FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ENAMELED AND GILDED

GLASS MADE FOR THE MAMLUKS:

THE END OF AN ERA, THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ONE

Stefano CARBONI*

The present article deals with fifteenth-century production of

enameled and gilded glass in the Mamluk period, a little known aspect of an industry that saw its heyday during the late thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth. Usually dismissed as virtually non-existent after the turn of the fifteenth century, the scale and technical and artistic

qualities of Mamluk glass unquestionably declined; four surviving mosque lamps, however, help to reconstruct an essential history of the craft in Cairo from the 1410s to the 1470s. These four lamps, which are very similar to the well-known fourteenth-century production in shape, dimensions, and decorative program, include enameled and gilded inscriptions that mention the names of their patrons and can therefore be studied in an appropriate context. Two lamps are dedicated to the Mamluk sultan al-Mu'ayyad Abu Nasr Shaykh (r. 1412-21) and were specifically made for his madrasa (Qur'anic school) built in 1410-15. The third one carries the name of the powerful emir Qani-bay al-Jarkasi (d. 1462), who served in various important positions under the rule of the sultan al-Malik al-Zahir Jaqmaq (r. 1438-53). The last lamp is in the name of the sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf Qait-bay (r. 1468-96). While there is no question that the first three lamps were made in a Cairene workshop, thus offering evidence of both a continuity of production and an obvious artistic decline, the object in Qait-bay's name has always been regarded as an export of European origin (Venice or, more recently, Barcelona) on the basis of its decoration and of the presumed disappearance of the industry in Egypt in the late fifteenth century. In the article, I suggest that, after all,

Qait-bay's lamp may represent the swan song of a declining production in Cairo before the demise of the Mamluks and the Ottoman conquest.

Keywords: glass (enameled and gilded), Mamluk dynasty (1250-1517),Sultan al-Mu'ayyad (r. 1412-21), Emir Qani-bay (d. 1462),

Sultan Qait-bay (r. 1468-96)

It is commonplace in manuals of Islamic art, which often relegate the

* Curator , Department of Islamic Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vol. XXXIX 2004 69

discussion on the subject of glassmaking to a few sentences, to dismiss post-

1400 production as non-existent in the entire Islamic world. In particular, the

sudden disappearance of the celebrated enameled and gilded vessels made for

Mamluk sultans, emirs, and wealthy customers is attributed to the sack of

Damascus by the hands of the Timurids in 1400-01, who supposedly took with

them to Samarqand all craftsmen, including the glassmakers, to satisfy their own

needs for artistic production.1 I have briefly argued elsewhere that, in addition

to the fact that there is no evidence whatsoever of a production of enameled and

gilded glass in Samarqand in the fifteenth century, the most important glass factories in the fourteenth century were almost certainly based in Cairo, the

Mamluk capital, which was subjected to a massive demand for mosque lamps

made for the sultans and for all the emirs who could afford to have a mosque or

a madrasa (Qur'anic school) built in their name.2 Whether Damascus continued

to have a leading role in high-quality glassmaking in the fourteenth century is a

matter of speculation, but even assuming that the Timurids dealt a final blow to

this craft in Syria either by destroying the existing glassmaking factories or

through a forced migration of its workers, the fact remains that Egypt did not

suffer the same fate. The reason for the sudden decline and near-disappearance

of the great production of enameled and gilded glass under the Mamluks at the

turn of the fifteenth century, therefore, must be sought elsewhere and not blamed

on the Timurids alone.

