of a band of disorderly soldiers, to all appearance barbarians, prone to shed blood, merciless to their enemies, tyrannous to their subjects, yet delighting in the delicate refinements which art could afford them in their home life, lavish in the endowment of pious foundations, magnificent in 14 ART OF THE SARACENS. their mosques and palaces, and fastidious in the smallest details of dress and furniture. Allowing all that must be allowed for the passion of the barbarian for display, we are still far from an expla- nation how the Tartars chanced to be the noblest promoters of art, of literature, and of public works, that Egypt had known since the days of Alexander the Great. During this brilliant period the population of Egypt was sharply divided into two classes, who had little in common with each other. One was that of the Mamluks, or military oligarchy, the other the mass of the Egyptians. The latter were useful for culti- vating the land, paying the taxes which supported the Mamluks, and manufacturing their robes, but beyond these functions, and that of supplying the judicial and religious posts of the empire, they had small part in the business of the state, and appear to have been very seldom incorporated into the ranks of their foreign masters. The names of the Mamluks that have descended to us in the accurate and detailed pages of El-Makrizy are gene- rally Tartar or Turkish,* and even when they are ordinary Arabic names, they were borne by Tartars who had put on an Arabic name along with the speech, dress, and country of their adoption. In the glories, military and ceremonial, of the Mamluks the people had no part. They were indeed thankful when a mild sovereign, hke Lagin, ascended the throne, and when taxes were reduced and bakhshish distributed, and they would join, like all populaces, in the decoration of the streets and public rejoicings, when the Sultan * Among the principal Mamluk nobles of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the following names most frequently occur ; they are Turkish or Tartar, and Mr. J. W. Redhouse, C.M.G., has kindly given me their signi- fications : Beybars, and Bars Bey, Prince Panther ; Altunbugha,' Gold (yellow) Bull ; Ketbugha, Lucky Bull ; Kurt, Wolf ; Tunkuz, Boar; Aktai, White Colt ; Karakush, Black bird of prey, Eagle ; Tughan, Falcon ; Sunkur Ashkar, Bay Falcon ; Aksunkur, Jerfalcon ; Karasunkur, Black Falcon ; Lagln, Perigrine Hawk ; Balban, Goshawk ; Singar, Bird of prey; Kalaun, Duck. The preceding names are derived from animals and birds of prey, and it is probable that corresponding images were blazoned on their owners' shields. Names THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 15 came back from a career of conquest, or recovered from an illness ; but they had no voice in the government of the country, and must make the best they might of the uncertain characters of their ever- changing rulers. The men who governed the country were the body of white military slaves, who had been imported by Es-Salih, and were renewed by purchase as death or assassination reduced their numbers. Before Es-Salih's death a certain number of his Mamluks had risen from the ranks of common slaves to posts of honour at their master's court ; they had become cup-bearers, or tasters, or masters of the horse to his Majesty, and had been rewarded by enfranchisement ; and these freed Mamluks became in turn masters and owners of other Mamluks. Thus, at the very beginning oE Mamluk history, we find a number of powerful Amirs (or " com- manders," lords), who had risen from the ranks of the slaves and in turn become the owners of a large body of retainers, whom they led to battle, or by whose aid they aspired to ascend the throne. The only title to kingship among these nobles was personal prowess and the command of the largest number of adherents. In the absence of other influences the hereditary principle was no doubt adopted, and we find one family, that of Kalaun, maintaining its succession to the throne for several generations, though not without brief interruptions. But as a rule the successor to the kingly power was the most powerful lord of the day, and his hold on the throne depended chiefly on connected with the moon are common : t.g. Tulun, Setting Moon ; Aybek, Moon Prince ; Aydaghdy, The Moon has risen ; Aytekiu, Moon-touching, tall; others relate to steel, as Janbalat, Whose soul is steel; Aydemir, Battle-axe ; Erdemir, Male Iron (tempered steel); Bektemir, Prince Iron ; Esendemir, Sound Iron ; Tukuzdemir, Pig-iron (?). Others refer to some personal characteristic, as Beysiry, Prince Auburn; Salar, The Attacker; Karamun, Black Man ; Aghirlu, Sedate ; Bektut, Prince Mulberry ; Kagkar and Kagkin, Fleet in running; Kurgy means Armour-bearer; Takgi, Moun- taineer; Suyurghatmish, A present; Ezbek, True Prince; Bektash, Prince- peer ; Satilmish, Who was sold. 1 5 ART OF THE SARACENS. his strength of following, and his conciliation of the other nobles. The annals of Mamluk dominion are full of instances of a great lord reducing the authority of the reigning Sultan to a shadow, and then stepping over his murdered body to the throne. Most of the Mamluks died violent deaths at the hands of rival Amirs, and the safety of the ruler of the time depended mainly upon the numbers and courage of his guard. This body-guard, or halka, enjoyed remarkable privileges, and was the object of continual solicitude on the part of the Sultan. As Jiis own safety and power depended upon their fidelity, he was accustomed to bestow upon them grants of lands, rich dresses of honour, and unstinted largesse. A great part of the land of Egypt was held by the soldiers of the guard in feofs granted by the crown ;* and the Amirs who commanded them, nobles specially attached to the Sultan, and generally promoted from among his own Mamluks, received handsome appanages. These soldiers of the guard numbered several thousand, and must have passed from Sultan to Sultan at every change of ruler; their colonels, or " Amirs over a Thousand," as they were called, became * Beybars, following the example of Saladin, organized a feudal system by granting lands to the chief lords of his court in return for service in the field, and his arrangement appears to have lasted until the time of Lagin, when we find the whole land of Egypt was divided into twenty-four kirats, of which four belonged to the Sultan, ten to the Amirs and the holders of royal grants, and ten to the soldiers of the guard. Lagin made a fresh survey and reconstructed the feofs : ten kirats were allotted to the Amirs and guard together, one was reserved for compensating the dissatisfied, four as before belonged to the Sultan, and the remaining nine were assigned to the cost of levying a new body of troops. We le-im that the Sultan's sixth part comprised Boheyra, Atfih, Alexandria Damietta, Manfaliit, with their villages, and Kom Ahmar. The feof of Man- gutimur, the viceroy, included Semhoud, Edfu, Kiis, and others, and brought in a revenue of more than 100,000 ardebbs (each of five bushels) of grain without reckoning money-payments, sugar-candy (for which there were seventeen factories), fruits, cattle, and wood. The only lands excepted from this general distribution among the Amirs and soldiers were the pious foundations heritages, and the like. Lagin considerably reduced the value of the individual feofs, which had previously been worth, at the time of Kalaun at least 10,000 frarcs a year. — El-Makrizy (Quatremire), II. ii. 65 if. THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 17 important factors in the choice of rulers, and often deposed or set up a Sultan as seemed good to them. The Sultan, or chief Mamluk, was in fact more or less, according to his character, at the mercy of the officers of his guard ; and the principal check he possessed upon their ambition or discontent was found in their own mutual jealousies, which might be played upon so as to neutralize their opposition. Each of the great lords, or Amirs, were he an officer of the guard, or a court official, or merely a private nobleman, was a Mamluk Sultan in miniature. He too had his guard of Mamluk slaves, who waited at his door to escort him in his rides abroad, were ready at his behest to attack the public baths and carry off the women, defended him when a rival lord besieged his palace, and followed him valiantly as he led the charge of his division on the field of battle. These great lords, with their retainers, were a constant menace to the reigning Sultan. A coalition would be formed among a certain number of disaffected nobles, with the support of some of the officers of the household and of the guard, and their retainers would mass in the ap- proaches to the royal presence, while a trusted cup-bearer or other officer, whose duties permitted him access to the king's person, would strike the fatal blow, and the conspirators would forthwith elect one of their number to succeed to the vacant throne. This was not effected without a struggle ; the royal guard was not always to be bribed or overcome, and there were generally other nobles whose interests attached them to the reigning sovereign rather than to any possible successor, except themselves, and who would be sure to oppose the plot. Then there would be a street fight ; the terrified people would close their shops, run to their houses, and shut the great gates which isolated the various quarters and markets of the city; and the rival factions of Mamluks would ride through the streets that remained open, pillaging the houses of their adversaries, carrying off women and children, holding pitched battles in the roads, and discharging t8 ART OF THE SARACENS. arrows and spears from the windows upon the enemy in the street below. These things were of constant occurrence, and the Hfe of the merchant classes of Cairo must have been sufficiently- exciting. We read how the great bazaar, called the Khan El- Khalily, was sometimes shut up for a week while these contests were going on in the streets without, and the rich merchants of Cairo huddled trembling inside the stout gates. The contest over, and a new Sultan set on the throne, there remained the further difficulty of staying there. " J'y suis " was a much easier thing to say in Egypt than " j'y reste." The same method that raised him to power might set him down again. An example, drawn from the annals of the thirteenth century, will show better than any generalizations, the uncertain tenure of power among the fickle military oligarchy of the Mamluks. In 693 a.h., or A.D. 1293, En-Nasir Mohammad was raised to the throne, which had been occupied by his father Kalaun and his brother Khalil. En-Nasir was a mere child, nine years old, and the real authority devolved on his Vizir (or " Viceroy," Ndib-es-Saltana, as this minister was generally styled under the Mamluks), by name Ketbugha. Naturally there were several other nobles who envied Ketbugha his position of influence and authority ; and one of these, Shugay, taking the lead, offered armed resistance to the authority of the Viceroy. Ketbugha's Mamluks used to assemble at the gate of the Citadel to defend him in his progress through the city, and Shugay, with his retainers, would waylay the vice- regal cortege as it rode through the narrow streets, and bloody conflicts ensued. The gates of the city were kept closed, and the markets were deserted, until at length Shugay was captured, and his head was paraded on a pike through the streets of Cairo. But disaffection was not quelled by the slaughter of Shugay and his followers. There dwelt a body of 300 Mamluks called Ashrafy* (after their master El-Ashraf Khalil) in the quarter * It will be useful here to explain the system of Mamluk names and titles. Every Mamluk had (l) a proper name, such as Ketbugha, Lagln, Beybars, THE SARA CENS OF EG YPT. 1 9 of Cairo called El-Kebsh, and these warriors, finding their occupation gone by the murder of their master, made an attempt to seize the sovereign power. They assembled and went to the royal stables at the foot of the Citadel, and thence to the armourers' market, plundering and destroying on their way, and eventually they encamped at the gate of the Citadel, and laid siege to the fortress. Whereupon Ketbugha's immediate supporters mounted their horses and rode down to meet them. The Ashrafis were dispersed, and given over to various horrible tortures — blinded, maimed, drowned, beheaded, and hanged, or nailed to the city gate Zuweyla — and only a few were so far spared that they were allotted as slaves to their conquerors. Thus the rebellion was put down ; but the next day, the Viceroy Ketbugha, calling a council of the great nobles of the Court, protested that such exhibitions were dishonourable to the kingly state, and that the dignity of Sultan would be irreparably compromised if a child like En-Nasir were any longer suffered to occupy the Kalaun, generally of Tartar derivation ; (2) a surname or honourable epithet, as Husam-ed-dln, " Sword-blade of the Faith," Niir-ed-dln, " Light of the Faith," Nasir-ed-din, " Succourer of the Faith ;" (3) generally a pseudo-patronymic, as Abu-1-Feth, " Father of Victory," Abu-n-Nasr, " Father of Succour ;" (4) if a Sultan, an epithet affixed to the title of Sultan or King, as El-Melik Es-Sa'id, " The Fortunate King," El-Melik En-Nasir, " The Succouring King," El-Melik El-Mansiir," The Victorious King ;" (5) a title of possession, implying, by its relative termination y or j, that the subject has been owned as a slave (or has been employed as an officer or retainer) by some Sultan or Lord, as El-Ashrafy, " The Slave or Mamluk of the Sultan El-Ashraf," El-Mansury, " The Mamluk of the Sultan El-Mansiir." The order of these titles was as follows: first the royal title, then the honourable surname, third the patronymic, fourth the proper name, and last the possessive ; as Es-Sultan El-Melik El- Mansiir Husam-ed-din Abu-1-Feth LagTn El-Mansury, " The Sultan, Victorious King, SWord-blade of the Faith, Father of Victory, Lagin, Mamluk of the Sultan El-Mansiir." It is usual, in abbreviating these numerous names, to style a Sultan by his title, El-Mansur, &c, or by his proper name, Lagin, &c., omitting the rest, while a Noble (Amir) is conveniently denoted by his proper name alone. It may be added that the word tin, of frequent occurrence in these pages, means " son ;" as, Ahmad ibn Tulun, " Son of Tulun." 20 ART OF THE SARACENS. throne. The child was therefore sent away to grow up, and' Ketbugha, as a matter of course, assumed the sceptre of his ward. This was in 1295, and in the end of 1296, on his return from a journey to Syria, the new Sultan had the misfortune to excite the latent jealousy of some of the powerful nobles who accompanied him : his tent was attacked ; his guards and Mamluks, by a devoted resistance, succeeded in enabling their master to fly, and the leader of the rebellion, Lagin, was forthwith chosen^ Sultan in his stead. Husam-ed-din Lagin, who now ascended the throne under the title of El-Manstir, had originally been a slave of El-Mansur 'Aly son of Aybek (whence he was called El-Mansury), and had then been bought for the trifling sum of about ;^3o by Kalaun, under whom he rose from the grade of page to that of silahddr, or armour-bearer; and Kalaun, coming to the throne, gave him the rank of Amir and made him governor of Damascus. Kalaun 's son Khalil, on succeeding to the sovereignty, east Lagin into prison, and in return for this treatment Lagin assisted in his murder. During the brief reign of Ketbugha, he neld the highest office in the land, that of Viceroy (Ndib-es- Saltana) and now he had turned against his latest lord, and had seized the crown for himself. The terms of his election throw an interesting light upon the precarious authority of the Mamliik Sultans. His fellow-conspirators, after the flight of Ketbugha, marched at Lagin's stirrup, hailed him Sultan, and payed him homage ; but they exacted as a condition of their fealty that the new monarch should continue as one of themselves, do nothing without their advice, and never show undue favour towards his own Mamliiks. This he swore ; but so suspicious were they of his good faith, that they made him swear it again, openly hinting that when he was once instated he would break his vow and favour his own followers, to the injury of the nobles who had raised him to the throne. When this had been satisfactorily arranged, Es- Sultan El-Melik El-Mansur Husam-ed-din Lagin, " The Sultan, THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 21 Victorious King, Sword-blade of the Faith, Lagin," rode on to Cairo, attended by the insignia of sovereignty, with the royal parasol borne over his head by the great Lord Beysary; the prayers were said in his name in the mosques, drums were beaten in the towns he passed through ; the nobles of Cairo came out to do him fealty ; and, escorted by a crowd of lords and officers, he rode to the Citadel, displayed himself as Sultan to the people in •the Hippodrome, and made his royal progress through the streets of the capital, from the Citadel to the Gate of Victory. The 'Abbasy Khalif of Egypt, a poor relic of the ancient house of Baghdad, rode at his side ; and before them was carried the Khalifs diploma of investiture, without which very nominal authority no Sultan in those days would have considered his coronation complete. ' The streets were decorated with precious silks and arms, and great was the popular rejoicing; for the benevolence and generosity of LagIn made him a favourite with the people, and he had already promised to remit the balance of the year's taxes, and had even vowed that if he lived there should not be a single tax left. The price of. food, which had risen to famine height during the late disturbances, now fell fifty per cent. ; bread was cheap, and the Sultan was naturally adored. In spite of his share in a royal murder and a treacherous usurpa- tion, this Mamluk Sultan seems to have deserved the affection of his subjects. Not only did he relieve the people from much of the pressure of unjust and arbitrary taxation under which they had groaned, but he abstained, at least until he fell under the influence of another mind, from the tyrannical imprisonments and tortures by which the rule of the Mamluks was too commonly secured. His conduct to his rivals was clement to a degree hardly paralleled among the princes of his time. He did not attempt to destroy the ex-Sultan Ketbugha, but gave him a small government in Syria by way of compensation. The child En- Nasir had nothing to fear from Lagin, who invited him to return to Egypt, and told him that, as the Mamluk of the boy's father. 2 2 ART OF THE SARACENS. Kalaun, he only regarded himself as his representative, holding the throne until En-Nasir should be old enough to assume the government himself. Lagin was zealous in good works, gave alms largely in secret, and founded many charitable endowments. Among his services to art must be mentioned his restoration of the Mosque of Ibn-Taltin, at a cost of ;^ 10,000, to which he was impelled by the circumstance that he had found refuge in the then deserted building during the pursuit which followed the murder of Khalil. Hidden in the neglected chambers and arcades of the old mosque, where so few worshippers repaired that but a single lamp was lighted before the niche at night, and the muezzin cared to come no further than the threshold to chant the call to prayer, Lagin vowed that he would repay his preservation by repairing the mosque that had sheltered him ; and it is interesting to know that the panels of the pulpit, which, with a cupola over the niche, formed the chief additions (beyond mere repairs) that Lagin made to the mosque, are now in the South Kensington Museum (figs. 35 — 8.) Such good deeds, and the magnanimous release of many prisoners, and not least, a bold foreign policy, as when he sent an army to capture towns on the distant borders of Armenia, could not fail to endear him to the populace; and when he was confined to the Citadel for two months with injuries resulting from a fall at polo, the rejoicings on his return to public life were genuine and universal. All the streets were decorated with silks and satins, the shops and windows were hired by sight- seers, eager to catch a glimpse of the Sultan, and drums were beaten during his state progress through the capital. He cele- brated the occasion by giving a number of robes of honour to the chief lords, freeing captives, and distributing alms to the poor. His private life commended him to the good Muhammadans of Cairo ; for although in his youth he had been a wine-bibber, gambler, and given over to the chase, when he ascended the throne he became austere in his practice, fasted two months in the year besides Ramadan, afifected the society of good pious kadis and THE. SARACENS OF EGYPT. 23 the like, was plain in his dress, as the Prophet ordains that a Muslim should be, and strict in enforcing simplicity among his followers. His ruddy complexion and blue eyes, together with a tall and imposing figure, indeed marked the foreigner, but his habits were orthodoxy itself; he bastinadoed drunkards, even if they were nobles; and his immoderate eating was not necessarily wicked. But Lagin, with all his virtues, had a weakness, too common among Mamluk sovereigns ; he was passionately attached to one of his retainers, named Mangutimur, and by degrees suffered himself to be led by this favourite where his better judgment would never have allowed him to stray. Mangutimur was neither a bad nor a contemptible man; but he was devoured by ambition and pride, and had no scruples when it was a question of removing an obstacle in his path to power. One of these was the great Lord Beysary, who had himself declined the crown, and who, when consulted by Lagin on the wisdom of making Mangutimur his viceroy, reminded the Sultan of his vow when he was elected to the supreme power, and told him in blunt language that Mangutimur was not worthy of the honour to which the Sultan destined him. The favourite, when he was made Viceroy after all, did not forget Beysary or his other detractors; some he banished, others were imprisoned and bastinadoed, and Beysary himself was placed in a sort of regal confinement, and there kept till his death. We shall hear more of Lord Beysary when we come to describe his perfume-burner in the chapter on metal-work, and it is enough to say here that he was too much devoted to the com- forts and enjoyments of good living to care to trouble himself with the uneasiness which proverbially attends crowned heads. He was moreover an old man, and had been a notable and respected figure in Mamluk court life for the past fifty years ; his arrest was therefore the more wanton. Mangutimiir's oppressions were not tamely endured by the Amirs ; but it was no light thing to risk the horrors of incarceration in the Citadel dungeon, a noisome pit, where foul and deadly exhalations, unclean vermin, and 24 ART OF THE SARACENS. bats, rendered the pitchy darkness more horrible, and where for nearly half a century it was the practice to incarcerate refractory nobles, until, in 1329, En-Nasir had the dreaded hole filled up. At length a combination was formed ; Lagin was treacherously murdered as he was in the act of rising to say the evening prayers, and immediately afterwards Mangutimur was entrapped. He was for the moment consigned to the pit under the Citadel, when the Amir who had dealt the fatal stroke to Lagin arrived on the scene, and crying with a strident voice, " What had the Sultan done that I should kill him ? By God, I never had aught but benefits from him ; he brought me up, and gave me my steps of promotion. Had I known that when the Sultan was dead this Mangutimur would still be living, I would never have done this murder, for it was Mangutimur's acts that led me to the deed." So saying, he plunged into the dungeon, slew the hated favourite with his own hands, and delivered his house over to the soldiers to pillage. This sketch of a few years of Mamluk history will serve to show the perils that surrounded the kingly state. It is a fair sample of the whole history, although now and again a sovereign would ascend the throne whose personal qualities or diplomatic talents succeeded in keeping the reins of government in his hands for a considerable period. The uncertainty of the tenure of power, and the general brevity of their reigns, (they average about five years and a half,) make it the more astonishing that they should have found time or leisure to promote the many noble works of architec- ture and engineering, which distinguish their rule above any other period of Egyptian history since the Christian Era. The Sultan's office was indeed no sinecure^ apart from the constant watchfulness needed to manage the refractory Mamluks. Two days a week did Lagin devote to sitting in the Hall of Justice and hearing any complaints that his subjects might bring before him, in addition to those petitions which were constantly presented to him as he rode through the city. The correspondence of the empire, again, THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 25 was no light matter, and most of the Sultans took a personal share in drawing up the despatches. Beybars had established a well organized system of posts, connecting every part of his wide do- minions with the capital. Relays of horses were in readiness at each posting-house, and twice a week the Sultan received and answered reports from all parts of the realm. Besides the ordinary mail, there was also a pigeon post, which was no less carefully arranged. The pigeons were kept in cots in the Citadel and at the various stages, which were further apart than those of the horses ; the bird knew that it must stop at the first post-cot, where its letter would be attached to the wing of another pigeon for the next stage. The royal pigeons had a distinguishing mark, and when one of these arrived at the Citadel with a despatch, none was.per- mitted to detach the parchment save the Sultan himself; and so stringent were the rules, that were he dining or sleeping or absorbed in polo, he would nevertheless at once be informed of the arrival, and would immediately proceed to disencumber the bird of its message. The correspondence conducted by these posts was often very considerable. Here is an example of the business-hours of the famous Sultan Beybars. He arrived before Tyre one night ; a tent was immediately pitched by torchlight, the secretaries, seven in number, were summoned, with the com- mander-in-chief; and the adjutant-general (Amir 'Alam) with the military secretaries were instructed to draw up orders for drums and standards, &c. For hours they ceased not to write letters and diplomas, to which the Sultan affixed his seal ; this very night they indicted in his presence fifty-six diplomas for high nobles, each with its proper introduction of praise to God. One of Beybar's letters has been preserved ; it is a very characteristic epistle, and displays a grim and sarcastic appreciation of humour. Boemond, Prince of Antioch, was not present at the assault of that city by Beybars, and the Sultan kindly conveyed the infor- mation of the disaster in a personal despatch. He begins by ironically complimenting Boemond on his change of title, from 26 ART OF THE SARACENS. Prince to Count, in consequence of the fall of his capital, and then goes on to describe the siege and capture of Antioch. He spares his listener no detail of the horrors that ensued : " Hadst thou but seen thy knights trodden under the hoofs of the horses ! thy palaces invaded by plunderers and ransacked for booty ! thy treasures weighed out by the hundredweight ! thy ladies bought and sold with thine own gear, at four for a dinar ! hadst thou but seen thy churches demolished, thy crosses sawn in sunder, thy garbled Gospels hawked about before the sun, the tombs of thy nobles cast to the ground ; thy foe the MuslJm treading thy Holy of Holies J the monk, the priest, the deacon, slaughtered on the altar ; the rich given up to misery ; princes of royal blood reduced to slavery ! Couldst thou but have seen the flames devouring thy halls ; thy dead cast into the fires temporal, with the fires eternal hard at hand ! the churches of Paul and of Cosmas rocking and going down !— then wouldst thou have said, 'Would God that I were dust ! Would God that I never had this letter ! ' . . . This letter holds happy tidings for thee : it tells thee that God watches over thee, to prolong thy days, inasmuch as in these latter days thou wert not in Antioch ! Hadst thou been there, now wouldst thou be slain or a prisoner, wounded or disabled. A live man rejoiceth in his safety when he looketh on a field of slain. ... As not a man hath escaped to tell thee the tale, we tell it thee ; as no soul could apprise thee that thou art safe, while all the rest have perished, we apprise thee!" Nevertheless, Boemond was mightily incensed with the Sultan's sarcastic attentions.* Beybars was exceptionally active in the discharge of his royal functions, and was indefatigable in making personal inspections of the forts and defences of his empire. Once he left his camp secretly, and made a minute inspection of his kingdom in disguise, * The greater part of the translation above is Col. Yule's (Marco Polo, i. 25) : the Arabic text and French version are given by Quatremere, in El-Makrizy's Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks, I. ii. igo — 194. THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 27 returning before his absence had been found out by his troops. He maintained 12,000 soldiers under arms, of whom a third were stationed in Egypt, a third at Damascus, and the remaining third at Aleppo. On his expeditions he was escorted by 4000 horsemen. His history is a good example of the adventurous career of the Mamluk. He was a native of Kipchak, between the Caspian and the Ural Mountains, — a tall, ruddy fellow, with blue eyes, one of which had a cataract on it, and this defect nearly lost him a pur- chaser in the slave-market : indeed, he only fetched 800 francs, a sum hardly equal to ;£2o. He was afterwards bought by the Amir 'Ala-ed-din Aydekin, El-Bundukdar, " the Arblasteer," from whom Beybars took his title El-Bundukdary, or " Bendocquedar," • as Marco Polo writes it. Subsequently he passed into the pos- session of Es-Salih Ayyub, and his strong, determined nature, his promptitude and resource in action, high mettle, and resonant voice, soon gained him the admiration and fear of his contempo- raries. His charge at Manstira won the day and annihilated the crusade of St. Louis, and in due course he made his way to the throne, through, we are sorry to add, the usual road of assassina- tion. His was not a scrupulous nature, and his own death was caused by poison which he had prepared for another; but he was the first great Mamluk Sultan, and the right man to lay the foundations of the empire. " Bondogar," says William of Tripoli, " as a soldier was not inferior to Julius Caesar, nor in malignity to Nero ;" but he allows that the Sultan was " sober, chaste, just to his own people, and even kind to his Christian sub- jects."* So well did he organize his wide-stretching pro- vinces that no incapacity or disunion among his successors could pull down the fabric he had raised, until the wave of Otto- man conquest swept at last upon Egypt and Syria. To him is due the constitution of the Mamluk army, the rebuilding of a navy of 40 war-galleys, the allotment of feofs to the lords and soldiers, * Col. H. Yule, Marco Polo, i. 24. 28 ART OF THE SARACENS. the building of causeways and bridges, and digging of canals in various parts of Egypt. He strengthened the fortresses of Syria and garrisoned them with Mamluks ; he connected Damascus and Cairo by a postal service of four days, and used to play polo in both cities within the same week. His mosque still stands without the north .gates, and his college till lately formed an important feature among the splendid monuments in the street known as " Betwixt the Palaces ; " he founded an endowment for the burial of poor Muslims ; in short, he was the best ruler Egypt had seen since the death of Saladin, whom he resembled in many respects, but not in chivalrous clemency. Some idea of the luxury and refine- ment of his court may be gathered from the list of his presents to the Persian Ilkhan Baraka, which included a Koran, said to have been transcribed by the Khalif 'Othman, enclosed in a case of red silk embroidered with gold, over which was a leather cover lined with striped silk ; a throne encrusted with carved ivory and ebony ; a silver chest ; prayer-carpets of all colours and sorts ; curtains, cushions, and tables ; superb swords with silver hilts ; instruments of music of painted wood ; silver lamps and chandeliers ; saddles from Khwarizm, bows from Damascus, with silk strings ; pikes of Kana wood, with points tempered by the Arabs ; exquisitely fashioned arrows in boxes plated with copper ; large lamps of enamel with silver-gilt chains ; black • eunuchs, ingenious cook-girls, beautiful parrots ; numbers of Arab horses, dromedaries, mules, wild asses, giraffes, and apes, with all kinds of saddles and trappings. Only remarkable qualities could have raised Beybars from the condition of a one-eyed slave to the founder of an empire that endured for nearly three centuries. In addition to necessary business, state ceremonies occupied no inconsiderable part of the Sultan's time. The Mamluk court was a minutely organized system, and the choice of officers to fill the numerous posts of the household, and the tact demanded in satisfying their jealousies and disagreements, to say nothing THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 29 of the constant presentation of ceremonial dresses of honour, writing of diplomas, and granting of titles and appanages, must have been a tax upon their master. The posts about the royal person were no sinecures, and it needed no doubt some diplomacy to arrange the cabinet and household appointments to the satis- faction of everybody. The chief officers of the court, which of course included the administration, were these : — 1. The Ndib-es-Saltan'a, or Viceroy, chief officer of the empire, corresponding to the Vizir of other periods, who controlled alike the army, finances, posts, and appointments ; rode at the head of the troops in state progresses, and was escorted by nobles to and from the Sultan's presence. He was styled Melik eUUmara, or " King of Nobles," and had a special palace {Ddr-en-Nidba) in the Citadel, where all the functionaries of the state came to him for instructions. 2. The Atdbek, or Atdbek-el-asdkir, Commander-in-Chief, also styled (after the middle of the fourteenth century) El-Amlr-el- Kebir, or " the Great Lord." 3. The Ustaddar, Majordomo, superintendent of the house- hold, the kitchen, pages (ujdkis), and servants and officers generally ; he had entire authority to obtain the supplies, money, and clothing for the royal household. By the time of Barkuk, a.d. 1400, this official had so waxed in importance, that he had become practically Grand Vizir, and enjoyed the manage- ment of the finances and the royal domains. His military rank — for all Mamlaks, though their posts might be purely civil, had military grades — was that of Bicenturion, or Major over 200. Under him were servants supplied from among the Lords of the Drums and Captains over Ten, and he had a legal assessor and mubdshtrs, or superintendents, to assist him. 4. The Rds Nauba, or Chief of the Guard, commanded the Sultan's Mamluks, and setded their differences. Another and superior Eds Nauba commanded the Lords and adjusted their quarrels, and the latter was not only addressed as " His 30 ART OF THE SARACENS. Excellency the Generous the Exalted," ^>fll ^^^ -r^^^'j but the Sultan called him " Brother."* S, 6. The Silahdar, Armour-bearer, carried the Sultan's armour. There were several, and their chief was called Amtr Sildh, " Lord of the Arms," who inspected the Armoury, was a centurion or Captain over loo, and was adressed by the Sultan as "Brother," with the same style as the Rds Naubat el-Umara. The Lord of the Arms was one of the highest officers in the realm after the Atdbek Amtr el-Keblr. 7. Vat Amir Akhor, Master of the Horse, presided over the royal stables, assisted by the Seldkhory, who saw to the horses' food, and sometimes by a second Amtr Akhor, who was a Captain over Ten; minor equerries superintended the colts, oxen, water-wheels, &c., separately, but all were under the supreme control of the great Master of the Horse. 8, 9. The Sdky, Cup-bearer, and the Gdshenktr, Taster, whose duty it was to taste the Sultan's food before it was served, to ward against poison, were officers of trust, and enjoyed frequent inter- course with the sovereign, and thus often carried great influence in the management of the empire. The Gdshenktr was a Bi- centurion. 10. The Hdgib, Chamberlain, was the officer who guarded the access to the royal presence. 11. Amtr Ganddr, Equerry-in- waiting, introduced nobles to the presence, and commanded the ganddrs or equerries, arid berd-dars, grooms of the bedchamber ; superintended the execu- tions and tortures by order of the Sultan, and had charge of the zdrdkhdndh, or royal prison. He was chosen from the ranks of the Colonels (mukaddam) or Lords of the Drums. 12. The Dawdddr, or Secretary, took charge of the imperial * The Sultan never forgot that he had risen from the ranks of the Mamluks, and was accustomed to address his late comrades in brotherly style. "The Mamluk" was a common title much esteemed by the Sultan and retained in the days of his greatest power. THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 31 correspondence, received and addressed despatches, was a Lord of the Drums, or a Captain over Ten, and enjoyed great' in- fluence and consideration. 13. The Katim es-Sirr, or Private Secretary, was the depository of the Sultan's secret affairs, shared the correspondence with the Dawdddr, was the first to go in to the sovereign and the last to come out, and was his chief adviser in all matters. Besides these great officers, there were many smaller posts, which often commanded great power and influence. The Amir Meglis, Lord of the Seat, so called because he enjoyed the privilege of sitting in the Sultan's presence, was the superin- tendent of the court physicians and surgeons ; the Gamddr, or Master of the Wardrobe, was a high official ; the Amir Shikar, or Grand Huntsman, assisted the king in the chase ; the Amir Tahar, or Drum-Major, held almost the rank of the Chief of the Guard, and commanded the Tabarddrs or Halbardiers of the Sultan, ten in number; the Bashmakddr carried the sovereign's slippers; the Gukanddr bore the Sultan's polo-stick, a staff of painted wood about four cubits long, with a curved head ; the Zimamddrs were eunuch guards. The various household depart- ments had also their officers, who were often great nobles, and men of influence in the realm. The Ustadddr-es-Suhba presided over the cookery; the Tabl-khdndh, or Drummery, was the department where the royal band was kept, and it was presided over by an officer called the Amir ^Alam, or adjutant-general. The Sultan's band is stated at one time to have comprised four drums, forty kettle-drums (0U5&), four hautbois (j>^)> ^^^ twenty trumpets (>i*J). The permission to have a band was among the most coveted distinctions of Mamluk times, and those Lords who were allowed to have a band playing before their gates were styled Amir Tabl-khdndh, or Lord of the Drums; they were about thirty in number, and each had command of a body of forty horsemen, with a band of ten drums, two hautbois, and four trumpets, and an appanage of 32 ART OF THE SARACENS. about the value of 30,000 dinars. The practice of employing these ceremonial bands went out with the Turkish conquest. Then there was the Tisht-khdnah, or Vestiary, where the royal robes, jewels, seals, swords, &c., were kept, and where his clothes were washed. The servants of the Tisht-khandh were called tishtddrs, or grooms of the wardrobe, and rakhtwdnls, or grooms of the chamber, under the command of two mihtdrs, or superin- tendents. The Shardb-khdndh, or Buttery, where were stored the liquors, sweetmeats, fruits, cordials, perfumes, and water for the sovereign, was also managed by two mihtdrs, aided by a number of shardb-ddrs, or buttery-men ; the Hawdig-khdndh, or Larder, where the food and vegetables required for the day were prepared, was under the superintendence of the Hawdig-kdsh. At the time of Ketbugha the daily amount of food prepared here was 20,000 pounds, and under En-Nasir the daily cost of the larder was from 21,000 to 30,000 francs. The Rikdb-khdndh, or Harness-room, and Firdsh-khdndh, or Lumber-room, had also their staff of ofificials. And besides the household and military ofEc6rs, there were the various judicial officers, Kddis and the like, and the police authorities, to be appointed by the Sultan ; such were the Wdly, or chief magistrate of Cairo, who kept order in the city, com- manded the patrols, inspected the prisons, opened and shut the city gates, and was obliged always to sleep in Cairo ; the shddds and mushidds, inspectors in their various departments, and the muhtesib, the important officer who corrected the weights and measures in the markets, and guarded public morals. It will be seen that court life was complicated even in the fourteenth century, and the state ceremonies of a Mamluk Sultan must have involved as much etiquette as any modern levde, and presented a much more splendid spectacle. When the Sultan rode abroad in state, to hold a review or to make a progress through his dominions, the composition of his escort was elaborately ordered. The Sultan Beybars, for example, rode in the centre, dressed in a black silk gubba, or vest with large sleeves, but without embroidery THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 33 or gold ; on his head was a turban of fine silk, with a pendant hanging between his shoulders ; and a Bedawy sword swung by his side, and a Dawudy cuirass was concealed beneath his vest. In front, a great lord carried the Ghdshia, or royal saddle-cloth, emblem of sovereignty, covered with gold and precious stones ; and over his head, a Prince of the Blood, or the Commander-in-chief, bore the state parasol, made of yellow silk, embroidered with gold, and crowned with a golden bird perched upon a golden cupola. The housing of his horse's neck was yellow silk embroidered with gold, and a zunndry or cloth of red atlas satin covered the crup- per. The royal standard of silk and gold thread was borne aloft, and the troops had their regimental colours of yellow Cairene silk, embroidered with the escutcheons of their leaders. Just before the Sultan rode two pages on white horses, with rich trap- pings ; their robes were of yellow silk with borders of gold brocade, and a kufRya of the same : it was their duty to see that the road was sound. A flute-player went before, and a singer followed after, chanting the heroic deeds of former kings, to the accompaniment of a hand-drum ; poets sang verses anti- phonally, accompanying themselves with the kemenga and mosil. Tabardars carried halberts before and behind the Sultan, and the state poniards were supported by the polo-master {guJcanddr) in a scabbard on the left, while another dagger with a buckler was carried on the monarch's right. Close beside him rode the Gamak- ddr, or Mace-bearer, a tall, handsome man, who carried the gold- headed mace aloft, and never withdrew his eyes from the counte- nance of his master. The great officers of the court followed with little less pomp. When a halt was called for the night, on long journeys, torches were borne before the Sultan, and as he ap- proached the tent, which had gone on in front and been pitched before his arrival, his servants came to meet him with wax candles in stands inlaid with gold; pages and halbardiers surrounded him, the soldiers sang a chorus, and all dismounted except the Sultan, who rode into the vestibule of the tent, where be left his D 34 ART OF THE SARACENS. horse, and then entered the great round pavilion behind it. Out of this opened a little wooden bed-room, warmer than the tent, and a bath with heating materials was at hand. The whole was surrounded by a wall, and the Mamluks mounted guard in regular watches, inspected periodically by visiting rounds, with grand rounds twice in the night. The Amir Bdbddr, or Grand Door- keeper, commanded the grand rounds. Servants and eunuchs slept at the door.* The historian of the Mamluks is fond of telling how the Sultan made his progresses, held reviews of his troops, led a charge in battle, or joined in the games at home. The Mamluks were ardent votaries of sport and athletic exercises. En-Nasir was devoted to the chase, and imported numbers of sunkurs, sakrs, falcons, hawks, and other birds of prey, and would present valuable feofs to his falconers, who rode beside him hawk on wrist. Beybars was a keen archer, and a .skilful hand at making arrows. He erected an archery-ground outside the Gate of Victory at Cairo, and here he would stay from noon till sunset, encouraging the Amirs in their practice. The pursuit of archery became the chief occupation of the lords of his court. But Beybars, like most of the Mamluks, was catholic in his tastes ; he was fond of racing horses ; spent two days in the week at polo ; was famous * Joinville describes the Sultan Beybars' camp at Damietta : It was entefed through a tower of fir-poles covered round with coloured stuff, and inside was the tent where the lords left their weapons when they sought audience of the Sultan. " Behind this tent there was a doorway similar to the first, by which you entered a large tent, which was the Sultan's hall. Behind the hall there was a tower like the one in front, througli which you entered the Sultan's chamber. Behind the Sultan's chamber there was an enclosed space, and in the centre of this enclosure a tower, loftier than all the others, from which the Sultan looked out over the whole camp and country. From the enclosure a pathway went down to the river, to the spot where the Sultan had spread a tent over the water for the purpose of bathing. The whole of this encampment was enclosed vyithin a trellis of wood-work, and on the outer side the trellises were sprea with blue caUco (?)