Mosque lamp, ca. 1285; Mamluk
Egypt (Cairo)
Brownish colorless glass, free-blown, applied, enameled, gilded, and stained; tooled on the pontil; red, blue, white, green, yellow, and black enamels; gold; and orange-yellow stain; H. 10 3/8 in. (26.2 cm), Max. Diam. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)
Inscription (in thuluth script, on neck [with bunqud-dar for bunduqdar] and body): "That which was made for the tomb of the noble, the elevated, / the cAla'i, the Keeper of the Bow, / may Allah sanctify his soul."
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.985)
Technical Glossary
Egypt (Cairo)
Brownish colorless glass, free-blown, applied, enameled, gilded, and stained; tooled on the pontil; red, blue, white, green, yellow, and black enamels; gold; and orange-yellow stain; H. 10 3/8 in. (26.2 cm), Max. Diam. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)
Inscription (in thuluth script, on neck [with bunqud-dar for bunduqdar] and body): "That which was made for the tomb of the noble, the elevated, / the cAla'i, the Keeper of the Bow, / may Allah sanctify his soul."
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 (17.190.985)
This lamp is the earliest datable example of its kind known to have hung in an interior that still survives. The inscription states that it was made for the tomb of the Mamluk emir Aydakin al-cAla'i al-Bunduqdar (died 1285) in Cairo. The emblem of the Keeper of the Bow, a pair of confronted bows against a red background, appears nine times on this lamp. A rare mistake by the calligrapher is evident on the neck, where the word bunduqdar (Keeper of the Bow) has been misspelled as a meaningless word, bunqud-dar.
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