Mosque lamps can tell the story of production of Mamluk enameled and

gilded glass better than any other type of vessel, since they often bear their

patron's name. A large number of them survive in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo and in many public and private collections worldwide.3 Naturally our

knowledge of their development is based on the few hundred extant objects,

which certainly represent only a fraction of the original production. Nonetheless,

it seems clear that mosque-lamp manufacture witnessed a prodigious boom in

the fourteenth century that neither the previous century nor the following one

was able to match by a long stretch. In particular, the sultans al-Nasir

Muhammad ibn Qalawun (r. 1293-1341 with brief interruptions), al-Hasan ibn

Muhammad (r. 1347-51 and 1354-61) and al-Zahir Abu Sacid Barquq (r. 1382-

99 with one short interruption) and the dozens of emirs who served under their

rules seem to have competed against each other in ordering vast numbers of

lamps to be suspended in their mosques, madrasas, and monumental tombs. A

quick survey of the lamps in the museum in Cairo reveals that al-Hasan and Barquq were the most prolific patrons;4 this is also because they were

responsible for hectic building activities. The reason for having so many extant

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lamps dedicated to these two rulers has also to do in part with the fact that the

Egyptian government decided to put a stop to the spoliation of religious

buildings in the second half of the nineteenth century, when enameled and gilded

glass became a prized collectible item, and gathered the remaining lamps in what would later become the Museum of Islamic Art. It may just have happened

that the mosques and madrasas built for al-Hasan and Barquq had been left

relatively untouched by the plunderers, but a survey of the lamps that belong to

museums that acquired the objects after they were taken out of Egypt still

confirms that these two sultans were the most persistent patrons.

The aim of this short article is a critical analysis of the four known mosque

lamps made for the Mamluks after the period of Sultan Barquq in order to

establish, on one hand, that production did not entirely die out due to some

cataclysmic event such as the sack of Damascus; on the other hand, that the

quality of local glassmaking became so tentative as to possibly require foreign

imports.

The madrasa and khanaqa (hospice for Sufis, including a mosque) built for

Sultan Barquq was completed in about 13865 and the dozens of lamps that

survive from these buildings represent the largest number dedicated to a single

ruler. While this number may be accidental and may not correspond to the

actuality of production, it is staggering to realize that the creation of mosque

lamps in Cairo ended abruptly, so-to-speak with a bang, at the close of the

fourteenth century. No lamp survives, for example, from the period of reign of

Faraj, one of Barquq's sons (r. 1399-1407 with a brief interruption), even though

his imposing complex is still today one of the largest Mamluk buildings in

Cairo.

We have instead two, or perhaps three,6 lamps from the madrasa of the

sultan al-Mu'ayyad Abu Nasr Shaykh (r. 1412-21), which was built in the years

1410-15 (Fig. 1). As argued in a recent catalogue entry,7 these two objects show

continuity in the classical artistic tradition of mosque-lamp making and

decoration. From the artistic, calligraphic, technical, and technological

viewpoints, therefore, it does not appear that there was a chronological gap in

the making of these objects between the late fourteenth century and the first two

decades of the fifteenth. Compared to their immediately-known predecessors,

that is, the objects made for Sultan Barquq, however, one can notice also some

differences in these two lamps. One is the more angular shape of the body and

the sharper angle at which the neck and the mouth flare out. Another is the

combination of Kufic and thuluth scripts, on two registers, to compose verses

from the omnipresent sura 24, or Sura of Light, from the Qur'an. A third

Vol. XXXIX 2004 71

difference is in the fact that the two lamps include sections from verses 35 and

36 of the above-mentioned sura (earlier objects invariably include only verse

35), thus perhaps suggesting that the lamps made for this sultan's building were

conceived and hung in a particular sequence in order that all, or part of, the Suva

of Light could be read or, better, recited. In addition, the historical text around

the main inscriptional band, in the name of Sultan Mu'ayyad Shaykh, is unusual,

though not unique, in mentioning that the lamps were made specifically for the

madrasa of the complex, which became a celebrated fifteenth-century academic

institution. These differences can be regarded as variants within an established

century-old tradition and do not betray any particular decline in technical skills,

technological achievements, artistic intent, and importance of the function of

mosque lamps in the interior decoration of religious buildings erected for the

Mamluk elite. Even if only two lamps survive from this period, it is clear that

patronage and demand were still strong; consequently, the production remained at a high standard, discouraging glassmakers and glass painters from leaving

Cairo in search of better patrons or looking for jobs in different crafts in the

same town.