... and the four towers were also covered with calico." Hutton's trans, p. 94. THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 35 for his management of the lance in the tournaments which formed one of the amusements of the day; and was so good a swimmer, that he once swam across the Nile in his cuirass, dragging after him several great nobles seated on carpets. Such outward details of the life of the Mamluks may be gathered from the pages of El-Makrizy and other historians. But if we seek to know some- thing of the domestic life of the period, we must go elsewhere than to these sources. We find indeed occasionally in El-Makrizy an account of the. revels of the court on great festivals, and he tells us how during some festivities in Beybars' reign there was a concert every night in the Citadel, where a torch was gently waved to and fro to keep the time. But to understand the home-life of the Mamluks, we must turn to the Thousand and One Nights, where, whatever the origin and scene of the stories, the manners and customs are drawn from the society which the narrators saw about them in Cairo in the days of the Mamluks. From the doings of the characters in that immortal story-book, we may form a nearly accurate idea of how the Mamluks amused themselves ; and the various articles of luxury tha,t have come down to us, the goblets, incense-burners, bowls, and dishes of fine inlaid silver and gold, go to confirm the fidelity of the picture. The wonderful thing about this old Mohammadan society is that it was what it was in spite of Islam. With all their prayers aad fasts and irritating ritual, the Muslims of the Middle Ages contrived to amuse them- selves. Even in their religion they found opportunities for enjoy- ment. They made the most of the festivals of the Faith, and put on their best clothes ; they made up parties — to visit the tombs, indeed, but to visit them right merrily on the backs of their asses ;* they let their servants go out and amuse themselves too in the gaily illuminated streets, hung with silk and satin, and filled with dancers, jugglers, and revellers, fantastic figures, the Oriental * Nasir i-Khusrau (eleventh century) says that 50,CX30 donkeys were on hire at Cairo in liis time. They stood at street-corners, with gay saddles, and everybody rode them. D 2 36 ART OF THE SARACENS. Punch, and the Chinese Shadows ; or they went to witness the thrilling and horrifying performances of the dervishes. There was excitement to be derived from the very creed ; for did they not believe in those wonderful creatures the Ginn, who dwelt in the Mountains of Kaf, near the mysterious Sea of Darkness, where Khidr drank of the Fountain of Life ? And who could tell when he might come across one of these awful beings, incarnate in the form of a jackal or a serpent ; or meet, in his own hideous shape, the appalling Nesnas, who is a man split in two, with half a head, half a body, one arm and one leg, and yet hops along with asto- nishing agility, and is said, when caught, to have been found very sweet eating by the people of Hadramaut? To live among such fancies must have given a relish to life, even when one knew that one's destiny was inscribed in the sutures of the skull, and in spite of those ascetic souls who fouad consolation in staring at a blank wall until they saw the name of Allah blazing on it. What society was like at the time of the first Mamluks may be gathered very clearly from the poems * of Beha-ed-din Zuheyr, the secretary of Es-Salih Ayyub, who survived his master and died in 1258. The Egyptians of his acquaintance, as reflected in his graceful verse, seem to have resembled our own latter-day friends in their pleasures and passions. Love is the great theme of Zuheyr as well as Swinburne ; the poet waxes eloquent over a long succession of mistresses, blonde and brown, constant and fickle, kind and coy, — " Like the line of beauty her waving curl, Her stature like the lance." We read of stolen interviews, in despite of parents and guardians, maidens " waiting at the tryst alone," and various other breaches of Mohammadan morals. If Zuheyr fairly represented his * Admirably translated by the late Prof. E. H. Palmer. (Cambridge, 1877.) THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 37 time, life at Cairo in the thirteenth century was not without its savour : — Well ! the night of youth is over, and grey-headed morn is near ; Fare ye well, ye tender meetings with the friends I held so dear ! O'er my life these silvery locks are shedding an unwonted light, And revealing many follies youth had hidden out of sight. Yet though age is stealing o'er me, still I love the festive throng. Still I love a pleasant fellow, and a pleasant merry song ; Still I love the ancient tryst, though the trysting time is o'er. And the tender maid that ne'er may yield to ray caresses more ; Still I love the sparkling wine-cup, which the saucy maidens fill, &c. The wine-cup plays a prominent part in Zuheyr's catalogue of the joys of life, and he is full of contempt for the prudent mentor who reproved him : — Let us, friends, carouse and revel. And send the mentor to the devil ! The great indoor amusement of the mediaeval Muslim was feasting. The Arabs indeed never understood scientific gastronomy . they coarsely drank to get drunk, and ate to get full. We read of a public banquet (under the Fatimis, but probably equalled many a time in the Mamluk period), where the table was covered with 21 enormous dishes, each containing 21 baked sheep, three years old and fat, and 350 pigeons and fowls, all piled up together to the height of a man, and covered in with dried sweetmeats. Between these dishes were 500 smaller ones, each holding seven fowls and the usual complement of confectionery. The table was strewn with flowers and cakes of bread, and two grand edifices of sweetmeats^ each weighing 17 cwt., were brought in on shoulder-poles. On such occasions a man might eat a sheep or two without being remarkable. But if he ate somewhat heartily, he did not omit to wash it down afterwards with plenty of wine, despite all the ordinances of the Prophet. If the bowls that have descended to us were drinking- cups, the Mamluk thought very little of a pint stoup. Like our own Norse and Saxon ancestors, he loved his wassail, and took it right jovially, until he found himself under the table, or B'ould 38 ART OF THE SARACENS. have done so had there been any tables of the right sort. Zuheyr \ sings: — Here, take it, 'tis empty ! and fill it again With wine that's grown old in the wood ; That in its proprietor's cellars has lain So long that at least it goes,back to the reign Of the famous Nushirwan the Good — With wine which the jovial friars of old Have carefully laid up in store, In readiness there for their feast-days to hold — With liquor, of which if a man were but told. He'd roll away drunk from the door ! Many of the Mamluk Sultans are described as being addicted to wine,andthegreat Lord Beysary was at one time stated to be inca- pable of taking part in affairs, because he was entirely given over to drink and hazard. Yet there are redeeming points in this sottish- ness. The Muslims of the days of good Harun-, and not less of the other " golden prime " of Beybars and Barkuk, did not take their wine moodily or in solitude. They loved to have a jovial company round them, and plenty of flowers and sweet scents on the board ; they scented their beards with civet, and sprinkled their beautiful robes with rose-water, while ambergris and frankincense, burned in the censers we still possess, diffused a delicious perfume through the room . Nor was the feast complete without music and the voices of singing women. A ravishing slave-girl, with aform like the waving willow, and a face as resplendent as the moon, sang soft, sad Arabian melodies lo the accompaniment of the lute, till the guests rolled over in ecstasy. Other and less refined performances, the alluring gestures of the dancing-girls, the coarse feats of Punch or the hired buffoon, also enlivened the evening ; and the ladies of the Harim would share the pleasures of the men, separated by a lattice screen, or hidden behind gorgeously embroidered curtains. We shall see presently what pakces the Mamluks built for them- selves, how they hung them with rich stuffs, and strewed them with costly carpets ; what wealth of carving and ivory-work em- THE SARACENS OF EGYPT. 39, bellished their doors and ceilings j how gloriously inlaid were their drinking and washing vessels, how softly rich the colouring of their stained windows. The Mamluks offer the most singular contrasts of any series of princes in the world. A band of lawless adventurers, slaves in origin, butchers by choice, turbulent, bipod- thirsty, and too often treacherous, these slave kings had a keen appreciation for the arts which would have done credit to the most civilized ruler that ever sat on a constitutional throne. Their morals were indifferent, their conduct was violent and unscru- pulous, yet they show in their buildings, their decoration, their dress, and their furniture, a taste which it would be hard to parallel in Western countries even in the present age of enlightenment. It is one of the most singular facts in Eastern history, that wherever these rude Tartars penetrated, there they inspired a fresh and vivid enthusiasm for art. It was the Tartar Ibn-Tulun who built the first example of the true Saracenic mosque at Cairo ; it was th^ line of Mamluk Sultans, all Turkish or Circassian slaves, who filled Cairo with the most beautiful and abundant monuments that any city can show. The arts were in Egypt long before the Tartars became her rulers, but they stirred them into new life, and made the Saracenic work of Egypt the centre and head-piece of Mohammadan art. The following tables will supply the necessary chronological details and the chief events and monuments of each reign. It should be noticed that a certain stability and duration of authority was necessary even among the Mamluks to allow opportunity for artistic effort. The great monuments now standing of the Mamluk Sultans are grouped about 9 Sultans : 4 of the Bahris, and 5 of the Burgis. But the reigns of these 9 Sultans amounted together to two-thirds of the whole period occupied by the 49 Mamluk rulers. The reigns of Beybars I. (18 years), Kalaun (11), En- Nasir (42), and Sultan Hasan (11); of Barkuk (16), El-Muayyad (9), El-Ashraf Bars Bey (17), Kait Bey (28), and El-Ghury (16), 40 ART OF THE SARACENS. make a total of i68 years, out of 266, leaving but 98 years for the remaining 40 Sultans. The great Mamluk builders had thus an average reign of nearly 19 years, while those who have left no signal monuments average only 2| years. Beybars Jashenkir, however, is perhaps an exception; for he has left a beautiful mosque and many restorations, yet he ruled as Sultan for but a single year. THE SARACEN RULERS OF EGYPT. A.H. ZI — 926 ^ A.D. 641 — 1517. I.— GOVERNORS APPOINTED BY THE KHALIFS. A.H. A.D. 21 641 to to 254 868 Ruler. The list of 98 Governors, to whom no distinctive work of art can be ascribed, is omitted. (Cp. Wiis- tenfeld, Die Statthalter d. Egyp- iens unter den Khalifen. ) Events and existing Monuments. Conquest of Egypt completed, 21 A.H. Mosque of'Amr, 21 A.H., but fre- quently restored. City of El-Fustat, a.h. 21, and suburb of El-'Askar, a.h. 133. ^ II.— HOUSE OF TULUN. 254 270 282 283 292 868 883 895 896 904 Ahmad ibn Tulun Khumaraweyh (son of Aljmad) Geysh Abu-1-Asakir ) (sonsofKhu- Harun > maraweyh) Sheyban (son of Afimad) Suburb of El-^atai', 256. y Mosque of Ibn- Titliin, 263-5. ^^ Annexation of Syria as far as Aleppo, 264. 292 to 323 III.— SECOND LINE OF GOVERNORS. 90s I) to \ Thirteen Governors. 934 I; I Partial burning of El-^atai', 292. Invasion of Egypt by El-Mahdy t the Fatimy, 307. THE SARACEN RULERS OF EGYPT. 41 IV.— HOUSE OF IKHSHID. A.H. A.D. Ruler. Events and existing Monuments. 934 946 960 966 968 to 969 Mohammad El-Ikhshid ibn Tukg Abu-1-Kasim Ungur (son of El- Ikhshid) Abu-1-Hasan 'Aly (son of El- Ikhshid) Abu-1-Misk Ka(ur, a Eunuch Abu-l-Fawaris Ahmad (son of 'Aly) Syria again annexed. The kings of this dynasty were buried at Damascus, and have therefore left no tomb-mosques in Egypt. v.— FATIMY KHALIFS. A.— In Tunis. 909 934 94S 9S2 969 975 996 1020 "1035 1094 IIOI 1 130 1 149 1 154 El-Mahdy 'Obeyd-AUah El-]^a'im Mohammad El-Mansiir Isma'il El-Mu'izz Ma'add El- 'Aziz Nizar El-Hakim El-Man§ur Edh-piiahir 'Aly El-Mustanfir Ma'add Invades Egypt, 307. B. — In Egypt. El-Musta'ly A^imad El- Amir El-Man§iir El-9afidh 'Abd-el-Megid Edh-Dhafir Isma'il El-Faiz 'Isa Conquest of Egypt, 358. Syria and part of Arabia annexed. Foundation of El-]Kahira (Cairo). Mosque El-Azhar, 3S9-6i. Invasions of the Karmatis. Conversion of the Azhar into a University. Mosque of El-Hdkim, 380. * Founder of the Druse sect. Mosque of El-Hdkim completed, 403. Loss of Aleppo. Great famine, 7 years long, which caused the desertion and decay of El-Fustat and other parts of the capital. Restoration of Mosque of 'Amr, 441-2. The 3 great Gates and 2nd wall of Cairo built. Usurpation of Nasir ed-dawleh, 462-5. First Crusade; loss of Jerusalem. Further losses in Syria. Nur-ed din ibn Zenky makes him- self master of Aleppo and Da- mascus. 42 ART OF THE SARACENS. A.H. A.D. Ruler. Events and existing Monuments. S5S 1 160 El-'Adid 'Abd-Allah Nur-ed-din's expeditions to Egypt, to 567 to II71 SS9. S6i. Saladin in Egypt, 561. Burning of El-Fustat, 564, for ^ *» fifty days, to save its falling into the hands of Amaury, Christian King of Jerusalem. VI.— HOUSE OF AYYUB. (Egyptian Branch.) 567 1172 "93 1 198 1 199 1218 1238 1240 1249 1250 to 1252 En-Nasir Salah-ed-din [Saladin] Yusuf ibn Ayyiib El-'AzIz 'Imad-ed-din 'Othman El-Mansiir Mohammad El-'Adil Seyf-'ed-dln Abu-Bekr ibn Ayyub El-Kamil Moliammad El-'AdilSeyfed-dinAbu-Bekr II. Es-Salib Negm-ed-din Ayyub El-Mu'adhdham Tiiran Shah El-Ashraf Miisa (nominally joint king with the Mamliik Sultan Aybek) From 567-9 owns homage to Nur- ed-din Annexation of Syria, 570. Crusades. Citadel and yd Wall of Cairo. '^ Restoration of Mosque of'Amr. Resists 4th Crusade. Syria se- parated. Reannexes Syria. Defeat of Jean de Brienne. Tomb of Esh-Shafi'y, 608. Jerusalem ceded to Frederick II. , 626. Jerusalem recaptured. Crusade of St. Louis. College Es-Salihlya, 641. Castle of Er-Roda. Defeat and capture of St. Louis at Mansura, 647. Tomb Mosque of Es-Sdlih, 647. 1250 1250 1257 1259 VII.— THE MAMLUK SULTANS. A.— Bahry or Turkish Line. Queen Sheger-ed-durr El-Mu'izz 'Izz-eddin Aybek El-Mansiir Nur-ed-din 'Aly El-Mudhaffar Seyf-ed-din ?:utuz Syria separated. War with Hulagii the Mongol. Syria annexed. Antioch taken. THE SARACEN RULERS OF EGYPT. 43- A.D. 1260 1277 1279 1279 1290 1293 1294 1296 1299 1309 I310 1341 1 341 1342 1342 1345 1346 1347 1351 1354 1361 1363 1377 1381 to 1390 Ruler. Edh-Dhahir bars I. Rukn-ed-din Bey- Es-Sa'id Naslr-ed din Baraka Khan El-'Adil Bedr-ed-din Selamish El-Mansur Seyf-ed-dih Kalaun El-Ashraf Salat-ed-dir. Khalil En-Na?ir Nasir-ed din Moham- mad. \st reign El-'Adil Zeyn-ed-din Ketbugha El-Mangur Husam-ed-din Lagin En-Na?ir Mohammad. 2ni rei^n El-Mudhaffar Rukn-ed-din Bey- bars II. En-Nasir Mohammad. 3rrf reign El-Mansur Seyf-ed-din Abu-Bekr El-Ashraf 'Ala-ed-din Kugu^f En-Na§ir Shihab-ed-din Ahmad E§-Sali]^ 'Imad-ed-din Isma'il El-Kamil Seyf-ed-din Sha'ban El-Mudhaffar Seyf-ed-din Haggy En-Nafir Nasir-ed-din Hasan. \st reign E§-Salib Salab ed-din Salih En-Na§ir Hasan. 2n4 reign El-Man?ur Salah-ed-din Moham- mad El-Ashraf Nasir-ed-din Sha'ban El-Mansur 'Aia-ed-din 'Aly Es-Sali$ Sala]h-ed-din Haggy de- posed' by Bar^ii^ 784] 1382, but restored, 791, with new title of El-Man§ar Haggy, and finally deposed by Barjii^, 792. Events and existing Monuments, Campaigns against the Mongols and Christians. Mosque of Edh-Dhahir, 665-7. Colkgiate Mosque Edh-Dhakiriya, 660. Mosqite of Kalaun, Mdnstdn or Hospital, 683. Campaign in Syria ; sack of Tripoli. Capture of Acre, 690. Restorationof Mosqueof Ibn-TUlnn. Defeat of Mongols in Syria. Collegiate Mosque En-Ndsiriya, 698 —703- Monastic Mosque of Bey bars, 706. Mosque of En-Nasir in citadel, 718. Persecutions of Christians and destruction of churches. Mosques of the Amirs KOsjin, 730 ; El-Mdridany, 738-40 ; Singar El-Gawaly and Solar, 723 ff. Mosque of the Amir Aksunkur, 747-8. Mosque of Sultan Hasan, 7S7-6o. Mosques of the Amirs SAeykhH, 7 56, and Suyurghatmish, 757. Mosque of Umm-Sha'bdn. 44 ART OF THE SARACENS. B. — BuRGY OR Circassian Line. A.H. A.D. Ruler. Events and existing Monuments. 784 1382 Edh-Dhahir Seyf-ed-din Bar^ui: Tomb Mosque of Barkak. (interrupted by Ilaggy, 791-2) Collegiate Mosque BarkUkrya, 786. War with Timiir (Tamerlane). 801 1399 En-Na?ir Na§ir-ed-dln Farag. ist reign Peace concluded with Timur. 808 1405 EI-Man|ur 'Izz-ed-din 'Abd-el- •Azlz 809 1406 En-Na?ir Farag. 2nd reign 81S 1412 El-'Adil El-Musta'in (the Khalif) 81S I412 El-Mu'ayyad Sheykh Mosqm of El-Mu'ayyad, 818-23. Campaigns in Syria. 824 1421 El-MudhafFar Ahmad 824 1421 Edh-piiahir Seyf-ed-din Tatar S24 1421 Es-SalihNafir-ed-dlnMoliammad 825 1422 El-Ashraf Seyf-ed-din Bars Bey Collegiate Mosque El-Ashraftya, 827. Tomb Mosque of Bars Bey. Expedition against John, King of Cyprus, 827. 842 1438 El-'Aziz Jemal-ed-din Yusuf 842 1438 Edh-Dhahir Seyf-ed-din Gakmak 857 1453 El-Man^ur Fakhr-ed-din 'Othman 857 1453 El-Ashraf Seyf-ed-din Inal 86s 1461 El-Mu'ayyadShihab-ed-din A^mad 865 1461 Edh-Dhahir Seyf-ed-din Khosh- l^adam 872 1467 Edh-Dhahir Seyf-ed-din Bilbay 872 1467 Edh-bhahir Temerbugha 873 1468 El-Ashraf Seyf-ed-din ?ait Bey Mosque of Kdit Bey (intra muros). Tomb Mosque of Kait Bey. Wekala of Kait B'ey. War with the Ottoman Turks, who were repeatedly defeated. 901 1496 En-Na§ir Mohammad 904 1498 Edh-Dhahir KansQh 905 1500 El-AshrafGanbalat Mosque of the Amir Ezbek, 905. 906 1 501 El-Adil Tuman Bey 906 1501 El-Ashraf ?an§uh El-Ghory Mosque and Tomb Mosque Ghoriyaf 909. Battle of Marg-Dabik, and defeat of Mamluks by Selim 1. Invasion of Egypt. 922 1516 El-Ashraf Tuman Bey 922 1516 Egypt annexed by the Ottoman Su Itan Selim. ( 45 ') GENEALOGICAL TREES OF THE FAML LIES REIGNING IN EGYPT. HOUSE OF TULUN. 1. Ahmad ibn Tulun 1 2. Khumaraweyh 1 5- Sh 1 , 3. Geysh 1 4. Harun. HOUSE OF IKHSHlD. I. Mohammad El-Ikhshid 1 1 2. Abu-1-Kasim 3. 'Aly I 5. Ahmad FATIMY KHALIFS. 4. El-Mu'izz 1 1 5. El-'Aziz 6. El-Hakim 7. Edh-Dhahir 8. El-Mustansir 1 9- 10. El-Musta'ly El-Amir Mohammad 1 II. El-Hafidh 12. Edh-Dhafir 1 13- 1 El-Faiz 1 14. El-'Adid, ( 46 ) O > o ■Si a ^ £;~ 2 < j: en c: Id i P^ H >Y < i — 5'- J3 "S -IS- s o Op 3 .<_ _s_ t^ S 13 B IR) 00 M 3 3 1— I 4 r3 in ■T) S T3 S C4 tn S ^1 b "^ ■^ - "^ TJ (n» s < lea « CO- 3 •^ «< M- -■a ■^■ -5 n ,S • led 1-1 ^ s a '5 Irt w J3 W — A . M B P4 .Si,0' .a in a (3 l2 § m "5 M- » JS IID -S :«• -13 c lU u ,i;j o 3 « g ^ o T3 3 e O a '3 "3 ^ o CHAPTER II. ARCHITECTURE. The arts of the Saracens are for the most part intimately con- nected with their buildings ; they are chiefly employed for the decoration of their mosques and houses. Of the examples of Saracenic art that have come down to us, the large majority form part of the ornament and furniture of mosques, or, in a less pro- portion, of private dwellings. Thus wood-work mainly consists of carved panels from the doors of mosques, pulpits, ceilings, and the panelled doors and lattice windows of houses ; the mosaics and marble ornament, no less than the stone carvings, are chiefly derived from the walls of mosques and other buildings. The finest ivory is found in the doors of Mohammadan pulpits and the screens of Coptic churches ; glass is represented by mosque lamps and perforated stained windows ; pottery is mainly displayed in the form of tiles on the walls of mosques and houses ; and of existing textiles, the most important, though not native to Egypt, are the prayer carpets. The only branch of art industry that does not more or less share in this intimate connection with a building is the metal work, which includes many small objects which have no stated position, but might be placed anywhere without violating their natural intention ; and even metal-work in Cairo is best seen in the embossed bronze doors of the mosques. As a whole, it may be said that the art of mediaeval Egypt was centred in the beautifying of its mosques and palaces, and that in most departments of artistic labour there is a certain architec- 48 ART OF THE SARACENS. tural relation which shows that the various objects were elaborated with a direct eye to their effect when in the mosque or house. Of course, it does not follow that because the extant examples of Saracenic art in the middle ages are chiefly of this decorative character, there was no art of a less obviously relative nature. The artists who carved the wood and ivory of the mosques must have employed their skill on . other things as well. But the sanctity of the mosques has procured for them a measure of respect which has preserved much of their decoration compara- tively perfect to the present century, and a similar protection was not to be expected in the case of mere portable articles of furniture which could be burnt and broken and melted with no imputation of sacrilege. Objects of art which form part of buildings, whether sacred or not, stand a far better chance of survival than movable things, and this is, no doubt, to a large degree the cause of the one-sidedness of Cairene art as we now study it. Another cause is the simplicity of the Mohammadan idea of furniture. A Muslim grandee had much fewer modes of gratifying his artistic tastes than an English nobleman. The law of his Prophet, in the first place, forbade luxury, prohibited gold and silver ornaments, rich silks, and sumptuous apparel ; it was impious to paint or chisel the image of man or any animate creature ; and if a prince were not strongly under the influence of his religion, yet the general custom of his countrymen, and the conservatism of the East, would restrain him from eccentric inno- vations in the embellishment of his palace. Divans offered little scope for the artist ; their frames, if not constructed of ordinary masonry, were made of palm sticks, or an unornamented frame- work of wood ; the coverings alone could be sumptuous. A little low round table formed almost the sole piece of movable furniture in the room ; there were no chairs for the Egyptian Chippendale to exercise his fancy upon ; no bureaux, sideboards, book-cases, mirrors, mantel-shelves, or other pieces of decorative furniture, to be carved or inlaid ; the little dlning-table, or, rather, stool, with ARCHITECTURE. 49 its round tray instead of a cloth., permitted no array of fine glass and silver, though the few dishes that could be ranged upon it were often of very exquisite workmanship, and inlaid with the precious metals. Thus it happened that iri the house as in the raosque the chief skill of the artist was expended upon the decoration of the structure, by mosaics and tiles on the wall, painting the ceiling, panelling and carving the doors and cupboards, and designing the stained windows. No examination of the industrial arts of Egypt, therefore, would be intelligent which did not start from a clear comprehension of the characteristics of the buildings round which they were grouped. In a work of the present scope it is of course impossible to attempt a history of Saracenic architecture, even in its Cairene develop- ment ; such a task is worthy of the best endeavours of an architect, and would demand a volume to itself. It will be sufficient for the present purpose if the principal buildings of Cairo are briefly described in general classes, the chief distinctions of style and plan noticed, and a clear conception offered of what mosques and houses are like. For this purpose it will not be necessary to take many examples. A large number of the 300 mosques that still remain in various stages of preservation in that city offer no elements of originality, and not a few are modern and unworthy of study, except by those who would carry the history of an art down to its lowest stage of decadence. In houses we have un- fortunately but a small choice to select from. Most of the noble pajaces of the Mamluk lords have long ago fallen to ruin, and there are now probably very few that can be called representative of the great period of Saracenic architecture. Still, while the palaces, for the most part, have passed away, there are heie and there smaller houses of remarkable beauty, which preserve some of the best features of the true Cairo style. The first idea of a mosque was extremely simple. The Prophet's mosque at Medina consisted of a small square enclosure of brick, partly roofed over with wooden planks, supported on pillars made E ARCHITECTURE. 51 of palm steins plastered over. All that was needed was retirement from passing scenes, and shade from the sun's rays. It was not necessary that the whole of the square court forming the mosque should be roofed in, for the number of worshippers who remained for any length of time in the mosque would be small, and, for the |"V-.- J. ■.-.■; ;c : : : : •-.■.-.■."•.■.■.■.■. ••.■.-. , TTr:»; i ""--'"'* ■•'■•• '* »■-■■«- ^^^^ ■ v.- .r, '.■.: :r. -.:■.--•.■,.:.•:::;»;:::*■.■;:,-■»:.- .■-■ijy I. ii^rju^ i.T .-.v.x; ■•.',- :■%•.". ■ 'r::M-:::-l OPEN i;:-.:x::::vk:::::x. N W- TheTwo Test Colnmns COURT. : ' .T "' .v r . ' .v- 'r' . T ; * . ■ ■ ■ / ■ * ?? rf: :::*■■; ; w.'-zz -m jex .■»"■. UB.* :-' - : Kibleh fiDikkeh Mimbar «:.~"V :;.■*.:: :-.r::; .•:.- K.::-.M:::::».:.:w.:-.-.-r::K:»:-.: SC.-,v.-jr.v.-.»:::;K.-.v.»:*::M:-.:»:«».-.;-.3K.-.-;jr.-.--ar".-»-.-.L;-K-.: iv.t*.:::*::::"^;-,-.-*^!*:;;:*:.--.-^.-.-.:*.----..*.-.;;*-.---.--*.'. w.::;:w.;\-.-w.:::'r.-:ix:\r.:M -■.■■■.;:: :c ::: w ::: » FIG. 3. — PLAN OF THE MOSQUE OF *AMR. brief periods occupied by the ordinary prayers, the open court could be used if the roofed portions did not afford space enough. The same principle was observed in the plans of the early mosques of Egypt. An open court for occasional use, and roofed cloisters for the regular congregation, were the essentials; and in the older E 2 52 ART OF THE SARACENS. mosques in and around Cairo we find this plan carried out by a spacious open court surrounded on the four sides by covered colonnades or cloisters. The mosque of 'Amr at Fustat (or Old Cairo) has been so repeatedly restored that it is not safe to draw conclusions from its details; but it is certainly as old as the loth century in its main outline, which consists of an immense court surrounded by covered colonnades (fig. 2). The mosque of Ibn-Tulun, which preserves, for the most part untouched, its original form and ornament as completed in the year 265 of the Hijra (a.d. 878), consists also of a vast open court surrounded by arcades or cloisters, which differ considerably in the details from the colonnades of 'Amr's mosque, but show the same general plan. The mosque of the Fatimy Khalif El-Hakim, finished in 1012, resembles that of Ibn-Tulun in plan and many of the details, and the Azhar, though frequently restored, preserves its original colonnaded court of 971. The mosque of Edh-'Dhahir Beybars, to the north of Cairo (1268), and that of En-Nasir Mohammad in the Citadel (1318), are also of the arcade plan, resembhng Ibn-Tulun, and the same form was adopted by Kusun (1329), EI-Maridany (1339), and Aksunkur (1347), for their mosques in the first half of the 14th century, by Barkuk at the end of the same century for his tomb-mosque in the eastern cemetery of Cairo, and by El-Muayyad for his mosque (1420) in the Ghoriya, now in course of restoration. The plan of an open court surrounded by colonnades is, as will be readily recognised, simply a survival of the ancient Semitic temple, as we see it in Phoenician and other ruins, and also in the porticos surrounding the Ka'ba at Mekka. The Arabs naturally adopted the form most familiar to them, and also best suited to the climate, and to the religious rites to be performed. This plan is universal in Egypt from the 9th to the 13th cen- tury, so far as extant buildings permit us to judge. From the 13th century the older plan shared the favour of the Cairene architects with a new form, which was, however, rather a develop- ARCHITECTURE. S3 ment of the former than a new departure. As space became more valuable in Cairo, and as architectural skill improved, and the art of spanning wide intervals by great arches became better understood, the cruciform mosque was naturally developed out of the old columnar or cloistered court. Instead of surround- ing a spacious court with shallow arcades, a smaller court was enclosed by four deep recesses or transepts, each of which was covered by a single large arch ; the plan thus resembles roughly a cross, of which the centre was formed by the open court, and the arms by the four covered recesses. A reason for this arrangement is perhaps to be found in the four sects into which the Mohammadans of Egypt were divided : for some of the cruci- form mosques have inscriptions which show that a separate transept was allotted to Malikis, the Hanafis, the Shafi'is, and the Hanballs. This plan seems to have been introduced into Cairo by the Ayyuby Sultans of the family of Saladin. The earliest examples are the buildings of El-Kamil Mohammad, Saladin's nephew, whose collegiate mosque in the street known as Beyn-el-Kasreyn, or " Betwixt-the-Palaces," was erected in the year 1224. Two sides of this building were standing in 1845 when Mr. Wild made some sketches of the ornament, which he described as more like the Alharnbra than anything he had seen in Cairo. The most famous extant specimen of the cruciform mosque is that of Sultan Hasan, built in 1356-9, where the arches opening into the transepts are of magnificent dimensions. Barkuk's medresa or collegiate mosque in the Beyn-el-Kasreyn, 1384, and the two mosques of Kait Bey, one in the city, the other and more celebrated in the eastern burial-ground, one of the most beautiful monuments of Cairo (1472), also belong to the cruciform order, as does that of El-Ghory (1503), besides many less important mosques. The standard example of the cloistered mosque is that of Ibn- Tulun, the bold and massive style of which recalls our own Nor- man architecture. This is the oldest mosque of Cairo, or rather 54 ART OF THE SARA CENS. of the quarter called El-Katai', or " the Wards," which was the residence of the princes of the dynasty of Tulun, when Cairo was not yet founded. It occupies a space of about four hundred feet. The exterior is very plain, as is always the case with cloistered mosques. A high wall surrounds it on three sides, leaving a space of some fifty feet vacant between the wall and the mosque itself. The outer courts thus formed, in close resemblance to the plan of the Egyptian temple (as seen, for example, at Edfu), were intended to isolate the worshippers in the mosque from the noises of the street without. The front or east side is shut off from the street by houses and various apartments; and wash- rooms and other chambers for the mosque attendants or for worshippers block up part of the western outer court. The walls of the mosque have no ornament, except a crenellated or em- battled parapet. Originally the mosque was entered by two doors in each of the three outer courts ; the doors are simple and without any of the elaboration of later mosques. Passing through the inner partition wall we find ourselves in a cloister or arcade looking into a magnificent court ninety-nine yards square (fig. 3), in the centre of which is a square stone building surmounted by a brick dome, which was built, however, a century later than the mosque itself, in the place of the original marble fountain covered by a painted dome resting on marble pillars. This vast court is surrounded on all four sides by arcades of pointed arches resting on piers of plastered brick. It is related that Ahmad Ibn-Tulun intended to have 300 columns for his mosque, but when he was informed that this would involve the destruction or dismemberment of numerous churches throughout the land of Egypt — for the Muslims took their pillars from Roman and Greek buildings — he abandoned the project. His chief architect, a Copt*, whose religious sympathies may have had some- thing to do with Ibn-Tulun's clemency towards the Christian * It is worth remarking that the almost contemporary Nilometer was built by an aichitect from Ferghana. Sb ART OF THE SARACENS. churches, then undertook to build a mosque without columns, save two at the niche which marked the direction of Mekka ; and when he had drawn his design on parchment, and shown it to the prince, it was approved, and he was given a dress of honour, and furnished with 100,000 gold pieces, or about _;^6o,ooo to build the mosque. He began the work in a.h. 263, and com- pleted it in 265 (878), when he received a fee of 10,000 pieces of gold.* It is clear from this account, which is derived from the historian El-Makrizy, that the mosque of Ibn-Tulun was the nrst experiment in brick piers instead of stone columns. Three sides have two rows of arches ; the fourth, that which lies on the side towards Mekka, has five.t All the rows "of arches run parallel to the sides of the court, so that standing in the latter you look through the arches. The arches are all pointed (fig. 5), and constitute the first example of the universal employment of pointed arches throughout a building, three hundred years before the adoption of the pointed style in England. They have a very slight tendency to a return at the spring of the arch, but canrrot be said to approach the true horse-shoe form. They rest on heavy piers of brick, the four corners of which are shaped in the form of engaged columns, with no bases, and only very simple rounded capitals, coated, like the rest of the building, with plaster, on which a rudimentary bud and flower pattern is moulded. The spaces between the arches are partly filled by windows with similar engaged columns and pointed arches. On either side of each window, in the face fronting the court, is a rosette moulded in the plaster, and a band of similar rosettes runs all round the court above the * By gold piece I mean a dinar, a coin about the size of a half-sovereign, which then weighed 63 grains on the average, and was of neatly pure gold. t As is well known, the prayers of Mohammadans are said with the face directed towards Mekka, which at Cairo means south-east. The older mosques are more correctly placed in the proper direction than the later. In referring to ihe Mekka side of a mosque the term "east end" will be used, as it conveys a more familiar idea to P^uropeans than souih-east. ARCHITECTURE. 57 arches, over which is the embattled parapet. The faces of the arcades in the interior are somewhat differently treated. Round the arches and windows runs a knop and flower pattern, which also runs across from spring to spring of arch beneath the windows, and a band of the same ornament runs all along above the arches, in place of the rosettes, which only occur in the face fronting the court ; over this band, and likewise running along the whole length of all the inner arcades, is a Kufy* inscription carved in wood, and above this the usual crenellated parapet. The arcades are roofed over with sycamore planks resting on heavy beams. In the rearmost arcade the back wall is pierced with pointed windows, which are filled, not with coloured glass, but with grilles of stone, forming geometrical designs, with central rosettes or stars ; but it is not quite certain that these belong to the original mosque ; they may have been introduced in one of the restorations which are known to have been made. To whatever period they belong, they may compare favourably in variety and beauty of design with any Gothic tracery in existence. With the exception of these grilles, the central fountain, and the two marble columns by the niche in the east end, the entire mosque is built with burnt brick, plastered on both sides. t The Mekka side, which is the llwdn or sanctuary, and specially the place of prayer, is deeper, as has been said, consisting of five arcades instead of two, and the arches fronting the court are * Kufy is a form of Arabic writing, older in its general application tlian the ordinary cursive hand, which is termed Naslihy, though the latter existed contemporaneously with the KQfy in the first century of the Hijra. Kiiiy is a stitt rectangu ar nionumemal script, whilst Naskhy is rounded and flowing. An example of the former may be seen in fig. 9, and of the latter in fig. ID. The oldest Kufy is more rectangular than the later, which allows various curves and tails which were not used in the earliest form of ihe character. t The bricks, according to Mr. Wild's measurements, are small and flat, about 7j inches long, by 2| inches wide, and ij inches thick ; the joints of mortar are very thick, generally about an inch. Wooden beams are intro- duced here and there to tie the brickwork together, especially at the spring of the arches. 5 8 ART OF THE SARACENS. filled almost to the height of the piers by wooden screens or par- titions, which rail off the sanctuary from the court. It is orna- mented in the same manner as the other arcades, except that the back wall, which in the other sides is plain, save for the grilled windows, in the east end was once carefully decorated, though at present little remains of the original mosaic and colour which El-Makrizy says were used for its embellishment. The essential parts of the east end of a mosque are the mihrab or niche indicating the kibla or direction of Mekka, the minibar or pulpit for the Friday sermon, and the dikka or tribune, a raised platform from which the Koran is recited and the prayers intoned by the imam or choragus. The niche is generally an arched recess in the centre of the east wall, richly inlaid with mosaics of marbles and mother-of-pearl, and often bordered with Arabic inscriptions. The niche of Ibn-Tulun is adorned with marbles of different colours. Very often the whole of the east wall is covered with ornament ; dados of mosaic, friezes of inscriptions, panels of marble and tiles, are arranged with exquisite taste over the whole surface, broken only by the stained glass windows which form so beautiful a feature in the later mosques. At each end of the sanctuary of Ibn-Tulun is a small minaret, and there is also a great stone minaret, in the west outer court, which has the unique peculiarity of an external winding staircase (fig. 4), reminding one of the traditional tower of Babel of the children's picture books. This is, however, quite phenomenal, and the ordinary minaret, which forms the most beautiful external feature of the Cairo mosques, if not, as Fergusson says, " the most graceful form of tower architecture in the world," has an internal winding staircase, and consists of a slender tower, constructed in several stories, which generally diminish in size and shape, from a substantial square at the base, through graduated octagons, to a cylinder or a group of dwarf columns at the top, on which is a small cupola surmounted FIG. 5.— ARCADKS IN THE MOSQUE OF IBN- TULUN, Ninth Century. 6o ART OF THE SARACENS. by a knotted pinnacle and crescent, with several wooden staffs fixed at angles to the round of the cupola, from which lamps are suspended on the great festivals. Two or three galleries project at various heights, supported by stalactite corbels and cornices, and from these the muezzin proclaims the call to prayer five times a day. It is recorded by El-Makrizy that the first stone minaret in Cairo was that of the mosque of El-Maridany, built by the Master Suyiify — ^all the earlier ones being of brick.* A very beautiful example of a minaret is seen in the engraving of the mosque of Kait Bey (frontispiece). Sometimes the cupola at the top is fluted, as in a very pretty little minaret in the southern burial-ground of Cairo, which tapers upwards from the square by a series of diminishing octagons till the transition to the round can be gently effected. The transitions are ingeniously managed by those stalactite or pendentive ornaments, which are the peculiar property of the Saracenic architect, and are freely used to mask angles and to modulate such transitions as those in the dome and minaret. In describing the minaret we are, however, anticipating the true chronological order, for the earlier mosques do not pre- sent many of the graceful details which we see in that of Kait Bey. The great minaret of Ibn-Tulun indeed diminishes by stages, but there are no stalactites in any part of this mosque, except over the mihrdb, or niche, and these are probably a later addition. Nothing has been said so far about the dome, and for this reason, that the mosque of Ibn-Tulun has' none. It is a mis- take to suppose that the dome is an essential feature of a mosque. The minaret is essential, because there must be a raised tower from which the Addn or Call to Prayer may resound over the city, though even this was dispensed with in the Prophet's own mosque at Medina, where the Muezzin Bilal of the stentorian * El-Maridany's mosque is well illustrated in Ebers' Egypt, ii. 70 ; and the minaret is separately engraved in i. 61. It is converted from the square into an octagon very near the base, and thence at the first stalactite gjllery into the round; above the second gallery (there are but two) is a stone neck or ■ p.nnacle, twelve courses high suppoiting a conical bulb-like crown. ARCHITEC TURK. 6 1 voice shouted the call from the gate. A dome, however, has nothing whatever to do with prayer, and therefore nothing with a mosque. It is simply the roof of a tomb, and only exists where there is a tomb to be covered, or at least where it was intended that a tomb should be. Only when there is a chapel attached to a mosque, containing the tomb of the founder or his family, is there a dome, and it is no more closely connected with the mosque itself than is the grave it covers : neither is necessary to the place of prayer. It happens, however, that a large number of the mosques of Cairo are mausoleums, containing chambers with the tomb of the founder, and the profusion of domes to be seen, when one looks down upon the city from the battle- ments of the Citadel, has brought about the not unnatural mistake of thinking that every mosque must have a dome. Most mosques with tombs have domes, but no mosque that was not intended to contain a tomb ever had one in the true sense. The origin of the dome may be traced to the cupolas which surmount the graves of Babylonia, many of which must have been familiar to the Arabs, who preserved the essentially sepulchral character of the form, and never used it, as did the Copts and Byzantines, to say nothing of European architects, to roof a church or its apse. The form of the true Cairo dome is not quite the same as that of Italy and St. Paul's ; like most Saracenic designs it is based upon simple geometrical proportions. To draw the out- line of the ordinary type (fig. 6), to which, however, there are exceptions, describe a circle a, draw tangents b b, to the length of three-fourths of the radius, join the extremities, and from each of the extremities draw a circle c, the radius of which shall equal the whole diameter of the first circle plus an eighth ; and where thes^ circles intersect erect the pinnacle. The whole can be done with compasses and rule. Domes are generally built of brick, not moulded to fit the curve, but simply laid each tier a Uttle within the lower tier so as to form the proper curve ; the plaster which coats most domes 6z ART OF THE SARACENS. inside and out conceals the slight irregularity of the brickwork. Wooden frames are also sometimes used to support the lighter plaster domes, as is shown in the foreground of fig. 4. Some domes, however, are of stone, which is cut to the shape of the curve, and carved with the desired pattern. As a rule I have observed that plain and fluted domes are of plastered brick, whilst those ornamented with zigzag, geometrical, and arabesque devices are more commonly of carved stone. The surfaces of the domes FIG. 6. — DIAGRAM SHOWING PROPORTIONS OP A DOME. are ornamented in various ways. Sometimes they are covered with an intricate geometrical design, with star centres, as the domes of Kait Bey and Al-Ashraf Bars-Bey in the eastern cemetery. A common decoration consists in bands of zigzags, or chevrons close together, running horizontally round the dome from base to apex, such as we see in the tomb-mosque of Barkuk (1407). Many domes are fluted, and these would seem to belong to all periods of Cairo architecture, for we find the fluted cupola surmounting the mibkharas or quasi-minarets of the mosque of El-Hakim (1012; but these may belong to the ARCHITECTURE. 63 restoration, in 1303, when it is known that the mibkharas were shored up with massive bases), and also in dotnes in the southern burial ground, which apparently belong to the end of the isth century. A rarer and late form of dome ornament consists in covering the whole surface with arabesques arranged in large outlines, which form a sort of diaper, with a much richer effect than mere geometrical ornament. There are a few FIG, 7. — PLAN OF THB MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN. examples, which are probably of very early date, with a lantern pierced with small windows, and roofed with a little fluted cupola on the top of the larger dome. These are in the southern burial-ground, but are in so ruined a condition that there remains no evidence as to their date that can be regarded as positive. Certain characteristics of the stalactites, however, lead to the belief that they may belong to the Ayyuby period (1170 — 1250). Some of the more elongated domes have a second and lower dome structure inside them, from which spring 64 ART OF THE SARACENS. walls to support the outer dome. " The dome," as Franz Bey remarks, " is blended with the quadrangular interior of the mausoleum by means of pendentives [stalactites] ; while externally the union of the cube with the sphere is somewhat masked by the polygonal base of the dome. In some cases the transition is effected by means of gradations resembling steps, each of which is crowned with a half-pyramidal excrescence of the height of the step. These excrescences might be regarded as external prolongations of the pendentives of the interior, but do not correspond with them in position. The architects, however, doubtless, intended to suggest some such connection between the internal and external ornamentation." Sometimes the dome is set simply on the cube of the building with no gradation at all. A row of windows commonly surrounds its base. We have digressed thus far in order to finish what had to be said on the subject of domes, which form, with minarets, the most prominent features of Cairo architecture. As has been remarked, they are not found in the mosque of Ibn-Tulun, nor indeed in most of the cloistered mosques. That of El-Hakim has no dome, nor have the Azhar, the mosque of En-Nasir in the Citadel, that of El-Maridany, and several others, owing to the absence of tomb- chapels. Barkuk and El-Muayyad are buried in their mosques, and domes are therefore proper. There is a domed structure, indeed, in the centre of the court of Ibn-Tulun, but the date of this is much later than the mosque ; and it is a question whether the original dome built in this place by Ibn-Tulun was not intended to cover his own tomb : when he died, and was buried in Syria, the domed edifice may have been converted into its present use as a fountain for ablutions. There is, however, a feature in the cloistered mosques, or in some of them, which has a close resemblance to a dome ; this is a small cupola, which seems to have been not uncommonly erected over the niche. There is such a cupola over the niche in Ibn-Tulun, and though this is probably of the date of the restoration by Lagin, in 1296, to ARCHITECTURE. 65 judge by the wooden stalactites which are found in no other part of the mosque, yet it is probable that the restorer only replaced an original cupola with one in the style of his own time. The Azhar University mosque, a century later than Ibn-Tulun, has a raised portion of the arcade over the kibla, which once carried a small dome or cupola, and the same feature is observed in the Citadel mosque of En-Nasir Mohammad, where the cupola, which stood on high columns, has also disappeared. There are probably other examples with traces of this arrangement which have been overlooked ; but it was not necessary or universal. These cupolas over the niche are not domes properly speaking, though they have the melon form; they are smaller than the true dome, and correspond rather to the lantern of a house. The ornament of the cloistered mosque consists partly in the borders and frieze which run round and above the arches, and beneath the crenellated parapet ; the capitals of the columns ; and the geometrical grilles of the windows, of which Ibn-Tulun and Edh-Dhahir Beybars offer very fine examples.