FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ENAMELED AND GILDED MADE FOR THE : 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 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 lamps, however, help to reconstruct an essential history of the craft in 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 (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 ( 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 , 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 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 , , 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

70 ORIENT FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ENAMELED AND GILDED GLASS MADE FOR THE MAMLUKS 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 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 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

72 ORIENT FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ENAMELED AND GILDED GLASS MADE FOR THE MAMLUKS 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 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

74 ORIENT 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 , 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 the King 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 , 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 , and the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar. 4 Wiet (1929 , pls. 22-57, 63-88) publishes photographs of 36 lamps and fragments thereof made 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 these composite 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 survey of 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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FIFTEENTH-CENTURY ENAMELED AND GILDED GLASS MADE FOR THE MAMLUKS 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 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 Metropolitan Museum 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 Le Strange, London. Fernandez-Puertas, A. 1998: "Gilded and enameled glass in al-Andalus," in R. Ward (ed.), Gilded and 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. Tait, H. 1979: The Golden Age of Venetian Glass, London. Wiet, G. 1929: Catalogue general du Musee Arabe du Caire: Lampes et bouteilles en verre emaille, Cairo [Reprinted 1982].

Vol. XXXIX 2004 77 Fig. 1: A lamp from the madrasa of the Fig. 2: A lamp from the mosque of the sultan al-Mu'ayyad Abu Nasr emir Qani-bay al-Jarkasi (d. Shaykh (r. 1412-21), Museum of 1462), Museum of Islamic Art, Islamic Art, Qatar. (not inventoried). 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).

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

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