Shortly after, however, things must have changed, perhaps simply due to a

combination of political decline, decrease of cash flow, and a growing disinterest

in, and an inability to, endow expensive buildings. The decline of an industry,

especially a traditional one like glassmaking, is inevitably subsequent to

economic and political troubles and a resulting lack of demand. Seldom can it

collapse for internal factors like the voluntary migration of craftsmen, a lack of

apprenticeship, or the unavailability of raw material when the demand is still

high.

One mosque lamp survives to demonstrate that by the middle of the

fifteenth century, about thirty years after those commissioned by al-Mu'ayyad,

this decline had started and was progressing rapidly but that the industry was

still alive. A lamp in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo is an isolated example

that suggests this rapid change in the quality of the calligraphy and in the ability

to apply and fire the enamels onto the surface of the glass (Fig. 2).8 The lamp is

not dedicated to a sultan but to a powerful emir whose brilliant political career

started around 1438 and ended with his imprisonment in 1453. The emir Qani-

bay al-Jarkasi, originally a Mamluk (slave) of the emir Jarkas al-Qasimi rose

steadily in the ranks and became Emir of Ten, Superintendent of the Cellar, Emir

of Forty, Emir of a Hundred, Commander of a Thousand, Grand Dawadar

(Holder of the Pen-box), and eventually Grand Marshall in 1449 during the reign of his patron, the sultan al-Malik al-Zahir Jaqmaq (r. 1438-53). After having

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been imprisoned on the accession of Jaqmaq's successor in 1453, he was

released in 1461 and died an octogenarian in Damietta in 1462.9

Qani-bay had a mosque built in the Saliba quarter of Cairo, which was finished in A.H. 845/A.D. 1441-42.1° The lamp in the Cairo Museum was taken

from Qani-bay's mosque." It is dedicated to this emir in the thuluth inscription

copied in gold against a blue background in a narrow band at the base of the

neck: "This work was made on the order of his Excellency, the Noble, the

Elevated, the [emir of the sultan] Sayf [al-Din Jaqmaq], Qani-bay al-Jarkasi,

Nizam al-mulk." The last title, meaning "regent of the kingdom," was

incorrectly spelled and is rather surprising because Qani-bay never acted as ruler

in place of al-Zahir Jaqmaq, at least according to the available original sources.

Ibn Taghribirdi informs us in a subtle way that Qani-bay enjoyed hyperbolic

praise, had a high opinion of himself, and claimed to be an authority in all arts and sciences.12 This additional, probably fictitious, title may therefore have

something to do with his personality. The composite emblem of Qani-bay,

designed three times around the neck and the underside of the lamp, is typical of

fifteenth-century Mamluk heraldry,13 incorporating multiple motifs related to the

different offices held by the emirs. In this case, a sword, a pen-box, and a cup

with two horns compose the emblem. The presence of the pen-box, which

implies the title of dawadar, suggests that the lamp may be dated to after 849/

1445-46, the year he rose to that particular office. Understandably, he may have

ordered replacements for the mosque lamps originally made for the mosque of

1441 in order to reflect advancement in his career.

It seems, therefore, that at least one factory specializing in enameled and

gilded glass was still active in Cairo in the mid-fifteenth century to satisfy a small-scale demand. Although the profile of the lamp, the color of the glass, and

the general decorative program perpetuate the established tradition, there is no

question that the quality of the calligraphy, the enamels, and the firing process is inferior to that on the lamps made thirty years earlier for Sultan al-Mu'ayyad

Shaykh.

The last mosque lamp bears the name of the sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf Qait-

bay al-Zahiri (r. 1468-96), who is usually regarded as an enlightened ruler under

whom Mamluk Egypt witnessed its last period of renaissance (Figs. 3 and 4).