* Some beautiful grilles were still standing in the ruins of the mosque of Kusun in 1883, though the ex- Khedive had run a road thrpugh the bulk of this splendid edifice. These ornaments are in stone or plaster. In wood, the chief decorations are the Kufy frieze, which may also be of plaster ; the ceiling, which is often exquisitely painted and carved ; the junction with the wall, masked by a cornice or stalactite corbels ; and the pulpit. Mosaics and tiles are chiefly, or exclusively, used in and round the niche in the east end, and metal-work and carving are employed for the massive doors. All these several modes of decoration will be found described under their separate headings. Of the principal examples of the cloistered mosque in Cairo, those of Ibn-Tulun, El-Hakim, and Barkuk have the arches supported on piets, and running at right angles to the side " See the plates in Bourgoin's Les Arts Arabes, and Cwen Jones' Grammar of Ornament. And for Kusun's grilles, see Prisse d'Avennes, pi. 46. 66 ART OF THE SARACENS. of the court ; but the mosques of 'Amr, the Azhar, of En-Nasif in the Citadel, of Kusun, El-Maridany, El-TVIuayyad, and others, have columns instead of piers, and the arches sometimes run parallel with the court. The marble columns employed in mosques, which are often very numerous (the Azhar has 380 in the sanctuary alone), were generally abstracted from Roman buildings or Christian churches, with capitals of various orders, arranged with little regard to symmetry, and prolonged in a quaint fashion, if too short, by a pedestal or inverted capital used as a base. There is, however, a Saracenic capital, derived from simple Ptolemaic models, of a distinctive character. It is used both as a capital and as a base, and is contained by four surfaces proceeding in curves from the square abacus, and joining at the round of the column. Above the abacus of this, and also of Roman or Corinthian columns, is placed a second abacus of wood, joined from pillar to pillar by a wooden bar. The mosque of Barkuk is not only surrounded by arches on piers, but instead of a ceiling has a groined brick roof, which is very exceptional in mosques, though frequent in other buildings — as in the great stone city gate, the Bab-en-Nasr. The second style of mosque, with the cruciform plan (fig. 7), cannot better be exemplified than by the mosque of Sultan Hasan. This magnificent edifice, the loftiest and in some respects the most imposing in Cairo, was built during the years 1356 — 9, at the cost of 1,000 dinars of gold a day, and the legend is related that the Sultan took the futile precaution of cutting oflf the architect's hand in order to prevent any further efforts of his genius. The interior of the mosque consists of a cross, of which transept on the east side, which may be compared to a chancel, is larger than the three other arms, while the founder's chapel (over which is the dome) occupies the position of a lady-chapel behind the chancel. The outline of the founder's chapel is visible oi> the outside, but the cross-shape is not ; the spaces in the right anglesj between the four transepts or arms, are so filled with offices ARCHITECTURE. 67 and schools^and^ other apartments (as is the case with most cruci- form mosques) that the exterior has the form of an irregular oblong, the sloping outline of which is partly due to the line of the street which runs past the mosque to the Citadel which it confronts. [The exterior walls from the base to the top of the cornice are about 113 feet high, and are entirely built of finely-cut stone brought from the Pyramids. The broad expanse of wall is slightly relieved by windows, of which the most prominent — those of the founder's chapel — consist of two horseshoe-headed lights, surmounted by a single round window, placed in a tall shallow recess, which is brought forward at the top to the face of the wall by stalactite corbelling supporting a trefoil arch. The other windows are plain rectangular grilles (sometimes as many as eight, one above another), similarly placed in tall shallow recesses with stalactite tops, or small circular windows set in square recesses. The eastern corners of the main building resemble polygonal towers; and the angles of the chapel are ornamented with graceful pilasters or engaged columns, carved in a spiral or twisted design, with stalactite capitals, reaching to nearly half the height of the wall. The / cornice, which is unusually prominent in this mosque and forms / one of its most beautiful features, consists of six tiers of stalactites, L each overhanging the one below it, till the top projects some six feet ; the coping is plain, without the usual crenellated parapet. .The other external ornaments are — (i) the dome, which was rebuilt in the last century, and though large, is squat, and wholly I unworthy of the mosque ; (2) the two minarets, of which that on ; the south-east angle of the mosque is the tallest (280 ft.) in j' Cairo, a handsome structure, with two galleries, and a cupola on j the summit, resting on graceful pillars, erected on a third gallery ; I another lofty minaret, over the portal, was thrown down by an earthquake in 1361, soon after its completion, killing three hun- ( dred children in the adjoining school; the other surviving minaret is a puny erection, and gives the mosque a lop-sided aspect ; and (3) last, but by no means least, the splendid main F 2 68 ART OF THE SARACENS. portal. This gateway, which is approached by some seventeen rather insignificant steps, laid sideways along the face of the wall^* is the chief subject of external decoration in the mosque. It consists of a square arched niche, or recess, 66 feet high, open to the outside, and vaulted in a half sphere, which is gradually approached by twelve tiers of stalactites, ingeniously arranged so as to modulate the square recess into the semi- domed summit. At each side of the portal, on the outer wall, are tall borders of bold arabesques, with stalactite summits, and arabesque medallions at the base, running up the whole height of the portal. Beyond these on either side are geometrical panels, and then twisted corner columns with stalactite capitals, which bound the slight projection or buttress in which the portal is set. The inner angles of the gateway are decorated with smaller columns (not twisted), with stalactite capitals and borders of fine geometrical and 'arabesque (fig. 8) designs. On either side of the niche, inside, is an arched recess for the doorkeepers, set between columns, and surmounted by stalactites and patterns of coloured stone, and over the central bronze-plated door, which leads into ! the mosque, is a window with similar side columns and stalactites. The surfaces of the interior walls of the gateway are variegated by alternate courses of black and white marble.f Passing into the mosque, through a handsome vaulted vestibule and some bent passages, we find ourselves in the hypaethral court, or sahn el-gami', which is 117 feet long by 105 feet wide. It is * These were put up in 1422. The orignal platform and steps had been destroyed, together with the galleries of the minarets, by BHrUuk, in 1 391, in order to prevent the military factions using ihe lofty position afforded by the mosque as a battery upon the Citadel opposite. Guns have been frequently engaged between the Citadel and the mosque; and some of Napoleon's shot can still be seen embedded in the wall. The original bronze door and lantern were also removed during the period of interdict refemd to, and were bought by the Sultan El-Muayyad for his own mosque. + Fair views of Sultan Hasan's mosque, exterior, portal, and interior, may be seen in Coste, Architecture Ardbe, pi. 21-6; "Shexi^ Egypt, i. 238, 262, 268 ; and my supplement to Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, entitled Social Life in Egypt, 95. ^ I 70 ART OF THE SARACENS. paved with marble slabs and medallions arranged in various patterns. In many mosques massive granite slabs taken from the ancient temples of Egypt, and sometimes carved with hiero- glyphics, are laid in the pavement, especially at the threshold. In the centre is a meyda\ or tank for ablutions, crowned by a ruinous plastered wood cupola, resting on eight marble columns, by the side of which stands a smaller octagonal fountain, or hanafiya, with taps, for the use of the sect of the Hanafis, who require running water for their washings preparatory to prayer. Each of the four transepts, opening out of the court and raised a step above its level, consists of a single deep arch, the arching being continued throughout the whole depth of the transept. On either side of the north, south, and west transepts is a door set in a stalactite recess, with windows over it. The transept at the east end is larger and loftier than the other three. It is ninety feet high, ninety feet deep, and sixty-nine feet wide. The framework of this vast arch is staled to have Cost 100,000 francs. Like the rest of the mosque, the interiors of the transepts are built of brick plastered over ; but the facing of the arches (where every third course is coloured red) is of stone, and the walls which connect and surround the arches, forming the square outline of the court, are also of stone, but are plastered over. The coping of the court is formed by an embattled parapet. The smaller transepts are almost plain, but the chancel or sanctuary at the east is adorned with a marble dado, which runs round it to the height of about four feet ; and the east wall or back of this is richly decorated with marble slabs, which rise to the height of thirty feet, and are arranged in rectangular panels and borders of contrasted colours, black, white, and yellow. In the centre of the east wall is the mihrab, or niche, indicating the direction of prayer towards Mekka.* This consists in a semicircular recess about six feet wide, the front edges of which are composed * This direction or point of the compass is called the kibla, and the com- mon application of this term to the niche itself is an error. 72 ART OF THE SARACENS. of two marble columns, and the top of a pointed arch vaulted like a shell inside. The interior of the niche is beautifully adorned with three tiers of arches (the first pointed, the second round, and the third trefoil) supported by dwarf columns, one above the other, and divided by arabesque borders and bands of greenstone. The backgrounds of the arches behind the dwarf columns are alternately of red and green marble. The shell-like top of the niche isdecorated with marbles arranged in rays, and the facing of the arch itself is treated with the common zigzag ornament, which is seen so frequently round arches and over doors in Cairo. The effect of the whole is extremely rich, and the details are finished with infinite care and skill. A Kufy inscription (fig. 9) of large bold characters within fine borders runs round the sanctuary just above the marbles, and overlaps the edges of the arch. Above this, in the east wall, are two windows, each of two lights with a circular light above, and a central round aperture. In front of the niche, a little on the left hand (as you face the court), stands the pulpit, a staircase enclosed by high sides, and ending in a small platform surmounted by a cupola supported by a column on either side. Most pulpits are of carved and panelled wood, but that of Sultan Hasan is of coloured marbles arranged in circular medallions. Further in front, nearer the court, is the dikka, or tribune, which in most mosques is a light structure of wood, but here is of stone and marble, and rests upon solid piers and columns, with very graceful columns let into the corners, and formed of alternate zigzag drums of white, black, and yellow marble. From the top of the arch hang seventy-seven cords, to which are fastened as many small glass lamps, and many more are suspended from the simple gallows brackets which are ranged along the side walls, about half-way between the dado and the Arabic inscription. A large bronze chandelier hanging from the keystone of the great arch completes the furniture of the sanctuary. ARCHITECTURE. 73 By a beautiful bronze-plated door, on either side of the niche, we obtain access to the sepulchral chapel of the Sultan who caused all this wonderful building to be erected for the honour of his Creator and himself. This is the portion of the mosque which underlies the dome. It is sixty-nine feet square, and is surrounded on all sides with fine tablets of coloured marbles, forming a dado of the height of twenty-five feet or more, and broken by eleven „ arches, either blind or with doors closing cupboards, and in- cluding a niche in the east wall resembling in design the niche of the inner wall already described. Over the marbles is the " Throne Verse" from the Koran (ch. ii. v. 256) carved in wood, and forming a frieze all round, interrupted only by medallions containing the name of the Sultan; the usual lamp brackets are fixed above the frieze. Higher up still are the windows, which are badly planned \ most of the glass is gone, and what remains resembles common bottle glass. Above are fine wooden stalactites, painted and gilt, marking the transition from the square to the dome. The founder's tomb is a plain marble grave, enclosed in a simple wooden railing : — the whole chapel is the true tomb. It 1 should be noted that the tomb chapel is not surrounded like the rest of the mosque by offices, schools, and chambers of all sorts ; it stands out clear from everything, and three of its sides are out- side walls, the fourth being the east wall of the sanctuary. Such is the great mosque of Sultan Hasan. It forms a typical example of the cruciform mosque, although its materials are much more substantial and costly than usual, and its size far transcends all other mosques of this plan. In none other do we find the same noble span of arch, the same lavish display of marbles ; in a word, the same grandeur. But there are many mosques in Cairo that are more pleasing than that of Sultan Hasan, whose broad surfaces of unrelieved plaster find inadequate compensation in the rich but heavy mosaics of the sanctuary wall. And in spite of its imposing proportions, there is something ungainly about the exterior of this big mosque j the stone walls, besides the defect of being un- 7+ ART OF THE SARACENS. ■ parallel, seem heavy and insuflSciently relieved ; the dome, befng modem, is unsightly ; and the minarets do not balance. For a very different specimen of a mosque of the same cruciform plan, let us glance at the illustration (frontispiece) of the mausoleum of Kait Bey, another Mamluk Sultan, and the prince of Cairo builders. This mosque is situate in that wonderful wilderness of exquisite domes and minarets known as the great or eastern Karafa or I cemetery, and also as the Karafa of Kait Bey ^ar excellence. Here ; we see the dome and minaret in their utmost perfection, and the I proportions of the cruciform mosque most admirably displayed. The exterior is fluted with shallow recesses like Sultan Hasan's, in which the windows are set, and is striped red and white, in imita- tion, no doubt, of the ancient Roman buildings of Egypt, where courses of red brick alternate with a row of white stone. The effect is not so unpleasant as might be imagined ; for when time has softened the red ochre, the zebra-like walls seem suited to the ' character of the architecture.* The door is set in a deep recess like that of Sultan Hasan, but on a smaller scale ; and the details of such doors may be better seen in the engraving (fig. lo), which represents a gateway of another mosque of the same Sultan within the city of Cairo. Kait Bey's mosques, and those generally of a late period, are much more elaborately decorated than early cloistered mosques like Ibn-Tulun. We have seen that the orna- ment in the latter consists chiefly in bands and friezes running round and above the arches, and in the mosaics in the sanctuary. In Kait Bey's mosques the triangular spaces between the arches and the square of the court are filled with arabesque scrolls carved in stone ; the keystone and every alternate stone in the arch is similarly ornamented ; the interior doors are surmounted by * It is worth noticing that the courses of stone in a mosque or house are always 13 or 14 inches high, and are hardly ever subdivided. The windows, doors, and ornament are therefore regulated by the courses, and are four or six courses, or whatever the number, and not four-and-a-half, &c. It is thus easy to calculate the height of a building of stone by counting its courses. FIG. 10. — DOORWAY OF SMALLER MOSQUE OF KAIT BEY. Filteenth Century. 76 ART OF THE S AH AC ENS. carved architraves, and over these are little windows between pillars, and surmounted by stalactites. Medallions occupy the centres of large expanses of ornament, and are filled with the name and titles of the Sultan who built the mosque, with a prayer, — " Send him victorious ! " Marble inlay covers the lower portions of the walls, and marble slabs are arranged in the pavement. The whole interior surfaces wear the aspect of a beautifully woven and embroidered carpet, and however much we may criticise the structural vagueness of the edifice, it is im- possible to refuse our admiration to the details of the ornament. These complexly-decorated mosques are naturally of the smaller cruciform shape, for the large extent of wall in the cloistered style would not only demand an almost impossible quantity of costly material and time, but would not repay the artist in the effect. The two general types of mosque described above, with their usual styles of decoration, will give a sufficient idea of the pur- poses to which the arts of the Saracens are applied ; but they do not by any means exhaust either the architectural character or the modes of decoration of the religious buildings of Cairo. It is not possible in a limited space to enter into the varieties of Cairo mausoleums, dervish convents, and other buildings; but a few examples will serve to show that, while the majority of mosques fall under one or other of the categories above described, there is infinite variety among those that depart from the ordinary outline. Among these, one of the most remarkable is the mausoleum of Kalaun. This is attached to the northern side of the great hospital or Maristan, built by that Sultan in the Beyn-el-Kasreyn, and separated from it by a vaulted passage entered through a splendid black and white marble portal.* The Maristan originally comprised an infinity of chambers, lecture- rooms, theatres for operations, surgeons' rooms, mortuary, pro- • For illustrations of Kalaun's Maristan and mausoleum, s'.e my Social Life in Egypt, 91 ; Ebers' Egypt, i. 247-50. Both these works contain several large engravings of mosque mteriois, whi^h should be studied in con- i.ection with this chapter. ARCHITECTURE. 77 fessors' lodgings, cells for the mad patients, a mosque, and many other features, of all which little now remains. But the tomb of the builder, which is entered from a gateway in the pas- sage opposite to that which admits one into what is still standing of the once extensive Maristan, is in extremely fine preservation, and contains many peculiar and beautiful features. It is built of stone, and consists of a vestibule or antechapel, and a square chapel, covered originally by a dome, but now only by a flat ceiling. The support of the dome is an octagonal inner structure, resting upon eight arches, of an elongated and slightly horse- shoe form, supported by four piers and four massive granite monolithic columns. The arches are surrounded by a border of very delicate and lace-like arabesque tracery, in plaster, which terminates over each of the eight arches in a rose of arabesque open-work. Above each arch is a window composed of two round-headed lights and a circular light above. The niche is decorated with beautiful dwarf arcades, the arches being delicately chiselled in a very graceful shell form, and supported by little pillars. Bands of coloured marble separate each tier from the next. The marble tomb is in the centre of the chapel, enclosed with a wooden railing of coarse lattice work ; but the magnificent carvings on the doors of the Maristan (figs. 46 — 48) atone for any shortcomings in the tomb itself. The exterior, of the mausoleum is coloured red and white in squares like a draught-board, and is pecuHar in other respects, At the base, half a dozen dwarf columns, surmounted by tall piers or pilasters, support lofty arched recesses, running nearly the full height of the wall. The recesses are not of equal size ; and the larger are occupied by a single window between columns (divided into two lights by a column surmounted by a round light, giving the effect of a trefoil), and the smaller by a similar window over a small pointed window of a single arch. The windows are filled with grilles of geometrical open-work, and the arched portions of the recesses in which they are set are coloured in radiating bands 78 ART OF THE SARACENS. of red and white; and even the columns share in this zebra decoration. Beneath the row of windows, running across pilasters and recesses alike, is a fine Arabic frieze, painted red, and at the top of the wall is an embattled parapet of remarkably fine zigzag teeth filled with geometrical ornaments. The cornice is a mere double line. Over the top are seen the windows, set in pointed arches, of the internal octagonal structure, which ought to be crowned by a dome ; and on the right-hand side is a massive square minaret (of somewhat later date) in three stories, each with its plain gallery supported by very simple stalactite cornices, the first checkered red and white, the second in red and white bands, the third cylindrical, ornamented with striped columns surmounted by interlaced arched tracery. The domestic architecture of Cairo, varied as are its details, possesses certain general features common to all examples. The first and all-important object of the Mohammadan architect was to screen the women of the house from the view of strangers. Cairene building rests on the principle that the inmates of the house must neither be seen of passers by, nor see too much themselves of the outside world. Hence the prime condition of domestic architecture was to build the rooms round an interior court, into which the chief windows looked, and to make as few windows as possible, and those few closely latticed. As a result, those streets of Cairo which are lined with private houses exhibit a somewhat monotonous aspect. The houses are generally two or .three stories high- — in the old Mamltik days they were of five stories — and are built of stone on the ground floor (col- oured in alternate red and white courses with red ochre and limewash), and of brick tied with wood and coated with white plaster on the upper stories. The doors are often very tastefully ornamented (fig. 1 1) ; but there the external decoration generally ends, for the windows on the ground floor are generally but small rectangular apertures dosed with lattice work, and set high above the reach of curious eyes, and even those on the FIG. II.— DOORWAY OP A PRIVATE HOUSE. (From a Sketch by J. W. Wild.) 8o ART OF THE SARACENS. upper stories are commonly small and plain, and arranged with no regard to symmetry, though there are still some examples of streets where the higher floors of the houses are furnished with richly-ornamented lattice windows (fig. 12). These lattice windows are called meshreblyas, " drinking places," from the semi- circular or semi-octagonal bow, which commonly juts out from their centre, in which the porous water-bottles of the house are placed to cool by evaporation in the air. Unlike the mosques, there are no friezes of ornament or inscriptions on the outer walls of houses. The door generally opens flat against the side wall of the passage inside, turning upon a pivot in the lintel and threshold, and is eon- fronted by the mastaba or stone seat (sometimes replaced by a dikka or chair of lattice work) on which the door-keeper {bawwab) sits. Thence a passage, which makes one or two sharp bends, with the intention of foiling any attempt of inquisitive eyes to see into the interior through the door when it happens to be open, leads into a square court, unpaved, and open to the sky, in which is a tree shading the well, supplied by infiltration from the Nile with some- what brackish water. No eye should see into the court from any other house, still less from any street. The four sides are lofty, and are composed of the rooms of the house, with their beautiful meshreblyas, or if only three sides are thus occupied, the fourth consists of a plain partition wall, dividing the house from its next-door neighbour, and pierced by no aperture. The south side of the court is that on which the chief rooms of the mansion are built, for here the cool northern breezes, so dear to Cairenes in the hot season, can best be enjoyed. The rooms most accessible from the court, on the ground floor, are those which belong to the men of the household, and include the offices, stables, storerooms, and men-servants' rooms, besides the reception-rooms of the master for his male guests. These last, in the best houses are three in number : the mandara, the mak'ad, and the takhtabosh. The two last are chiefly for summer use ; the FIG. 12. — ^A STREET IN CAIRO. 82 ART OF THE SARACENS. first is the general men's saloon. The takhtabosh is nothing more than a recess in the comer of the court, supported by a single column, paved with marble, and furnished with divans ; it is an alcove rather than a room. The mak'ad is a belvedere or open gallery, raised some eight or ten feet above the ground, on the south or cool side of the court, into which it looks through three or four arches, open to the northern breeze. It is plainly furnished like the takhtabosh, and is a pleasant lounge for the men in hot weather. Sometimes this belvedere is latticed in front for the use of the women, but, a;s a rule, it is a man's apartment. The third room, the mandara, is arranged, like all Cairene reception-rooms of the closed order, in two levels. A paved walk or floor, leading from the door, and ornamented with coloured marbles, is called the durkd'a, and its use is to receive the visitor's shoes before he steps up to the carpeted portion of the room. The durka'a has often a fountain playing in the centre, in the midst of a tesselated marble border, and a sideboard or stand for water-bottles occupies the extremity facing the door. On one side of this narrow pathway is the room proper, to which the durka'a supplies the place of a vestibule. Theieis no partition between the two, but the room is rai^d a step higher. The general plan of a reception-room is thus seen to consist in a low pavement and a dais. The. dais, which is not a mere recess, but a spacious room, is furnished with divans running round the sides, raised from the floor by low stone slabs or palm- frames. Above the divan is a dado of coloured marbles or tiles, broken only by the cupboards, with little open arcades, filled with porcelain and earthenware vessels, by recesses contain- ing cushions for recUning, and at the end by the meshrebiya or lattice window, over which is often a row of stained-glass windows forming the topmost panel of thfe meshrebiya, or a few windows of the same character are set in the wall above. The surface of the walls is simply lime-washed, or left of uncoloured plaster, and a plain wooden shelf forms the principal relief. ARCHITECTURE. 83 The ceiling is constructed of beams, clearly displayed, and resting on corbels or cornices, all of which are painted and gilt in arabesque designs, while the spaces between the beams are coffered in little compartments, each decorated with tasteful arabesque and floral designs.* A small and carefully-closed door conducts to the harim or women's apartments, which are on the upper floors, or in large I FIG. 13. — PLAN OF A CAIRO HOUSE. GROUND FLOOR. ^^' B B. Street; i. Stable; 2. Bakehouse; 3. Kitchen ; 4. Small mandara; 5. Entrance; 6. Strangers' room ; 7. Chief mandara ; S. Malg'a,a,; g. Court; zo< Servants' room. houses occupy a separate court to themselves. Of the harim rooms the chief is the great Kd'a or reception-room. This resembles the mandara in its decoration, but has a liwdn or dais on each side of the durkd'a instead of only on one side, and thus forms • These various details of the Cairo room will be more fully described under their respective headings, G 2 84 ART OF THE SARACENS. a double room.* It is also loftier than the tnandara, and often rises to the roof of the house, while its durka'a (which seldom has a fountain) is surmounted by a sort of clerestory, projecting above the rest of the ceiling, and crowned by a lantern or cupola. There are also some smaller sitting-rooms ; and bedrooms, which are supplied with no furniture but the pallet-bed, which is rolled up and thrust away into a closet in the morning ii^A«UI ,JX^\ ^tJI 1»-Ja3l I ^U3 ail ^\iMi\ Ju«JI "Provider for the widowed and destitute. Refuge of the poor and miserable, The humble servant of God most high, Altunbugha, the cup-bearer, the [Mamluk] of El-Melik En-Nasir," — which shows that not only was this Amir a Mamluk, or retainer of the Sultan En-Nasir, but that he held the office of cup-bearer, which was among the most influential and coveted posts in the court. The carving of the arabesques on the geometrical panels of El-Maridany's pulpit is more delicate and intricate than that of liigin's, and inlaid borders (consisting in a double ivory line, separated by others ornamented with a scroll pattern) are en- closed in a series of thin wooden beadings. Like Lagin's carvings, those of El-Maridany are executed in two reliefs ; the principal lines of the design being more prominent tljan the FIG. 41.— CARVED PANELS PROM PULPIT (OF KUSUN ?). Fourteenth Century. {South Kensington Museum.) 134 ART OF THE SARACENS. scroll-work of the background, which, however, is still in suf- ficient relief. Nearly contemporary with the pulpit of El-Maridany are the- panels, figs. 41 and 42, which are taken from one of M. de St. Maurice's doors in the South Kensington Museum. In the case of a modern application of the original panels it is not always safe to assume that all the pieces belong to the same pulpit ; and especially doubtful is the connection between the geometrical panels and the horizontal inscriptional friezes above and below, which are more likely, to be selected because they fit the present scale of the door, than because they belonged to the same pulpit as the geometrical panels they accompany. In the present instance the horizontal panels give the name of the Sultan Zeyn-ed-din Hasan — OUaJl-JI UM^ ^UJI 4UJI5 ^tjJI ^-stJI ^i^\ ^>jj >JiJl j^Ul JiWI .iUjI the peculiarity of which lies in the substitution of the sur- name Zeyn-ed-din for the Nasir-ed-din, which is invariably applied to Hasan on his coins and public buildings. The inscription, however, is no forgery, and there is no other Sultan Hasan to whom it could apply. The only question is whether it belongs to the geometrical panels in whose company it is found. If it does not, which I am far from asserting, at least the geometrical panels belong to a period very nearly coinciding with the reign of Sultan Hasan (1347 — 1361). Mr. Wild has preserved a sketch of the pulpit of the mosque of Kusun, now destroyed, which contained panels of the same curious octagonal shape, with very obtuse angles, like those in fig. 42.* The Amir Kiisun was one of the Mamluks of En-Nasir, Hasan's father, and his mosque was built in 1329. It does not necessarily follow that the pulpit was set up at * The same shape is seen in the plaques of the bronze door of the mosque of Talai' ibn Ruzeyk, as restored by Bektemir in the 14th century : see Prisse,ii., pi. 95. Some portions of the original mosque of T.ilai' are still standing. FIG. 42. — CARVHD PANELS FROM PULPIT (OF KUSUN ?), Fourteenth Centuiy. {Souih Kensington Museum.) 136 ART OF THE SARACENS. once; a temporary pulpit may have served at first. But the similarity of the panels (fig. 42) to those sketched by Mr. Wild seems to indicate that if the St. Maurice door is not actually made up from the fragments of the vanished mimbar of Kusun, the pulpit that was thus desecrated undoubtedly belonged to a period nearly coinciding with the death of that Amir in 1341. If the panels with Sultan Hasan's name on them belong to the rest, the pulpit must have been built after his accession in 1347, in which case it may have been placed in Kusun's mosque by Sultan Hasan, in accordance with a not uncommon practice. The work is very like El-Maridany's, but even more delicate, and there cannot be a long interval between them. It should be stated that the outer beading enclosing both these and the Lagin panels is absolutely modern. It is reproduced in the engraving only to show the position of the panels towards one another. The original panels are inlaid with a line of ivory inside which is a border of dots. After the time of El-Maridany's carvings, the style of work seems to have gradually deteriorated. Sheykhii's pulpit, in his mosque built in 1358, is good, but ordinary; El-Muayyad's, in 1420, shows a decided falling off in the execution. With the pulpit of Kait Bey, fig. 34, we come to the end of the history of this description of wood-carving in Cairo, so far at least as dated specimens are within our reach. The art may have continued for some generations longer, but it had already lost much of its character and beauty. In form and arrangement, and also in general effect, the pulpit of Kait Bey may challenge comparison with almost any other ; but when we come to look closely into the work it becomes apparent that the art of the carver had undergone a serious process of deterioration. The designs are mechanical, hard, and prone to repetition : they will not bear comparison with the panels of Lagin or El-Maridany. This is no doubt partly due to the substance used. The wooden panels are merely shells to contain smaller ivory panels of the I,.C_ ^j. — CARVED P^NKLS OF THE TOMB OP ES-SALIH AYYUB. Thirteenth Century. 138 ART OF THE SARACENS. same outline, and the latter alone are carved. Ivory is less easily- worked than wood, though capable of even more delicate treat- ment ; but the artists who were accustomed to work in wood must have found the ivoi-y difficult to handle in the same flowing lines. Ivory carving of this type is usually somewhat hard in treatment, as may be seen in the beautiful but somewhat stiff panels of a mosque door engraved in fig. 69. These, however, belong to a much better period than those of the Kait Bey pulpit, as may be seen at a glance; and it is indisputable that in the time of Kait Bey the carving had changed character for the worse. This is the more remarkable, since the reign of this Sultan was famous for the multitude of admirable architectural works promoted by himself. The stone carving of the time is perhaps unequalled in any other period of Cairene art. Perhaps the whole energy of the carvers was absorbed in stone work, and the softer material was neglected. After the dominion of the Mamltiks was transferred to the Pashas appointed from Constantinople, the art of carving pulpit panels seems to have died out. The ordinary Turkish mosque of Cairo has a painted mimbar, of the same shape as its carved predecessor, but with red-ochre and green painting, of no special character, in place of the intricate geometrical panelling of the best period. The kursy, or lectern, a \/ shaped desk, on which the Koran was placed for reading, was sometimes constructed, like the pulpit, of geometrically arranged carved and inlaid l-anels, An example may be seen engraved in Prisse, PI. 18, where the fine carved kursy with open work at the top belonged to the mosque of Barkuk in the eastern cemetery. Carved panelling of the same style is also sometimes employed for the wooden casing of the tombs which occupy the founder's chapel in a mosque. The ordinary Muslim tomb is simply an oblong erection of stone, with a short pillar at each end, one of which has the representation of a turban carved upon it. Even the graves of the greatest of Mamluk Sultans were constructed WOOD-WORK. 139 after this simple model. Such is the tomb of Kalaun, the plain- ness of which is partly concealed by the clumsy lattice screen of heavy baluster-work which encloses the grave and the relics of the Sultan. The tombs of Sultan Hasan, Barknk, and indeed of most of the sovereigns of Egypt, are of this unpretending character. So long as there was room inside for the occupant to sit up and say his Catechism to the examining angels, Munkar and Nekir, the outside of the grave was of small consequence. The real tomb of the Sultan was the mosque, with its glorious dome, which rose above the humble stone grave. But in some instances the grave itself was a subject for artistic treatment. The tomb of Es-Salih Ayytib, built in 1249, is the earliest example of the carved panel-work with which we are acquainted.* It is fifty years earlier than Lagin's panels, described above ; and evidence of priority, apart from the known date of erection, is presented in the sim- plicity of the arabesque designs, as seen in the cut (fig. 43), which is taken from a paper squeeze made under my eye in 1883. Another mode of ornamenting a tomb, which appears to have been usual at an earlier date still, was by a frieze of wooden planks surrounding the oblong grave at its upper edge. This is the method employed for the tombs of the members of the 'Abbasy family, buried in the chapel behind the mosque of Sitta Nefisa. Each grave consists externally of a square stone box, standing about four feet from the ground, and ornamented only by a band of wood, carved with inscriptions, about six inches in width, running round the four sides at their upper edge. The dates of these tombs range from a.h. 640 (a.d. 1242) to a.h. 768 (a.d. 1366).+ The ornament here is simply inscriptional. But therS is at least • A very similar style of work is seen in the carved wooden niche from the mausoleum of Sitta Rukeyya, which may belong to a time very nearly con- temporary with Es-Salih Ayyiib. This niche is now in the Arab Museum at Cairo, and a photograph of it may be seen in the portfolio of objects in the Musie Arabe, of which a copy is in the Art Library at South Kensington. + E. T. Rogers Bey : Rapport sur le lieu de sJpulliire dus Khalifs Abbas- sites, &c. (Com. Conserv. Mon. de I'Art Arabe). 140 ART OF THE SARACENS. one instance of a more elaborate decoration of a frieze of this kind. The grave of a sheykh, in one of the cemeteries which surround Cairo, was formerly ornamented by a wooden frieze, carved not only with inscriptions but with exceedingly soft and delicate arabesques. One of the sides is represented in fig. 44. It is made of some soft yet close-textured wood, which has evidently offered little resistance to the friction of the desert sand, the effects of which are seen in the singularly soft appearance of the surface, which looks as though it had been intentionally rubbed with emery paper. Each side of the frieze is made of four long parallel strips, with intervening panels of various lengths; and the tenons by which it was mortised to the next side are seen in the cut. The back of the frieze is carved with a large bold arabesque design which belongs in style to the period of Ibn-Tulun, or a little later. A Kufy inscription over the door of the mausoleum indicates an earlier interment of the year 304 (a.d. 916), and it is safe to assume that the original carving belonged to this earlier grave. Thus the frieze was carved on materials that had been seasoned for perhaps three centuries, and this will explain the somewhat large surfaces having escaped the effects of the sun. The carving is unusually fine : a border of Koranic inscription at the top is supported by an exquisite arabesque scroll-border, and the main band of the frieze is ornamented with panels of arabesques surrounded by inscriptions in high relief, on a ground of arabesque scrolls. The inscriptions here are partly from the Koran, partly benedictory to the deceased, whose name they give, together with the date of his death, which is legible in the right- hand bottom corner of the engraving, a.h. 613 (a.d. 1216). Thus far we have seen no Cairo carving that traverses the law of the Mohammadan religion against the reproduction in art of the forms of animate creatures : arabesques, and scrolls of endless variety, have been the staple of the ornament. These are the characteristic features of Cairo carving. But it would be a mistake to imagine that the prohibition against the representation of r" S !< S "o 142 ART OF THE SARACENS. living things was universally observed. We shall see when we come to discuss the early metal-work of Egypt, and also the textile fabrics, that figures are at certain periods the rule, not the exception. So in wood-carving, though not to the same extent, if one may judge from existing examples, the law about figures was not always observed. Panels carved with representations of FIG. 45.— PANEL OF A DOOR FROM DABJIIETTA. {Cairo Museum.) birds exist in the South Kensington Museum and in the Arab Museum at Cairo. But the most remarkable example of figure carving in Cairo is found in the doors of the Maristan, or mosque- hospital of the Mamluk Sultan Kalaun, the father of En-Nasir Mohammad. M. Prisse d'Avennes fortunately studied these extraordinary panels when they were better preserved than they are now, and from the squeezes he then took he was able to imiy^v- S H 144 ART OF THE SARACENS. restore the designs to the almost too perfect outlines presented in his plates (nos, 83 and 84), from which the engravings, figs. 46-8, are taken. There are eight panels altogether, of pine wood, and each is carved with representations of the sports, amuse- tnents, and occupations of the Arab, or rather of the Persian, for there can be no doubt that the source of these admirable designs was the art of Mesopotamia, where the traditions of ancient Persian and Assyrian art still survived in the metal- work of the artists of Mosil and other towns. In the centre of the first panel we see on a ground of rather crude scroll-work a centaur, winged like an Ass)T:ian beast, and wearing a crown exactly resembling the tiara that is found on similar centaur huntsmen on the figured metal-work of Mosil. He has stretched a bow and is discharging an arrow at a unicorn behind him ; a corresponding unicorn paws the ground on the opposite side. The scene is just what we find through the whole range of Mesopotamian design, from the oldest Assyrian bas-reliefs down- wards. In the second panel a peacock stands in the middle, in a geometrical figure formed of a lozenge and quatrefoil combined. Large leaf scrolls winding round form a sort of division in the band of figures, and the sections thus marked off are filled with (on the left) two running servants, holding ewers and glasses, and (on the right) a player on the square lute and a seated figure with drinking-vessels. Simple scroll borders enclose the central band above and below. In the vertical panel, which is divided into various compart- ments by the curling lines of the scroll-work which forms the back- ground, is a kneeling figure in the act of rising, with a slain deer flung over his shoulders and held in position by one arm thrown round its neck and the other round its hind-legs. Over this figure two eagles are perched, breast to breast, but with beaks averted ; and on either side of these, in exaggerated proportions, are two long-tailed cockatoos, fronting inwards, but with heads FIG. 48 —CARVED PANEL FROM THE MAR STAN OF KALAUN. 146 ART OF THE SARACENS. averted like the eagles ; over the cockatoos are a corresponding pair of deer, each with an eagle on his back, with wings spread, having just alighted on his prey ; and, to crown the panel, is a central representation of two combatant ducks, — their webbed feet clearly visible — ^beak to beak. These upper designs are FIG. 49. — LATTICB-WOKK. {South KtnsingiOH Museum.) matched, below the cockatoos, by similarly arranged figures : to balance the eagles and deer, a pair of winged Assyrian monsters or centaurs, resembling that on the first panel described above, with the same three-pointed crown ; and underneath these, in the WOOD-WORK. 147 centre, to correspond with the ducks, a pair of long-eared rabbits confronted. These figures are depicted in a spirited style that has no parallel in Eastern carving, at least in Egypt or Syria ;, and they mark a distinct epoch in the history of Cairo art. As has been already said, there is but one source to which these remarkable carvings can be traced. The artists who en- graved the hunting-scenes, the water-fowl, the drinking-bouts, of the bowls and other vessels of bronze and brass made at Mosil or in the neighbouring cities — the artists, in short, who had inherite.i the traditions of animal design from the workmen of the Sassa- nians, the Parthians, and the Assyrians, these were the men who inspired, if they did not actually execute the carved panels of Kalaun. The birds face to face refer no doubt to the cock- fights which the Persians included among their favourite sports, and the adoption of the duck instead of the cock has its explana- tion in the name of the Sultan for whose hospital these panels were carved ; for Kalaun was a slave from Kipchak, and his name means " duck " in his native Tartar tongue. It is strange that so admirable a style of decoration did not find wider accept- ance among the founders and architects of mosques in Cairo. No near parallel to these carvings of Kalaun can be found in any mosque of the period, still less in any of later date. A few pieces carved with parrots and peacocks have been noticed, but these, since they are separated from their original surroundings, may have come from the same source as the panels still remaining at the Maristan of Kalaun. It is perhaps rash to speculate upon the causes which led to the sudden adoption and as sudden abandonment of a remarkable and characteristic style of carving ; but in the present case there is some evidence that may help us to an explanation. In the chapter on metal-work we shall have to describe a similar sequence of adoption and abandonment with respect to the figured style of Mosil, which closely resembles the style of Kalaun's carvings. The chased bowls and caskets, covered with representations of L 2 148 ART OF THE SARACENS. hunting and drinking scenes, beasts of the chase, and the like, made their appearance in Cairo about the end of the first quarter of the thirteenth century, so far as existing specimens allow us to judge. The style was brought from Mesopotamia by the princes of the family of Ayyub, of which Saladin was the most celebrated member. The Ayyubis passed through the country watered by the Tigris and Euphrates before they arrived in Syria, or attempted to worm themselves into the sovereignty of Egypt. Saladin and his kinsmen were the officers of the great Sultan FIG. 5c. — LATTICE- WORK. {South Kensington Museum.) Nur-ed-din, of Aleppo and Damascus, who came of the stock of the Beny Zenky of Mosil. The Beny Zenky had been among the earliest to adopt the novelty of a figured coinage: they adorned their money with the saints and holy personages of the Byzantine coinage, or with symbols taken from Persian astrology, in place of the sternly simple inscriptions which covered the faces of the coins of the orthodox Khalifate. These innovations were carried into Syria by Nur-ed-din, who entertained as few prejudices on the subject of representations of living things as the rest of the Kurdish and Tartar princes, who now ruled the best provinces woon-wojiK. 