Hexagonal Tile

Six Tiles 67.69.1–.6

During the fifteenth century, the vogue for imitations of Ming blue and white porcelain which had begun in the preceding century extended to wall decoration. In Ottoman Turkey, and in Mamluk Egypt and Syria, whole walls were covered with hexagonal tiles decorated in blue under a transparent colorless glaze. Many of these tiles remain in situ: 479 are in the mosque of Murad II at Edirne constructed in 1435/36, and 1362 in the tomb and mosque of a vizier of Damascus, Ghars al-Din al-Khalil at-Tawrizi, who died in 1430. The six panels of hexagonal tiles in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, to which the six in question are most closely related, are, unfortunately, of unknown provenance but bear many simularities to a tympanum with an inscription in the name of the Mamluk sultan Qaytbay (1468–96).

Marilyn Jenkins in [Berlin 1981]

Lester Elliot, New York (until 1967; sold to MMA)

Berlin. Museum für Islamische Kunst, Pergamonmuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the M.M.A.," June 15, 1981–August 8, 1981, no. 54.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks," November 21, 1981–January 10, 1982, suppl. #45-50.

Cardwell, John. "Six Tiles." Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1972). p. 110, ill. fig. 1 (b/w).

Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, Suzanne G. Valenstein, and Julia Meech-Pekarik. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art." In Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. vol. 12. Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., 1977. no. 266, pl. 266 (b/w).

"Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York." In The Arts of Islam. Berlin, 1981. no. 54, pp. 142–43, ill. (b/w).

Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn. "Islamic Pottery: A Brief History." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, vol. 40, no. 4 (Spring 1983). no. 40, p. 36, ill. (color).