His complex, which includes a madrasa and a mausoleum, was built between

1470 and 1474 and is today one of the best preserved buildings in Cairo.14 The

lamp, also housed in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, was taken down from

the building housing Qait-bay's madrasa.15

Several features make this object rather unique, but the most obvious is that

Vol. XXXIX 2004 73

a number of decorative details are clearly drawn from early-Renaissance

European models. Its attribution has recently become controversial after the

present author's suggestion that it may have been the product of a Catalan, rather than a Venetian, glass factory.16 A European origin, however, has been

undisputed thus far. I have indicated several factors that challenge its traditional

attribution to Venice, among them the friendly commercial and political

relations between the Aragons and Qait-bay,17 the existence of a production of

enameled and gilded glass in Barcelona that included motifs such as the lily-of-

the-valley,18 and the reference to painted glass imitating Mamluk objects in

fourteenth-century Catalan sources.19 This last reference does not find a

counterpart in Venetian sources. In addition, by the middle of the fifteenth

century the fame of the Venetian glassmaker Angelo Barovier (d. 1460) as the

inventor of cristallo (entirely colorless glass) and the main responsible for the

development of enameled glass had already spread, whereas Barcelona was at

least two decades behind in this respect.2° In acknowledging the fact that Qait-

bay's lamp is not a commercial work but that it must represent either a

commission from the Mamluk sultan or a diplomatic present offered by a

European ambassador to Cairo, one would expect that a late fifteenth-century

Venetian work made as a royal commission would show all the best attributes of

enameled cristallo glass, several examples of which have survived. The same

can be said to a certain degree for the Barcelona factories although Venetian

glass was certainly of higher technical and artistic quality in the period of Qait-bay's rule over Egypt. The presence of Mozarabs in Spain, who had retained

some of their original language skills, speaks also in favor of an attribution to

Catalonia.

The "European" motifs on the lamp include clusters of flowered plants in

yellow, white, and blue enamels stemming from reddish twigs, emerging from the (now missing) foot of the vessel and branching out around its underside,

filling the space between the roundels carrying the sultan's name. Although the

composition is common to most lamps, the execution of the drawing and the

choice of colors of the enamels have nothing to do with late Mamluk designs.

The same can be said for the narrow horizontal bands that frame the base and the

upper part of the neck, which show scrolling or festooned patterns in the same

color combination as the underside, which are only vaguely reminiscent of the

vegetal-filled bands of the typical mosque lamp.

The inclusion of the motif of the lily-of-the-valley emerging from the

scrolls around the top, or arranged in clusters of four around a central dot at the

base of the neck, is also alien to Mamluk art and decidedly points to European

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FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ENAMELED AND GILDED GLASS MADE FOR THE MAMLUKS

motifs. In particular, it reminds of the enameled decoration on beakers that are

traditionally attributed to fifteenth-century Venetian workshops and apparently

made for export to Syria.21 Another lamp in Dusseldorf, recently attributed to

Venice or Barcelona around 1500,22 includes similar floral motifs arranged in

vertical festoons; far removed from the original models and clearly following an "orientalist" imitative trend

, the decoration of this lamp is clearly the product of European glassmakers who had only a vague idea of the appearance of Mamluk

objects.

This is obviously not the case of the Qait-bay lamp in Cairo, which despite

these strong European elements and the awkward calligraphy still presents a

legible inscription that spells correctly the name, titles, and typical eulogies of

this sultan.23 Whoever painted this lamp, therefore, was either someone familiar

with the Arabic language and Qait-bay's eulogic titles or someone who copied

its inscription from a direct model that was provided for this specific purpose.

While the discussion on Qait-bay's mosque lamp has been centered thus far

on the certainty that it is an import, I would like to expand it and suggest that,

after all, it may represent the last gasp of a great declining tradition rather than

the less-than-average product of an already established greater one. Admittedly,

it is a matter of speculation as in the previous attributions, since the sources are

silent in any case. But a possible scenario is that the factory that manufactured

emir Jarkasi's lamp in the middle of the fifteenth century was still active in the

period of rule of Qait-bay. In those years, Venetian enameled glass had already attained a strong presence on the commercial market (the beakers reportedly

found in Damascus mentioned above provide evidence for this type of export)24

and it would have been available in Cairo. Probably also Barcelona glass found

its way to the Mamluk lands as part of the commercial trade. Assuming that a

glass factory was still in operation at the time in Cairo, new compositions and motifs coming from abroad (for example, the lily-of-the-valley) may have been

incorporated by local glass painters who were running out of inspiration and

technical skills. This would better explain the artistically poor but accurate

inscription found around the body of the lamp.