149 of the Khalifs of Baghdad. Saladin (though a very pious and orthodox prince) brought the heretical novelty to Cairo, where he carved his own cognizance, an eagle,* on the wall of the Citadel which he built on a spur of Mount Mukattam. There is a brass and silver casket of Saladin's grandnephew in the South Kensington Museum, covered with figures of huntsmen, &c., which shows that the Ayyuby kings of Egypt continued to patronize the art intro- duced by their great kinsman. So, too, the earlier Mamluks found no spiritual injury to result from the representation of men and animals on their cups and perfume-burners, their trays and bowls. Evidence of this will be found in the chapter on metal-work ; and the lion, the cognizance of Beybars, the most powerful of the early Mamluk Sultans, occurring on coins, doors, and walls, shows that this indifference to a minor regulation of the Arabian prophet extended to more forms of art than one. Beybars' lions or chitahs on his coins and bronze mosque doors, Beysary's eagles on his perfume-burner, El-Adil's hunting-scenes on his coffret, Kalaun's centaurs and drinking-bouts on his hospital doors, all point to a general acquiescence for awhile in this flagrant disregard of what had always been held a binding precept in Islam. But with the reign of En-Nasir, Kalaun's son, a new style of metal-work came into fashion : rosettes of flowers and leaves, arabesques, and scrolls, and the rest of the legitimate materials of the Mohammadan artist, obtained a hold on Cairo work in all branches that was never again lost. At precisely the same time, the figured carving, which seemed to promise so fine a field for mosque and palace decora- tion, was abandoned in favour of the small carved and inlaid arabesque panels, which have already been examined in detail. It is not unreasonable to ascribe the change in the wood-work to the same cause as that which operated in the metal-work ; and this seems to have been natural enough. The barbarous Kurds * It may, however, be the crest of Karakush, the eunuch, who was com- missioned by Saladin to build the CitadeL Karakush means "blaclc bird of prey." 15° ART OF THE SARACENS. and Tartars, who had swarmed over the lands of the Khalifate, and entered Egypt, might for a while, by dint of sheer imperious insistance, make a form of art popular which was nevertheless unorthodox ; but as the barbarians settled down in the cities of the Muslims, which they did so much to beautify, they must have gradually become assimilated to the people they governed, and their first ignorant indifference about so vital a part of religion as the prohibition of images of animate things must have given place to a proper iconoclastic feeling, or at least they must have FIG. 51.— LATTICE WORK. i^South Kensington Museum.) learned to weigh more accurately the sentiments of the pious on the subject. Thus the imported art of figure carving, which was the temporary prottge of the Tartar princes, before they knew better, gave place to the arabesque and geometrical ornament which had long before been settled upon as most consonant with the letter and spirit of Mohammad's precept. The figure art was foreign to Cairo ; it was heretical ; and it was little suited to the small panelling which was a condition of the carver's art in so hot a climate : the large panels of Kalaun's doors have suffered severely from the heat, and the size is against all the precautions of joinery in hot climates. On the other hand, carved panelling, in small WOOD-WOHK. 151 sizes, worked into intricate geometrical patterns, formed the native art of Cairo, was exactly adapted to the conditions of climate, and ofifended no law of God or man. It was clear that the figure carving had no chance against so well accre- dited a rival. When we. say that the small arabesque carving described in detail, and illustrated by specimens from numerous pulpits, was a native Egyptian art, we may be thought to be going too fast. The evidence is certainly incomplete for so definite an assertion, it will be said ; and until we know something more about early Egyptian FIG. 52. — LATTICE-WORK. {South Kensington Museum.) carving, say in. Fatimy times, it is hardly reasonable to expect a cautious student to assent to any proposition about "native" arts in Egypt. But I believe that the evidence for the indigenous nature of the particular style of carving referred to is strong enough to warrant the appellation of native art. It is to be noted that in no other Mohammadan country do we find the same character of wood carving except in isolated examples, which may be due to Cairene influences. Damascus carving is absolutely different in style; it consists in rich flowery decorations in high relief, and not of arabesques in small geometrical panels and comjiaratively low 1 52 ART OF THE SARACENS. relief, Persia has nothing of the kind, nor, so far as we know, has the opposite region of Mauritania. The carved panelling of Cairo seems to be peculiar to Egypt. This is in itself a strong argument for an Egyptian origin of the art. But there is other evidence, which, if at present not so complete as could be desired, still offers a considerable presumption as to the history of the art. The finest specimens of carved geometrical panelling are found, not in the Mohammadan mosques, but in the Christian churches of the Copts, in Babylon, near Old Cairo. The screens of these Coptic churches are often one broad expanse of elaborate inlay and carving in FIG. 53. — LATTICE-WORK. (South Kensington Museum.) wood and ivory, arranged like the mosque pulpits in geometrical panels of small size. The designs are naturally founded more or less upon the cross, which is also inlaid very frequently in the screens ; but the character of the work is very similar to that of mosque pulpits, and in some instances, the designs of the carving are as nearly identical as the originality of the Cairo artist would permit any two designs to be. A glance at the lectern engraved in Mr. A. J. Butler's admirable work on the Coptic churches of Egypt,* • The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, ii. 66, 67. WOOD- WORK. 153 will show the identity of the two, and there is every proba- bility that the workmen who made the Coptic screens and lecterns made also the Muslim pulpits. It is historically ascertained that the Copts were the most skilful of the artists of Egypt, and were employed by the Mohammadans to execute some of their mosques; and when the excellence of the carvings in the Coptic churches is considered, it is not unnatural to assume that this was among the arts which the Copts lent to their Muslim masters. The question of date is not so easily settled. It is of course necessary to the absolute establishing of this view of the origin of Cairo FIG. 54. — LATTICE-WORK. {South Kettsins^ion Museum^ panel-carving that examples of Coptic carving should be ound earlier than any in the mosques, but in this respect the evidence is not convincing. Mr. Butler states, for example, that the screen of the convent of Abu-s-Seyfeyn, near Cairo, dates from a.d. 927, and the priest of the convent said that it was nine hundred years old. But Coptic priests are bad authorities on such a point, and the comparison of style which Mr. Butler institutes with the restoration pulpit of the mosque of Ibn-Tulun tends to give a thirteenth instead of a tenth century date. But there are various structural arguments which, in thj opinion of 154 ART OF THE SARACENS. Mr. Butler, who speaks with the highest authority on Coptic art, prove that some of these carvings go back as far as the tenth century at least, while the doors at El-Adra, in the Nitrian valley, are stated to be certainly of the eighth century ; and if this be accepted, there can be no further question as to the origin of the art of panel-carving and inlaying in Cairo. The Coptic churches are mostly earlier than the tenth century, and must have had screens from their foundation ; and there is no reason to suppose that the screens have been often renewed, or that it was impossible to carve as well in the tenth century as in the thirteenth ; indeed PIG. 55. — LATTICE-WORK. {South Kensittgion Musej^m.) the fine stucco designs of Ibn-Tuliin, which was built by a Coptic architect in the ninth century, point to a skill in working plaster ornament even then. It was, moreover, natural that the Copts, the old inhabitants of Egypt, should have early discovered the method of defeating the warping tendencies of their hot climate by means of a minute subdivision into panels. Taking these various con- siderations, it is not so rash as it seemed to assume that the art of carving panels in the style characteristic of Coptic screens and Muslim pulpits was native to Egypt, and was the special property of the Copts. WOOD- WORK. ^SS The Coptic churches also contain some examples of figure carv- ing, somewhat resembling the hunting figures of Mosil metal- work. A noble triforium screen in the church of St. Barbara, and another in the church of St. Sergius (Abu-Sargah), in Old Cairo, are decorated with warrior saints and beasts much after the model of the horsemen of Mesopotamian art. There may of course be a connection between these and Kalaun's panels, described above, but it is not necessary to trace the two to the same source. There can be no doubt of the Mesopotamian origin of Kalaun's carvings; but those of St. Sergius may not improbably be directly derived FIG. 56. LATTICE-WORK. (South Kensington Museum.) from Byzantine models, with whicn they show more affinity than with the Mosil style. Had these carvings been derived from the Mesopotamian school, we should expect to find a prevailing hunt- ing character, interspersed with scenes of festivity, wine-cups, and musical instruments ; instead of which the subjects are principally warrior saints of the Byzantine style, and the beasts that accompany them may be due as much to the animal decoration of the Lower Empire as to the hunting-scenes of Persian art. The St. Barbara carvings, however, closely resemble Mosil work, and have even the winged centaur. It is, after all, merely a question of the immediate 156 , ART OF THE SARACENS. source of the Coptic figure carvings, for it can hardly be doubted that the Byzantine figures and beasts were the offspring of the Sassanian and Assyrian style, as much as the figured metal-work of Mosil and Cairo and the carvings of Kalaun. There is always much that is hypothetical in the attempt to trace the origin of any special art ; many influences combine to form a style, and it is contrary to experience to ascribe the whole of the elements that go to make up a style to one source. But whatever may be the subsidiary influences in Cairo carving, we cannot be wrong in ascribing the development of arabesque panel-carving to Coptic workmen, and the employment of figures to the influence ot Mesopotamian models, either directly, or through the medium of Byzantine examples. The wood-work in the mosques of Cairo is principally of the carved and panelled style ; pulpits, lecterns, doors, are subjects for panel-work, inlaid and carved, in geometrical patterns ; inscriptional friezes, when of wood, are carved and generally painted or gilt ; and the casings of the tombs, when there are any, are panelled like the pulpits. But there is another manner of treating wood which is commonly adopted in mosques : this is the open lattice-work which, from its most familiar application, in the projecting windows of houses, is commonly known to us as meshrebiya work. The earlier mosques show us a style of lattice which is much less graceful than what is usually understood by meshrebiya work. This oldest lattice consists in a frame of stout quarterings, divided into compartments of a couple of feet square, each of which is filled with a number of upright balusters, square in parts and round in others. The effect of such a screen, as seen in the enclosure of the tomb of Kalaiin, is clumsy and heavy. A more usual kind of lattice is the wide open grille, resembling the cross-bars of a prison window, and having no pretensions to elaboration. The ordinary graceful lattice-work of the meshrebiyas is not common in mosques, though occasionally the sanctuary is screened off by such a lattice, and in one of the WOOD-WORK. 1 57 Coptic churches a screen of this kind forms a cheap but graceful substitute for the more elaborate wood and ivory carving. It is in the houses of Cairo that this lattice-work is seen in its greatest profusion and variety. Fig. 12 gives several excellent examples in a single street. The number of such streets is daily diminishing, partly in consequence of the dread of fire, which used to leap from window to window in the old city with frightful FIG. 56A.— LATTICE-WOKK. (South Kensington Museum.) rapidity, and partly because the modern Cairenes are enamoured of the unsightly architecture and plate-glass of Europe (which is unhappily seen introduced in the foremost window in fig. 12). The South Kensington Museum is peculiarly rich in examples of fine tattice-work. The two best are from a single house in Cairo, which was in course of destruction, after being con- demned by the Ministry of Works as unsafe, when I was in Cairo, in 1883; and I was thus enabled to purchase for the Museum IS8 ART OF THE SARACENS. the complete room (no. 1 193), and the meshrebiya (no. 1194), without violating any standing monument of Cairo art. The lattices of these two windows are of a fine period, probably the early part of the eighteenth century, and the small compartments of the larger one are filled with turned lattice of a singularly delicate character, which gives the effect almost of lace when viewed from inside with the light shining through. One of these panels is represented in fig. 49. There are now more than forty different specimens of lattice-work in the South Kensington Museum, and most of them present some variety in the design. It would not seem that there was much opportunity for variety of effect in the mere combination of short turned bobbins of wood in a lattice screen ; but the Cairo workmen found out an infinity of changes that could be rung on their simple materials. The engravings, figs. 49-58, which represent ten different styles in the South Kensington Museum, will show how variously the com- ponent parts of a lattice may be arranged. The essential feature of the work is a series of oval turned balls connected together by short turned links, which fit into holes in the balls. It is in the arrangement and number of these links, of which 2000 are often contained in the space of a square yard, that the variety of design is effected. Sometimes the balls are supported by four links or arms forming a cross, sometimes by six or eight, like a star ; and the distance between the balls may be extended, so as to permit of a smaller nob at the crossing of the arms, a modification that produces a singularly delicate and lace-like effect. Some- times these intermediate balls are so distributed as to form a pattern upon the ground of the wider design, as in fig. 58, where the finer interlacing forms the outline of a lamp suspended in the more open lattice. The lamp is the most usual design in such interlaced meshrebiyas, but Solomon's seal and other simple designs are also found, and sometimes an Arabic inscription is formed by the skilful arrangement of the lattice. An example of interlacing cypresses may be seen in the South Kensington FIG. 57.— LATTICE-WORK. (Souf/i Kensiii^'-'U Mumtm.) i6o ART OF THE SARACENS. Museum, (no. 1471 — 1871,) and of a Coptic cross formed by the lattice-work (1492 — 187 1). The raeshrebiya no. 140 (i88i), has an interlacing inscription ji<.&..« Ij i^j M ^ ^ \ ji<^^ '•r^jfi f^S ^^ c>^ J^ " Help is from God, and approaching victory, and give glad ^J ^^ti'~iir~'llfc~'tri— 'flSti' — jffa'Tir'fTiiiw 'tfi n \ Y ■■« '^ ^4T ¥ r y 1 FIG. 58. — LATTICE-WORK. {South Kensingtoit Museum.^ tidings to the Faithful, O Mohammad ! " The meshrebiya from the St. Maurice collection, (no. 892 — 1884,) shows several examples of interlacing designs, Solomon's seals, hanging lamps, and the-Kufy inscription dU L dsLa-o .o.!=».i-JL wL a (aXJI ii\i^ jif.»^\ ^)j) FIG. 59. — FRONT; p3 ^S ^^ ''^* A *? FIG. 6o.~BACK. CARVBD AND INLAID LAT I ICE-WORK. i62 ART OF THE SARACENS. " The chief of wisdom is in the fear of God." Another piece of lattice-work, of a finer and more elaborate character than is commonly seen, has the inscription in fine Kufy letters, aXH ^«JI ^-JU fJ^-o *C)*5L« 5 " God and his angels bless the Prophet," formed by pieces of thicker wood, inlaid with ivory lines. 'I'his more elaborate style of meshreKya work deserves special mention. It is more particularly used for the open panels of the balustrade of pulpits, of which narrow examples are seen in fig. 34, but it is also found in the upper panels of the partition screens of mosque sanctuaries, and in other positions. The principle of construction is the same as in ordinary lattice-work, but the component parts are carved, and sometimes inlaid with ivory. A fine example in the St. Maurice collection is engraved in figs. 59 and 60, in which the front and back are quite different in treat- ment and effect. The lattice, instead of comprising oval balls and round links, is composed of hexagons joined by triangles and turned links, and the hexagons and triangles are carved and inlaid. On one side the triangles are inlaid with carved ebony triangles pointing the opposite way to the triangles in which they are set, and the hexagons are studded with dark wooden bosses. On the other side the triangles are carved with trefoils, and the hexagons \Yith sixfoils, each set in ebony and ivory borders. Work of this description is uncommon. Turned lattice-work may unquestionably be included among the native arts of Cairo, though it was also made elsewhere. According to M. Prisse, this craft is not practised now in Cairo, and the modern specimens come from Arabia, notably Jedda. It is unfortunately true that very little of this work is now done in Cairo, but it is not wholly extinct, and in the earlier half of the century it was still a considerable industry, though Lane records that the work was then inferior to the old style. The Egyptian turner sits cross-legged to his work, and uses a primitive lathe, which he causes to revolve with a bow, employing his toes as well as his fingers. WOOD-WORK. 163 Lattice meshrebty'as form the principal wood-work in a Cairo house ; but there are other uses of wood to be described. The delicate carved and inlaid panelling which is usual in mosque pulpits is seldom employed in houses, though probably the old palaces of the Mamluks, had they been preserved, would have displayed examples of such work as rich and elaborate as any in the mosques. The panelling generally seen in the doors 01' the FIG, 61, — PANELLED DOOR FROM A COPT S HQL'SE. [South Kensington Museum.) wall-cupboards (which surmount the divan in Cairo rooms, and consist of a central cupboard with double door, surrounded by little arched recesses for pottery and other ornaments), and also used in the interior doors of rooms, is of a simple kind, intended more to guard against the warping effects of the heat than to serve as an ornament to the room. Nevertheless, the effect is sometimes very pleasing; as in some of the doors engraved in figs. 6 r-4, where the i64 ART OF THE SARACENS. panels are ingeniously arranged in a sort of L pattern, reminding one of some of the designs of Saracenic metal-work, or in chevrons, or in a hexagonal figure with a central star, or, finally, with a Coptic cross (fig. 64), which indicates that the door in question belonged to a Christian house. This simple panelling of the door and wall-cupboard, and the fine lattice-work of the meshreblya, constitute the most conspicuous orna- ments in wood of the ordinary Cairo room ; but there is yet another manner of treating wood, which holds an in)i3brtaa*-4Jlace in the better chambers, and also in the mosques. This is seen in the ceilings, which are often the most beautiful part of a room, and are elaborately decorated in both mosques and houses. The coffered ceiling of the finest class consists of, first, the beams of the roof, which are suffered to appear in their natural position, with that true appreciation of the principles of good decoratiori, iir which structural features are turned to account, instead of beiwg hidden, which characterized the Cairo architect. The beams^ aie^ rough pine trunks, of considerable thickness, and are either l€it in th«T natural round or half-round shape, or more generally aie covered with thin boards, which are frequently made in a square form. The latter is the common plan in the mosques, but in houses the round outline of the beams is often preserved to within a couple of feet of the end, when stalactites mask the transition to the square. The beams, whether round or square, are covered with a coating of canvas saturated with plaster, like the liaXixa gesso, and decorated in colours, generally red and blue, with gold and white to give light ; and the deep hollows between the beams are divided into small coffers and similarly coated and painted, or the bare planks are similarly painted, with arabesques and other designs of great beauty. All this work, Mr. Wild informs me, is done on the ground, and only put up in its place when finished. The whole effect of this kind of ceiling, — with its contrasts between the heavy beams and the delicate patterns between them. 1 66 ART OF THE SARACENS. and the gleam of gold in relief against the deep-toned blue and red deccfration, — is exceedingly rich. ' Another mode of decorating a ceiling is by nailing thin strips of wood on the planks that constitute the roof, in a geometrical FIG. 65. — CEILING OF APPLIQUE WORK. {SouiA Kenslit^ton MKse?tm.) design, and covering the whole with a thin surface of plaster, on which various arabesque and floral ornaments are then squeezed while the material is soft, and the whole is then painted and gilt. FIG. 66.— TARLE (KUKSv). {Ca/jv Museum.) 1 68 A^T OF THE SARACENS. The cut, fig. 67, represents a ceiling in the St. Maurice collection, acquired by the South Kensington Museum. The design is raised by means of strips of wood about half an inch thick, and these strips are gilt, with lines of red to shade the gold ; the intervening arabesques are in plaster, gilt, with edges of red and blue. The general effect is very handsome. Sometimes the ceilings are made in this applique style with no decoration in the interstices. Such is the example (fig. 65), which comes from a comparatively modern and poor class of room. The strips of wood are nailed on the planks in a geo- metrical pattern, with a few bosses to form centres, and the whole is tinted with red ochre. This and the preceding ceiling (fig. 67) belonged to meshrebiyas, and the style was only employed for ceihngs of small size, where no heavy beams were required, such as those over meshrebiyas and over the durka'as of small rooms. It should be noticed that a somewhat similar style of appliqtce work is used for the bases, as well as for the ceilings, of meshrebiyas. In the illustration (fig. 12), the corbelling of the nearest meshrebiya is covered with rosettes and stalactites, all of which are first cut out with a chisel and fret-saw, and then nailed on to the window. Fret-work is also used for the pendentive eave which surmounts all good meshrebiyas. The furniture of a Mohammadan house is so limited, that it is not difficult to sum up the chief wooden objects. An ordinary room in Cairo contains, — beside such structural wood-work as the lattice-window and the panelled wall-cupboard, and the simple shelf that runs round above the latter, supported by common gallows-brackets, — nothing but divans, supported on a frame, which is not ornamented, and perhaps a little table (kursy), and a desk for the Koran. The kursy (which must not be confounded with the lectern of mosques, also called Kursy) is generally of inlaid ivory or mother-of-pearl, but some are of turned wood, as in the en- graving fig. 66, which is from a table preserved in the Cairo Museum. Portions of the stalactites are broken off, but the design is suffi- ciently preserved for us to judge of the effect, which is heavy, and woon-wonK. 169 inferior to the mother-of-pearl tables with which we are more familiar. The reading-desk is of the crossed-leg or camp-stool order, and is generally inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which covers the greater part of the surface of the table, and is fixed with glue. The ordinary Cairo patterns are very simple, and consist in stars and geometrical designs; but the Syrian tables, of the same shape and material, are carved with figures on the mother- of-pearl, and touched with red and green paint. In both kinds " the mother-of-pearl is set off by black wedge-shaped pieces of horn or bituminous composition. Rarer objects are the thrones or chairs of carved and lattice-work, used formerly for a bride's robes. A seat of lattice-work (dikkd) also stands in the entrance of many houses for the door-keeper. The age of the wood-work, other than carved, is not easy to determine. The meshrebiyas, exposed to the weather, do not seem able to last very long, and we shall be probably right in assuming none of them to be older than the seventeenth century. The more elaborate and squarer form of meshrebiya, used in mosques, is of course older than this, and may date froin the fourteenth century. The ceilings vary in date with the mosques or houses to which they belong, but they are not found in mosques earlier than the fourteenth century, and no Cairo houses can be ascribed with certainty to even that period. FIG. 67.— CEILING OF A MESHREBIYA. {South Kensington Museum.) SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS. ART OF THE SARACENS IN EGYPT. PART II. THE ART OF THE SARACENS IN EGYPT BY STANLEY LANE-POOLE, B.A., M.R.A.S. Hon. Member of the Egyptian Commission for the Preservation of the Monuments of Arab Art eaith 108 SBooitttta ' IN TWO PARTS— PART II. Published for the Committee ef Council on Education, BY CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited ir, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN LONDON : PRINTEO BV J. S, VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD. CONTENTS, PART II. Ivory CHAPTER VI. PAGE Metal-work CHAPTER VII. 180 Glass CHAPTER VIII. CHAPTER IX. Heraldry on Glass and Metal . CHAPTER X. Pottery 247 268 274 CHAPTER XI. Textile Fabrics 281 CHAPTER XII. Illuminated Manuscripts 298 Index of Names, &c. 309 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PART II. riG. PAGE 68. Carved Ivory Panel 172 69. Carved Ivory Panels of a Pulpit Door . . . -173 70. Inlaid Ivory and Ebony Door 175 71. Inlaid Ivory and Ebony Panel from a Table . . .177 72. Ivory Ink Horn 179 73. Inscription interwoven with figures on the " Baptistery OF St. Louis " 183 74. Table from Maristan of Kalaun (Thirteenth Century) . 187 75- Panel of Table of En-Nasir, son of Kalaun . . .190 76. Lamp of Sultan Beybars 11. (a.d. 1309-10)' . . . .191 77. Base of Chandelier of Sultan El-Ghory (Sixteenth Centuty) 195 78. Lantern of Sheykh 'Abd-el-Basit 197 79. Cover of Sherbet Bowl (Sixteenth Century) . . .201 80. Casket of El-'Adil, Grand Nephew of Saladin (Thir- teenth Century) 205 81. Perfume-burner of Beysary (Thirteenth Century) . . 211 82. Inlaid Silver Panels of the "Baptistery of St. Louis" 219 83. 84> 8S) 86. Bronze Plaques from Door of Beybars I. . 224 87. Brass Bowl inlaid with Silver (Fourteenth Century) . . 231 88. Brass Candlestick inlaid with Silver (Fourteenth Century) 235 89. Brass Bowl of Kait Bey (Fifteenth Century) . . .237 viil LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. PAGE 90. Lamp from Jerusalem .... ... 241 91. Arms for Lion-hunting ... . . . ^ . 245 92. Diagram of Glass Lamp . 252 93. Glass Lamp of Akbugha (Fourteenth Century) . . . 257 94. Vase of Sultan Beybars II. 262 95. 96! Stained Glass Windows 264 97, 98. Stained Glass Windows . 265 99. AsYUT Coffee-pot 275 100. Silk Fabric of Iconium (Thirteenth Century) . . . 283 101. Damask, worn by Henry the Saint (Eleventh Century) . 291 102. Silk Fabric of Egypt or Sicily 295 103. Illuminated Koran of Sultan Sha'ban (Fourteenth Century) 299 104. Illuminated Koran of Sultan Sha'ban (Fourteenth Century) . .303 105. Illuminated Koran of Sultan El-Muayyad (Fifteenth Century) 305 *,* The Department is indebted to Messrs. Virtue & Co., for Figs. 71, 74 — 8, 99 ; to Messrs. Cassell for Figs. 91, 94, 101—5; t" M, Lerouz for Figs. 73, 8j, 90; and to M. Giraud for Fig. 100. CHAPTER VI. IVORY. In the preceding chapter we have often had occasion to men- tion inlaid lines of ivory set round carved wooden panels, and even whole panels of ivory set in wooden borders (pp. 132 — 13S). The artists of Cairo preferred this combination of substances, and the use of ivgry alone is rare, though the Egyptians had every opportunity of obtaining large quantities of it through the Sudan trade. In the Coptic churches of Old Cairo, indeed, we find ivory more prevailingly used than in mosques or Muslim houses. Mr. Butler thus describes the screen of the church of Abu-s-Seyfeyn :* " It is a massive partition of ebony, divided into three large panels — doorway and two side panels — which are framed in masonry. At each side, of the doorway is a square pillar plastered and painted; on the left is portrayed the Crucifixion, and over it the sun shining full; on the right the Taking Down from the Cross, and over it the sun eclipsed. ... In the centre a double door, opening choirwards, is covered with elaborate mouldings, enclosing ivory crosses in high relief. All round the framing of the doors, tablets of solid ivory, chased with arabesques, are inlet, and the topmost part of each panel is marked off for an even richer display of chased tablets and crosses. Each * The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, vol. i., pp. 86, 87. o 172 ART OF THE SARACENS. of the side panels of the screen is one mass of superbly cut crosses of ivory, inlaid in even lines, so as to form a kind of broken trellis-work in the ebony background. The spaces between the crosses are filled with little squares, pentagons, hexagons, and other figures of ivory, variously designed, and chiselled with ex- quisite skill. The order is only broken in the centre of the panel. where a small sliding square, is fitted ; on the is inlaid, above and be- tablet containing an Ara- with scroll-work. In no through-carving; the in the form required — next the design is chased the ivory ground and a piece is then set in the round with mouldings of ivory alternately. It is of the extraordinary rich- details, or the splendour Mr. Butler ascribes this with the tradition of the tury.and though the style lead us to infer a date centuries, his authorita- be disregarded, the church called El- of Babylon, is unique of its kind FIG. 68. — CARVED IVORY PANEL. (S. K. M.) window, fourteen inches slide a single large cross low which is an ivory bic inscription interlaced these ivories there is block is first shaped cross, square, or the like ; in high relief, retaining raised border; and the wood-work and framed ebony, or ebony and difficult to give any idea ness and delicacy of the of the whole effect." screen, in accordance church, to the tenth cen- of the arabesques would later by two or three five statement must not Another screen, in Mu'allaka, in the fortress " Above and below are narrow panels of carved cedar and ebony, alternately, chased with rich scroll-work and interwoven with Kufic inscriptions ; the framework is also of cedar, wrought into unusual star-like devices, and the intervals are filled with thin plates of ivory, through which, when the screen was in its original position, the light of the lamps behind fell with a soft rose-coloured glow, extremely pleasing. FIG. 6g. — CARVED IVORY PANELS OF A PULPIT DOOR. {Soziih Kensingion Mus£unt.) O 2 174 ART OF THE SARACENS. There is an almost magical effect peculiar to this screen, for the design seems to change in a kaleidoscopic manner, according as the spectator varies his distance from it." * This changing effect has often been remarked as a characteristic of Saracenic geometrical design, and is due to the combination of large and small patterns in such a manner that different parts of the design stand out more conspicuously at varying distances. These Coptic screens are undoubtedly the models upon which the ivory carvings of the mosques were founded. Probably Coptic artists were employed for the work just as Coptic architects had been proved the most skilful for the planning of the mosques themselves. There is a close analogy between the style of the Coptic screens and that of the Muslim pulpits, with the necessary exception that the cross which forms so prominent a feature in the former is omitted in the latter, and the designs are restricted to geometrical patterns filled in with arabesques. A fine example of the Muslim development of the art is seen in the pair of pulpit- doors in the South Kensington Museum (nos. 886 and 886a, of the St. Maurice collection); one of which is engraved in part in fig. 69. The doors in their present modern frame-work are 6ft. yin. high, and each leaf is ift. 6in. wide. The design is marked out by wooden mouldings, and the interstices are filled with ivory tablets, carved with delicate arabesques, no two of which are the same. Above and below each leaf is a horizontal panel filled with ivory scroll-work. It will be noticed, that fine as is the style of carving, the effect is harder than that of the best period of wood-carving in Cairo, though these doors probably belong to the same epoch, the fourteenth century. The stiffness is the fault, one must con- clude, of the material, not of the artist ; for the men who chiselled the panels of El-Maridany and Kusun (pp. 132 — 138) were in all probability the mates of those who carved the ivory panels of these doors. The designs are also very similar, though varied with the * The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt, vol. i., p. 212. FIG. 70. — TNLAID IVORY AND EBONY DOOR. {S-ouih Kensington Mztseum.) 176 ART OF THE SARACENS. marvellous ingenuity of the Saracenic artist. The softer material, however, seems to have lent itself more readily to the expression of these graceful outlines. The four panels (no. 885) of the St. Maurice collection, one of which is engraved in fig. 68, are in a similar style. The work is of the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century type, but very well executed, and much softer in effect than those described above ; and the panels have this peculiarity — a sign of rather late date — that the designs of all four are absolutely identical. Another style of wood and ivory pulpit-door is seen in fig. 70, where small panels of perfectly plain ivory alternate with pentagonal mosaics of inlaid ivory and ebony tesserae. This style may be referred roughly to the fifteenth centary, but we are at present without exact evidence as to the precise date. The beautiful panel of inlaid ivory and ebony (fig. 71) is from a table in the Arab Museum at Cairo, and belonged to the mosque of Umm-Sha'ban, built in 1368. Ivory work, except in combination with wood, is rare in Egypt. Two pieces, which I had the good fortune to secure in Cairo in 1883, are now in the South Kensington Museum, and both are dated. The first is a little cup, engraved with a band near the lip, con- taining between scroll borders a verse from the Koran, Ixxvi. 5 — jy l^ V=>-'>* \j->^^ (>• \Jiii^ jIk*^' O' " Verily the righteous shall drink from a cup flavoured with camphor," describing the drink of the blessed in Paradise ; while on the bottom we read, " Made by Mohammad Salih at El-Kahira [Cairo] in the year 927," a.d. 152 i. The second is an ink-horn (fig. 72) of the usual Eastern shape, to hold ink in the cavity at the head, and reed pens in the handle ; and worn in the girdle by the Egyptian scribes and learned men, who do their writing often on the backs of their donkeys. The head is covered with floral ornament of a late style, and the sides with Arabic verses between scroll borders ; and on the bottom of the head are inscribed the words, " Made by the Seyyid Mohammad SaUh at Misr [also Cairo] in the year 1082,'' a.d. 1672. FIG. 71,— INLAID IVORY AND EBONY PANEL FROM A TABLE. {Cai'tv MttseumJ) 178 ART OF THE SARACENS. The verses are these : — ■ -aA;j laaJt ^>~.». (jt I>>~an3 "iJ " Think not the grace of the pen's my desire, Or the Arab chiefs generosity : For one thing only do I require, That the point be moved from the ft to the /." The meaning is, that by transferring the diacritical point of kaJI (" penmanship " or "writing") to the second letter, thus iaaJt, the word is changed to "good fortune." The Arabic gives the name of Hatim TUy, the typical Arab hero, renowned for his prodigal hospitality and unselfish chivalry, and the subject of numerous Eastern legends and poems. It looks as though the art of ivory carving had remained heredi- tary in one family, and the second Mohammad Salih were a descendant of the first ; but the names are common enough, and the identity may be purely accidental. These are the only specimens of Cairo ivory vessels with detailed dates and names with which I am acquainted. They are late, but for that reason all the fnore interesting, for our Museums are particularly poor in specimens of sixteenth and seventeenth century carvings. The ink-horn of the shape shown in fig. 72 is usually made of brass or copper, but some of the better sort are of silver, though I have never seen one of this material ; and one is mentioned in history as made of glass, but this was taken as a proof of extreme humility. A not uncommon kind is made of plain ivory, inlaid with little brass annulets filled with coloured ivory and brass mosaic, in the style familiar on Shiraz muskets ; but this is not of Cairo manufacture. An example is shown in the South Kensington Museum. Ivory was also used as a base on which silver plates were laid. IVOHY. 179 Such is the style of the Bayeux casket (illustrated in Prisse, iii., pi. 157), which belongs probably to the eleventh century. Figure carving in ivory is not found in the Egyptian school of art, but it certainly obtained in Spain, as is proved by the splendid ivory box made for Ziyad ibn Aflah in a.h. 359, a.d. 969, now in the South Kensington Museum, on which are various spirited representations of figures and animals, even winged centaurs, closely resembling the Mosil decoration of metal objects. There can be little doubt that, wherever made, this box represents the influence of Mesopo- tamian artists, probably conveyed through the Fatimy Khalifs of Africa to Spain and Sicily. FIG 72. — IVORY INK-HORN. {South Kensington Musuum.) CHAPTER VII. METAL-WORK. 1. Brass and Bronze Inlay. Saracenic metal-work, so far as we are acquainted with existing dated specimens, begins in Mesopotamia in the early part of the thirteenth century of our era. That the art must, however, have been developing for centuries before this date, possibly at other places, is clear from the perfection of the workmanship displayed on the very earliest pieces ; indeed, the oldest are as a rule the most elaborate and finished. Moreover, there is every reason to believe that the art of metal- working, engraving, and chasing, existed in a continuous development from very ancient times in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates. The earliest Saracenic bowls are decorated with hunting-scenes which remind one at once of the favourite designs of the Assyrian bas-reliefs j the bronze gates of Balawat, and the Sassanian cups which have come down to us,* present many points of close resemblance to these first examples of the Saracen artist. There was, however, a special reason for a notable extension and development of the art in the thirteenth century.t During the earlier ages of Mohammadan rule, though the Khalifs were not remarkable for their piety or observance of the laws of the Koran, a certain decent outward appearance of conformity to the regulations of Mohammad seems to have prevailed. Among other prohibitions, that which forbade the representation in art of animate creatures was particularly observed. The rulers may have cared little about such laws, but the people * A. de Longp^rier, CEuvres, i., 71, 254. t Compare what has been said above, pp. 126 ff. METAL. WORK. i8i probably had not yet shaken off the impression of Mohammad's puritanical teaching, and there were enough orthodox Arabs about the court of the Khalifs to make any flagrant deviation from such a law as that which proscribed images dangerous in the extreme. The coins of the period prove that this was the case. 'Abd-el- Melik's abortive attempt to follow the Byzantine model, and place his own image on the coinage, was succeeded by a strictly plain currency, on which no approach to the representation of a living thing appeared for five centuries. But when the Turkish guards, vhom the Khalifs unwisely imported for their own safety, were followed by Turkish hordes, who founded dynasties and by degrees abstracted the whole power of the Khalifs, the observance of the law against images became less stringent. The Turkish immigrants were Mohammadans, but they did not adhere to the straitest sect of the Muslim Pharisees, and took a lenient view of the minor regulations of Islam. We cannot be too thankful to them for this happy indifference, for we owe the highest development of Saracenic art in the East to Turkish or Tartar rulers. Among the earliest to introduce the representation of images on the coin- age were the small dynasties of Mesopotamia, who followed in the wake of the great Seljuk invasion. The large copper coins of the Urtukis and Beny Zenky abound with figures of men, saints, princes, and beasts, some derived from Byzantine coins, others taken from the symbols of astrology.* Christ and the Virgin are among the images employed by these indiscriminating coiners, while such emblems as the two-headed eagle and the centaur-like figure of Sagittarius show an oriental and probably Assyrian deriva- tion. Coins of this kind begin to be common in the twelfth cen- tury, and it is not hard to trace a connection between this sudden appearance of imaged coins and the almost contemporary fabrica- tion of metal bowls and cups and caskets bearing similar images and emblems. The two-headed eagle, the signs of the zodiac, the * S. Lane-Poole, Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British Museum, vol. iii. ; International Numismata Orientalia, vol. i., pt. 2. i82 ART OF THE SARACENS. images of aureoled saints or horsemen engaged in the chase, are found alike on coins and vessels, but in much greater abundance and variety on the latter, where the large surfaces naturally afforded more room for their display. We cannot be far wrong in assuming that the art of metal-working, which had for ages been character- istic of Mesopotamia, where the needful mines were found,* after slumbering under the Khalifs, received, like the coinage, a sudden stimulus from the advent of the Turkish dynasties. Up to the twelfth or thirteenth century the arts doubtless lingered on under the stigma of the orthodox, and it needed only the favour of the powerful, especially of princes so fond of display and gorgeous surroundings as the Tartar dynasts, to give a new life to the long- restrained skill of the Mesopotamian artists, and to encourage them to higher efforts. The Mesopotamian, or, to use a shorter term, derived from its chief seat, the Mosil style is characterized by a predominant use of figures of men and animals. Aureoled horsemen engaged in the various methods of the chase, to which the Persians had ever been addicted, surround the bowls or other vessels in broad bands ; with lance or bow, with leopard or chitah on the crupper, with hawk on wrist, or attended by hounds, they pursue the bear or lion or antelope or other quarry ; crowned and aureoled princes, seated cross-legged on high-backed thrones, attended by pages, and holding the forbidden wine-cup in the hand, occupy panels or medallions j musicians with cymbals, lute or pipe, dancers, and other types of festivity, or the personified Signs of the Zodiac combined with their ruling planets, vary the monotony of the hunting-scenes ; and combats between animals, birds, and men, are among the subjects of the engraver's skill. In one instance the bottom of a large bowl is covered with the spirited represen- * Mesopotamia and the adjacent districts have been famous from remote antiquity for copper mines, and in the present day near Maridin is a kiln where the copper is refined which is extracted from the mine of Argana Ma'din ; and copper vessels are still made at Tokat, and exported to Syria and Egypt. METAL- WORK. 183 tation of a sporting party on the water : a boat is pulled by three men, two others shoot wild ducks with their arrows, another is engaged in cutting the throat of a wounded duck, a seventh sits at the mast-head on the look-out, and another dives beneath, pursued by an alligator.* Long chains of beasts of the chase, lions, panthers, chitahs, antelopes, hounds and birds, pursue one another in narrow borders, and bands of scroll-work or twist- pattern divide the different zones of the ornamentation, while the intervening spaces are filled with ducks and other water-fowl. The ground is generally covered with bold arabesques, or with a kind of hook or key pattern, and little medallions or annulets filled with a simple rose design serve to divide the borders into equal sections. Arabic inscriptions, in the Naskhy character, run round the FIG. 73. — INSCRIPTION INTERWOVEN WITH FIGURES ON THE "BAPTISTERY OF ST. LOUIS. vessels in narrow bands, sometimes (but rarely) having the tops of the letters chased in the image of human faces or interwoven with the legs of an upper border of beasts of the chase (fig. 73). Occasionally a meaningless inscription, consisting of a few decora- tive letters frequently repeated, takes the place of the genuine inscription, and so far is this from being an indication of late date, (though it is perhaps most common on late work,) that it is found on objects which undoubtedly belong to the thirteenth century, and occurs, for example, on a cup found buried with the body of Bertrand de Malzand, Abbot of Montmajour, who died in that century.f As a rule, the shoals of fish, which are * In the Arsacid relief of Talthti-Bostan, the king hunts from a boat, exactly as on this bowl. t A. de Longperier, (Euvres, i. 390. i84 ART OF THE SARACENS. so common at a slightly later period on the bottom of drinking vessels and other utensils intended to hold liquids, do not occur on the early Mosil work. But the main characteristic of Mosil and all early Saracenic metal-work is the lavish use of silver inlay. Gold does not appear to have been employed by the Mosil artists, but in silver they were prodigal. Every part of the design was covered with plates of the precious metal, and the intervening spaces, amounting to little more than narrow lines, were generally filled with a black bituminous composition which concealed the copper or brass, and set off the brilliancy of the silver designs. The silver inlay is as nearly as possible let in to the level of the brass base, and is secured by no pins or solder. The delicate hold obtained by the process employed has unfortunately in most instances permitted the greater part of the inlay to escape in the course of wear, and we are thus enabled to observe accurately the method of inlaying adopted by the Saracen workmen. This consisted, in all work of the best period, in cutting away the surface to be inlaid in planes deepening to- wards the edges, slightly undercutting the edges themselves, and then forcing the silver into the cavity thus excavated, and burnishing the rebated edges over the inlaid plaque.