Volume 42, 2016 Volume Oó©dG Volume 42, 2016 42، 2016 42 42 Oó©dG - á«eÓ°SE’G QÉKB’G QGO á∏› á∏éŸG ‘ IOQGƒdG ô¶ædG äÉ¡Lhh AGQB’Gh ä’É≤ŸG á«eÓ°SE’G QÉKB’G QGO øY Qó°üJ á«∏°üa á∏› zQGódG åjóM{ .á«£N äÉÑ∏W ≈∏Y AÉæH IôaGƒàe á«fÉéŸG äÉcGΰT’G .QGódG …CGQ øY IQhô°†dÉH È©J ’ .…hóH Éæ«aEG :ôjô– ,á«eÓ°SE’G QÉKB’G QGO ‘ ô°ûædG IóMh ᣰSGƒH âéàfG 2016 âjƒµdG ádhO ‘ â©ÑW About the journal Contents Hadeeth ad-Dar is a 02 11 February 2013 puplication of the Dar al-Athar Medium and Message in the Monumental al-Islamiyyah. Every year,the Epigraphy of Medieval Cairo Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah Bernard O’Kane (DAI) organises a series of lectures as part of the cultural 08 23 September 2013 season. Hadeeth ad-Dar was Treasures from the Islamic World in the Tareq created to share these lectures Rajab Museum with academic and cultural Ziad Rajab institutions and Friends of the DAI around the world. Cultural 15 30 September 2013 Season 22 will begin on 26 “The History Book of Majorca” by Ibn Amira Al September 2016 and, as in Makhzoumi: Historical Literature, or Literary previous seasons, will present History? scholars in a wide variety of Nicolás Roser Nebot fields related to the arts and culture of the Islamic world. 18 10 February 2014 Defining an Early Islamic Phenomenology: The The Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah Experiential Dimension of Umayyad Art and (DAI) was created in 1983 to Architecture support the loan of objects Theodore Van Loan from The al-Sabah Collection to the State of Kuwait and 23 10 March 2014 operates under the auspices The Falcon and the Preacher: Middle Eastern of the National Council of Journeys of the Emperor Frederick II Culture, Arts, and Letters. Over and St. Francis of Assisi time the mission has grown to Valerio Cappozzo include promoting the fusion of people, cultures and ideas 12 January 2015 both in Kuwait and in countries 28 Orientalism hosting DAI exhibitions and loans from the collection. Mansour Ahmad Aboukhamseen LNS 1072 C Ceramic dish Iran, circa 16th century D: 41.5 cm in diameter, H: 8.4 cm Hadeeth ad-Dar 1 Volume 42 Medium and Message in the Monumental Epigraphy of Medieval Cairo Bernard O’Kane Presented in English 11 February 2013 We have in Cairo an unbroken sequence of inscriptions on major monuments from the 9th century onwards. Given the hundreds of monuments and thousands of inscriptions that have survived, this permits us to analyse them in a variety of ways, such as the visual aesthetics of texts, their relative lengths, the sizes of the scripts used, issues of legibility or the lack of it, and the exploration of the make-up and design of the inscriptions from their textual contents to the non-literary uses that they served. A striking example of the power and importance of the written word in this context is demonstrated by the inscription on the façade of the mausoleum fronting the khanaqah complex of Baybars al-Jashinkir (1309). At the right hand corner most of the writing in the initial cartouche has been scratched out, although the part that remains begins with the name of the founder of the institution, Rukn al-Din Baybars. Just before the khanaqah was erected, Baybars had usurped the throne from the previous reigning Sultan, al-Nasir Muhammad. The historian Maqrizi, so often the key to our understanding of monuments in Cairo, informs us that when Baybars abdicated, the sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, having returned to power in 1310, had Baybars executed, closed his khanaqah and effaced his name from the inscription band on the façade above the windows. Since his name is actually still on the façade, the most likely interpretation is that his royal titles of al-malik al-muzaffar were effaced, leaving the legal requirement of Baybar’s ownership of the building intact, but obliterating his pretensions to royalty. One major problem today in assessing the impact that inscriptions had on the viewer is the extent to which their legibility would originally have been much greater. In addition to the degradation caused Figure 1 by natural abrasion, wind erosion, and layers of dust, we should remember that the originals would inscriptions were also painted. The recent restoration have been enhanced by the application of colour. of the Mamluk complex of Umm al-Sultan Sha‘ban Painted inscriptions on flat wooden surfaces have shows this clearly. Remains of gold painted letters this as an essential ingredient, but it is not usually on a green background were found on the large realized, that probably almost all stone and stucco inscription band that goes around the courtyard. The Bernard O’Kane is Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the American University of