Whether it represents an experimental product of European glassmaking or

the swan song of a dying tradition, Qait-bay's mosque lamp emphasizes the fact

that the pendulum had swung back to Europe as regards to artistic glassmaking

by the end of the fifteenth century. The few undecorated dark-blue mosque

lamps that were taken down from the madrasa and mausoleum of the sultan

Qansuh al-Ghawri (r. 1501-17) and deposited in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo25 are most likely imports from Europe. The Mamluk dynasty collapsed in

Vol. XXXIX 2004 75

the second decade of the sixteenth century and later in the century the new

rulers, the Ottomans, ordered and imported hundreds of Venetian lamps for their

mosques in Istanbul, whereas Cairo became a provincial town in many respects.

Clearly, this represented the end of an era in glassmaking production and the

beginning of a new one.

Notes

1 The story is found in the report of the embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo , envoy of theKing of Castile to Timur (Tamerlane) in Samarqand in 1403-06. The relevant passage from Guy Le Strange's translation from the Spanish (1928, 287-88) reads: "Thus from Damascus he carried away with him all the weavers of that city, . . . also the craftsmen in glass and porcelain, who are known to be the best in all the world." See also Lamm 1929-30, 494, no. 64.

2 Carboni & Whitehouse 2001, 207.

3 The collection of lamps in Cairo is published in Wiet 1929 . Among the other public

collections that house a sizable number of enameled and gilded lamps are The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The British Museum, and the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar.

4 Wiet (1929 , pls. 22-57, 63-88) publishes photographs of 36 lamps and fragments thereofmade for al-Hasan and 28 for Barquq.

5 Meinecke 1992 , vol. 2, 269-70, no. 19. 6 One is in the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar (see below , note 7); a second one is

presently in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo but Wiet did not include it in his catalogue of 1929. Lamm (1929-30, 482, no. 226) describes a lamp made for al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh housed the Monastery of St. Anthony in Egypt, which is most likely the same one that was transferred later to the museum in Cairo, rather than representing a third one.

7 Carboni 2003, 66-68, cat. no. 12.

8 Inv . no. 332; see Wiet 1929, 97-100 and pl. 89 and Lamm 1929-30, 482, no. 227, pl.

205:4. 9 Wiet 1929 , 99 and Mayer 1933, 177.

10 Meinecke 1992, vol. 2, 362, no. 16.

11 Wiet 1929, 97.

12 Wiet 1929 , 99. A full translation of Ibn Taghribirdi's text dealing with the period of rule of

Jaqmaq and often mentioning Qani-bay is in Popper 1954-, vol. 22.13 Mayer (1933 , 176-78) includes also a fragmentary inscription with Jarkasi's emblem

originally set in the ceiling of his mosque and presently in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo

(inv. no. 3387). See also the discussion at 10-13, 19-22, and 29-33 for the meaning of thesecomposite emblems and their individual symbols.

14 Meinecke 1992, vol. 2, 399, no. 21.

15 Inv . no. 333; Wiet 1929, 100, pl. 90. 16 Carboni 1989 , 150-51 and Carboni 1998, 104 and note 47. An opposite view is in

Fernandez-Puertas 1998, 77 and note 19 (in which he gives the lamp's inventory number as 222 instead of 333); in the text, he mentions that Max van Berchem was the first scholar to attribute

Qait-bay's lamp to al-Andalus without giving any bibliographical reference.17 Heyd 1923 , vol. 2, 486-87 and 724-25; Frothingham 1956, 3-5. 18 See several examples in Gudiol Ricart 1936 , pls. 35-58. 19 Gudiol Ricart 1936

, 36-37. 20 Tait 1979 , 25. 21 See a color reproduction in Klesse & Mayr 1987

, 156-57, cat. no. 1. For a general surveyof export of Venetian and European glass to the Near East, see Charleston 1964 and 1974.