* In the * This inlaying, or rather the precious metal thus inlaid, is termed in Arabic keft u^lT. t2l5'(2nd conj.) means to plate or cover with a leaf of metal. We read in El-Makrizy of i.i«)l} v^JJl; a,sSU u-^', " Copper, plated with gold and silver;" ii»H; liJC ^\ o»U, " Brass, plated with silver;" and elsewhere of i_-»iH! oiC oVy, " Steel, plated with gold ;" and saddles, bridles, and precious stones, lijC, "plated" with, or set in. gold and silver. — «UI (from ^) means " incrustation," " inlaying ;" and |^ practically the same as oiC, only it does not necessarily imply metal-plates. El-Makrizy writes— iijllj i_.«JJI ^ u-U^I ^Ijl jj |JaS U j» lijsjl, which shows that vL is applied o inlaid metal-work as well as liJC. But it is also used for inlaid ivory and wood : «. g. ij">'^l} ir^'^- f^ v-2«i-. " Wood, inlaid with ivory and ebony,'' i_ijJl! jA- u">i' cc ^J*^' J^) " He made a box of ebony inlaid with mother-o[- pearl." See El-Makrizy, Hist, des Mamlouks, (Quatremire,) ii. i. 114, note. METAL-WORK. 185 case of large surfaces, in order to get a better hold, the edges were not only undercut, but slightly toothed or serrated, but this is by no means universal, and is often a sign of a later repair- ing of the vessel by less skilful hands. In the inlaying of very narrow lines, where there was hardly room for undercutting, a series of notches were punched along the line with an oblong- headed instrument, and the inlay beaten or pressed with agate or jade into the holes, which served to hold the thin thread. The earliest work is never treated in the mode which became common in Venetian and later inlay, by the process of stippling the whole of a large surface with little triangular notches, which served like teeth to hold the metal plates. Whenever we find such stippling on ancient work, it is a sign that the inlay has dropped off, and has been restored by a later hand. The only approach to stippling in early work is the punching oblong (not triangular) notches in inlaying thin threads of silver or gold. M. Lavoix, in an interesting paper on " Les Azziministes," * distinguishes three methods of inlaying; (i) incrustation, where a thread of gold is inserted in an under-cut groove ; (2) plating, where a plate of metal is enclosed between slightly raised walls, which, he says, is the Damascus manner ; and (3) where the workman runs a sort of spur-tool rapidly over the surface to be inlaid, so as to make a series of notches, and then presses on the thin leaf of metal. t The last method, he adds, is that chiefly in vogue in Persia, or Al-Ajam, to give the country its Arabic name, whence the art came to be known in Europe as Alia gemina, Algeminia, * Gazette des Beaux-Arts, xii. 64 — 74, t With regard to these distinctions, I must say that the first, which is real Damascening, is the only method employed on early Saracenic work, and it is used alike for large surfaces and small ; but not for mere threads, which are, I believe, generally fixed by the punched mode described above. Raised walls, mentioned in M. Lavoix's second method, are not known to early Saracenic art, and certainly do not apply to Damascus work : they only came in when the Venetian style of cutting away the whole surface except the pattern became the vogue. The third method is the late and bad one. 1 86 ART OF THE SARACENS. AltAzzimina, and the inlay ers took the name of Algemina, or Azzimina. The Comte de Rochechouart* describes the three pro- cesses of damascening or inlaying still employed in Persia. He distinguishes the processes as follows : (i) Zarkhonden, damas- cening in relief, where the base is cut out and the edges under-cut, and the precious metal pinned on with gold nails, after which the surface is chased. (2) Zarnichanest, damascening in the flat, where the same process is used, but the gold is pressed in with a piece of jade, and all that projects is burnished off. (3) Zarkouft, which, he says, is the most usual way, where the design is traced with the graver, but is not cut out, and the surface is toothed with a special tool, and the gold leaf, which is used very thin, is pressed on with jade, and then exposed to the fire till it sweats, after which it is again burnished with jade, and the process is repeated until the incrustation is firmly fixed. The last process is very cheap, as little gold is used. It is evident that in this last process (which preserves only the name of the old Keft work), we have an inferior development of the stippling process employed by the Oriental artists of Venice, and by the late repairers of Mosil work. The difference is, that instead of using an honest plate of gold' or silver and really inlaying it in a sunken bed, relying on the stippling only to keep the central portions down, the modern Persian method depends wholly on the stippling and the heating, and is not inlay at all, but a cheap imitation. Another process, mentioned by Sir Digby Wyatt (in Waring's Art Treasures, 1857), is described as consisting in punching little holes round the outline of the surface to be covered, and burnish- ing down the silver till it is forced into the holes and thus held ; but I cannot recall any example of this process among the Sara- cenic objects I have examined. When with incredible labour the whole surface of a bowl or other object had been excavated in the intended designs, and * Souvenirs (Tun Voyage en Perse, 1867, pp. 236 — 9. FIG. 74.~TABLE FROM THE MARISTAN OF KALAUN. Thirteenth Century. {Cairo Museum.) 1 88 ART OF THE SARACENS. the edges had been under-cut, and the silver plates burnished , into the recesses thus prepared, the work of the M5sil artist was only half done. He had next to chase the surface of each plate with details which could not be represented in the outline. The faces and dress of the horsemen and princes, the fur of the beasts, the feathers of every bird, and countless other details, had to be slowly and minutely engraved on the surface of each little plate of silver, till the extraordinarily delicate and finished effect which is characteristic of true Saracenic work had been attained. There were no half-measures, no scamped work, with the Saracen artists ; every part of the inlay, if only the size of a pea, if it represented anything but the smooth face of an Arabic letter, must be chased ; and these old-fashioned workmen had not yet learned the economical practice of modern artisans, who neglect whatever part is not likely to be seen, but took as much pains with the portions of their work that were not to be seen as with those that were meant to be always visible. Mah- mud the Kurd, a Saracen artist of Venice, carried this principle of honest work so far, that when he made use of the stippling process to retain his silver plates in their places, he traced his stipples in a graceful scroll-pattern, although he knew that they would immediately be concealed by the silver they were designed to hold. If the silver had not accidentally been worn off, we should never have suspected the true artist's spirit hidden be- neath. What has been said about the processes of inlaying and chasing applies to the whole of the best period of Saracenic art in the East, to the Syrian and Mamluk styles, as well as to the Mosil work, but the predominance in 14th century Mamluk work of large inscriptions, which need no chasing, instead of the multi- tudinous figures of the Mosil artist, renders the later work slightly less elaborate, though even here the prevalence of ducks and birds in the ground-decoration demands prodigious labour in chasing. METAL-WORK. 189 Between ihe Mosil work and the commoner Mamluk style, I have disiinguished a class to which I /have ventured to give the name of Syrian. It combines some of the characteristics of the earliest Mosil style with others that belong to the succeeding art of the Mamluks. Thus it shows on some examples the usual Mosil decoration of figures, while it presents numerous examples of the confronted birds, or fighting cocks, and groups of four or six ducks or other fowl arranged in a circle with their heads together, and also the rosette of flowers and leaves which remind one of Damascus titles, — all of which are typical of the later work of the Mamluks. One special ornament is to be noticed in this class : this is a medallion filled with a sort of key ornament, consisting of a number of Z's arranged in a circle, and inlaid with gold wire. These little medallions occur in large numbers all over the writing-boxes, which appear to have been the special product of this school of metal-work, and they seldom recur in similar abundance at any other period. The reasons which lead me to regard this class as the fabric of some Syrian city, probably Damascus or Aleppo, are these : — the style is certainly dis- tinct from both that of Mosil and the later art of Cairo ; gold inlay is historically known to have been a favourite decoration with the Damascus artists, of whom, according to M. Lavoix, there was a distinct school;* the rosettes of flowers and leaves have a decidedly Damascus look; the only name, or rather title, that can with probability be identified on the objects classed under this division, appears to refer to a prince of Aleppo, whose slave or Mamluk made the writing-box described on p. 222. The third, or Mamluk, class is at once the most numerous and best identified by inscriptions. The greater number of examples * "I have seen," says Nasir-i-Khusrau, in the nth century, "copper bowls of Damascus containing each 30 menn of water ; they shine like gold. They tell me that a woman owns 5000 of them, and lets them out daily for a dirhem a month." P 2 I go ART OF THE SARACENS. belong to the time of the Sultan En-Nasir Mohammad ibn Kalaun and his many and wealthy courtiers, the Nasiry Mamluks, FIG. 75— PANEL OF TABLE OP EN-NASIR, SON OF KALAUN. (Cairo Museum.) and it is probable that the style acquired its distinctive character dunng this period of sumptuous magnificence in the fourteenth FIG. 70. — :,AMP OF SIILTAK BEVBAES 11. A.D. 1309— 13 10. 192 ART OF THE SARACENS. century. Indeed we shall see that Beysary, who lived through Kalaun's reign, employed the art of Mosil for his perfume- burner. Kalaiin, again, to judge by his carved doors in the Maristan, preferred the Mosil style of figure-work, wliich still probably held the market as the best of its kind. It is, there- fore, not unreasonable to place the beginning of what I have called the Mamluk style at the accession of En-Nasir Mohammad, who reigned from a.h. 693 to 741 (ad. 1293 to 1341). From this time onwards, at least until the conquest of Egypt by the Othmiinly Turks, the Sultans and Amirs of Egypt delighted to surround themselves with exquisitely chased and inlaid vessels and furniture. Tlie Museum at Cairo contains two inlaid tables (figs. 74 and 75), one of which bears the name and titles of the Sultan En-Nasir ibn KaliTun, in brass filigree work, inlaid with silver medallions, panels of flowers, and geometrical designs, and Naskhy and Kufy inscriptions. These tables were used to support such a tray as the splendid specimen preserved in the South Kensington Museum, described at p. 229, on which the Sultan's repasts, and the wine service that followed, were spread in the usual Eastern manner. The doors of the mosques of this period were covered, not with the rough but effective plaques of cast bronze, which we see on the doors of Beybars (figs. 83-6) in the thirteenth cen- tury, but with cut bronze plates, chased and sometimes inlaid with silver. Mosque lamps, when they were not of enamelled glass, were of exquisite filigree silver inlay (fig. 76). Large chandeliers hung in front of the niches of many of the mosques, made of repousse bronze in an arabesque design and covered with chasing, or of iron filigree work (fig. 78), with zones of shining copper, bright as red gold. Korans were enclosed in gold cases adorned with precious stones.* The utensils of the royal and aristocratic palaces were of inlaid brass and bronze ; large bowls or tanks, small cups and trays, censers, candlesticks of ungainly form but * El-Makiizy, Mamlouks, ii. 246. METAL- WORK. 193 beautiful workmanship, ewers, caskets, writing-boxes, all were covered with silver ornament, arabesques, flowers, inscriptions, and geometrical designs, with, not seldom, the heraldic badges of their owner. The specimens described below range from the beginning of the fourteenth to the end of the fifteenth century, when the art of inlaying was already on the wane ; but an examination of the numerous collections, public and private, of Europe would doubtless carry the history of the art to a somewhat later date. In the present day the Cairo workmen engrave brass trays and vessels of considerable merit, and if they do not now produce to any appreciable extent the in- laid work of their ancestors it is probably because it is too costly for most purchasers, and is neglected by the modern Pasha. There can be no doubt that most of this Mamluk work was made at Cairo. Although the figured work of Mosil, taking a new start in the 1 2th and 13th centuries, seems to have at first dominated the artists of the Mohammadan East, and to have influenced schools of design far from its centre, there is no question that inlaid metal-work existed in Egypt before the 13th century. The inventory of the palace of the Fatimy Khalif El-Mustansir, in the nth century, contains numerous entries of inlaid metal- work, — gold plates enamelled in colours ; writing-boxes in gold and silver; great vats for washing clothes, standing on three legs, representing animals ; mirrors inlaid with gold and silver in borders of precious stones ; quantities of vessels adorned with chased gold ; six thousand gold narcissus vases ; and even row-galleys coated with gold plates. Nasir-i-Khusrau, who saw this Khalif holding a state reception, says his throne was covered with gold, on which were depicted scenes of the chase, huntsmen and dogs, and inscriptions; the balustrade was of gold trellis-work of a beauty defying description, and the steps behind the throne were of silver.* The same * Sefer Nameh, 158. 194 AUT OF THE SARACENS. observer tells us of a magnificent silver chandelier placed in the mosque of 'Amr by the Khalif El-Hakim, which was so large that they had to break down the door to get it into the mosque.* Fatimy work spread to Sicily, where we find very early and singularly perfect metal-work made by Mohammadans. The Bayeaux ivory casket (Prisse, iii., pi. 157), with its finely chased silver plates, has an unmistakable Fatimy inscription in combina- tion with confronted birds, peacocks beak to beak, parrots, and • other Mosil characteristics. The ivory box of Ziyad ibn Aflah, in the South Kensington Museum, with the date 359 (a.d. 971), is probably due to Fatimy workmen. The crystal vase preserved in the treasure of St. Mark at Venice bears the name of El-'Aziz, a Fatimy Khalif of the last quarter of the tenth century, and is closely similar to another crystal vase of St. Denis, now in the Louvre, which bears inscriptions of the same character as those on the Niirnberg mantle, which was made at Palermo in 11 33 under the rule of Roger, t These crystal vases, of which examples with the name of El-'Aziz are mentioned by El-Makrizy, and the embroidered silks, show a power of design and execution which implies similar proficiency in metal-work. In fine, there is no doubt that the artists of Egypt under the Fatimis were skilled to a degree that found no parallel in the handicrafts of Europe. The art may have succumbed for a while to the influence of the Mosil school, which would naturally be imported by rulers like Saladin and his successors, who came from the very region of the Mosil silversmiths j and the Fatimy work may have owed much of its perfection to the teaching of Mesopotamian artists of a date earlier than any existing specimens ; { but it is impossible to * Sefer Nameh, 149 ; El-Makrizy, Mamlouks, ii. 250. t A. de Longp^rier, CEuz/res, i. 453-5. J We know that Basra painters were brought to Egypt in Fatimy times. El-Makrizy tells us that the " Mosque of the Karafa," erected by Taghtid Darzan, the wife of El-Mu'i^z, was built by a Persian architect, El- Hasan El- f arisy, and resembled the Azhar. Its chief gate was cased with iron, and FIG, 77.— BASK OF CHANDBLIER OF SULTAN EL-GHORY. Beginning of i6th Century. {Cairo Museum,) 196 ART OF THE SARACENS. overlook the existence of an ancient skill in arts of all kinds in Egypt itself, and to ascribe much of the merits of the Mamluk work to the traditions of the Fatimis. The derivation is the more likely, inasmuch as the Mamliik work betrays more of the arabesque and floral influence of the Egyptian school, as we see it displayed in the older mosques of Cafro, than that of the figure ornament of Mosil. The ducks of the Mesopotamian swamps indeed survive and are emphasized, in deference, as I believe, to the name of the founder of En-Nasir's dynasty, Kalatin (the " duck ") ; but the general character of the Mamluk style is certainly different from that of Mosil, and partakes of the general Saracenic character of arabesque and geometrical design, which was no doubt inherited from the earlier rulers of Egypt, and was probably to a large extent fostered by skilful artists among the Copts. It is unfortunate that so few examples of Coptic art can be ascribed with certainty to fixed dates; for the establishment of the existence of an early Coptic school of art, derived from Byzantium, would explain much that is obscure in the history of Egyptian art. From what Mr. Butler has been able to bring together in his valuable work on the Coptic Churches of Egypt, it seems clear that, however deeply the Saracens were indebted to the Copts for their designs and methods in wood and ivory carving and inlay, they did not draw their metal-work from the same source. fourteen square brick gates led into the sanctuary: before each of them was an arch resting on two marble columns, in three parts, blue, red, and green, and other colours. The ceilings were decorated in various colours by work- 7>ien from Basra, and the Beny Mu'allim, the masters of El-Kettamy and En-Naziik. Opposite the seventh doorway was an arch on the two sides whereof were painted fountains with steps, which looked real. Painters used to come to see it, but could not imitate it. Two rival painters, El-Kasir and Tbn-'Aziz (of 'Irak), were pitted one against the other by the Vizir El-Yazury; the first painted a picture of a dancing-girl in white robes on a black blind arch, as though she were inside it, and the second a similar girl in crimson robes on a yellow ground, as though she were standing out of the arch. FIG, 78.— LANTERN OF <:HEYKH ' ABD -EL-BASIT. {Cairo Museum.) 198 ART OF THE SARACENS. Coptic metal-work shows no trace of affinity to the Saracenic bowls, trays, and censers described in the present chapter. The lamps, crosses, textus cases, and flabella of the Copts are more nearly related to European and Byzantine models than to contemporary Saracenic work. Yet the remark made above, that Coptic influence is traceable even in this art, holds good ; since it is not uncommon to find one art suggesting ideas to another, and the Coptic designs in wood and ivory may have helped to form the Mamluk style in brass and silver. But it may be asked, especially when the prevalence of what I have described as a Damascus-looking rosette on Mamluk work is considered, whether the metal-work of the Mamluks was not man-u- factured at their second capital, Damascus, rather than at Cairo, and whether the old Fatimy art had not become extinct, to be succeeded by a Damascus school taking up new ground ? There is no reason for supposing that the artists of Damascus stopped with the style described under my second class — if indeed that be really Syrian ; doubtless they continued to execute equally fine specimens, and some of the objects bearing Mamliik names may have been made at Damascus. But it should be noted that there is practically no metal-work of any merit at Damascus now, while the Cairo work- men are still skilful ; and further, I can quote a passage from El-Makrizy which mentions a flourishing school of metal artists under the Mamluks at Cairo. ,, "5# El-Keftlyin ('market of the inlayers'). This market . . . contains a number of shops for the making of keft, which is inlaying copper vessels with silver and gold. There was a great sale for this kind of work in the houses of Misr [Fustat], and the people had a keen relish for inlaid copper. We have seen it in such quantities that it could not be counted, and there was hardly a house in Cairo or Misr which had not many pieces of inlaid copper. The equipment i^^^it) of a wedding was not complete without a dikka (or stand) of inlaid copper. The dikka means a thing like a divan-frame, made of wood inlaid with ivory and METAL-WORK. 199 ebony, or painted. Upon the dikka were set cups of yellow- copper [brass] inlaid with silver, and the set consisted of seven pieces, some smaller than others, the largest holding about -an ardebb of wheat. The length of the [bands of] silver inlay, on those of the larger size, was about a third of a cubit, and the breadth two fingers. And similar to this was a set of plates, in number seven, one fitting into the other, the largest reaching to about two cubits and more. And besides that [inlaid work was used for] lanterns, and lamps, and vessels for o^*!!"; ^^"^ basins, and ewers, and perfume burners. The price of a dikka of inlaid copper thus mounted up to 200 dinars of gold. If the bride were of the daughters of the Amirs and the Wezirs and the chief secretaries and the chiefs of the merchants, the outfit of the marriage included seven dikkas, one of silver, another of inlaid copper, another of white copper, another of painted wood, another of china, another of crystal, another of keddhy — and this is of pieces of painted sheets [papier-machd ?] brought from China : we have seen very many in the houses, but the art is now lacking in Misr." * El-Makrizy goes on to describe the dikka of the Kady 'Ala- ed-din, Muhtesib (or inspector of the markets) of Cairo, who married a daughter of the merchants, named Sitt El-'Amaim (" Lady of the Turbans "), of which the metal alone con- sisted of a hundred thousand pure silver pieces; and then mentions the wedding of a daughter of Sultan Hasan with an Amir of Sultan Sha'ban, and describes the fine trousseau she had, including a dikka, or service, of crystal, with a crystal bucket engraved with representations of wild beasts and birds, big enough to hold the contents of a water-skin. He concludes the tection with the remark that " the demand for this inlaid copper- work has fallen off in our times, and since many years the people have turned away from purchasing what was to be sold of it, so that * Khitat (Bulak ed.), ii. 105. 200 ART OF THE SARACENS. but a small remnant of the workers of inlay survive in this market." * .The passage above quoted from El-Makrizy establishes beyond doubt the fact that there was a school of inlayers and metal- workers at Cairo which survived, though in diminished numbers and prosperity, to his own day, i.e about the year 1420 ; and the bowl (fig. 89) described below p. 238, with the name of Kait Bey, fifty years later, must, if it is of Cairo workmanship, as I believe, have been made by the remnant the historian describes as still occupying the Suk El-Keftlyin. The general characteristics of the class which I have termed Mamluk work are easily recognizable. The Arabic inscriptions are large and bold, and often, in the case of trays or other flat surfaces, radiating ; small inscriptions containing the name or title of the Sultan on a fess, or perhaps a coat-of-arms, are enclosed in a medallion surrounded by a belt of flowers and leaves of the kind familiar on Damascus tiles ; the ground is freely sprinkled with ducks and other fowl, and the bottom inside the bowls is generally ornamented, with a shoal of fish, suggestive of the purposes for which the vessel was intended ; the borders, generally of arabesque or flower scrolls, but some- times of beasts pursuing each other, are broken by little whorls, * When El-Makrizy speaks of white and yellow copper, he means of course brass or bronze. The greater number of the inlaid objects I have seen are of brass, and not of copper ; though of course the word En-Nahds may be taken to include "yellow copper." (or brass) as well as pure red copper. In the South Kensington collection, which has had the advantage of the chemical tests of Dr. Hodgkinson (F.R.S.E., Professor at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and of the Royal College of Chemistry), there are 20 brass objects to 8 of bronze, while what copper there Is has a coating of an alloy of lead and antimony, which gives a grey appearance to the bowls thus treated. Some of the bronzes are zinc bronzes, i. e. contain zinc as well as tin, but as a rule they contain a large proportion of tin. t There is no " market of the inlayers " in Cairo now ; but workmen may still be found who can inlay copper with silver after a somewhat rude fashion, using a simple graver, and beating silver wire into the excavated design. FIG. 79- — COVER OF SHERBET BOW . Made by Mabmud Ei-Kurdy at Venice. Sixteenth Century. (Souik Kensington Museum.) 202 ART OF THE SARACENS. typical of the style, and there are no figures, except when the bowl or other vessel is intended for magical or astrological purposes. The style is very distinct, and once seen can never be mistaken. There remains one more important branch of the history of Saracenic metal-work which must not be passed over, although it does not belong to our special subject of Egyptian Art. This branch is the Saracenic art of Italy, and notably Venice. It stands to reason that the exquisite workmanship of the chased vases and bowls of the Saracens must have soon found its market in Europe, and there is plenty of evidence that even before the Crusades the monasteries of the West had learned to prize chalices made by the infidels. A strong impetus must have been afforded by the Mohammadan proclivities of Frederic II., and his extensive employment of Saracen mercenaries in his campaigns against Gregory IX. These foreign troops were settled in various cities of Italy, where they left their traces in the names as well as in the blood and civilization of the places they inhabited. Thus Lucera came to be called Nocera delli pagani ; thus Pisa, which was occupied by Saracen troops for the greater part of the thirteenth century, had its Oriental quarter, known as the " Kinsica," and even in the preceding century the poet Donizo had lamented the city being "delivered over to Moors, Indians, and Turks ; " thus, too, there was a " Via Sarracena " at Ferrara. Saracenic artists lived at Genoa and Florence, and no doubt taught their art to the native workmen. Cellini says he copied Oriental poniards and improved upon them. Before the Crusades, Amalfi was the port whence pilgrims started for the Holy Land, and it was frequented by merchants from Egypt and the East. Here was opportunity enough for the introduction of Saracenic art into Europe. But beyond all these lesser entrances, Venice was the chief port for Eastern wares. Venice had her colonies in the coasts of the Levant, in Turkey, Greece, and Palestine ; Venice had treaty rights in Egypt and Syria; Venice welcomed the merchants of METAL. WORK. 203 the East with equal privileges, and assigned them the old palace of the Dukes of Ferrara for their habitation ; and at Venice the name of the " Fondaco dei Turchi " still survives.* This almost Oriental city was the centre of Saracenic metal-work in Italy. Numerous salvers, cups, censers, and other articles, bear the unmistakable stamp of Venetian handicraft. The first and most salient distinction of this European branch of Saracenic work is in the form ; the somewhat crude outlines of the true Saracenic bowls and candlesticks give place to more graceful and obviously Western shapes. In the decoration considerable alterations are made. In place of the inscriptional medallions or simple Mamluk shields, European coats-of-arms are introduced ; and the general treatment of the decoration is different. The arabesques remain, but they are more elaborate, and at the same time more mechanical. Silver inlay is sparingly used, and in many instances is entirely wanting ; and the design is brought out, not by the contrast of metals, but by relief; the pattern being raised, and the surrounding ground cut away to a lower level. When there is inlay, it is generally in thin lines, secured between slightly raised and serrated edges, and further held by stippling the surface beneath the plate with little notches ; but even then the design is in relief. The artists who produced this extremely delicate and beautiful work were at first and probably for some time Easterns. The most famous name we meet with on the sherbet-bowls and trays of Venice is that of Mahmud El-Kurdy, who must have come from the Kurd country in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, and was thus an heir to the traditions of the Mesopotamian metal-workers. The number of these Venetian and Italian specimens in the British Museum is considerable, and the series has been instructively arranged, so that one can trace the gradual transition from the Mamluk style through the Venetian school to the other still semi- oriental salvers of mediaeval Europe. The South Kensington * See M. Lavoix, Les Azsiministes, ubi supr., for these and other indications. Q 204 ART OF THE SARACENS. Museum has also a few fine examples of the Venetian style of metal-work, including a specimen of Mahmud El-Kurdy's skill which is engraved in fig. 79. Presently the native Italian workmen took up the art, calling themselves Azzimini — workers, all' Agemina, "in the Persian style"— as did Paulus Ageminius, who made the vase described by M. Lavoix, and Giorgio Ghisi Azzimina of Mantua, a great name among them : but in their hands the art changed character, and we have to go to the East again to see what remains of Saracenic art in the well-chased brass trays of Cairo, the floral decoration of Persian narghilas, and the rude arabesque bowls of Syria and Tokat. I now proceed to describe some typical examples of Saracenic metal-work in our English Museums. I. MOSIL-WORK. 1. Ewer. — Brass inlaid with silver. Made by Shuga' ibn Hanfar, at M5sil, in a.h. 629 (a.d. 1232). On a ground of key-pattern, zones of scenes of the chase and festivity, benedictory inscriptions, and the date (at the junction of the neck) a^JI J.^Ji ^y ^-e>*)l j*«- cwt pU-i J^ JmC^L. i.U>:L,3 ^>Jjic^ ^^ iw ^ w.«^_; y^ 4>W " Engraved by Shuga ibn Hanfar of Mosil, in the blessed month of God, the month Regeb, in the year 629, at Mosil." The figures are arranged in four zones, two of which comprise each ten seated figures, enclosed in quatrefoils, playing musical instru- ments, drinking from cups, &c. ; while the other two zones are adorned with large mounted figures, to wit : — Upper large zone: i. Horsemen with chitah on rump; 2. Figure seated on throne holding cup and attended by two squires ; 3. Horseman with hawk on wrist, rabbit before horse, dog beneath; 4. Archer, bending one knee, shooting ducks ; 5. Two men FIG. 80. — CASKET OF EL-* ADIL, GRAND-NEPHEW OF SALADIN. Thirteenth Century. {South Kensington Museum.) Q 2 2 o6 ART OF THE. SARA GEN'S. fighting together with swonls and round shields : 6. Horseman with beast on rump, a dog beneath ; 7. Figare seated on throne, with two attendants, bird above ; 8. Horseman spearing lion beneath horse's head; 9 and 10 were occupied by handle and spout (the latter missing). Lower large zone : — i. Man and woman in howdah on camel's back, and man leading ; 2. Archer drawing bow, and woman in pillion, on a camel; 3. Two seated figures, one playing harp, the other pipe ; 4. Horseman with sword and round shield combatting foot man similarly armed ; 5. Seated figure, with jug held by servant ; 6. Two women playing lute and cymbals ; 7. Horseman, with uplifted arms, launching leopard or chitah from the crupper in pursuit of a deer; 8. Two women, with bottle, bowls, and fan ; 9. Horseman shooting arrow down throat of boar ; 10. Seated king, wearing turban, receiving homage of a man who prostrates himself before throne and kisses king's hand ; a woman stands behind. Suns (with human faces) divide the ten figures of the lower zone, and floral medallions those of the upper zone. Between the two is a frieze of hunting-scenes broken by octagons of key-pattern : men and beasts and birds contending in fantastic attitudes. [Brit. Mus., Blacas. Coll. Reinaud, ii. 423. J 2. Censer. — Brass inlaid with stiver. Dated a.h. 641 (a.d. 1243). Shape, a cylinder on three feet ; with a dome-shaped upper part, hinged to open and shut, and perforated in a zone round middle. The upper part is divided into four zones. 'Beginning at the button at top, the first zone contains an Arabic inscrip- tion : — Ol»»5lj j.iJ j_£^*lis O^'^J >«!=«»-" i^*^W ^ iJt i5L»;«)5.^;>j»jjt^ ^».t iw ^ ^.^ C)U».t "Within me is hell- fire; but without float sweetest odours: it was made in the year 641." Tlie second zone is composed of a three-strand plait-pattern. METAL- WORK. 207 The third zone, pierced with small holes, is. covered with arabesques, except four medallions which are filled with the characteristic key-pattern ^ ' ^C^ //^*^^ &c. The fourth zone has the same plait-pattern as the second. The lower part is ornamented with three medallions (one reserved for a handle, which is missing) of key-pattern, with scroll border ; and three arabesque quatrefoils, each surrounded by four stars ; on a ground of key-pattern ; and a benedictory Arabic inscription between the medallions and quatrefoils. The feet are engraved with arabesques. The bottom is of a later date, and is ornamented with an inter- lacing geometrical design in five star centres round central star. On the rim of the original bottom are traces of illegible inscription. [B. M., Henderson, 678.] This is not a typical example of Mosil-work ; but its early date procures it the second place, and the key-pattern is characteristic, and will be found repeated on later specimens of unmistakably Mosil fabric. With regard to the material, I should state that without chemical tests it is often impossible to be sure whether the alloy contains tin or zinc, whether, in other words, it is bronze or brass. The colour is a very unsafe guide, as I have proved during a series of chemical assays of the South Kensington col- lection performed by Professor Hodgkinson. 3. ^(y/i.— Brass inlaid with silver. Made for Bedr-ed-din Lulu, Prince of Mosil, who reigned a.h. 631—657 (a.d. 1233—1259.) Shape, cylindrical, with a hinged lid and hasp ; edge o^ lid bevelled. On the bevel of the lid is an Arabic inscription : — j^.cu«Jt>UiJI ju^*)! JiWI^Ull ,^^\ iU«3t (S) ^13) U-il^ic 2o8 ART OF THE SARACENS. " Glory to our lord, the merciful king, wise, just, God-aided triumphant, victorious, fighting for the Faith, warden of Islam, Full-raoon of state and church. Lulu [Pearl], sword-blade of the Prince of the Faithful." Round of the edge of the lid, a plait-border. On the surface of the lid, a shoal of fish, interlaced, within quatrefoil, surrounded by a key-pattern, within scroll-border. Round the lower part, in quatrefoil panels, four aureoled seated figures holding wine-cups, &c., alternating with four bold arabesques ; these eight panels separated by other panels, enclos- ing a rosette of annulets, and beasts of the chase and water-fowl ; ground of key-pattern ; a fine arabesque border above and beneath. [B. M., Henderson, 674.] Here we have a vessel made for a well-known Atabek of Mosil, presenting the key-pattern, plait-border, medallions, quatrefoils, &c., already noticed in No. i, but with the addition of the aureoled figures,beasts of the chase, water-fowl, and fish, which now become characteristic of thirteenth century work. If the hunting and hunted animals are typical of the Assyrian and Sassanian source of the art, the fish and water-fowl are no less natural in the swamps of Mesopotamia. 4. Box. — Brass inlaid with silver. Made for the Ayyuby Sultan El-'Adil Abu-Bekr II. (a.d. 1238-40) grand-nephew of Saladin. Fig. 80. Cylindrical, the edge of the cover bevelled and engraved with an Arabic inscription :—jjkljJ I JiUJI .iUJI ^;,UaJLJI U"^^ j* CH^Ij Lo^n Us- IwjJI jJklo^l j^.ftM>JI jiJi«]| ju^l j^l»)| -r>^^ Ch j^ ^^ 04 .t-e^^A ChI jiLi ,^1 "Glory to our lord the Sultan, the king, just, virtuous, devout, God-aided, triumphant, victorious, fighter for the Faith, warden of Islam, Sword of state and church, Abu-Bekr son of Mohammad son of Abii-Bekr son of Ayyub." METAL- WORK. 209 The sides are covered with six aureoled figures : — i. Horseman, hawk on wrist, dog below; 2. Man spearing beast ; 3. Horse- man spearing beast on crupper ; 4. Man spearing beast ; 5. As i ; 6. Man slaying beast with sword. On thecover, diaper of hexagrams enclosing six seated turbaned figures of the planets round central sun, within a zone of the Signs of the Zodiac. Scroll border beneath bevel. Prevailing ornaments, scrolls and %i^ w An inscription on the bottom aJjUJI dUli. c-.~JaJI^«ijiJ, "Made for the Tisht-Khanah of El-'Adil," refers to the magazine or store-room, where the dresses and utensils, &c., of the Sultan were kept, and the clothes washed. It was managed by a superintendent (jUyrf) and a number of servants (jl>:iJa).* H. 4I in., diam. 4^ in. [S. K. M., 8508—1863.] 5. Perfume-burner. — Brass inlaid, with silver. Made for the Amir Beysary, a Turkish Mamliik of Egypt. Circ. a.h. 670 (a.d. 1271). Fig. 81. Globular : in two hemispheres, pierced with small holes, with a ring at the top. The upper hemisphere is ornamented with five medallions enclosing two-headed eagles with spreading tails, separated by five smaller medallions filled with the key-pattern in the shape of a six-pointed star, the surrounding ground engraved with free arabesque scroll-work. Above and below the design are two zones of Arabic inscrip- tions. Below : * El-Makrizy, Hist, des Mamlouks, Quatremere, II. i. 115, n. 2 10 ART OF THE SARACENS. ^J.ftt:jl {sic) la^tjoJt ^JJklq^l ,^j'5>.~vi-Jt j_j<5.»ji.*}l ^Aya^S " Of what was made by order of his excellency, the generous, exalted, lord, great Amir, honoured, master, Marshal, fighter for the Faith, warden of Islam, the powerful, the God-aided the victorious." Above: (_5~.«.i.ll ^^^jk-jtJ) ^^JkUall ^x-"^ Oi^^ j'^i ij'jj.Jt jjj^-aioJI "Full-moon of the Faith, Beysary, the liege- man of Edh-Dhahir, of Es-Sa'id, of Shems-ed-din, of El-Mansur, of Bedr-ed-din." Within which, round the ring, is a zone of five two-headed eagles in open work. Lower hemisphere, same as upper, but omitting ^_jJ'^^l, and substituting ^_^J^Ul yi^."^! for (_^j'5U.yi-JI, adding ^ to Jaj'j-»^'> and affixing ijjcj js, to ^ .. ..^. t JI. [B. M., Henderson, 682.] Lord Beysary was one of the retainers of Es-Salih Ayyub, the last ruling king of Egypt of the house of Saladin ; rising by degrees, he became one of the most powerful of the Amirs of the time of Beybars. When El-Melik Es-Sa'id Baraka, the son of Beybars, was deposed, Beysary was offered the. throne, and refused it. Kalaiin (1279-90) threw him into prison, whence he was hberated, after eleven years' captivity, by El-Ashraf Khalil in 1293, who restored him to his rank of centurion, or captain over 100 men, while the Amiri showered congratulations and presents upon him. Henceforward he styled himself El-Ashrafy, "follower* of El- Ashraf," instead of his old title of Esh-Sherasy. On the death of Khalil he was again offered the throne, and again declined the honour. The Sultan Ketbugha allotted him sixty Mamluks, to each of whom Beysary gave two horses and a mule. The tide * The relative termination, y, affixed to a name, though originally implying the relation of slave to master (as El-Ashrafy, the MamlOk of El-Ashraf), came to signify also the mere relation of a retainer, liegeman, or even courtier, without the notion of ownership. Beysary was called El-Ashrafy, as one of the courtiers of El-Ashraf Khalil, the Sultan's "man ;" but he was not his slave. FIG. 8l.— PERPUME-BQRNER OF BKYSARV. Thirteenth Century. {South Kensington Museum.) 212 ART OF THE SARACENS. of fortune changed in 1297, when the Sultan Lagin, moved to jealousy by a rival lord, again consigned Beysary to prison, where he died in 1298, and was buried in his tomb outside the Bab-en-Nasr. He was lavish in his generosity, prodigal of immense gifts, and perpetually in debt to the amount of 400,000 dirhems (about £\(>,oo6); for he had no sooner cleared off one debt than he hastened to contract another. Generosity was his pride, and he would accept no remonstrances from his servants on his prodigahty, but straightway dismissed the economical critic. He never drank twice out of the same cup, but took a new vessel each time. At the time of the accession to power of Kalaun, Beysary is stated to have been wholly given over to wine and gambhng. No man approached him in the amount and importance of his charities. His palace, Dar El-Beysariyeh, in the Beyn-el-Kasreyn, was originally intended, in late Fatimy times, for a residence for Frankish ambassadors, and one actually had resided there to receive certain tribute; but under Beybars, Lord Beysary Es-Salihy Esh-Shemsy En- Negmy began to rebuild the palace in 1261, and spent immense sums on adorning it. It occupied, with its stables, garden, and bath, about two acres (feddans) : the marbles employed for it were the best that were used in Cairo, and excellently wrought. The palace remained in the possession of his heirs till 1332. Kusun wished to own it, and asked the Sultan En- Nasir Mohammad for permission to treat for it : it was valued at 190,000 dirhems, and the garden brought it up to 200,000; it subsequently passed through many hands, and at the time of El-Makrizy belonged to a daughter of Barkuk. The door of the house had a panel which was one of the most beautiful ever mad? at Cairo.* It may be questioned whether the South Kensington box and Beysary's perfume-burner were made at Mosil or at Cairo. The * El-Makrizy, 1. c. II. ii. 13511. METAL-WORK. 213 statement on the former that it was made "by order of £1- 'Adil's tisht-khanah " does not necessarily infer that the ordei' was executed in Cairo : a Mosil workman may have been employed at Mosil or have been fetched to Cairo. The two pieces, however, are of the style which is identified by other examples as the fabric of Mosil, and the two-headed eagle is a familiar device on Mesopotamian coin of the twelfth and thirteenth century; and if either was made at Cairo the artists must have been trained in the Mosil school. That such work was sometimes done at Cairo is shown by an astrolabe in the British Museum, with the inscription — aj^a^ -Oa. i;-> j_j5 ^\r^\ (^jAoJI ijCLoJI, '"Abd-El-Kerim made it, the Cairene [Misry], the Astrolabist, at Cairo, the [follower] of El-Melik El-Ashraf and El-Melik El- Mu'izz, and of Shihab-ed-din, in the year 633." This astrolabe has the key ornament, good arabesques, and of course planets and zodiacal figures; and is inlaid with silver and gold by under-cutting and toothed edges. The El-Mu'izz, whom he once served, was no doubt the prince of Mesopotamia, and El-Ashraf the Ayyuby of Diyarbekr, both of whom reigned in the first quarter of the thirteenth century. This would show that Mesopotamian artists came to Cairo, where there was, as we have seen, a Suk El-Keftlyln, or market of the inlayers. 6. Perfume-burner. — Brass inlaid with silver. No date. [Thirteenth century.] Shape similar to No. 2. On the lower part are three arabesque frames, one occupied by handle, the other two filled with two aureoled figures seated cross-legged on high-backed thrones, with bird on either side ; 214 ART OF THE SARACENS. Ijetween which are other medallions filled with quatrefoils ; and beasts of the chase; ground of arabesque scroll-work. On the top, nine seated figures holding cups, cymbals, &c.; and round the button a zone of Arabic inscription : — " Enduring glory and sound life and growing prosperity.'' [B. M., Henderson, 68i.] The seated figures on high thrones are similar to some on coins of Saladin, of 1190, and of the Urtukis of Maridin of the year 1230: cross-legged figures are common on the Mesopotamian currency of the thirteenth century. 7. Deep Salver. — Brass inlaid with silver. No date. [Thirteenth century.] On a ground of key-pattern, a band of hunting-scenes, and cross- legged figures holding crescent moon, alternately, with occasional water-fowl, and a border of hounds. The hunting-scenes depict a horseman attacking, with drawn sword, a leopard on horse's rump, another shooting a hare with bow and arrow, a third cut- ting down a deer in front of the horse, and three pairs of seated Byzantine-looking figures, two of these holding cups and the third a hawk, while the companions hold sword or spear. Meaningless Kufic inscription UJUJlx), &c. Within the curve Of the rim, a border of medallions enclosing figures holding wine-cups, &c., and also pairs of figures resembling the Madonna arid Child. The central and chief device consists of a seated cross-legged figure on high-backed throne, attended by two squires, holding cup and sword (other cups sprinkled in the field) ; at the foot of the throne two lions couchant, and beneath them a two-beaded eagle, closely resembling that of BeySary, between two bowmen shooting each at one of its heads. [B. M., Henderson, 706.] METAL-WORK. 215 8. Ewer. — Brass inlaid with silver. No date. [Thirteenth century.] The decoration on the body is arranged in a series of zones on an arabesque ground. The topmost zone consists of a band of falcons, back to back, with silver eyes, tails crossed, and heads standing out in very bold relief, so as to form a sort of parapet of knobs. Second zone : Arabic benedictory inscription, tops of alifs, lams, &c., terminating in chased human faces. Third zone : Beasts of the chase. Fourth or central zone, wider than the rest : Large arabesques enclosing twelve quasi-medallions, filled with personified signs of the zodiac combined with the seven planets, viz. (i) Mars on Aries, warrior holding decapitated human head, and riding ram ; (2) Venus on Taurus, woman (with lute) riding bull; (3) Mercury and Gemini, two figures linked together with a staff (pen?) between them, terminating in human faces ; (4) Moon and Cancer, crab surmounted by human head in crescent lurmed by claws ; (5) Sun and Leo, lion surmounted by sun ; (6) [Mercury and] Virgo, woman with two ears of corn; (7) Venus and Libra, balance held up by a woman ; (8) Mars and Scorpio, man holding two scorpions ; (9) Jupiter and Sagittarius, centaur shooting arrow down gaping mouth of dragon (formed out of his own tail) ; (10) Saturn and Capricornus, bearded man with long stair, riding goat; (11) Saturn and Aquarius, bearded man and well-bucket; (12) Jupiter and Pisces, two fish (Jupiter covered by handle). Fifth zone : Beasts of the chase. Sixth zone : Arabic benedictory inscription. Seventh zone : Long-necked birds within borders, necks inter- twined. 