Cairo, a sought - after speaker and noted participant in international conferences. He is also the author of numerous books, the latest being “The Illustrated Guide to the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo”, and articles. Hadeeth ad-Dar 2 Volume 42 same colour scheme was found on the inscription on of the Qur’anic verses should be noted, for they are the base of the mausoleum domes. This inscription among the earliest, whose meaning referenced was accessed only by placing scaffolding from the function of the monument; they all pertain to floor to ceiling. It is unlikely that this was done at the magnanimity of God who sent down water that any other time after the mausoleum’s foundation, causes food and greenery to flourish on the earth. therefore ruling out possible later interventions. Ibn Tulun’s own mosque (figure 3) is the only part of his urban foundation of al- Qata’i that still stands. According to legend, the mosque had all of the Qur’an inscribed on the wooden friezes that run throughout the mosque under the ceiling. Much of this has disappeared, but the space available can be divided by the length of the remaining part, which shows that there would have been room for only a third of the Quran. Nevertheless, this would still have been a striking display of the word of God; the remaining text displays the same simplicity as that of the Nilometer inscriptions, but now lacks the paint that would have made it more conspicuous. The monumental size of its Qur’anic Figure 2 inscriptions is in stark contrast with its original foundation inscriptions. Parts of three The earliest monumental inscriptions that survive identical copies of the foundation inscriptions that in Cairo, those on the Nilometer (figures 1&2), are survived earlier were published in the Description de instructive on several levels. Here, unusually, we I’Egypte; now just half of one of the lone surviving have detailed information from historians on the panels, found in repairs in the 19th century, has method used to select the content of the inscriptions. been erected on a pier in the main prayer hall. The calligrapher, Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Hasib, Their original location is not known, but they would consulted, among others, Yazid ibn ‘Abd Allah (the have needed to be at a low level to be legible. ‘Abbasid governor of Egypt) and Sulayman ibn Wahb The letters and background of the script on the (the financial intendant of Egypt), but they could not Nilometer and the mosque of Ibn Tulun were unadorned. agree on what was appropriate. Sulayman ibn Wahb A major development in script came in the next century, wrote to the Caliph al-Mutawakkil, who specified that with the introduction of floriated Kufic. This is seen his name along with appropriate verses from the Qur’an first in a mid-ninth century funerary stele, although should be used. Ahmad al-Hasib then mentions the whether it might have appeared first on earlier no verses he used on the four sides of the pit at the level longer extant architectural examples cannot be known. of the 17th cubit which, as he says, would be at the level of the water at the average height of the flood. The arrival of the Fatimids signals major changes He specifically underlined his concern for legibility, in the use of monumental inscriptions. Although the noting that he made the background of lapis lazuli, mosque of Muhammad ibn al-Khayrun at Qayrawan “so that they could be read from a distance” - a rare (252 AH/866-7 CE) is the earliest known Islamic monument to display a foundation inscription on the historical confirmation of the use of colour on stone. exterior of the building, this quickly became standard On the cornice that surrounds the pit at the top he on Cairene examples (figure 4). The mosque of mentions the Qur’anic verses and the foundation al-Azhar no longer has its original portal, but the inscription in the name of al-Mutawakkil; but what mosque of al-Hakim had inscriptions on its portal and, remains there now are all Qur’anic verses. The most for the first time, on its minarets. All are in the new likely explanation for the disappearance, as deduced floriated style. Those on the minarets are particularly by earlier scholars, is that Ibn Tulun, who is known interesting in their content and locations. The minarets to have carried out repairs to the monument in 872 are of different shapes, both from each other, and in substituted the Qur’anic verses that are now seen on having tiers that change from square to circular in the the west and south sides of the cornice; their style is case of the northern one, and square to octagonal identical to the original, but are executed with a little less in the case of the southern.