22 Carboni & Whitehouse 2001, 304-05, cat. no. 152.

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23 The inscriptions are copied and translated in Wiet 1929, 100-01.

24 See above, note 21.

25 Wiet 1929, 119-20, inv. nos. 2338-2341.

Bibliography

Carboni, S. 1989: "Oggetti decorati a smalto di influsso islamico nella vetraria muranese: tecnica e

forma," in E. J. Grube, S. Carboni, & G. Curatola, Venezia e l'Oriente Vicino. Arte veneziana

e arte islamica: Atti del Primo Simposio Internazionale sull'Arte Veneziana e l'Arte Islamica,

Venice, 147-76.

Carboni, S. 1998: "Gregorio's Tale; or, Of enamelled glass production in Venice," in R. Ward

(ed.), Gilded and Enamelled Glass from the Middle East, London, 101-06.Carboni, S. 2003: Mamluk Enamelled and Gilded Glass in the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar,

London.

Carboni, S. & D. Whitehouse 2001: Glass of the Sultans, Exhibition catalogue, The MetropolitanMuseum of Art and The Corning Museum of Glass, New Haven and London.

Charleston, R. J. 1964: "The Import of Venetian Glass into the Near-East, Fifteenth-Sixteenth

Century," in Annales du 3eme Congres des Journees Internationales du Verre, Damas, 14-23

novembre 1964, Liege, 158-68.

Charleston, R. J. 1975: "Types of Glass Imported into the Near East, and Some Fresh Examples:

Fifteenth-Sixteenth Century," in A. Ohm and H. Reber, Festschrift fur Peter Wilhelm Meister zum 65. Geburtstag am 16. May 1974, Hamburg, 245-51.

De Clavijo, R. G. 1928: Embassy to Tamerlane, 1403-06, Translated from the Spanish by Guy LeStrange, London.

Fernandez-Puertas, A. 1998: "Gilded and enameled glass in al-Andalus," in R. Ward (ed.), Gildedand Enamelled Glass from the Middle East, London, 74-77.

Frothingham, A. 1956: Barcelona Glass in Venetian Style, New York.

Gudiol Ricart, J. 1936: Els vidres catalans, Barcelona.

Heyd, W. 1923: Histoire du commerce du Levant au Moyen-age, 2 vols., Leipzig [Reprint of 1885-86].

Klesse, B. & H. Mayr 1987: European Glass from 1500-1800. The Ernesto Wolf Collection,Vienna.

Lamm, C. J. 1929-30: Mittelalterliche Glaser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten, 2

vols., Forschungen zur islamischen Kunst, 5, Berlin.

Mayer, L. A. 1933: Saracenic Heraldry: A Survey, Oxford.

Meinecke, M. 1992: Die mamlukische Architektur in Agypten und Syrien (648/1250 bis 923/1517),2 vols., Abhandlungen des Deutschen Archaologischen Instituts Kairo, Islamische Reihe, 5,

Gluckstadt.

Popper, W. 1954- : History of Egypt 1382-1469 A.D. Translated from the Arabic Annals of Abu l-Mahasin ibn Taghribirdi, University of California Publications in Semitic Philology, vols. 13-

19, 22-24.

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Vol. XXXIX 2004 77

Photo credits:

1: Richard Valencia, courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar 2-4: Stefano Carboni

Fig. 1: A lamp from the madrasa of the sultan al-Mu'ayyad Abu Nasr

Shaykh (r. 1412-21), Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar. (not inventoried).

Fig. 2: A lamp from the mosque of the emir Qani-bay al-Jarkasi (d. 1462), Museum of Islamic Art,

Cairo (Inv. No. 332).

Figs. 3-4: Two views of a lamp from the madrasa of the sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf Qait-bay al- Zahiri (r. 1468-96), Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo (Inv. No. 333).

78 ORIENT