2i6 ART OF THE SARACENS. Eighth zone : Arabic benedictory inscription. On the neck is a zone of Arabic benedictory inscription, with a fine lion sejant at either side ; a zone of birds with red copper eyes ; the ground consists of beautiful free arabesques. Up the spout and sides of handle run strings of beasts of the chase, and up the back of the handle a string of birds ; at the junction of handle with body is a seated figure, cross-legged, holding two serpents. (B. M. Engraved in Labarte's Handbook of the Arts of the Middle Ages, ed. Palliser, p. 423.) The silver inlay of this ewer is effected by undercutting the edges, and not by stippling the surface (what stipples there are belong to a later repairing), and the straight lines are inlaid by punching all along them with a small oblong-headed punch. 9. Bowl. — Bronze inlaid with silver. No date. [Thirteenth century.] The decoration consists without, in two zones of Arabic religious inscriptions divided by key-medallions, and a double row of medallions enclosing aureoled figures playing musical instruments and drinking from cups ; within, a zone of medallions enclosing hunting-scenes, aureoled figures fighting with lions, carrying falcons, riding an elephant, and a Bedawy on camel, the interstices filled with key-pattern ; at the bottom, inside, a boat rowed by three men, while two others shoot wild ducks, another cuts a duck's throat, a seventh sits at the mast-head, and another dives beneath, pursued by an alligator; three zones of Arabic religious and unmeaning inscriptions ; on rim, border of animals of the chase, elephants, and a winged centaur. Height 8 in., diam. 19 in. [S. K. M., 2734-1856.] The foregoing is one of the finest pieces of Mosil work in England. The elephant and camel are specially noteworthy; METAL-WORK. 217 above all, the spirited scene on the bottom of a shooting party on the water, such as is recorded in the accounts of the sports of Persian princes. 10. Stand. — Brass inlaid with silver and gold. No date. [Thirteenth century.] Nine-sided ; chased with representations of nine figures of aureoled horsemen, holding falcons, fighting with dragon, bran- dishing bow, spear, and other weapons ; above, nine cross-legged seated aureoled figures clashing cymbals, blowing pipe, holding candles, and putting wine-glass to lips ; the interstices filled with black bituminous enamel ; on a background of silver scroll-work ; above and below, imitation Arabic inscription (LJ UJ, &c.). Height sf in., diam. 9^ in. [S. K. M., 917.— 1884.] The workmanship of the preceding is unusually delicate and intricate, and the shape is peculiar. It may have formed the base of a candlestick. The black enamel, composed really of pitch, is here well preserved, and it is probable that the majority of the inlaid works of this period were treated in a similar manner ; so that the black composition concealed most of those intervening portions of brass which the silver plates did not cover. It is impossible to conclude this section without referring to the most famous example of figured Mosil work in Europe, the so-called "Baptistery of St. Louis," preserved in the Louvre.* This splendid bowl, which belongs in style to the class of Mosil work of the thirteenth century, measures five feet in cir- * It has been fully described by M. de Longperier, in the Rhiue Archeolo- gigue (N. S. vii. 306 9), and the article reappears in the first volume of his (JEuvres (pp. 460-6). 2i8 ART OF THE SARACENS. cumference, and is covered inside and out with bands of figures richly inlaid with silver, so that little of the copper is visible. On the band inside are two medallions, each enclosing a prince seated cross-legged on a throne with a high pinnacled back and two lions under the feet, and holding a wine-cup, attended by two servants, one on the left of the prince bearing a sword, the other on the right holding a casket inscribed Stjj ("writing-case"). On the back of the throne is the inscription " made by Ibn-ez-Zeyn," or (as it is written elsewhere on the bowl) a) jAft O-iP' Cw' >*3»-« >o^*<>JI J-o*, "Made by master Mohammad ibn-ez-Zeyn, save him ! " The little cups held by the princes in the medallions are also signed with his name, as though they represented the vessels actually made in his workshop. Between the medallions are, on the one hand, six horsemen fighting with lances, bows, and maces ; on the other, six huntsmen pursuing beasts and game. One carries a chitah on the crupper — one of those " leopardi qui sciant equitare " which the mighty hunter Frederic II. loved to see engraved upon his cups. On the exterior a frieze of figures, ten centimetres high, is broken by four medallions, each containing a prince on horse- back killine a bear, a lion, or a dragon, with lance or arrows. Between, his servants bring him arms, falcons, a slain ante- lope, dogs in leash, and leopards ; one offers a flask and cup (inscribed with Ibn-ez-Zeyn's name) ; another, a plate, inscribed ;eUk)l J.*a-1j,«ftsfcj Ut, "I hasten to bring food." This frieze is bounded by two borders of beasts of the chase, divided by eight medallions, containing each a fleur-de-lis — probably a later Euro- pean addition. Such, in effect, is M. de Longpdrier's description of this magnificent work of art, to which the engravings inserted to illustrate his article do scant justice. Some of the zones are reproduced from these engravings fig. 82. Mr. W. Burges (in Sir Digby Wyatt's Metal Work) says that the inlay of this 2 20 ART OF THE SARACENS. bowl is effected by sinking the designs, especially deeply towards the edges, which are under-cut in a rebate, into which the edges of the inlaid plate are forced. Before dismissing the Mosil work, some reference must be made to the numerous mirrors which were made in that part, as well as elsewhere. They have been brought from Mesopotamia, Egypt, and especially from the South of Russia, where they are often found buried in the graves of Tartars. They are generally cast, with a good deal of silver in the bronze ; in form they are round or square, and vary in size from two inches to a foot. Several are preserved in the British Museum, including those described by Reinaud, from the Due de Blacas' Collection. The ornament is on the back, and generally consists of little more than benedictory inscriptions ; but one has a pair of Assyrian winged monsters, resembling Kalaun's winged kings. II. Early Syrian Work. II. Coffret. — Brass, inlaid with silver and gold. No date, [Late thirteenth century ?] ; Oblong, with sloping lid and silver chains to support it when ;■ open. It is covered with silver plates, chased with foliage, birds, 1 and human-headed lions ; and inlaid with medallions of designs and religious or unmeaning (UJUJUJI) Arabic inscriptions in gold. On the lid are eight large and small bosses. Height s| in., L. St^ in., W. 4 in. [S. K. M., 459--I873] Other specimens of the same sort are engraved in Prisse, where one is stated to have belonged to En-Nasir ibn Kalaun. METAL.WORK. 221 12. Writing-box. — Brass, inlaid with silver and copper. With hinge and hasp. No date. [Late thirteenth century ?] Oblong, with compartments for pens, ink, sand, &c. Along the front, sides, and back of lower part, the signs of the zodiac are represented in combination with the planets, much as on No. 8, but with copper as well as silver inlay ; the ground is of closely interwoven arabesques, inlaid and chased on the surface. On the bottom are four groups of four water-fowls each, with the heads together. On the lid, three medallions filled with key-pattern ; arabesque ground ; and border of decorative Kufy inscription, nearly illegible. Inside the lid is an Arabic benedictory inscription and a Kufy inscription on the top inside, with a central panel, and arabesque ground. tB. M., A. W. Franks, 1884.] 13. Writing-box. — Brass, inlaid with silver and a little gold. No date. [Late thirteenth century ?] Similar to 12, but with rounded ends ; seventeen figures, riding, drinking, or playing on musical instruments, on the lid and bottom, inside and out ; water-fowl confronted in pairs; back to back, and also a group of six ; small medallions of key-pattern inlaid with gold wire. [B. M., Burges, 19.] 14. Writing-box. — Brass, inlaid with silver and a little gold. No date. [Late thirteenth century.] Similar to 12 in shape and, general treatment, but the leaves of the arabesque ground are now frequently converted into birds, and there are no figures : the two birds fighting beak to beak, in chased silver inlay, occur repeatedly, and also the key-pattern R 2 222 ART OF THE SARACENS. medallions in gold : Arabic benedictory inscriptions on top and round sides, and on bottom arabesques on a key-pattern ground : inside, fine rosettes of flowers and leaves like Damascus tiles, numerous key-pattern medallions in gold wire, flower-scroll borders, wild-fowl in panels of six, two Arabic benedictory inscriptions, and one circular radiating inscription, viz. : ^^\^\ ,_jj.--JI ^fiUJI l£/«0» ^^Xh»t JUJI w»UaJI " His Highness exalted, lordly, great, royal, master, valiant, Ghiydthy, munificent." [B. M., Burges, 20.] It is dangerous to hazard conjecture as to the identity of the prince Ghiyath-ed-din from whom this Mamluk (retainer) took his epithet Ghiyathy, for the name is not uncommon. It does not, however, occur among the Beny Zenky or the Bahry Mamluks, and it is not unreasonable to suppose it to refer to either Edh- Dhahir or El -'Aziz, son and grandson of Saladin, who both bore the surname, and ruled Aleppo from ii86 to 1236. A retainer of the latter might easily be living in the second half of the thirteenth century. 15. Box. — Brass inlaid with silver and a little gold. No date. [Late thirteenth century?] Oblong, curved outline. Gold inlay chiefly distributed in key-pattern medallions and stars ; silver in the confronted birds &c. ; two groups of four birds within eightfoils on top; on front, two birds confronted and two beasts confronted within eightfoil, four times repeated, in alternation with ara- besques likewise enclosed in eightfoils; ground of key-pattern; border of beasts of the chase. [B. M-, Hen^-erson, 677.] METAL-WORK. 223 The last three pieces were in all probability made by the same school of artists. They began \rith the Mosil-like system of zodiacal and other figures (bat in a much more finished and delicate man- ner), adding the characteristic mark of this group — the gold-inlaid key-pattern medallions — and then omitted the figures and intro- duced more of the waterfowl that afterwards became most prominent on Mamluk work, and also added the typical Damascus rosette ornament. These boxes constitute a class by them- selves, and arguing from the Damascus ornament and the (probably) Aleppo epithet, I have provisionally termed it Syrian. A similar writing-box in the South Kensington Museum (8993 — 1863) has a long series of Mamluk titles, none of which identify its provenance. III. Mamluk Work. The rule of the Mamluks in Egypt extended from the middle of the 13th to the beginning of the i6th century; but there are hardly any examples of their metal- work of the 13th century, and the finest and most numerous class is that of the Nasiry Amirs, or courtiers of the Sultan En-Nasir Mohammad, in the 14th century ; this is the style which is meant when the term Mamluk work is employed. Of the earlier century, besides the perfume-burner of Mosil style already described bearing the name of Beysary, the chief specimen of 13th century work made in Cairo is the bronze plating of the doors of Beybars' mosque extra tnuros. 16. Door-plating of the Mosque of Beybars I., a.d. 1268. These plaques are now in the South Kensington Museum, having been acquired in 1884 from M. de St. Maurice. They consist of a central boss, bearing the crest of Beybars, a lion 224 ART OF THE SARACENS. passant (fig. 83), with twelve geometrically shaped plaques arranged round it, each of which contains an arabesque design in open filigree-work (fig. 84); a smaller boss surrounded by nine similar plaques ; a knocker (fig. 85) ; and a border of open arabesque-work (fig. 86) and a portion of an Arabic inscription ( jfjJkUsJI (jCW ^Jh*^*^^) also in open work. Two other sets consist of a knocker, bosses, and geometrical plaques filled with arabesque designs in open work, arabesque borders, and a portion of a Koran inscription. The plaques form systems of 10 in these sets ; of 1 2 and 9 in the first set. All these pieces are cast, not FIG 84. FIG. 83. FIR. 86. FIGS. 83 — 86. — BK0N2E PLAQUES FROM DOOR OF BEYllARS I {South Kensiftgion Museum.) cut, and are therefore identical each with its fellows in the same system, in contrast to the usual character of Cairene work, where we seldom find two patterns alike. The arabesques are, how- ever, very free and flowing, and the appearance of the numerous plaques, fastened all over the door by ribbed studs, must have been highly effective. The mosque where these doors once hung was built by Sultan Beybars, in the Huseyniya quarter of Cairo, in 665-7 (a.d. 1266-8), and contains many remarkable features. METAL- WORK. 225 These bronze-plaque doors_ of Beybars are of a different character from the bronze doors of the later Mamluks.* The mosques of Cairo present many splendid examples of this later style, which usually consists in covering the doors with large plates of thin bronze (about \ inch), cut out in various arabesque patterns, or cast in embossed designs, and chased on the surface, and generally distributed in the form of a central circle or oval and four corner-pieces, or spandrils, with a border round the four sides, secured by ribbed-headed nails. The door itself is of wooden planks nailed on to a frame-work behind, and strengthened by bronze bands near the top and bottom, which #run through, according to Mr. Wild, and turn round at the edges, being formed into panels by the arabesque border on the front side : it turns on pivots,»not hinges. Some of these doors are admirably represented in Prisse d'Avenne's L'Art Arabe: for example, the beautiful door of Almas (vol. ii. plate 100), where the whole surface is covered with bronze plaques, more like the style of Beybars than is common on later mosques ; that of Sultan Barkuk (pi. 96) with a central circular plaque, pointed at top and bottom, four corner-pieces, and narrow border ; that of Sultan Kansuh El-Ghory (pi. 102) arranged somewhat similarly ; and that of Talai' ibn Ruzeyk, as restored by Bektemir in the 14th century (pi. 95). There is a splendid bronze door to the mosque of El-Muayyad (a.h. 818-23), which was taken from the mosque of Sultan Hasan, where, however, the entrance to the tomb chamber is still closed by a magnificent gate of bronze inlaid with silver. From the bronze doors of Beybars, the history of metal-work ia Cairo leaps over four Sultans to En-Nasir Mohammad ibn Kalaun, * Ibn Batuta (i. 75) tells us that the monastery attached to the mosque where Huseyn's head was buried at Cairo had doors plated with silver, and silver rings. En-Nasir Mohammad, in 733, furnished a door for the Ka'ba at Mekka, which was made of ebony, covered with silver plates of great weight. 2 26 ART OF THE SARACENS. who reigned a.d. 1293-4, 1299 — 1309, and 1310-41, of (omitting the first brief rule) during most of the first half of the 14th century, En-Nasir built two noble mosques, and the number of works in metal bearing his name and those of his courtiers is very large. Among the finest is the beautiful table preserved in the Arab Museum at Cairo. 17. Table (Kursy). — Brass, inlaid with silver. Made for the Mamluk Sultan En-Nasir Mohammad. Fourteenth century. It is made of filigree brass inlaid with arabesques, flowers, Water- fowl, and Arabic inscriptions in silver, and is chased all over in elaborate profusion. One of the panels, forming a folding door, through which no doubt a pan of live charcoal was intro- duced, to warm the tray of food which was placed upon the table, is represented in fig. 75, where the inscriptions on the top border read, j>ijJlj UjJI j-sU j-oUl ^ilXJI ^:,Ua-JI U-^l^ j* " Glory to our lord the Sultan, the king, En-Nasir [the Succourer or Helper], Aid of the church and state, Mohammad, son of the Sultan, the king, El-Mansur [the victorious], the martyr \i.e. defunct] Kalaun, [liegeman] of Es-Salih [Ayyub], be his triumphs magni- fied ! " The inscriptions in the three other narrow borders are prac- tically identical with the above. The large inscription in the upper panel is i^_ji\^ UJaJI j^U | ^>-*Jl3iJI ^ JaaiJI ,j-a-« "Upholder of justice in the world, Aid of the state and church;" while in the circular medallions is distributed the inscription, " Glory to our master the Sultan | El-Melik En-Nasir Mohammad ibn | El- Melik El-Mansur Kalaun." * [Musde Arabe.] * An engraving of the top of the table, showing the Arabic inscriptions in Ku y and Naskhy, and the ornament of ducks, &c., may be seen in my Social Life in Egypt, p. 35. METAL.WORK. 227 i8. Another brass and silver filigree Table (kursy), preserved in the same museum, and stated to have belonged to the Maristan of Kalaun, is represented in fig. 74. It has no inscriptions, but undoubtedly belongs to the same period as the first. The characteristic designs of the Cairo metal-workers under En-Nasir Mohammad may, however, best be seen in the' large bowl or tank described below. As a rule, but not without exceptions, we may set down, as characteristic of 14th century Cairo work, the absence of figures (except on vessels having astrological uses), the prevalence of ducks or other birds in the ground decoration, the medallions (enclosing a sort of fess bearing the name of the Sultan,) siirrounded by a rosette of flowers and leaves resembling the patterns of Damascus tiles, the shoals of fish at the bottom of bowls, the broad bands of tall bold silver-inlaid letters, the large surfaces of inlay, and the little whorl ornament v'l^) which takes the place of the key- pattern medallion already noticed. 19. Large and deep Bowl. — Brass, inlaid with silver. Made for the Sultan En-Nasir Mohammad ibn Kalaun (a.d. i 293 — 1341)- Ornamented with broad bold zones of Arabic inscriptions, filled in with waterfowl and flowers and leaves (which seem to be conventionalized ducks' wings), and divided at regular intervals by medallions, enclosing titles on a fess, and enclosed in rosette of flowers and leaves. Large inscription round the outside : — O jJkU^I ^i,\ai\ JuiUJI ^^U O dLWI jUaJUl U-^^ ^ " Glory to our lord the Sultan, the king, the helper [El-Melik 2 28 ART OF THE SARACENS. En-Nasir), ruler, leonine, fighter for the Faith, Aid of the state and church, Mohammad son of Kalaun." The medallions enclosed in rosettes of flowers indicated by O contain, on a fess, U'n)^^ l^^jUftX-JI " Glory to our master the Sultan the " {sic). Above and below the large inscription, on a floral ground, six little medallions contain ^^jUaJLJI K>'^)^ jit "Glory to our master the Sultan," twelve times repeated. Scratched under rim by later hand l^K^ >~flJI " Patience is worship." Large inscription inside : — - O aj^ js. (Jj*^ Cw Ji-»a~e cHJJIj leJjJI j-oU ^i^«J "Glory to our lord the Sultan El-Melik En-Nasir, wise, ruler, leonine, fighter for the Faith, warden of Islam, Aid of the state and church, Mohammad son of Kalaun, be his triumph magnified ! " The medallions marked O are filled as on the outside : but there are no small medallions in the floral border beneath, or in the double scroll border above inscription ; but the last is divided by six whorls. The bottom is covered with a shoal of fish, in a circular spiked border. [B. M., 51. i. 4.] These large inscriptions offer a good example of the method of inlaying silver plates. Each letter was scooped out and deepened towards the edges, which were slightly under-cut and very delicately serrated. As the weak hold thus obtained let the silver escape, a later workman seems to have repaired the tank, and re-inlaid it by stippling the surfaces with a triangular point and rudely serrating the edges. Very little of the silver now remains : what there is shows that the surface was delicately chased when the subject required it {e.g. birds' wings). The South Kensington Museum possesses a large tray of the same Sultan, of the sort that is used to carry a meal, splendidly engraved and inlaid, as follows : — METAL-WORK. 229 20. Tray, — Brass, inlaid with gold and silver. Made for the Saltan En-Nasir ibn Kalaun {a,d. 1293 — 1341). The principal inscription (a) occupies a large zone on the upper surface, and is composed of bold Naskhy letters : — (»2)»^-aJ>jil3j|JiWtJ^(»/)ljJt^l3j|JUUJ(»?)|^;,lkJUlU'^^J* " Glory to our lord, the Sultan, the king, wise, just, ruler, be his triumph magnified ! " At («) the inscription is broken by medallions containing the words _^-oUJI -iUJt El-Melik El-Nasir, on a fess ; and round each medallion runs an inscription {fi) similar to {a), but adding, after jjls]), j.i^\ J«U,Jt Jajt^l jjbla^l; the whole enclosed in a belt of leaves and flowers. An inner zone of inscription is similar to {b), but continued with the words »j-aj J* ^^.^JL-^JIj ji%t'^\ c^^^ j>^>*«"i "The victorious. Sultan of Islam and the Muslims : be his triumph magnified," and divided by three similar pairs of medallions joined together by a panel of flowers and leaves. The right-hand medallion of each pair contains on a fess the words (c) ^UaJUJI U'^l^ j*, the left, on a shield, an antelope in an enclosure. A third innermost zone of inscription is similar to a, but substitutes jtAla>«)t for «),iajj.c On the outer surface of the rim is the following inscription, divided at O by .sets of three medallions like {c), joined by panels of flowers : — O flowers OJjUJI J^UJI ^1*^1 y^^^ -^^^^ JSaX^\ \i^)^ j* UjJt j^M jgA.'oH J^|«)l >«U«Jt iajt>eJI jJkU»oJI jjUJI O flowers ^ JjutJI ^--w o*%^'j Sy^' J^^ CH O fl. fl. O a)tj j^-ai<>JI ^«JI o\hX^\ ,>sfel-H.JIj O fl. O fl. O IjiAJIj Ck*!^" o fl. o fl. o i>iJJij yj>)i >^IJ " Glory to our lord the Sultan, El-Melik En-Nasir," &c, Diam. 31 in. [S. K. M. 420 — 1854]. 2 30 ART OF THE SARACENS. 2 1. '^yi.— Brass, inlaid with silver. Made for the Overseer Ahmad. [Fourteenth century.] The lid is hinged and fastens with a hasp : on the top is a radiate Arabic inscription surrounding a shield (on a fess a lozenge) : — " Of what was made by order of the humble servant, hoping for forgiveness from the benevolent Lord, the Overseer Ahmad, Over- seer to the Amir Mohammad son of Satilmish, the Gelaly." On the hollowed rim of the lid is a border of flower-scrolls divided by whorls, and below this a border of beasts of the chase divided by shields : on a fess, a lozenge. On the lower part, divided by four medallions containing water-fowl, on a ground of large arabesques of early style, are the Arabic benedictory verses ; Cease not through all thy days to dwell at ease, Where comforts solace thee, and pleasure charms : While breath shall last, my Master, cherish peace ; High rest thy heart above the world's alarms. On the bottom, a beautiful arabesque border surrounds a whorl. [B. M., Blacas. Reinaud, ii. 422.] The name of the Amir Mohammad ibn Satilmish has not yet been identified ; but a Mamluk called Satilmish is mentioned in the latter half of the thirteenth century as taking part in the court at Cairo ; and the style of arabesques on the box, the character of the inscriptions, the whorls and shields, undoubtedly indicate a Cairo fabric. The title Mihtdr, pr Overseer, was given to the officers who presided over the different departments of a princely household. la o 3 IS u I. « CO 5 o U [Z4 232 ART OF THE SARACENS. 2 2. Bowl. — Brass, inlaid with silver. Made for a Courtier of En-Nasir. [Fourteenth century.] (Fig. 87.) Outside, whorl at bottom surrounded by sort of sixfoil, round which a lozenge-diaper ornament ; ground of Damascus flowers and water-fowl ; border inscription divided by six whorls enclosed in a ring of flying ducks- — o t ^j-oUt ^j:ju) o ) ^\^\ ^jjkU»«}i o j^iUJi j^jjioUJi " His Excellency, generous, exalted, lordly, great Amir, wise, - ruler, leonine, fighter for the Faith, warden of Islam [liegeman] of El-Melik En-Nasir." On the bottom, inside, a shoal of fish round a whorl. [B. M., Henderson, 686.] 23. Candlestick with Three Feet. — Brass, inlaid with silver. Made for a Centurion of En-Nasir, [Fourteenth century.] Engraved with birds and arabesques, the interstices filled with black enamel. Round central band, inscriptions in silver inlay, recording fourteenth century Mamluk titles, (including that of Captain over 100,) divided by three medallions enclosing birds and whorls of eight rays. Height 12 in., diam. io| in. [S, K. M.,912.— 1884.J Another candlestick in the South Kensington Museum (4505 — 1858), is engraved in fig. 88. 24. Stand for Tray. — Brass (with an alloy of silver). Made for a Chief Secretary. [Fourteenth century.] Dice-box shape ; engraved with Arabic inscriptions, divided by medallions containing coats of arms in floral borders ; the spaces METAL-WORK. 233 filled with floral ornaments outlined with black enamel. The in- scription reads : " His Highness, exalted, lordly, [liegeman] of Seyf-ed-din, Chief Secretary, Atabek : be his triumphs magnified ! " Height 9I in., diam. 7| in. [S. K. M., 934.— 1884.] The floral ornaments are of the kind already described, the Damascus-like leaves and flowers ; and the medallions and floral borders form a kind of rosette very characteristic of the Nasiry period. The coats of arms consist of a fess bearing a large goblet between two smaller ones ; above the fess is a hiero- glyphic inscription (] 2 D S ' denoting " lord of the Upper and Lower country " — ^which the Mamluks must have constantly seen on the ancient monuments, but were undoubtedly unable to interpret — and beneath is a lozenge. The subject of heraldic bearings on Mamluk works of art has been extensively discussed by the late Rogers Bey in a paper published in the Bulletin de I'Instiiut Egyptien. This particular coat of arms is not described by Mr. Rogers ; but several nearly resembling it belong to the Amirs of the fourteenth century. The cup, as a charge, indicates that the bearer held the post of Saky, or cupbearer, to the Sultan or to some great noble. 25. Bath Vessel. — Bronze, inlaid with silver. Made for a Courtier of En-Nasir. [Fourteenth century.] Round edge, Arabic inscription, divided by four shields, con- taining a bend between two stars : •^1 ^UJI JUUJI ^>il«JI D I ^UJI yj^^\. JWI ^\ ^iWI ^ D U»JI ^>6U«JI ,>y!;*JI ,^jaU-»JI O {sic) "His Excellence, exalted, lordly, royal, just, worker, wise, 234 ART OF THE SARACENS. fighting for the Faith, warden, of Islam, powerful, royal, just, [liegeman] of El-Melik En-Nasir." [B. M., Surges, 22.] The intention of the next bowl is certainly magical; the planets are to be used astrologically, to secure auspicious results. The bowl would be filled with water, which became imbued with the mysterious influences of the planets, and then the water would be drunk off, or sprinkled on the person. These cups . were often made at Mekka, in view of the Ka'ba, which is sometimes represented : so much is stated on a cup in the Vatican. 26 Bowl or Cxjp. — Brass, inlaid with silver. Made for a Courtier of En-Nasir. [Fourteenth century.] Outside, on bottom, seated figures of the planets : the moon, a crowned human figure, holding a crescent in two uplifted hands ; Mars, helmeted and holding sword and bleeding head ; Mercury, holding a carpenter's Square ; Jupiter, seated judge-like, between two fish ; Venus with pear-shaped lute and wine-cup ; Saturn with raised staff and purse j the sun should have occupied the centre, but is worn off. Ground of arabesques. An inscription round the side, divided by three seated aureoled figures holding wine-cups, records usual Mamluk titles of El-Nasir's court. Inside, at bottom, a shoal of fish, arranged in form of whorl. [B, M., Blacas. Reinaud, ii. 359, ff., and pi. vii.] 27. Trav, — Brass inlaid with silver. Made for Sultan Sha'ban, who reigned a.h. 746-7 (a,d. 1345-6). Ornamented somewhat in the Nasiry style, with rosettes and geometrical designs, on a ground of bold and rather coarse arabesques. ! L* FIG. 88.— BRASS CANDLESTICK INLAID WITH SILVER. Fourteeath Century, {South Kensington Museum.) 236 ART OF THE SARACENS. A. Large zone of inscription : O JiWI J^l«It ^UJt J^W O liU«JI o^X-JI U-^^ > " Glory to our lord the Sultan, the king, perfect, wise, ruler, just, lenient, fighter for the Faith, sword of the state and church, Sha'ban : be his triumph magnified ! " B. At O, medallions ; — J-«iai JUh)JI surrounded by a cir- cular inscription, C, similar to that above, but omitting (J^lall JiUJI and »^A> jt; the whole enclosed in border of boldly drawn flowers and leaves. In the centre of the tray is a sixfoil enclosed in ring of inscrip- tion (same as C) within double trefoil, outside which a ring of inscription similar to A (omitting »j-oJ J.c), divided into three parts by panels of flowers between whorls. The rim is covered with floral borders and whorls. [B. M., Blacas. Reinaud ii. 439]. A beautiful writing-box, with the name of the same Sultan, and decorated with ducks, whorls, and key-pattern, is engraved in Prisse. Reinaud (ii. 441, n.) describes a tray, nearly four feet in diameter, which he saw in Paris, and which bore the name of Farag son of Barkuk, second of the Burgy or Circassian Mamluks, who reigned (with a year's, interruption) from a.h. 801 to 815 (a.d. 1398 — 141 2). Unfortunately he does not tell us the style of decoration, the metal or metals, or other details, nor does he mention what has become of the tray. The inscription in the midst ran : J>S^ ^ <>.ji j^oUl .UJLoJI (^UaX~)t IJ'^3«J Ja iyej je- ; while a larger inscription included a long string of titles. These long and sounding titles are often clearly regulated by the space at the artist's command, and even the words themselves are apparently varied to suit the taste. It is probable that j>l*", j_^jUJI, &c., are merely fanciful alterations of j^jlill . FIG. 89.— BRASS BOWL OF KAIT BEY. Fifteenth Century. [Souih Kenstngion Mu&eum,) S 2 238 ART OF THE SARACENS. Fig. 89 represents the back of a very beautiful brass bowl of the Mamluk Sultan Kait-Bey (a.d. 1468-96), which is preserved in the South Kensington Museum (no. 1325 — 1856). It is specially noteworthy for the back being ornamented with a repousse arabesque design of great beauty, covered with delicate chasing. The inscription on the side, inlaid with silver, runs : U'jJ^^J jc j^^JI ju|«J O 1 Jajlj.JI jaU^I JaUJI O .ilLWI o'J»J^' " Glory to our master the Sultan, the king, just, fighter for the Faith, warden of Islam, God-aided, victorious. Sultan of Islam and the' Muslims, the most noble king [El-Melik El-Ashraf], Father of Victory, Kait Bey : be his triumph magnified." At O are four medallions, characteristic of Kait Bey's monuments and all his works ; they contain his name and style, as below : — Among the purposes to which metal-work was applied was the manufacture of large chandeliers or lanterns for mosques. Some of these are still hanging before the niches but most of them have been taken away. Coste illustrates a bronze lamp of Sultan Hasan (fig. 23), and two are seen hanging in his representation of that mosque (fig. 25), besides the usual small plain glass lamps: but Coste was quite capable of inserting such details for the sake of artistic effect, and their presence in his drawing is hardly a proof that they really existed. Coste also gives a large lamp to the mosque of Kait-Bey ; and in Prisse there is an illustration METAL-WORK. 239 (reproduced in fig. 76) of a silver lamp of Bey bars II. of the shape of the usual enamelled glass lamps, but made of filigree work, hung by fine metal straps, which, however, are imper- fectly rendered in the woodcut. An engraving of an early undated metal lamp of the same form, which comes from Jerusalem, and is now in the Louvre, is reproduced (fig. 90) from M. de Long- p^rier's (Euvret. Anqther form is that of a chandelier, of a conical shape, surrounded by numerous little glass globes to hold oil and wicks. An example of this kind (from the mosque of 'Abd-el-Basit, and now in the Arab Museum at Cairo), made of filigree iron with a bri^t copper band, is shown in fig. 77, and fig. 78 represents a bronze tray (intended to be suspended beneath a chandelier), covered with chasing, and bearing the name and titles of the last of the Mamliik Sultans, Kansuh El- Ghory (a.d. 1501 — 1516). The art of metal-working survives in Cairo, as has been said, to the present day. The finer style of bronze door was made in perfection so late as last century, as may be seen from M. Prisse's engraving of the door of 'Abd-er-Rahman Kikhya (a.d. 1760), which is as delicately wrought as any earlier example. In the present day the coppersmiths of Cairo make trays and ewers and other common utensils decorated with considerable skill in the style of the Mamluk work, and sometimes with much elaboration of ornament, including inlay of gold wire. The results of the foregoing examination of the history of Saracenic metal- work may be roughly summarized in the follow- ing genealogical tree : — 240 ART OF THE SARACENS. MOSIL WORK. [Descended from the Assyrian metal-workers, and probably existing in very early times and in continuous development, but represented in collections not earlier than the thirteenth cen- tury, and apparently ceasing to produce the best work in the same or the fourteenth century.] fAtimy work. [Probably the offspring of Mosil, but at a very early period, perhaps ninth or tenth century. The art rests on historical evidence ; but there is a lack of examples in metal- work in the collections.] EARLY SYRIAN WORK. [Containing Mosil elements with certain local charac- teristics, probably peculiar to a Damascus or Aleppo school. Examples belong probably to late thirteenth century.] SICILIAN WORK. MAMLtJK WORK. [Containing Fatimy (or Mosil) and Syrian cha- racteristics. Numerous examples, chiefly of the fourteenth century ] SARACENIC WORK OF VENICE. [Derived from Syrian and Mamluk schools. Ex- amples chiefly from the early sixteenth century.] FIG. go. — LAMP FROM JERUSALEM. {Louvre.) 242 ART OF THE SARACENS. 2. Goldsmith! s work and Jewellery. The Prophet Mohammad entertained a religious dislike to the luxury of gold ornament, and cautioned the women of Arabia against the use of tinkling anklets. Nature, however, was occa- sionally too strong for the Prophet, and although the mass of the male Muslims observe a strict sobriety in their dress, weave cotton with their silk, and prefer silver to gold for their sole ornament, the signet ring, there are always some whose passion for display overcomes the scruples of conscience ; and the women, of course, cannot exist without a little jewellery. We read in the annals of Egypt of extraordinary quantities of precious stones preserved in the treasuries of princesses and khalifs. 'Abda, the daughter of the Fatimy Khalif El-Mu'izz, left at her death five bushels of emeralds aiid a prodigious amount of rubies and precious stones of all sorts. The Khalif El-Mustansir, this lady's nephew, pos- sessed quantities of emeralds, pearl necklaces, gold and silver and amber rings, caskets set with jewels, figures of birds and animals adorned with precious stones, a table of sardonyx, and a jewelled turban. As a rule, however, we read more of large objects set with jewels than of small ornaments of attire, and this is explained by the fact that jewellery is principally em- ployed by women, and therefore cannot be described in detail by Mohammadan historians, who are bound in delicacy to ignore the fair sex. Thus the seclusion of ladies in the East makes it difficult to trace the history of Saracenic jewellery, and the difficulty becomes insuperable when it is discovered that no speci- mens of the mediaeval jewellery of the Egyptian ladies have come down to us with a certain date. In the absence of dated examples of mediaeval Egyptian jewellery, we are forced to work backwards from the existing productions of the jeweller's market at Cairo, and endeavour to METAL- WORK. 243 deduce the probable character of the earlier work. There can be little doubt that many of the ornaments now manufactured in Cairo represent ancient patterns, which have been handed from father to son in the goldsmiths' traditions for several centuries. The ordinary bracelet, composed of two plain bands enclosing a double or single twisted band is certainly an old design, and has worn the same shape and shown the same character of ornament for many generations. So, no doubt, have the anklets with square heads cut in facets. A description of the ornaments now made at Cairo— which is all that is attainable — may therefore not improbably represent the same general character of jewellery as that worn by the famous Queen Sheger-ed-durr, "Tree of Pearls," who repulsed St. Louis with her gallant Mamluk troops. The modem jewellery of Cairo has been so exhaustively described and illustrated by Mr. Lane, in an Appendix to his Modern Egyptians, that it is only necessary to summarize his account and refer to his engravings. A Cairo lady's ornaments consist in various additions to her head-dress and hair, in ear-rings, necklace, bracelets, anklets, and.amulets. The head-dress is composed of a tarbush or fez, round which is wound a kerchief (ra^^a). To the crown of the tarbxish is sewn the boss-like ornament called a kurs, about five inches in diameter, and ornamented with diamonds set in gold filigree-work. In the present day the diamonds and gold are alike of poor quality, and a good kurs is not worth more than jQi^o. Even the wives of tradesmen, who are usually devoted to diamonds, manage to buy some sort of kurs, though it is a heavy, uncomfort- able ornament, and produces headache when put on, and also when taken off, so that many ladies, when once their heads are hardened to its weight, wear it night and day. A common kind of kurs is made of a thin gold plate, embossed with a pattern, and having a false emerald set in the middle. Attached to the kerchief, over the forehead, is worn the kursa, a band of diamonds, emeralds, or rubies, set in gold, generally with pendants, about seven inches long. On either side of the 244 ART OF THE SARACENS. kerchief hang festoons of pearls, connected together by a pierced emerald, and fastened at the front to the kursa, and at the other end to the back of the kerchief, or to the ear-ring. Sometimes a sprig [rlsha) or crescent (hilat) of diamonds set in gold or silver is worn, instead of the kursa and pearls, on the front or side of the kerchief; and another favourite ornament is the kamara, or pear-shaped gold plate, embossed with Arabic letters or a pattern, and having flat gold pendants hanging beneath. There are several varieties of this ornament, in the shape of a sakiya, or water-wheel, a comb, &c., with distinctive names, the most curious of which is 'Ud-es-Salib, " Wood of the Cross," which is clearly of Coptic origin. The ear-rings (halak) are not remarkable. They consist of diamonds, pearls, emeralds, rubies, &c., set in gold, with some- times a sprig of floral filigree-work above the drop. The necklace (^ikd) is seen in great variety, but with this peculiarity, that it does not completely encircle the neck, being but ten inches long ; the, connecting piece of string is covered by the hair, which is generally ornamented with strings of gold ornaments and coins. There is usually a bead or link larger than the rest iri the middle, or also at fixed intervals. Pearls strung, diamonds set in gold, anti hollow gold beads, form the usual links of the necklace. Cairene jewellers do not cut their diamonds and emeralds in facets, as this would induce a belief that they were false; but they commonly pierce the emeralds. Both customs, of course, destroy the beauty of the jewels. More characteristic than the necklaces are the bracelets {asawir) and anklets {khulkdl), which are commonly of solid silver, or even gold. Simple twist for gold, and a twist set in plain bands for silver, are the most usual patterns of bracelets, and are doubtless of high antiquity. The anklets are heavy, and clank together as the lady walks, so that the poet says : "The clink of thine anklets has bereft me of reason." METAL-WORK. 245 The amulet {Mgab) is a little silver or gold box, embossed and adorned with pendants, containing a chapter from the Koran or FIG. 91. — ARMS FOE LION HUNTING. other charm, covered with waxed cloth, and is suspended at the right side above the girdle by a cord passing over the left shoulder. There is another branch of rnetal-work of which nothing has 246 ART OF THE SARACENS. been said : we know almost nothing of Mamluk armour ; and although there is undoubtedly a " Market of Arms " in Cairo which once plied a busy trade, it is doubtful whether their work did not chiefly consist in fitting and adapting the weapons and armour of Persia and the Indies. Two helmets in the Tower of London have indeed an Egyptian look, and I should be inclined to ascribe them to Cairo workmen of the period of Kalaun (end of the thirteenth century). These are, however, quite exceptional; and most of the arms attributed to Egypt are undoubtedly Syrian or Persian. It must not be forgotten that, to the Mamluks, Damascus was almost as much their capital as Cairo ; and while Damascus blades were to be had there was little inducement for the establish- ment of an Egyptian school of armourers. The list of Beybars' presents (p. 28) includes Damascus weapons, and pikes tempered by the Arabs, but no Cairo armour is mentioned. CHAPTER VIII. GLASS. It is interesting to remark that tlie Saracens, while they had to begin with no art of their own, and learned all their aesthetic training from their foreign subjects, yet contrived to introduce some element of distinctive originality into almost every branch of artistic work. Thus the carved panels of the Cairo pulpits are a genus by themselves; only in Cairo can such work be seen. The metal-work of Mesopotamia, Damascus, and Cairo, is wholly unlike any other metal-work in the world, except that which was avowedly an imitation of it. It is not merely that the designs are varied, or new shapes introduced ; the whole character of the work is distinct from any other style. The chased inlay of silver in the metal-work, and the self-contained arabesques and geome- trical panelling of doors, ceilings, and stone-work, are features which we may seek in vain to match in Europe. So is it with their glass ; it is absolutely unique in character. Without prejudging the question whether some of the mosque lamps were imitated in Italy or not, at least no one will dispute that they form a distinct class by themselves, and that no other glass resembles them in the shape, the general style, or the details of the ornament. Nor do the stained glass windows of the mosques and houses of Cairo oifer any analogy to the windows of our cathedrals, or any other windows at all. In glass, as in most other artistic industries, the differentiating genius of the Saracen artist displays itself in a special character persistently maintained through many centuries. The oldest glass in the world belongs to Egypt. The dull 248 ART OF THE SARACENS. green and opaque blue glass of the Pharaohs is well known, and there can be little doubt that the art was not suffered to die out under the Greek and Roman governors, though examples of these periods are not numerous. The Arab and other Mohammadan rulers of this province of the Muslim empire encouraged the manufacture of glass, at least in the insignificant form of small weights for testing the accuracy of coins. The British Museum possesses a large collection of these glass weights, bearing inscrip- tions which assign them to definite dates. Some have the names of the early Egyptian governors under the Damascus and Baghdad Khalifs, of the eighth and ninth centuries, but most of them present the names of the Fatimy Khalifs of the tenth and especially of the eleventh century, more rarely the twelfth. These coin weights prove at least that the making of glass had not become a lost art in Egypt. We read in the life of St. Odilo, bishop of Fulda, of a vas pretiosissimuM vitreum Alexandrini generis, which was on the table of the Emperor Henry in the first half of the eleventh century. There is a vase in the treasury of St. Mark's, at Venice, of nearly opaque turquoise paste, inscribed with Arabic characters, which may probably be of the tenth century. " The bowl is five- sided, and on each side is the rude figure of a hare. These figures, as well as the inscription, are in low relief, and were probably cut with the wheel. The setting is in filigree, with stones and ornaments of cloissonn^ enamels."* Cups of rock crystal of the same century are in existence and are frequently mentioned by the Arab historians, who even describe thrones and other large objects made of this mineral, which offers some analogy to glass in the process of cutting on the wheel, and which must have induced imitations in the cheaper substance. Most of the existing glass-work of Egypt, however, belongs to the fourteenth century, and consists of lamps intended to be suspended in the mosques of Cairo. "All show that the * A. Nesbitt, Descriptive Catalogue of the Cass Vessels in the South Kensing- ton Museum, Ixiv., &c. METAL- WORK. 249 makers were tolerably expert glass-blowers, and could produce vessels of considerable size ; but the glass is of bad colour and full of bubbles and imperfections. The makers had learnt, probably from the Byzantines, the art of gilding and enamelling glass, and made much use of it. Inscriptions in large characters are favourite ornaments ; figures of birds, animals, sphinxes, and other monsters, are found. The outlines are generally put on in red enamel, the spaces between being often gilt. The enamels are used sometimes as grounds and sometimes for the ornaments ; the usual colours are blue, green, yellow, red, pale red, and white." * There is every reason to believe that these mosque lamps were made at Cairo, or at all events that the best and oldest specimens were made there.f though the coarser and more modern sort has been attributed to imitators at Murano (Venice),'who are believed to have worked for the Mamluk Sultans. It is true that Damascus and Tyre had a greater name for glass- working; Nasir-i-Khusrau, remarks that Tyre exported glass vessels worked on the wheel ; William of Tyre writes to the same effect; and Benjamin of Tudela, in the twelfth century, speaks of ten glass-manufacturers at Antioch, and four hundred Jews at Tyre (Stir) " shipowners and manufacturers of the celebrated Tyrian glass." In the Royal Inventories of France are notices of several glass vessels, among the possessions of Charles V., in 1380, described as " of the Damascus style," among others une lampe de voirre outrte en faqon de Damas ^sans aucun gamison. It was, however, the custom among our mediaeval chroniclers to regard Damascus as the centre of Saracenic art, and to call everything Oriental a la fagon de Damas, and the terra must not be pressed too far. Some lamps may, indeed, be the product of the glass-workers of Tyre or Damascus ; and one in the South Kensington Museum is stated to have come from a mosque * A. Nesbitt, Descriptive Catalogue of the Glass Vessels in the South Kensington Museum, Ixiv., &c. t They were called Kandil Kalauny, " Kalaun's lamp." 250 ART OF THE SARACENS. which seems to be near Damascus, and another believed to be from Damascus is in the British Museum. Most of the Cairo lamps, however, were doubtless made in the city where they were destined to hang, or at the not far distant Mansura, famous for its glass-works. It must always be remembered that the probability of fragile objects, such as glass and pottery, being made in the immediate neighbourhood of their destination is very strong, in the absence of distinct evidence of importation. We know that there were glass-works at Cairo. Nasir-i-Khusrau* states that a transparent glass of great purity was, in his time, made at Misr, by which he means Fustat, or Old Cairo; and if he had not said this, the numerous fragments which are constantly picked up on the mounds of rubbish which lie between Cairo and the site of Fustat would be proof enough. It is curious, however, that lamps should be almost the only objects of glass that seem to have been made at Cairo. It is recorded that the Mamluks used glass drinking- vessels, and so much might be inferred from the representation of cups on their metal-work, which are plainly intended for glass or horn vessels. Nevertheless, there is a complete absence of mediaeval glass cups, or other vessels of undoubted Egyptian manufacture; and the only glass objects besides the lamps are a few bottles, decorated with enamel like the lamps, but in more delicate lines, chiefly of red and gold ; and the coin weights, to which we have already referred. Of the enamelled glass mosque lamps there are five examples of the finest kind at the British Museum, three equally superb specimens belong to the South Kensington Museum, besides four others exhibited there on loan by the Khedive. A few are to be found in private collections, of which that of M. Charles Schefer, at Paris, is among the most remarkable; Mr. Magniac has a lamp of Sultan Hasan, and Linant Pasha had others of the Amirs Sheykhu and Almas. So few now come into the market that the * Sefer Nameh, ed. C. Schefer, 152, GLASS. 251 price of such examples as are offered for sale is absurd. Very few of these lamps are now seen hanging in their proper places in the sanctuary of the mosques ; I only noticed two or three in all the mosques of Cairo in 1883. This is partly due to the risk of their being carried off by enterprising collectors, to whom the guardians of the mosques, who have long known the market value of their treasures, are not indisposed to sell them for an adequate bribe ; and partly to the circumstance that the Commis- sion for the Preservation of the Monuments of Cairo, alive to the dangers to which these magnificent objects were exposed, by the cupidity of travellers and the venality of natives, instituted a rigorous search and removed all the lamps they could find to the safety of the Museum of Arab Art. Here, when I examined the collection in 1883, were about eighty glass lamps, chiefly derived from the mosques of Sultan Hasan, Barkuk, and Kait Bey. As there were several lamps which were precise duplicates of others in the collection, I suggested to the Khedive that four of these duplicates should be sent on loan to South Kensington, and his Highness readily gave the necessary authorisation.* The following description of these four lamps will show the general character of this branch of Saracenic glass-work. The first lamp (Arab Museum, No. 24) bears the name and titles of Sultan Hasan, who reigned from 1347 to 1361, with brief intervals of deposition. It is ornamented with Arabic inscrip- tions, medallions, and other decorations, in enamelled colours, and had six loops for suspension, one of which is broken off, leaving a small hole. The colours of the enamel are chiefly cobalt and red, with a touch here and there of pale green and white. The glass is thick and muddy, with numerous striae, as is the case with all Saracenic lamps. The decoration is arranged • An engraving of one of them was published in the Art Journal, and after- wards in my Social Life in Egypt, 98. 252 ART OF THE SARACENS. in a series of five bands, the position of which is indicated in the accompanying skeleton outline : — A, on the neck, interrupted by three medallions, a, a, a; B, at the junction of the neck and body of the lamp ; C, surrounding the body and containing the main inscription, interrupted by the glass loops for attach- ing the silver chains that q attached the lamp to the beams or ceiling of the mosque ; D, on the lower curve of the body ; and E, on the foot. This division is common to most of the lamps with which I am acquainted, but the orna- ment of course varies greatly in different exam- ples. The inscriptions on the five bands are as follows : — A. {a) l^ VS^^^ Ajy JJU (a) i^j'^b >^t>a»Jt j>J aJDI " God is the Light of the heavens and the earth ; His light is as a niche in which is a lamp, the lamp :" here the inscription breaks off, it should continue ^jj y,,,,£s^Ss K^\£» S».U.Ji)l 6 " Glory to our lord the Sultan the king," written in thin red lines. B. Six fleurs-de-lis, in green and red, with red line ornament between. C. j.^U ^U) (/.) I SX^\ (/) o^W-JI {loop) IJ-^^ jt " Glory to our lord the Sultan the king, the helper [En Nasir], Aid of the state and church, Hasan son of Mohammad : be his triumph magnified ! " These words are formed by the glass being left plain in the midst of a ground of cobalt enamel. In earlier examples the plain portions would have been gilt. D. Three medallions similar to a, a, a, but the inscriptions slightly imperfect, divided by floral ornaments in red, green, . and blue. , E. Ornament in fine red outline, within blue border. The second lamp (Arab Museum, No. 40) is similar to this in the inscriptions, the arrangement, and the colours, and differs only in substituting for the fleurs-de-lis of band B, six ornaments in blue, divided by red outline tracings. The third lamp (Arab Museum, No. 47), which has lost its foot, has much less inscriptional ornament, and more floral decoration. Band A has, instead of the Arabic inscription, arabesque scroll- work in blue, divided by medallions similar to those («, a, a) of the first lamp, and bearing the same inscription, B is decorated with three red and three green circular splashes, arranged alter- nately : these daubs are very common on lamps of this period. C has no inscription, but a conventional floral design repeated six times with slight variations, and divided by the six loops for suspension. D has three medallions like a, a, a, with the same inscription, divided by red outline ornamentation enclosed in blue border within outer border of red. £ is broken T 2 254 ART OF THE SARACENS. « off. The inscriptions, it will be observed, do not give the name of any Sultan, but the lamp is stated to have been taken, like the other two, from the mosque of Hasan. The fourth of the Khedive's lamps (Arab Museum, No. ii) belonged to the mosque of Sultan Barkuk, (in the Coppersmiths' Market at Cairo,) who ruled in the last two decades of the four- teenth century. The inscriptions and ornament are arranged in much the same manner as on the first lamp of Sultan Hasar^. Band A presents the same inscription as that lamp, but perfect to the words iTji w&«^, "glittering star." The medallions a, a, a, however, contain the following inscription thua'afranged, written in fine red lines within a blue border, outside which is another border of fine red line ornamentation : — ^Ua}) the Illustrious ^IkJUJI U"^^ js. Glory to our lord the Sultan JUUJt the King B is decorated with six splashes of pale green and red alter- nately, as on the third lamp. C has the inscription — (/.) j-x-^jl jA (/.) UiJI (/.) .iUJI (/.) oUsJUl {loop) U-^^j* " Glory to our lord the Sultan, the king, the Illustrious [Edh- Dhahir] Abu-Sa'id, whom God assist." The letters are in plain glass, defined by the blue ground, as on the first lamp. D. Three fleurs-de-lis and three double fleurs-de-lis arranged alternately in blue borders ; the single fleur-de-lis also enclosed in outer red border as on the first lamp. On the foot, E, are coarse flowers in red and greenish white in blue scroll borders. These are good examples of the most ordinary type of Saracenic glass lamp, with the usual mode of decoration. The three other GLASS. 255 lamps in the South Kensington Museum, purchased in r86o, 1869, and 1875, are all rather exceptional in their inscriptions and ornament, though these are arranged in the same manner as in the Khedive's lamps. They are more choice, and the small one, of Kafur Es-Salihy, from its unusually small size, and from its probably early date, is the gem of the collection. Glass lamp* of Kafur Es-Sdlihy, probably of the thirteenth century, enamelled in colours and gilt, the latter unusually well- preserved. Height, xo\ in. [S. K. M., 6820. — 1860.] " The ornament appears to have been traced in fine lines of red enamel, and the spaces between the lines filled in some cases with coloured enamels, in others with gilding. The whole work is carelessly executed, but very effective." On the neck is a broad band on which is an inscription in blue divided into three parts by three medallions, the centres of which are occupied by a white sixfoil flower on a red ground. This inscription {A) reads — " Of what was made by order of his Highness the exalted, the Lord, the Bey." On the body of the lamp (C), divided by three loops for suspension, is the following inscription, originally gilt on a blue ground, in continuation of A : — " Kafur Er-Rumy, El-Haridy, [liegeman] of EI-Melik Es-Salih : be his triumphs magnified 1 " ' The descriptions of this and the two following lamps are taken partly from Mr. Nesbitt's Catalogue of Glass in the South Kensington Museum, to which I contributed the interpretation of the Arabic inscriptions. I have, however, after an interval of ten years, made a second examination of the lamps, which has resulted in some important corrections of my earlier readings of the inscriptions, and I have also amplified Mr. Nesbitt's descriptions. 256 ART OF THE SARACENS. On the under-side of the body the devices in medallions are repeated, separated by floral ornament, chiefly gilt on a blue ground ; on the foot are three twelve-foiled medallions in blue, in which are arabesques in blue, white, yellow, green, and red, on a gilt ground. Glass lamp of the Mamluk Amir Akbughd, fourteenth century, enamelled with circular disks and medallions in white, red, and blue, with three suspending chains of silver. Height, 13 in. [S. K. M., 1056.— 1869.] Fig. 93. " This very fine specimen resembles the preceding very closely as regards the character both of the glass and of the ornamenta- tion.'' On the neck, three medallions divide an inscription in blue enamel : — " In the houses which God hath permitted to be raised for His name to be commemorated therein, men celebrate his praises morning" [and evening]. — Koran, xxiv. 36. In the centre of the medallions is a device : on a fess gules, a lozenge argent ; the ground of the medallion is also white. " On the upper part of the body are eleven sixfoil medallions formed by a blue line, the grounds within which were probably gilt. On these are lines very carelessly sketched in red, some of which show some resemblance to the outlines of birds." There were six loops for suspension, one of which is broken, dividing the inscription C, which is in blue characters with red edges on a gilt ground : — (/.) ^Jj^\ii\ ^OoJI (/.) aa.1^1 ju* UJI (/.) . . . ^_Si\ Oij- (/.) " Of what was made by order of his Highness, exalted, Lord, the Great Amir, Seyf-ed-din Alfy, 'Abd-El- Wahid Akbugha, [liegeman] of El-Melik En-Nasir." HG. 9J.— GLASS LAMP OK AKBUGHA. Fourteenth Century. {South Kensington Museum.) 2s8 AUT OF THE SARACENS. On the under part of the body the medallions with devices are repeated; between them are spaces filled with arabesque ornament in white, red, green, yellow, and blue, on a gilt ground. Akbugha was a well-known Mamluk of the great Sultan En- Nasir Mohammad ibn Kalaun. He died in 1343. Glass lamp of Kahlis, a Mamluk of El-Melik En-Nasir, fourteenth century; described, but probably erroneously, as having been brought from the mosque " Devi Saidenaya " at Cairo, which is not known, though a convent of a similar name exists near Damascus. Height, iif in. [S. K. M., 580. — 1875.] This is rather better and more carefully made than the others, and the enamel is in excellent preservation. The inscription on the neck, in gold on a blue ground, is divided by three medallions ; the centre of each shows ■ on a red ground a gold fess, on which is- a scimitar in black with white mountings. A. jsS. O Jl >D^l5 aUW Cy»^ i>o O Jjt j^fcU«* j^fXi Cl O S-jUJI^m^ " He only shall visit the mosques of God who believeth in God and the Last Day, and is instant in prayer." — Koran, ix. 18. On the body are six loops for suspension, dividing an inscription in blue on a gold ground : — C. j^)U3 aJUI ^J\ (I.) jfJiJi^\ j^^l (loop) AiSsI U \JJt, (I.) ^j^ii\ ii.) ^a»ji ,..J^ M (/.)^i *Ji jy^ t^' W^' " This is what was dedicated by the humble servant of God Almighty, hoping for the forgiveness of God the generous, Kahlis, [liegeman] of El-Melik En-Nasir." On the lower part of the body the medallions are repeated, the spaces between are filled with arabesque ornament, showing blue enamel on a gold ground, lines of red on gold, and three small ornaments in white, blue, red, and green enamel. Of the lamps in the British Museum, the following are the most interesting : — Glass lamp of Sheykhu, a Mamluk of El-Melik En-Nasir, four- GLASS. 259 teenth century. The inscriptions run round the neck {A) and the body (C), and (as usual) are formed of blue enamel on a plain glass ground in (A), and in plain glass (outlined in red) on a blue enamel ground in (C): the plain glass was probably gilt when new. The neck inscription contains the ordinary Koran verse, " God is the light of the heavens {s) and the earth : his light is as {s) a niche in which is a lamp (s)" : here it breaks off. At the points marked {s) is an armorial medallion : per fess, gules and sable, on a fess or, a cup gules; within a belt of delicate red tracery. The body inscription (C), divided by six loops, runs : — (/.) ,_y«3j.i^l (/.) ^^^\ (/.) ^UJI op (/.) ^}\ y^\j^^ (/.) ijtOJ JI .^a-'Ji w^* U* " Of what was made by order of the lord, the Amir, Seyf-ed-din Tukuzdemir, Sitting Councillor of El-Melik En-Nasir, the Bey." On D, three shields as on A, alternating with beautiful ara- besques in red, white, blue, and yellow. 26o ART OF THE SARACENS. On E, ^Ull " the wise," repeated all round. The border ornament consists chiefly of fine red tracery. As before, the upper inscription is blue on gold, the lower gold (outlined with red) on blue : but in this lamp the gold is excep- tionally well-preserved. The " Sitting Councillor," Amir Meglis, had control over the doctors and surgeons of the Court (see p. 31); and this Tukuzdemir is mentioned by the contemporary traveller, Ibn-Batuta, as one of the chief nobles of the day. A third lamp of exceptional interest, in the British Museum, must be referred to here, although it is believed to be of Damascus manufacture. It is quite different in style from the ordinary Cairo lamps : neither medallions nor shields appear upon it, nor the name of any Sultan or lord. The neck inscription (^) contains the beginning of the formula "God is the light," &c., down to i».U.^I, and the body inscription (C) continues it to JUi*^)! ; the whole reads : — {A). " God is the light of the heavens and the earth ; his light is as a niche in which is a lamp, and the lamp in a glass ; the glass I (C) as it were a glittering star; it is lit from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the east nor of the west, the oil thereof would well-nigh shine though no fire touched it — light upon light: God guideth to his light whom He pleaseth ; and God strikes out parables [for mankind, and God is mighty over all.] " As before the neck inscription is blue on a gold ground, and the body inscription gold upon blue : the gold is unusually well preserved. Fine red tracery forms the borders. On the three loops for suspension the following inscription is distributed : — "Of what was made for the mosque at the grave of the lady Et-Takuna." The meaning as well as the position of this curious inscription is unique : and the mosque and the lady Takuna, or Takwiya, or whatever her name may be, has not yet GLASS. 261 been identified. Over the word j>^.~»Jt are signs which look like I 9a, and may be a date reversed, 891 (a.d. i486). A lamp exhibited by Mr. J. Dixon at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, in the summer of 1885, bore the inscription round the neck continued round the body, iijpjl ^\y^)\i w-o-l*.^ ^>oUI lA^JL. j_j)U3 4JUI ^ ^\ " His excellency the generous, exalted, lord, great amir, royal, master, | trusting in God most High, Yelbugha, the retainer of En-Nasir, lord chamberlain of the royal gates." At the points m are medallions bearing a coat of arms : on afess a scimitar azure, with brown mountings, chief gules, base brown. Yelbugha is mentioned by El-Makrizy (in the Khitat) as a " wezir " and " ustaddar," and " one of the chief mamluks of El- Melik Edh-Dhahir Barkuk," in reference to his restoration of the mosque El-Akmar in 1397. The lamp may have come from this very mosque ; but it must have been made after the death of Barkiik, since Yelbugha styles himself, not Edh-Dhahiry, but En- Nasiry, i.e. mamluk of En-Nasir Farag, Barkuk's son and suc- cessor. This will give the lamp a date of about 1405-10. No two lamps are really alike ; the designs are infinite, and only in the inscriptions do we find any trace of monotony. The appropriateness of the passage from the Koran about " the light of the heavens and the earth," seems to have made it very popular with the glass-workers, and it recurs with almost the , persistency of the still more celebrated " Throne Verse," which meets the eye in nearly every mosque and tomb in Cairo. Besides variety in ornament, the lamps sometimes differ widely in substance. The transparent glass, covered with inscriptions and designs in blue and red enamel, is certainly the ordinary material, but some lamps are of plain glass with no enamel at all ; such is the lamp of tlie church of Abu-Sarga, engraved in Mr. Butler's Coptic 262 ART OF THE SARACENS. Churches, which has the form of the lamps already described, but is perfectly plain, and has only three loops for suspension. A similar lamp is preserved in the Coptic church of Sitt Maryam hard by. Some of the lamps in the Arab Museum at Cairo are of pale green FIG. 94.— VASE OF SULTAN BEYBARS II. or blue glass, and semi-opaque, and I have seen one, of a rich deep blue, still hanging in a mosque. Lamps of the same shape and purpose were also made of pottery, but not, so far as we know, in Egypt. The earthenware lamps are chiefly of Damascus GLASS, 263 and Rhodian ware, and belong to the sixteenth century ; some of them reach very large sizes, and not a few are open to suspicion of owing their existence to the modern forger's desire to satisfy the passion of the collector. The Saracenic glass lamps do not appear to "have been made much later than the fourteenth century, nor do we hear much of Eastern glass from travellers after this period. Venice had then taken up the role of glass- making. The mode in which the lamps were used was this : they were suspended by chains of silver or brass to the wooden beams that generally run across the span of the smaller arches in a mosque, or else to the ceiling, or to the gallows brackets that stand out from the walls, as at Sultan Hasan. A small glass vessel containing oil was hung inside the lamp by means of wires hitched on to the rim, and a wick was soaked in the oil and lighted. The effect of the yellow light shining through the gold and the blue and red enaniel, and showing off the inscriptions and ornament, must have been magnificent: the true Oriental delight in softened light, which we notice in the shady meshreMyas, the subdued tones of the windows, the dull red and blue of the ceilings, is exhibited in this manner of introducing light into the mosques. Besides the mosque lamps, the most prominent use of glass in Cairo was for the windows of both mosques and houses. Over the niche of a mosque, and over the lattice wood-work of a nieshreMya in a house, one generally sees examples of the characteristic stained glass windows of Cairo. In houses they are generally set in a row, in slight wooden frames, over the lattice, to the number of eight or more. The Cair. room in the South Kensington Museum (no. 1 193 — 1883), has eleven of these stained windows, which -are called in Arabic kamanyas or shemsiyas, " moonlike " or " sunlike." They consist of a rectangular frame of wood, about two inches broad by one thick, and forming an oblong about thirty inches high by twenty broad. The frame is filled with an arabesque, floral, architectural, or inscriptional 264 ART OF THE SARACENS. design in open stucco-work, the perforations being filled with stained glass. The mode of making these windows is the simplest. A bed of plaster is poured into the frame and suffered to set, and the design is then cut out with a gouge or other tool, after which the stained glass is fixed with more plaster on the outside of the window, which is then put up in its place, flush with the inside of the wall, and set in a slight wooden frame with a flat architrave round it forming a margin which conceals the FIG. 95. FIG. 96. STAINED GLASS WINDOWS. {South KensingtoH Mus^uirr.) joints between the several windows. A couple of buttons keep the window from falling inwards, while the architrave secures it on the outside. It will be seen that no special skill is required for most of this work. The plaster is easily cut — as any one may prove who cares to make' the experiment' of carving a kamarlya out of plaster of Paris — and the glass requires no fitting, for its superfluous edges are concealed by the plaster. GLASS. 265 The material is fragile, no doubt, as those who have tried to bring it to England Hnow, but moderate care on the part of the workman would ensure the safety of the kamariya between its cutting and its placing in the window. Where the art comes in is in the shaping of the perforations which form the design. The shape and slant of these holes are skilfully regulated according to the height they are to be raised above the spectator ; and the thick plaster setting of the bright FIG. 97, FIG, 98, STAINED GLASS WINDOWS. {Souik KmsitigtoK Museum.") little facets of glass gives the light that comes through the latter a shaded appearance which is singularly charming. It is difficult to give in words any clear idea of the exquisite effect which is obtained by a skilful management of the plaster rims ; and, unfor- tunately, in our climate one cannot reckon on seeing the sun's rays streaming through the stained glass of those kamartyas which are exhibited in the South Kensington Museum. 266 ART OF THE SARACENS. With all the ingenuity of moulding that is noticeable in the plaster designs of these kamariyas, it must be admitted that the designs themselves are somewhat monotonous. Certain well- known types recur again and again, and it seems as if the artist had satisfied himself that no other design could be so successful and suited to the character of the light that was strained through. The South Kensington Museum contains thirty-seven of these windows, including the eleven belonging to the Cairo room, and the following is an analysis of the designs presented by this series : — Pinks and other flowers growing from a vase — ten examples, varied of course in colours and slight details, but actually of the same design, which is the commonest of all. (Fig. 98.) Cypress entwined with flower-stem — six examples. The spirals of the flower-stem are made to twist in opposite directions in a pair of these designs. Cypress alone, one; or within a quatrefoil, surrounded by flowers, two. Two cypresses under an arch, one ; or be- neath a palm, one example. (Fig. 97.) Kiosk between two cypresses or two buds (fig. 95.), or alone, six - examples. Scroll or sprig of flowers and leaves, three examples. (Fig. 96.) Thus, thirty of the thirty-seven windows are accounted for by. five designs. The remainder consist of two Solomon's Seals, one rosette, and four portions of Arabic inscriptions, of which two or three form parts of Christian formulas. Examples of the kiosk, the palm spreading over two cypresses, the flowers growing out of a vase, and the scroll or sprig of flowers, are given in the illustrations (figs. 95 — 98). The position of the row of kamariyas over a meshreJnya is almost always just beneath the eave of the window, above the lattice- work ; but there is one exception in the South Kensington Museum. The Cairo room there has its eleven kamariyas in an intermediate GLASS. 267 position, with a panel of lattice-work above as well as below the glass. This is so unusual, that competent authorities have asserted that the meshrebiya has been wrongly put together ; but apart from the fact that the sketch I made of the window befbre it was taken down in Cairo shows the same arrangement, the joints of the wood-work prove that the window is in its original position, and could not have been set up in any other way. CHAPTER IX. HERALDRY ON GLASS AND METAL, In describing various objects in brass, bronze, and glass, especially the glass mosque-lamps, several coats of arms have been noticed. The subject deserves a section to itself, partly on account of its unexpectedness, and partly .because it has a bearing upon the origin of our own heraldry. It is probable that the Crusaders brought back to Europe, together with lessons in chivalry and civilization, the germ of our system of heraldic bearings which has since been so carefully developed. The circumstance that coats of arms do not seem to have been borne in Europe before the end of the eleventh century, and were then very rudimentary, favours the conclusion that they had their source in the devices carried by the Saracen adversaries of the Crusaders. It is true, we are not able to point to any decided use of armorial badges in the East before the year 1 1 90,* when the coins of 'Imad-ed-din Zenky, Prince of Singar, present the two-headed eagle which soon afterwards becomes common on the coinage of the Urtuky rulers of Amid, and is found sculptured on the walls of that city. This is early enough as regards the emblem in question, for the Imperial Eagle was • The badges on the Gate of Cairo, called the " Bab-en-Nasr," may, perhaps, be the arms of the builder, El-Gemaly, and, if so, the use of armorial bearings in Egypt in the eleventh century is proved. They consist of a circular shield sculptured with a sixfoil ornament^ and crossed behind by a straight sword ; and of a pear-shaped shield with four studs or bosses and a ! errated edge. HERALDRY ON GLASS AND METAL. 269 not adopted in Europe before 1345, but it cannot be regarded as satisfactory for all coats of arms. If other armorial bearings were known in Europe in the eleventh century, it is possible that they were carried to the East by the Crusaders, instead of being brought thence to the West. Several considerations, however, militate against this view. One is the Eastern origin of many of our heraldic terms : thus gules is the Persian gul, a rose ; azure is also Persian lazurd, blue ; ermine is the fur of an Armenian beast ; the pelican, ibis, griffin, and other charges of our coats of arms are clearly of Oriental derivation. Moreover, we know, from the researches of H. Brugsch Pasha, that the ancient Egyptian nomes had each their sign or badge, and that the temples were distinguished by separate devices on their banners. Various animals and birds were used for these purposes, and we even find the Star and Crescent, which, with the Lion and Sun, forms the sole remnant of heraldry among the modern Muslims. There is thus reason to believe that the heraldic bearings, which, as we shall see, were of common application during the 13th, 14th, and I sth centuries, were of Oriental descent, and though probably their frequency was a part of the general revival of the arts which accompanied the irruption of Turkish tribes into Syria and Egypt in the 12th and 13th centuries, they doubtless represent a custom that may have fallen into desuetude, but was never entirely forgotten, in the East. The cause of the sudden abundance of these armorial shields, especially in the 14th century, was the military constitution of the Mamluk empire. The various corps of the Mamluk army were distinguished each by its separate banner, with its individual device. The Arabic and Persian word for a heraldic badge, or arms, renk, meant originally " colour,'' and then came to mean, like our own expression, the " colours " of a regiment, and hence any distinguishing " badge " or " bearing," " coat of arms." In the history of the Mamluks we constantly meet with references to the renks of various Amirs and Sultans, and of such renks being u 2 2 70 ART OF THE SARACENS. assigned by the Sultan to a given Amir. When Es-Salih Ayyub raade'Aybek his Taster (Jashenkif), he gave him for his armorial badge a small table, in allusion to his office, which consisted in tasting all the food destined for the Sultan's table. This was the usual origin of these badges ; they w-ere not hereditary, and it is only by accident that the same renk is found to have been borne by two persons. Among the historical references to specific arms, we may mention the description of the lion passant, which was the crest or bearing first of Ibn-Tulun in the ninth century, and afterwards of the Sultan Beybars I., a.d. 1260-77, and which gave its name to the " Bridge of Lions," and also the " Garden of the Lion and Hyaena," which were ornamented by two lions carved in stone on the gateway. Abu-1-Mahasin mentions another coat of arms, argent, on a fess vert, a scimitar gules, and adds that this elegant coat was much beloved by the ladies of Cairo, who used to- tattoo their fingers with it. The same historian sayfe that the arms of the Amir Salar were black and white. Saladin's crest was probably an eagle ; Barkuk bore a white Sunkur, or falcon, which is the king of birds among the Arabs ; and Kalaun bore a " canting " coat, the representation of his own name, a duck. Two finely sculptured single-headed eagles in the Arab Museum at Cairo, with well-chiselled wing and breast feathers, and spreading tails, set in pear-shaped shields, with a cup in the base, may have been Tukuzdenttir's arms (see above, p. 259). A great many coats of arms have come down to us, some in metal, when the colours are of course uncertain, others in glass, when the enamel preserves the original tinctures. Some few devices are also preserved in mosaic, wood, and ivory, or in- scribed on the walls of buildings. The circular medallions sculptured on the edifices of Kait Bey and other Sultans may almost be regarded as blazons, and so may the similar medallions on glass lamps. The late E. T. Rogers Bey, whose long residence in the East and intimate acquaintance with Arabic literature HERALDR Y ON GLASS AND METAL. 271 rendered him a high authority on all branches of Saracenic art, devoted considerable research to this subject, and collected a large number of Mamluk coats. of arms in a valuable memoir published in the Bulletin de Vlnstitui Egyptien, 1880. The follow- ing resumi of his discoveries, together with a few additions from my own observation, will be useful to those who do not possess the original monograph. The general character of Saracenic armorial beariligs is mono- tonous. The shield is almost always a circle, divided by a broad fess ; though a glass lamp at the British Museum ' has the true shield form, and no fess. The usual charges are a cup (most frequent of all, and indicating that the bearer held the office of cup-bearer to the Sultan), a lozenge, a sword, a pair of cornu- copias, a pair of polo sticks (indicating the office of Jokendar, or polo-master), keys (the badge of a chamberlain or governor), an eagle, and a target. These are often combined in various modes, of which the commonest consists in placing a cup on the fess, a second cup in the base, and a lozenge in the chief. The cornucopias are generally arranged on either side of one or other of the preceding charges. A very frequent bearing, which suggests curious speculations, is the hieroglyphic formula already referred to, p. 233. It is found as a sole charge, or in chief with other emblems, or inscribed upon the body of a qup, and its meaning is " Lord of the Upper and Ix)wer country." Rogers Bey was of opinion that the Mamluks who employed this coat must have been aware of its meaning, and that perhaps the interpretation of hieroglyphics had not become extinct in the fourteenth century. It is possible that, while the general hieroglyphic inscriptions were no longer understood, the particular title, which is of frequent occurrence on the temple walls, may have been pre- served by the Copts ; or the Mamluks, without knowing the meaning, may have inferred from its frequency that it was a title of honour. In any case, its common appearance upon Saracenic objects is sufficiently surprising. 272 ART OF THE SARACENS. T"he following are some of the principal coats of arms belong- ing to historical Amirs and Sultans, in addition to the badges (lions, eagles, &c.) already mentioned : — Sheykhu + a.h. 758 (1357). Per fess, gules and sable, on a fess or, a cup gules. (British Museum, and Linant Pasha's Col- lection.) Bahadur, t739 (1339). Two horizontal bars. El-Maridany, f 744 (1343). Gules, on a fess argent, a lozenge of the first. Kahlis, an Amir of En-Nasir (14th century). Gules, on a fess argent, a scimitar sable, mounted of the second. (S. K. M.) Tukuzdemir, t 746 (i345). Gules, in chief an eagle displayed or, in base a cup of the last. (British Museum.) Almas, t734 (i334). Argent, a target or, with a bull's eye gules. (Linant Pasha's Collection.) Arkatay, t 750 (1349) (Governor of Safad). Two keys. Ezbek, A.H. 905 (1499). On a fess, a cup supported by dag- gers (?) ; chief, a lozenge between cornucopias ; base a cup between lozenges. BeshtakjA.H. 736 (1335). On a fess, a cup inscribed with the usual hieroglyphics, in chief diamond, in base a cup. This occurs on a bronze plate, and is consequently without tinctures ; it is also seen on the_ruin known as the "Bath of Beshtak," near the mosque of Sultan Hasan. Sultan Kait Bey, f 901 (1495). On a fess, a cup between cornucopias ; above a lozenge ; beneath a second cup. The same coat was borne by the Amir Janbalat, one of Kait Bey's officers, and afterwards Sultan. Many other combinations of cups and lozenges and the like might be enumerated, but these have not been identified with historical personages, and the student may refer for them to Rogers Bey's memoir. Among the more remarkable combina- tions, however, may be noted a flag upon the body of a cup, which probably refers to some military or court office ; and in HERALDRY ON GLASS AND METAL. 273 colours, a rare arrangement is seen of Bektuman En-Nasiry, azure . on a fess argent, a cup gules. A common badge is the fleur-de- lis, generally very distinctly represented. It was borne, among others, by El-Ashraf ShaTaan, El-Mansur 'Aly, and Es-Salih Hajjy, Sultans who all reigned in the second half of the fourteenth century, and it also occurs on the Maristan of Kalaun at the beginning of the same century. Two coats of arms preserved in the South Kensington Museum are different in details from any of those collected by Rogers Bey. The first occurs on a brass stand (see p. 233) which bears the title of a chief secretary of the fourteenth century ; the second is from a scale-pan (no. 929, 1884), with no name, but is probably of the fifteenth century ; the arms show the usual hieroglyphics on a fess, with a lozenge between trefoils in the chief, and a cup between trefoils in the base. CHAPTER X. ( POTTERY. The only pottery now made in Egypt is the porous un- glazed ware, made principally at Ballasa, Kine, and Semenhtid, which is used for water-bottles and utensils for the kitchen, and the roughly glazed variety of Asyut, which is chiefly made for coffee-cups and ornaments, pipes, ash-trays, &c. Both are of red earth (or, the latter, sometimes black, as fig. 99), and are turned on the ordinary wheel. The ornament, when there is any, is coarse, but the forms are generally simple and graceful. Some of the shapes of the common porous drinking-bottles are singularly pure, and might serve as models to the most finished potter of Europe.* No fine pottery is now made in Egypt with the floral decora- tion and pure siliceous glaze, such as we see in the well-known Damascus and Rhodian pottery. It is even a disputed point whether any of the tiles which adorn the mosques and houses of Cairo were made there, and some critics would have all fine earthenware to have been imported from Damascus and Persia. The mere fact that no fine pottery is now made in Cairo is no argument against its having been made there formerly. Anyone who will wander among the rubbish mounds of Old Cairo (Fustat), after a high wind has disturbed the sand, will be rewarded by picking up fragments of glazed earthenware of a great variety of styles. These are the potsherds of former centuries, for no ware * See the engravings in Lane's Modern Egyptians. POTTERY. 2 75 like these can be discovered in the present' day. That these frag- ments represent wares actually made at Fustat, is proved by the fact that the "cockspurs" or clay tripods, upon which they were placed during the firing, are found with them ; and that they were made before the almost total destruction of Fustat by fire in 1168 is at least probable, from their abundance and the absence of any similar ware made in Cairo at later periods. Many of these fragments have a gold or cop- per lustre ; others are deco- rated with streaks of red and white; and a large propor- tion show coarse black designs on a turquoise or blue-green ground, resembUng the ancient black and blue ware of Syria. It is only natural to conclude that the Saracens (or their subjects), who cultivated the potter's art with remarkable success in Persia and Syria, should have carried the same proficiency to so important a city of their empire as Cairo. Fortunately there are a few references to Egyptian pottery scattered among the works of the historians and travellers of the East, though much fewer than could be desired. The most important is the statement of Nasir-i-Khusrau, who visited Egypt in the middle of the eleventh century of our Era. " At Misr " (i.e. Fustat), he writes, " they make earthenware of all kinds, so fine and diaphanous that one can see one's hand through it. FIG 99. ASVUT COFFEE-rOT. 276 ART OF THE SARACENS. They make bowls, cups, plates, and other vessels ; decorate them with colours resembling [the iridescent stuff called] Bukalamun, so that the shades change according to the position in which the vessel is held." * This can only refer to an iridescent ware like the fragments found among the rubbish mounds of Fustat, which have the metallic lustre described by Nasir-i-Khusrau, and are painted with arabesque designs, inscriptions (unhappily not indi- cative of date), and sometimes with figures of animals. The fragments, however, are not translucent, as was the ware described by the Persian traveller; but this may be explained by the likelihood of the more fragile ware having been reduced almost to powder, and thus escaping observation. The fact remains that fine pottery was manufactured at or near Cairo in the eleventh century ; and this point once established, there is no reason to seek for a different source for many of the tiles that are found in the decoration of the mosques and houses. Tiles were the Saracenic substitute for mosaic. The last was used in mosques and palaces, though not to cover the upper portions of the walls ; but for private houses, and sometimes for mosques, a cheaper substitute was found in siliceous glazed tiles. We find them commonly in the dados of the reception- rooms in the better class of houses. How early they were intro- duced is not known, but the coating of the remarkable minarets of the mosque of En-Nasir Mohammad in the citadel of Cairo is of glazed blue tiles, and this carries them back to the first quarter of the fourteenth century. It is worth noting that the Egyptians call wall-tiles Kashany, " pertaining to Kashan," a Persian city, and the name points to the possible derivation of Syrian and Cairene faience from the early lustred earthenware of Persia. The fragments picked up at Fustat, however, bear little resem- blance to the early Persian ware, nor have the devices of the later Damascus and Cairo tiles much in common with the golden arabesques of the true Persian. There is nothing to prove * Se/er Nameh, ed. C. Schefer. POTTERY. 277 that the Persian pottery was the parent of the Cairene: it is equally possible that the Fustat fragments represent the origin of the Persian wares. But wherever the art originated, it is reason- able to assume that the Tartar invaders of Egypt in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries brought with them the idea of coating the walls of a tomb or house with tiles, such as they had seen on their route through Persia. The usual dates of the Persian star-shaped tiles are of the thirteenth century. This would give sufficient time for the art to be carried to Cairo by the Mamluks, and used for the decoration of En-Nasir's mosque in 1318. It is true that the Cairo tiles are not star-shaped, nor do they resemble their Persian contemporaries in colour or general treatment ; they are not lustred, nor have they inscriptions or dates. More- over, the potter's art was practised successfiilly in Egypt in the days of the Pharaohs. Still, the notion of using tiles as ■wall coverings may have come from the Persian tombs, though the material and process had long been familiar. It was in the adaptation and revival of old arts that the Saracens excelled. Which of the numerous varieties of tiles, still to be seen in situ on the walls of Cairo buildings, are of native manufacture is a problem which does not appear likely to be solved until we have discovered tiles inscribed with names or dates, or obtained some fresh historical evidence. Some of the designs are so obviously akin to those known to have been made at Damascus, that it seems difficult to resist the conclusion that they were imported from that city. There is, however, another explanation of the similarity which is equally probable. It was, we know, the custom of the Mamluk and other princes to send to various distant cities for artists and workmen, when they contemplated the erection of a great mosque or palace. We read of painters brought to Cairo from Basra and Wasit, in Mesopotamia; of artisans furnished by the Greek Emperor to the Khalifs at Damascus ; of a Cairo mason, sent in 1 287 by Kalaun, to chisel that Sultan's name on a mosque then being built by Baraka 2 78 ART OF THE SARACENS. Khan in the Crimea ; of an architect of Tebriz, who built the two minarets of the mosque of Kusun, at Cairo, on the model of the minaret set up in Tabriz by Khwaja 'Aly Shah, the Vizir of the Mongol King of Persia Abu-Sa'id. This principle of collect- ing workmen from the chief centres of their arts may have operated in producing the mixed character of the tile-work of Cairo. Potters may have been brought from Damascus, Brusa, Kutahia, and the other centres of tile-work, to ornament the mosques and houses of Cairo, and this would account for the purely Damascus patterns which we frequently see. Sometimes, no doubt, the tiles were actually imported. Ibn-Sa'id tells us that quantities of azulejos (a word formed from the Persian lazier d, lapis lazuli) were exported from Andalusia, arid the mosque of Sheyku at Cairo was decorated with these Moorish tiles, some of which are now in the South Kensington Museum (St. Maurice Collection). In a similar way, the Lady Chapel of St. Mary Redcliffe, at Bristol, is paved with azulejos, which formed the cargo of a ship captured off the coast. What has now been said will show that it is not easy to decide which tiles may be ascribed to the native potteries of Cairo. Some general principles, based on observation of prevailing types, may however be laid down. It is supposed, with some show of reason, that the thinner tiles are Cairene ; as distinguished from the thick ware of Damascus. The Cairo colouring appears to be chiefly blue, in two shades, dark and turquoise, and the designs are floral, but simpler than those of Damascus. Puce and sage- green (typical tints of Damascus) are not among the colours of the Cairene tile potter. We do not find such large panels of tile-work at Cairo as in Syria, nor are the individual tiles larger than about ten inches square. In point of firing, the Cairo tiles are less flat and more often crackled than those of Damascus, and the tints often run into one another. Some fine examples of Cairo tiles, or what are supposed to be such, are illustrated in Prisse d'Avenne's L'ArtArabe. Plates 119 POTTERY. 279 and 120 show the magnificent tiled wall of the mosque of Aksunkur, built in a.h. 747-8 (1347). El-Makrizy tells us that this mosque was built of stone, with a vaulted roof, and was paved with marble. Aksunkur himself took a share in the labour. In 815 the Amir Tughan added a fountain in the middle of the court, the water of which was supplied by a wheel turned by an ox ; the fountain was covered by a roof resting on toarble columns, which the Amir took from the mosqile of El-Khandak, which he had pulled down. But the historian provokingly says nothing about the tiles, and we are forced to believe that, as he could hardly have omitted to mention so salient and almost unique a feature if it had existed in his time, the tiles must have been inserted when Ibrahim Agha restored the mosque in 1652. No more splendid example of the use of tiles in large surfaces can be seen in Cairo. It is impossible to give any idea of this magnificent wall, covered with tiles from top to bottom, and displaying the typical Cairene pattern of blue flowers and leaves in the utmost perfection. The seblls or street fountains, are also sometimes lined with beautiful tiles; for example, that of 'Abd-er- Rahman Kikhya, erected in the eighteenth century. Other tiles of Cairo style may be seen in the South Kensington Museum. I succeeded myself in bringing back, in 1883, several batches of tiles of identical pattern, with a view to showing their effect when combined in large surfaces ; and there can be little doubt that these long series were made at the city where they were found, and probably by native potters. Cairo tiles, like those of Damascus, are bevelled at the edges, to allow the thick plaster bed in which they are set to penetrate between them at the back and thus give a hold, and also to save trouble in exactly squaring the edges. We have not attempted to assign dates to any given tiles, except those of the mosque of En-Nasir, for the sufficient reason that any such attempt must be entirely hypothetical. It is not easy to say which tiles are really of Cairo make ; but it is even more 28o ART OF THE SARACENS. difficult to assign any fixed date to them. The Ibrahim Agha tiles are, indeed, probably of the date of the restoration in the seventeenth century ; but the same patterns seem to have been copied for so long a period that these, even if the date were absolutely certain, would form no safe guide as to the date of other tiles of the same pattern. Of other pottery than tiles, except the fragments found among the rubbish mounds, there is very little that can be ■safely attri- buted to Cairo. An opaque white ware of a creamy glaze, of which there are specimens in the South Kensington Museum, is said to be Cairene ; and I am disposed to ascribe certain coarse blue and white dishes, with floral patterns, of which two are in the St. Maurice Collection, to Cairo potters, chiefly because they came from Cairo, and are unlike any other known ware of the East. CHAPTER XL TEXTILE FABRICS. The East is the home of sumptuous apparel, and among the arts of the Saracens the manufacture of the materials of dress naturally occupied a prominent place. The very names which we still use for various kinds of silken and other stuffs recall their Eastern origin. Sarcenet is saracenatum, muslin is named after the famous Mosil fabric, tabby is the watered or striped stuff, named, after a street in Baghdad, 'Attaby or 'Uttaby ; the silken canopies called baudekins or haldacchini were so named from Baldac, a western corruption of Baghdad ; * Cramoisy is derived from the dye furnished by the Kermis insect ; the German word for satin, atlas, means the smooth satin of Syria and Armenia; samite is probably Shamy, "Syrian" fabric ; the Genoese mezzare and the Spanish almaizar are but the Arab garment called mizar; and jupe, jupon, giuppa, are French and Italian descendants of the gubba, which Egyptian gentlemen still wear. European sovereigns who had a mind to dress in purple and fine linen naturally took their lessons in regal attire from the robes of Eastern princes, Italian tailors derived much of their materials and ideas from the superb models brought by merchants from Damascus, Cairo, and Baghdad ; and Sicily became a noted centre • See Col. Yule's admirable translation of Marco Polo. "At BauSas [Baghdad] they weave many diflferent kinds of silk stuffs and gold brocades . wrought with figures of beasts and birds." — i. 67. 282 ART OF THE SARACENS. of rich textile fabrics under the Saracens and their successors the Norman kings. Ma'din, in Armenia, wrought the most beautiful atlas satin ; Baghdad was famous for its tabby silk, Ba'lbekk supplied the finest white cotton, Tyre maintained its industrial fame by making carpets and mats, Rum or Anatolia was celebrated for its silk and satin — we read of the Rumian silk in the Arabian Nights — and wool came from Malatia and Angora. Egypt was not backward in the arts of adornment. Cairo and Alexandria indeed imported many European stuffs, cloth, and other fabrics, from Venice, and fine linen and silks from Sicily; but they had also their own looms, and their produce was famous for its excellent quality* Alexandria had its special silk fabric, and Cairo was renowned for its manufacture of yellow silk standards : so fine was the texture of the best Cairene fabric that a whole robe could be passed through a finger-ring. Some of the smaller towns of Egypt were well-known centres of textile industry. Ibn Batuta joins with all Eastern authorities in praising the white woollen cloth of Behnesa. Debik was famous for its silks. "At Asyut," says Nasir-i-Khusrau, " they make woollen stufffor turbans which are unequalled in the whole world. The fine woollens of Persia, called Misry, all come from Upper Egypt, for they do not weave, wool at Misr [Fustat]. I saw at Asyut a woollen waistcloth, such as I have not seen equalled at Lahor or Multan — ^you might have mistaken it for silk tissue." Tinnis was renowned throughout the East for its fine cambric {kasab) used for turbans. White kasab was made at Damietta, whence our. term ' Aimity' (Arabid, dimyaty), but that of Tinnis was woven of all colours by Coptic weavers, and was much preferred. Nasir-i-Khusrau tells us that the products {tiraz) of the royal factory at Tinnis were reserved exclusively for the sovereign of Egypt, and could neither be sold nor given to any one else. " A king of Ears," he adds, " offered 20,000 pieces of gold for a complete robe made of the Tinnis stuff at the royal factory, but,^ after trying for several years to obtain it, his agent was compelled to abandon the attempt. A royal turban of this fabric : :f ..Ki'i'>^■'^^4i^*^■ ! .■;■: -4 3-..- .Vv^J^.5^f FIG. lOO. — SILK FABRIC OF ICONIUM. Thirteenth Century. {Lyons Museum.) 284 ART OF THE SARACENS. cost 500 gold pieces." At Tinnis also was made the wonderful iridescent fabric called ^^/S(7/a»z««,— probably from Abu-Kalamun, the chameleon, as Col. Yule suggests, — which was said to change colour at different hours of the day, and was used for saddle-cloths and for covering the royal litters. At Beny Suweyf was manufac- tured an excellent sort of linen, called Alexandrian, which was exported to Europe. All these manufactures were in great demand during the centuries of luxurious splendour which the independent rulers of Egypt enjoyed. The Fatimy Khalifs were fond of display beyond the dreams of even Oriental potentates, and many records of their sumptuous attire, their "gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls," have come down to us. There is a piece bearing the name of the Fatimy El-Hakim preserved at Notre-Dame at Paris, which shows the richness of the materials and the splendour of the colours ; and EI-Makrizy and other historians are full of the wonderful fabrics in which " the soul of my lord delighted." Some of these, like the countless dresses of 'Abda, daughter of the Khalif El-Mu'izz, were of Sicilian manufacture ; but ' others were Persian, Anatolian, and native. We read of quantities of silk, shot with gold, and embroidered with the portraits of' kings, and the tale of their deeds ; of a piece of silk made at Tustar, in Persia, by order of the Khalif El-Mu'izz, in 964, which represented in gold and colours, on a blue ground, a sort of map of the various countries in the world, with cities, rivers, roads, and mountains, and their names embroidered in gold, and it is not surprising that this work cost 22,000 gold dinars. Among the objects described in the celebrated inventory of the possessions of the Fatimy Khalif El-Mustansir (to which the preceding example belonged) were several magnificent tents made of cloth of gold, velvet, satin, damask and silk; some plain, some covered with representations of men, elephants, lions, peacocks and horses, and lined within with velvet or satin, silk from China, Tustar or P>.um, shot with fine gold. One huge pavilion of this kind was made for the Vizir TEXTILE FABRICS. 285 Yazury ; the pole, which was sixty-five cubits high and six and two-thirds thick, was a gift from the Greek Emperor ; the stuff was embroidered with figures of animals and the like, and the making of it -is said to have occupied 150 men for nine years, at a cost of 30,000 dinars. Another tent of this description, made at Aleppo, was supported by the mainmast of a Venetian galley, and it required seventy camels to transport it to the place where it was set up. A third was named El-Katul, " the killer," because a man was sure to be crushed in pitching it. ■ Behnesa was the place where such tents were often made, as well as many kinds of royal stuffs, embroideries and needlework, and large carpets, thirty cubits long, which were worth 10,000 grains of gold. The chief weavers and embroiderers of these magnificent fabrics were Copts, and to their influence may be ascribed the introduction of figures of animals and portraits of heroes and princes, a practice against the spirit of Mohammadan art, but quite in accordance with the traditions of the decorative work of the Lower Empire. Some concession was, however, made to Muslim prejudice by the skilful workmen of the Fatimis. If they would at times introduce the forbidden portrait of an animate being — under pain of being ordered on the Day of Judgment to find a soul for their portrait, or else to be dragged on their faces to hell — they would oftener depict such fabulous creatures as the griffin and the winged lion of Assyria, which fitly portrayed, to the Muslim mind, the fabulous beast Borak on which the blessed Prophet made his miraculous dream- journey; or they would represent the harmless form of the Aom, or tree of life. The employment of Christians to weave such unorthodox designs as beasts and even human beings, however, was in itself a salve to the Muslim conscience : for the Christian weaver and not the Mohammadan wearer might be expected to receive the punishment. And the same consolation soothed the religious mind when it contemplated the rich silk tissues which the same impious infidel, unmindful of the Prophet's command that X 2 286 ART OF THE SARACENS. silk was not permissible to his followers, had wrought for the believer's attire. A freq'uent characteristic of Saracen (and modern Eastern) weaving is the mixture of cotton or lineh thread with the silk ; and this was only another mode of evading the disagreeable ordinance of the tasteless Prophet of Islam. Nasir-i-Khusrau, who travelled in Egypt during the reign of EI-Mustansir, gives us a glimpse of the magnificence of the Fatiray Court, in the eleventh century, which, coming from an eye- witness, is even more valuable than the traditions reported by El-Makrizy. He describes the Khalif s tent as made of satin of Rum, covered with gold embroidery, and sown with precious stones. The furniture inside was of the same material, and so large was the pavilion that a hundred horsemen could stand in it. The entrance passage was lined with the " chameleon " fabric of Tinnis. The Khalifs state escort of 10,000 horsemen had all saddle-cloths of satin and "chameleon," and even the trappings of the camels and asses were covered with gold plates and precious stones. At the cutting of the Canal, always an im- posing ceremony at Cairo, the Khalif appeared clad in a white robe with a large tunic, costing 10,000 dinars, a turban of white stuff, and a valuable whip in his hand. Three hundred attendants preceded him, attired in Rum brocade, and bearing- pikes and axes, with bandelets on their legs; and the dress of the bearer of the jewelled parasol over the Khalif cost 10,000 dinars. These values are doubtless exaggerated, and the figures run suspiciously often to ten thousand ; but the main fact is that Nasir-i-Khusrau, a competent and travelled witness, was dazzled with the- splen- dour of the fabrics which he saw at the Fatimy Court. Although it belongs to a later period, the engraving, fig. 100, may serve to give some idea of the silk fabric of Rum. It is reproduced from an engraving which has been kindly lent me by M. Giraud, the keeper of the Archaeological Museum at Lyons, and it has been made the subject of a special essay by M. Pariset. Like the cope of St. Mexme, preserved in the TEXTILE FABRICS. 287 church of St. Etienne, at Chinon, this silk garment of Lyons had been converted into a church vestment — a chasuble. The following is an abridgment of M. Pariset's description of this remarkable specimen, which, though not itself of Egyptian manufacture, may nevertheless be held an example of the kind of silk weaving done by Saracen looms in the first half of the thirteenth century.* The warp is of crimson silk, in two parts ; one laid on ribands forms the plain ground, the other makes the pattern. The woof is also of red silk, of a delicate shade, but fast, and perfectly preserved, produced with cochineal (or perhaps kermis). The fabric thus belongs to the class called holoseriaim, because entirely made of silk, with no mixture of cotton. The present specimen, however, is enriched by a second woof, of gold, which alternates with the silk woof, and, traversing the whole breadth of the material, j helps to form the design, while the silk woof makes the red ground. Such stuff was highly prized in the middle ages under the name of chrysoclavum fundatum. The gold thread consists , of a silk core covered with gilt paper. Drawn gold thread was not used in ancient times, and leaf gold was the ordinary form of the precious metal employed for embroidery. The Chinese invented the process of laying thin gold leaf upon paper and rolling it round silk thread, and the Arabs, always in intimate trade relations with China, learned the process from the Celestials, and regularly employed it from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. Great strength was attained when thirr cows' hide or other skin was used instead of paper.f Though the object of the gold paper is of course to economise the * Note sur un drap (Tor arahe que posside le Musee Inditstriel de Lyon : lue d VAcadimie de Lyon, 30 Mai, 1882, par M. Pariset. + The gold leaf was attached to the paper or skin by gelatine, and then cut and rolled round the thread. The early Italian weavers imported this peculiar Saracenic gold thread : hence the mysterium aurifilati of the chroniclers. See the interesting account of gold tissue in Fischbach, Geschichte der Textil-Kunst, 76, ff. 288 ART OF THE SARACENS. precious metal, the gold used for this example is ver}' pure and rich. The arrangement of the woof is a proof of Oriental origin, and the design confirms this conclusion. Simple as it is — a pair of lions or griffins back to back, in a circular medallion bordered with flowers — it is characteristically Eastern. We have seen many instances of such opposed animals and birds on the metal-work and carving of the thirteenth century, and there is no doubt that the design is much older than Mohammadan times, and goes back to the productions of the old artists of Mesopotamia and Persia. We read in Quintus Curtius of robes worn by Persian satraps, adorned with birds beak to beak — aurei accipitres veluti rostri in se irruerent pallam adornabant. Plautus mentions Alexandrian carpets ornamented with beasts : Alexandrina belluata conchyliata tapetia.* There is indeed reason to believe that the notion of such pairs of birds or beasts may have originated with the weavers of ancient Persia, and have been borrowed from them by the engravers of metal-work; for the advantage of such double figures would be specially obvious to a weaver. The symmetrical repetition of the figure of the bird or animal, reversed, saved both labour and elaboration of the loom. The old weavers, not yet masters of mechanical improvements, were obliged to work their warp up and down by means of strings, and the larger the design the more numerous became these strings and the more complicated the loom. Hence, to be able to repeat the pattern in reverse was a considerable economy of labour, and could be effected very simply on a loom constructed to work a pointe et a reverse. Examples of such repetitions of patterns, especially of symmetrical pairs of animals within circles, are common in Byzantine and Sassanian woven work, and the Saracens followed these models. Finally our piece of silk bears part of an Arabic inscription, which runs ^Ala-ed-dm Abu-l-Feth Kay- * For other notices, see Col. Yule's notes in his translation of Marco Polo, 1. 67, 68, &c. TEXTILE FABRICS. 289 Kubdd, son of Kay Khusrau, witness to the Prince of the Faithful. This Kay-Kubad was a Seljuk Sultan of Rum, and reigned at Iconiura, &c., from 1214 to 1239 a.d., and the occurrence of his name on the garment shows that it was a tiraz made at a special royal factory, reserved, like that at Tinnis, for the exclusive use of the particular sovereign. This factory was no doubt in Rum, and probably at the capital, Koniya (Iconium), or perhaps one of the other large cities. " In Turcomania," says Marco Polo, " they weave the finest and handsomest carpets in the world, and also a great quantity of fine and rich silks of cramoisy and other colours, and plenty of other stuffs. Their chief cities are Conia, Savast [Sivas], and Casaria [Kaysariya]."* At all events there can be no doubt that this is the silk of Rum of which we read so often in the records of state ceremonies and robes of honour in the Arabic histories. An interesting parallel to the royal silk factory, or Ddr-et-tirdz, of Ka)'-Kubad, and to that of the Fatimy Khalif at Tinnis, is found in the similar institution at Palermo, which owed its foundation to the Kelby Amirs who ruled Sicily as vassals of the Fatimis in the ninth and tenth centuries, though it maintained its special character and excellence of work under the Norman kings. The factory was in the palace, and the weavers were Mohammadans, as indeed is obvious from a glance at the famous silk cloth preserved at Vienna, and called the " Mantle of Nijrnberg," where a long Arabic inscription testifies to the hands that made it, by order of King Roger, in the year of the Hijra 528, or a.d. ii33.t Just as our piece of silk from Rum is the locus classicus, so to say, for Anatolian weaving in the thirteenth century, and the Notre Dame silk for the Fatimy work of the beginning of the eleventh century, so this Niirnberg mantle gives us the type of Siculo-Arab work in the twelfth century, and enables us to form * Col. Yule, i. 45-6. f J. B. Giraud, Les Origines de la Sole, son Histoire chez des Peuples de V Orient, p. 60. 290 ART OF THE SARACENS. some conception of what manner of hangings William jof Palermo intended when he described the palace of Roger of Sicily : — To enter fu encertines De dras de soie a or ouvres A oeuvres d'or et ^ paintures, A maintes diverses figures D'oisiax, de bestes, et de gens. Les chambres furent par dedans. Paintes et bien enlumin^es.* Of the thirty examples of " Saracenic " fabrics illustrated in Fischbach's beautiful work, " The Ornament of Textile Fabrics,'' the great majority are Sicilian, and although they are chiefly of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and most of them evidently woven by artists who were ignorant of Arabic, the designs are unmistak- ably Saracenic. The medallion arrangement of earlier times gives place on these Palermo fabrics to bands or rows of fabulous beasts, birds, and fish, generally in blue and green, on a deep-red ground, divided by bands of mutilated Arabic inscriptions or arabesque and geometrical panels. This description of the silk chasuble of Rum has brought us nearly to the time of the Mamluks, and we shall find that these sumptuous sovereigns were as ardent patrons of the textile art as the Fatimis. Some of the Mamluk Sultans indeed prided them- selves on a distinguished simplicity of attire, but the same cannot be said of their followers. The Amir Salar, in the time of En- Nasir, made himself famous by (among other services to the State) introducing a novel style of vest of white Ba'lbekk linen, sometimes strewn with precious stones. Another Mamluk lord, of the court of Beybars, was allowed two gold brocade caps a month, each worth fifty dinars, and a turban at forty; and Beybars himself, though he preferred to dress simply in black silk with no gold or jewels, made amends for his austerity by the rich apparel of his suite, and by the portable mosque, entirely • F. Michel, Recherches siir le Ccmmerce et la Fabrication des Etoffes de soie, d'or et d'argent, ii. 133. FIG. 101. — DAMASK, WORN BY Hl-NRY THE SAINT. Eleventh Century. {^Bamberg Museum.) 292 ART OF THE SARACENS. constructed of woven stuffs, attached to his tent. A pavilion of red satin, with ■silken cords and pegs of sandalwood, strengthened with bands of silver gilt, was the Mamluk idea of elegance. The description in Chapter I. of a state pageant under Beybars shows what display the Mamluks thought suitable to their dignity; and the golden silk standards, the dresses of the pages, and rich housings of the horses, must have made the silk weavers a very flourishing community at that time. Silk was a passion with the Mamluks ; they lined their cuirasses with silk, housed their chargers in silk, wrapped their letters in silken covers, waved it in the air as flags, trod it under foot as drugget, hung it along the streets and over the shops on gala days ; they wore it on their heads, and on their bodies ; every- thing must be of silk brocade ; their fairest slaves were exposed for sale in silken veils shot with gold thread ; and though the Sultan Lagin tried to put a stop to this bravery of attire, and issued sumptuary laws against gold embroidery in the caps and turbans of his Mamluks, the reform was but temporary. The inventor of the newwaistcoat flourished after Lagin's reforms had been forgotten, and Barkuk soon introduced the Cherkis caps, with their spiral ornament and capacious dimensions. Apart from royal robes, the most handsome stuffs were devoted to the manufacture of the dresses of honour (Khil^as) which Mohammadan princes were pleased to bestow on those who had succeeded in winning their royal approbation. A welcome ambassador, the bringer of good news, a Court favourite, a newly appointed .official, or a servant who had done something (or nothing) that pleased his master, would be forthwith presented with a robe of honour perfumed with amber and musk. There was a precise etiquette about these dresses, and it was a matter of deep moment that the robe should be appropriate to the rank of the person to be thus distinguished. To give the wrong dress would be like giving the Michael and George to an Indian officer, or the CLE. to an Australian, El-Makrizy carefully TEXTILE FABRICS. 293 distinguishes between the Khil'as bestowed on men of the sword and those given to men of the pen. Of the former, the Centurions, or captains over 100, who were mighty lords, enjoyed the finest kind of robes. Red satin of Rum, lined with yellow satin from the same country, formed the chief material, but the outer garment was embroidered with gold, and trimmed with miniver and beaver. A little cap of gold brocade was worn under the turban, the fine muslin of which was adorned with silk embroidery, while the extremities were formed by bands of white silk, bearing the titles of the Sultan. A girdle, enriched with rubies, emeralds, and pearls ; a sword, inlaid with gold ; a horse and gold housings from the royal stable, completed the equipment of a person distinguished by a dress of honour of the first rank. The prince of Hamah, says El-Makrizy, received such a dress as this, only instead of muslin, the shdsh or turban was made of silk, shot with gold, manufactured at Alexandria. Less noble personages received a Khil'a of the silk fabric called, from its designs, tardwahsh,"'beast-'h\mXs,'' which was also manu- factured at Alexandria, as well as at Misr [Cairo] and Damascus. The dress was made of several bands of different colours, inter- mingled with gold-shot cambric, with embroidery between, and a border of cambric. The gold cap, girdle, and turban, as before, completed the dress of honour for a petty lord. The lower the rank the plainer and simpler became the robe of honour, and the degrees of difference were finely graduated. Vizirs, and men of the pen, were arrayed in robes of white kangy, or stuff of Kanga, trimmed with beaver, and lined with miniver. The under garment was of green kangy, and the turban of dimity, or linen of Damietta, embroidered. Lower ranks were deprived of the miniver lining, and had no fur on their sleeves. Judges and learned men had their robes of honour made of wool, without borders, white outside, and green underneath. The number of specimens of mediaeval textiles made by the Saracens that have been preserved to this day is unhappily 294 ART OF THE SARACENS. very small. Naturally silk is more perishable than stone or metal, and it was not to be expected that dresses should have oui lived the vicissitudes of wear and fire to which such materials are exposed. The fine series of "Saracenic" stuffs lithographed by Fischbach in his " Ornament of Textile Fabrics " are, in my judgment, very rarely the work of Saracens. Most of them were probably made by Sarrasinas, or imitators of Saracenic style, at Palermo, Lucca, and other towns, where enterprising rulers imported Byzantine, Greek, and Oriental weavers to teach their own subjects. The mutilation of the Arabic inscriptions and the European development of the Saracenic ornament are signs of copyists, who were doubtless the successors of true Saracen artists,: or at least were originally in communication with the chief centres of loom-industry in the East.* Nos. 144 and 145 of that work are, however, exceptions to the generally European character of the " Saracenic " illustrations. They belong to a cloak at Regensburg (Ratisbon), said to have been worn" by the Emperor Henry VI., who died at Messina, and who may have had it as a present from the Norman King of Sicily. An Arabic inscription worked in the fabric states that it was made by Ustad (foreman) 'Abd-el-'Aziz for King William II., who reigned in Sicily from 1169 to 11 89. Another Arabic inscription contains a benedictory formula. This example is characteristically Saracenic : beasts of the chase, whorls, rosettes, and medaUions, filled with geometrical ornament, * Mr. Fischbach almost admits as much himself, when he occasionally notes his hesitation in ascribing a Saracenic stuff to an Eastern loom or to Sarrasinas at Lucca ; and some of bis " Saracenic" examples are even vaguely attributed to " Asia Minor or Greece." He has enjoyed the scholarly assistance of Prof. Karabacek, who has made considerable use of Col. Yule's and Sir George Birdwood's discoveries, and added the results of his own researches. The attribution of no. 13 to IbtShlm of Dehli, however, is not warranted by the Arabic inscription in the lithograph, which does not show the name of that Sultan. 88a, again, which "cannot be read," shows the name 'Abd- Allah clearly. Fischbach's Geschichte der Textil-Kunst contains Prof. Karabacek's inlurmation, but the Saracenic divisions are unhappily full of misprints, which de ract from the scholarly aspect. FIG. X02v— SILK FABRIC OK liG^ PT OR SICILY. ^ {Nurnberg Museum.) 296 ART OF THE SARACENS. and a large gold band of benedictory inscription, recall Mamluk decoration. The illustration fig. loi represents a damask garment, worn by Henry the Saint, 1002 — 1024, now in the Bamberg Museum. Here we see the system of ornament in medallions which the Saracens adopted from the Sassanian weavers of Persia. The pairs of lions (or chitahs), winged griffins, and parrots, closely resemble the style of Mosil metal-work, and the geometrical borders are no less characteristic. Wherever the stuff was made (a point on which information is wanting), there can be no doubt that it is a typical example of early Saracenic weaving, which was founded upon and closely resembled the textile fabrics of the Sassanians and Byzantines. Fig. 100, the Seljuk silk, already described, preserves the main design of pairs of animals in medallions, but the surrounding ornament betrays the influence of the arabesque style. Fig. 102 represents a silk fabric at Niirnberg, which Fischbach describes as Siculo-Saracenic, and on which the human-headed sphinxes suggest an Egyptian influence, such as was exerted by the Fatimy Khalifs upon their Sicilian vassals. The ground is dark-red, the sphinxes are woven in gold thread, and the foliage is green. Prisse d'Avennes has also some excellent illustrations of Saracenic textiles : one from the Utrecht Museum, with stiff-looking green and read peacocks, beak to beak like the aiirei accipitres of Q. Curtius, may be of the twelfth or thirteenth century, and an even earlier date may be claimed for the silk preserved at Toulouse, with its bird decoration, and benedictory Kufjc inscriptions. The history of textile ornament is strikingly illustrated by such mediaeval fabrics as have been preserved in royal and ecclesiastical vestments, formed out of the spoils which the Crusading collector or the ambassador to Eastern Courts brought home. An attentive study of the admirable series of 160 plates published by Fischbach leaves no doubt either of the Sassano- Byzantine origin of Saracenic weaving, or of the penetrating influence of Saracenic design over the TEXTILE FABRICS. 297 early loom-workers of Italy and Sicily. How much Europe owes to Eastern design in textile fabrics may be judged from the pre- vailing Saracenic character of all the Italian work of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries ; whence all Europe derived the artistic impulse. The art of weaving, if it has languished in some centres where once it flourished, has not altogether died out in Egypt and Syria. A large proportion of the beautiful mixed silk and cotton stuffs that are offered for sale in the bazaars of Cairo are of native manufacture, though European dyes have not improved the colours. Kufiyas of yellow, red, and blue striped silk, shot with gold, familiar to all travellers in the East, are still made of exquisite beauty and delicacy, and the striped gubbas still worn by tradespeople, and, till the frock-coat invaded the East, by gentlemen, in Egypt, are generally made by Oriental weavers. Damietta indeed no longer manufactures its famous dimity, but there are plenty of cotton factories in Egypt, at Demenhur, Ikhmim and Cairo, and silk is still woven at the capital. Beny Suweyf, once famous for its linen, now makes only a coarse kind for the common people, besides woollen carpets j and linen and cotton factories are still seen at Mansura. CHAPTER XII. ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS. Among the minor arts of the Mohammadans, none is more individual and characteristic than that of illuminating manuscripts. Possessing in the Naskhy or cursive hand a Script unrivalled in flexuous elegance, the art of calligraphy may be said to have been forced upon the Saracens. Penmanship soon took its place next to scholarship in the estimation of the wise, and the names of great calligraphists, like Ibn-Mukla and Yakut Er-Rumy, became almost as famous as those of the poets and historians who provided them with the materials upon which to exercise their art. Many of the ordinary books of reference, such as dictionaries and annals, were transcribed with fastidious care in the fine bold Naskhy character, and a further step was taken when illumination was added to the beauty of penmanship. This embellishment was, however, reserved for the book of books, the " noble Koran," alone.* Ordinary manuscripts might be beautifully written, but the Koran only was ornamented with the rich illuminated title-pages and marginal medallions which form the chief points of decoration in Arabic manuscripts. It is only necessary to turn over the leaves of the thirteenth century Koran, preserved in the British Museum (Orient. 1009), to realise what * The curious figures in certain MSS. of El-Harlry's Makamat are quite exceptional, and probably the work of Christians. FIG. 103.— ILLUMINATED KORAN OF SULTAN SUA'bAN. Fourteenth Centurj'. ( Viceregal Library, Cairo.) 30O AUT OF THE SARACENS. infinite pains, what elaboration of the few decorative elements at their disposal, what skill in the arrangeihent and application of gold and colours, the Mohammadan illuminators expended upon their sacred book. The first two and last two pages are the subjects of specially rich decoration. They form each a rich panel, resembling a magnificent carpet. A central ornament of intricate geopnetrical or arabesque design, with the usual inscrip- tion, " Let none touch it save the purified," (by which the Muslim warns those who would handle the sacred volume to first perform the prescribed religious ablutions,) is surrounded by three borders, composed (i) of a sort of key-pattern; like what we have seen on Mosil metal-work, on a gold ground, (2) of flowers in various colours on a prevailing blue ground, and (3) of free scroll-work, showing the simple elements of the arabesque, which afterwards received such manifold elaboration. There are generally four or five such full-page illuminations in the best Korans, two or three at each end of the volume. The remaining pages are less richly ornamented : the headings of chapters alone are framed in gold and colours, with arabesque and geometrical borders, and the outer margins of the leaves are enriched with numerous medallions, filled with arabesques and other designs. In the example referred to, these medallions are exceptionally numerous and varied. There are about three to each page, and their designs, notwithstanding their small compass — ^for a floral border enclosing a gold rosette is the prevailing type — present every change and contrast that the illuminator's ingenuity could suggest. The colours are chiefly carmine, deep blue, black and gold, but green and yellow sometimes appear. The bold writing — called Thuluth, or " Thrice- Naskhy" — of the text is lightened by gold rosettes and other ornaments, to indicate the punctuation and other directions to the person who chanted the Koran. The character of the flowers and arabesques, and the scarceness of pure geometrical ornament, lead to the impression that this beautiful manuscript was illuminated at Damascus ; but it may ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS. 301 have been the work of Cairo artists, trained in the Syrian school. Its date can hardly be later than the thirteenth century. Another very splendid copy of the Koran in the British Museum (Add. 22,406) bears inscriptions which prove that it was written for Beybars Gashenkir in the years 704-5, or a.d. 1304-5, while he was still Ustddddr, or major-domo, to the Sultan En- Nasir ibn Kalaun, and had not yet ascended the throne himself. It was no doubt prepared for his Khangah, or conventual mosque, which was completed in 706, and is still standing. This magnificent manuscript is in seven volumes, and is written from beginning to end in gold letters (within a delicate ink outline) on a ground resembling the key-pattern of the early metal-work. The first two pages are, as usual, fully illuminated, and covered with splendid arabesques in gold, on blue and red ground, with the inscription "Let none touch it save the purified " in white. The next two pages are framed with interlaced borders ; but the rest of the volume, except the last page, has only the customary medallions, to mark the divisions of the text, and the rosettes and whorls, of red, blue, and gold, which are inserted in the writing for purposes of punctuation and accent. The marginal medallions are much less frequent than in the previously described Koran, and the designs are more monotonous. Oh the last page,, within a gold frame with interlaced border, is the inscription »,.6l aJUJt jljJI aU-l i^jJI ^j«Si\ (J^e-"^! " The writing of this noble Seventh and its sisters was ordered by his excellency, the generous, the exalted, the lord, the great Amir, Rukn-ed-din, major domo altissimo, God magnify his triumphs ; and . Mohammad ibn El-Wahid wrote it." In the marginal medallions of the same page are the words ^«a-.« A*Ai i& and w..*i for these two processes seems to suggest some different operation in the case of Aydaghdy. Dr. Rieu thinks it may refer to the delicate outlining of the characters, but this would more probably be termed i^Ufe. Perhaps the iiLoj was the laying on of the colours, as distin- guished from the ,.j..*AjJ, or gilding. It should be noticed that in this example the colours of the medallions, &c., are painted over the gold, which gives them a peculiar brilliancy. A third Koran in the British Museum (Orient. 1401) is later — ■ probably of the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century — and the decoration is very inferior 'to that of the two preceding examples. The rosettes and medallions are compara- tively few, and the ornament is over-intricate, with something of tne Alhambra effect. The headings of chapters are good, but the execution is coarse ; the full pages at the beginning and end present some fine arabesques, but none of the designs approach in delicacy those of the first Koran described above. The colours are again laid over gold. In the South Kensington Museum are the first two pages of a magnificent Koran, belonging to the fourteenth century. They contain the first chapter and the beginning of the second chapter of the Koran, in gold letters on a ground shaded with red lines, and covered with beautiful scrolls in two shades of blue : the FIG. 104. — ILLUMINATED KORAN OF SULTAN SHA^BAN. Fourteenth Century. {Viceregal Library, Cairo.) 304 ART OF THE SARACENS. border is of gold arabesque scroll-work on a blue ground, with here and there a red flower-like ornament. In the same Museum are a pair of fine leather boards, forming the binding of a Koran, upon which little less skill has been expended than upon the illumination of the manuscript itself. One of these is covered with gold tooling, and has a border containing " the Beautiful Names " of God ; the other is tooled with a floral design with an oval centre. These are fine specimens of Saracenic book-binding, and probably date from the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The finest illuminated Korans in the world, however, are still preserved in Cairo, where the Khedive's library contains the volumes which have been rescued from the chief mosques of the city. Like the glass lamps, these precious manuscripts were no longer safe in the custody of the mosque guardians ; enterprising collectors proved dangerous to mosque treasures ; and the score of splendid mushafs, or copies of the Koran, now stored in the Darb-el-Gemamiz, were prudently saved in time. The earliest of these is said to date from the second century of the flight, and thus to be nearly twelve hundred years old ; but the tradition is somewhat apocryphal. The best examples, from the point of view of illumination, belong to the period of the Mamluk Sultans, like most other works of art in Egypt. Three specimens of these Mamluk manuscripts are given in figs. 103-5, ^■f'S'' Pro- fessor Ebers' "Egypt," but the size of the present volume unfortunately precludes the possibility of representing more than a quarter of each page. The designs are, however, sufficiently shown even in this mutilated form, and perfect justice could not be done to them without reproduction in the true colours and gilt. The following is the description of the chief Korans in the Khedive's library, as described by Spitta Bey, the late librarian :* — The first is a Koran of Sultan Mohammad En-Nasir ibn Kalaun (1293-1341)-, 21 by 14 inches, written by Ahmad yusuf,aTurk, * Baedeker's Lower Egypt, 268. FIG. 105.— ILLDMINATED KORAN OF SULTAN EL-MUAYVAD. Early Fifteenth Century. (Viceregal Library, Cairo.) 3o6 ART OF THE SARACENS. in 730 of the Higra. It is written entirely in gilded characters, and there is also a second copy of a similar description. Several other Korans date from the reign of Sultan Sha'Jsan (a.d. 1363-77), grandson of the last named, to whose mosque they were dedi- cated. The first of these, dating from 769, 27I- by 19^ inches, has not its titles written in the usual Cufic character, and the headings " in the name of God the all-merciful " are in gold. Of the same date and similar size is the Koran of Khawend Baraka, mother of Sha'ban. The first two pages are written in gilded and coloured characters, blue being the prevailing colour, and are illuminated with stars and arabesques ; the next two are in gold, embellished with faint arabesques ; and the whole work is written in a bold and excellent style. Another copy of Sultan Sha'ban, dating from 770, of the same width, but a little longer, contains some beautiful workmanship on the early pages. The text is wider than that of the last, and the book is bound in two volumes. Another and still larger copy, dating from the same year, measures 32 J by 21 inches. All these last were destined for the school in the Khutt et-Tabbaneh (street of the straw- sellers), founded by Baraka, the Sultan's mother. Lastly we may mwition another copy written in 778 (1377), ^y order of the same prince, by 'Aly ibn Mohammad El-Mukettib, and gilded by Ibrahim El-Amidy. This copy measures 28 by 20j inches, and above each sura is recorded the number of words and letters it contains. All these masahif are written on thick and strong paper, and vie with each other in magnificence. The designs exhibit no great variety, but they are _ executed with the most elaborate care and neatness. The text of these Korans is pro- vided with red letters written above certain passages to indicate where the tone of the reader's voice is to be raised, lowered, or prolonged. The collection contains three Korans of the reign of Sultan Barkuk (1382-99), the oldest of which measures 41 by 32 inches. It was written by order of Mohammad ibn Mohammad, sur- ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS. 307 named Ibn-el-Butut, by 'Abderrahman Es-Saigh, with one pen, in sixty days, and revised by Mohammad ibn Ahmad ibn 'Aly, sumamed El-Kufty. A second copy, of the same Sultan's reign, and of similar size, has its first and last pages restored in the same style as those of other copies, but the modern workman- ship is inferior to the ancient. A smaller Koran, of the year 801, measuring 23 by 19A inches, is written entirely in gilded characters. To Sultan Farag (1399 — 141 2), the son of Barkuk, once belonged a copy of the Koran dating from 814, and brought to the library from the mosque of El-Muayyad. It measures 37 by 29J inches, and was also written by 'Abderrahman Es-Saigh, the same skilful penman who had been previously employed by Barkuk, and the author of a pamphlet, entitled " Sana-at el-Kitaba " (' the art of writing '), and now preserved in this library. From the year 810 . dates a fine copy, 38i by 27 inches, written by Musa ibn Isma'il el-Kinany, sumamed Gaginy, for Sultan El-Muayyad (1412-21). A copy which once belonged to the mosque of Kait-Bey, dating from the year 909, or a century later than the last, and unfortunately in a very injured condition, is the largest Koran in the collection, measuring 44I by 35 inches. To the period of the Ottoman Sultans belongs the small mushaf of Safiya, mother of Sultan Mohammad Khan, who caused fifty-two copies to be written by Mohammad ibn Ahmad El-Khalil Et-Tebrizy. It dates from 988, and measures 14 by 9-|- inches. In it, as in one of the other copies, a black line alternates with a gilded one, and the first few pages are very beautifully executed. A copy of Huseyn- Bey Khemashurgy, 2i\ by i6| inches, is written in a smaller character. The description of such manuscripts fitly concludes a book on Saracenic art. In illumination, as in other branches of decoration, the peculiar character of Saracen ornament is clearly expressed. The eifect is that of rich embroidery, or gold brocade ; in other words, illumination, like mosaic, plaster, wood, and ivory, shows 3o8 ART OF THE SARACENS. the tapestry motives of Saracenic art. In the sanctuary of a mosque, or the ka'a of a hous'e, in the complicated panelling of pulpit or ceiling, and in the chasing of vessels of silver, — every- where the same carpet-like effect strikes one. Another salient feature of Saracenic work is exhibited in these manuscripts : rich as they are, — as rich even as the exquisite Book of Kells, — they suffer from the inevitable restrictions of religion. Mohammad forbade portraits of animate things ; and though we have some- times seen the prohibition evaded or defied, as a rule Moham- madan art is figureless, and the illuminated Korans exhibit this peculiarity. Yet, without this same arid creed, the special features of Saracenic decoration would never have been developed for the benefit and example of Europe. INDEX OF NAMES, TITLES, AND PLACES. 'Abda, io »., 242, 284. 'Abd-el-'AzIz, 294. 'Abd-el-Kerim, 213. 'Abd-er- Rahman Kikhya, 88, 239, 279. 'Adil, E1-, 12;— 208. Akbugha, 256. Aksunkur, 52, 279. Almas, 188, 225, 250, 272. 'Aly, El-Mansur, 20. Amir, 17. Amir Akhor, 30. Arair 'Alam, 25, 31. Amir Babdar, 34. Amir el-Keblr, 29. Amir Gandar, 30. Amir Meglis, 31. Amir Shikar, 31. Amir Silah, 30. Amir Tablkhanah, 31. Amir Tabar, 31. 'Amr, 4, 51, 52, 64. Arkatay, 272. Ashraf, EI-, H2 ; see Bars Bey, Ashrafy, 18, 210 n. 'Askar, E1-, 5, 9. Asyut, 123, 274, 282. Atabek, 29. Aybek, 13. Aydaghdy, 302. Aydekin, 27. Ayyubis, 10, 148. Azhar, E1-, 8, 9, 52, 64, 66, 98. 'Aziz, E1-, 194. 'Aziz, Ibn, 196 «. Ba'albekk, 290. Bab-en-Nasr, 56, 261 n. Bahadur, 272. Bahry, 12. Ballasa, 274. Barkuk, 52, 62, 64, lOO, 128, 138, 225 254, 270, 306. Bars Bey, 62, 118. Bashmakdar, 31. Bawwab, 80. Bedr el-Gemaly, 9. Behnesa, 282, 285. Bektemir, 98 n, 225. Beshtak, 272. Beybar=, 12, 16 », 25-8, 32, 34 n, 52, 65, 98, 122, 192, 223 ff., 270, 290. Beyn-el-Kasreyn, 8, 28, 53, 76. Beysary, 21, 23, 38, 209 ff. Bundukdary, E1-, 27. Dar-el-'Adl, II. Dawadar, 31, 233 , Deblk, 282. 310 ART OF THE SARACENS. Dikka, 58, 80, 169, 199. Dimyat (Damietta), 282, 297. Dinar, 56 n. Durka'a, 82. EzBEK, 272. Farag, 236, 261, 307. Farisy, E1-, 194 «. Fatimy, 193 f., 248, 284. Ferghana, 54 ». Firash-khanah, 32. Fustat, E1-, 4, 9, 274 f. Gamakdar, 33. Gamdar, 31. Gandar, 30. Gashenkir, 30. Gauhar, 8. Gawaly, E1-, 123. Gemaly, El-, 9, 268 n. Ghashia, 33. Ghory, E1-, 53, 116, 120, 225. Giza, II, 122. Gubba, 32. Gukendar, 31, 33. Hagib, 30. Hakim, E1-, 9, 52, 62, 64, 98, 284. Halka, 16. Hanafiya, 70. Hasan, Sultan, 53, 66-74, lOO, I20, 134, 136, 225, 250, 251. Hawaig-kash, 32. Hawaig-khanah, 32. iKHSHiD, 7. Imam, 128. I»peh-silary, 210. Ka'a, 80 ff. Ka'ba, 52, 225. Ka(ur, 7. Kafiir Es-Salihy, 255. Kahira, E1-, S, 9. Kahlis, 258, 272. Kait Bey, 53, 62, 74, 76, 100-112, 118, 126, 128, 136, 238, 270, 272. Kalaun, 12, 15, 18, 20, 76-8, 98, 116, 139, 142 ff., 156. Kamariyas, 263 ff. Kamil, E1-, 12, 53, 98. Karafa, 74, 100, 194 n. Karakush, 11. Kashan, 276. Kasir, E1-, 196 «. Kasr Yusuf, 11. Katai', E1-, 5, 9, 54. Katim-es-Sirr, 31. Kebsh, E1-, 19. Ketbugha, 18-21. Kettamy, El, 196 n. Khalif, 4, 8, 21, 139. Khain, 18, 20. Khan, 87. Khan el-Khallly, 18. Khattb, 128. Khil'a, 292. Khumaraweyh, 6. Kibla, 58, 70 n. Kin^, 274. Kufy, 68 n. Kurdy, E1-, 203. Kursy, 138, 168, 226. Kusun, 52, 65, 66, 134, 136. Kusur-ez-Zahira, E1-, 8. Lagin, 14, 16 n, 20-4, 64, 130-3. Liwan, 57. Lulu, 207. Mak'ad, 80. Malkaf, 84. Mamluk, 12 ff., 18 n, 189 ff., 223 ff. Mandara, 80 ff. Mangutimur, 16 «, 23. INDEX. 311 Mansur 'Aly, E1-, 20. Mansura, 12. Maridany, E1-, 52, 60, 64, 66, 132, 272. Maristan, 12, 76-8, 142 ff. Masr-el-'Atika, 9. Mastaba, 80. Medina, 49. Meshrebiya, 80 ff., 156 ff., 266. Meyda', 70. Meydan, 6. Mibkhara, 62. Mihrab, 58, 70. Mihtar, 32, 230. Mimbar, 58, 126 ff. Misr, 4, 250. Mohammad : see Ndsir. - Mohammad ibn El-Wahid, 301. Mosil (style), 144 ff., 182 ff., 204 ff. Mu'allim, Beny, 196 n. Muayyad, E1-, 52, 64, 66, 69 «, 126, 136, 225, 307. Mubashir, 29. Muhtesib, 32. Mu'izz, E1-, 7, 8, 194 «, 284. Mukaddam, 30. Mushidd, 32. Mustansir, E1-, 9, 10, 121, 193, 242, 284, 286. NaI'b-es-Saltana, 18, 20, 29, Nasir Mohammad, En-, II, 18, 34, $2, 66, 98, 149, 192, 225 ff., 276, 304. Naskhy, S7 «• Naziik, En-, 196 «. Neflsa, Sitta, 139. Nur-ed-din, 148. Rakhwany, 32. Ramla, 121-23. Ras Nauba, 29. Rashlda, 9 n. Rikab-khanah, 32. Roda, 12, Rukeyya, Sitta, 139 n. Riim, 284, 286 ff. Sag, 6. Sahn-el-Gami-, 70. Saky, 30. Saladin, 10, II, 16 n, 148, 149. 270. Salar, 270, 290. Salih, Es-, 12, 13, 15, 27, 139. Salih, Mohammad, 176, 177. Saphadin, 12. Satilmish, 230. Sebil, 87, 108. SelahkhSry, 30. Selim, 3. Semenhud, 274. Shadd, 32. Shafi'y, Esh-; 12. Sha'ban, 306. Sha'ban, Umm-, 176. Sharabdar, 32. Sharab-khanah, 32. Sheger-ed-durr, 13. Sheykhu, 136, 250, 25S, 272. Shuga' ibn Hanfar, 204. Shugay, 18. Sicily, 10, 194, 282, 290, 294. Silahdar, 30. Suk-el-Keftiyin, 198. Sur (Tyre), 249. Suyufy, 60, Syrian style, 189, 220 ff. Tabardar, 31, 33. Tabl-khanah, 31. Takhtab5sh, 80. Talai' ibn Ruzeyk, 98, 134 «, 225. Tebriz, 278, 307. Tinnis, 282. Tiraz, 289. Tishtdar, 32. Tisht-khanah, 32, 209. Titles, Mamluk, 18 n. 312 AjRT of the SARACENS. Tughan, 279. Tukuzdemir, 259, 270, 274. Tulun, Ibn, 3, 5, 6, 22, 52, 53-65, 95, 96, 130-32, 154, 270. Turkish and Tartar names, 14 «. Tustar, 284. UjAKY, 29. Ustaddar, 29, 31, 294. Venice, 202, 249. Vizir, 18, 29. Waly, 32. Wekala, 87, 101-112. Yelbugha, 261. Zard-khanah, 30. Zenky, Beny, 148, 181, 268. Zeyn, Ibn-ez-, 218. Zimamdar, 31. Zuheyr, 36. Zunnary, 33. Zuweyla, Bab, 19. PRINTED BY J. a. VIRTUB AND CO., LIMITED, CITY EOAD, LONDON.