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Mosque
lamp
Mosque lamps
of glass, enamelled and often
with gilding, survive in
considerable numbers from the Islamic art
of the Middle
Ages, especially the 13th and 14th
centuries, with Cairo in Egypt
and Aleppo and Damascus in Syria the
most important centres of production. They
are oil lamps, usually
with a large round bulbous body rising to a narrower waist, above
which the top section is flared. There is usually a foot so they
can be placed on a surface, but they were normally used suspended
by chains that went through a number of loops on the outside of the
body. They were used to light mosques and other buildings in mosque
complexes, in large spaces in groups hanging from a circular metal
frame.
The
techniques used are typical of contemporary Islamic
glass, with the enamel decoration applied to
a pre-fired plain body, and the whole then fired for a second time.
The coloured decoration may include Qu'ranic verses,
especially the first part of the Ayat an-Nur
or "Verse of Light" (24:35, see below),
inscriptions and heraldic emblems recording the donor, as well as
purely decorative motifs. By the 15th
century production of all types of fine glass was in steep decline,
a sign of which is that in 1569 the Ottoman Grand Vizier Sokullu Mehmed Pacha
ordered 600 plain lamps of
Venetian
glass, perhaps to be decorated
elsewhere.
The Ottomans also made
lamps of similar form in Iznik
pottery, and Shah Abbas I
of Persia gave plain silver lamps to
hang by the tomb of Shaykh Safi
at Ardabil; Persian miniatures
show other examples from the 16th
century in gold or brass and silver. Such opaque materials were
much less effective as lighting, but the purpose of the lamp was
symbolic as well as practical, related to the "Verse of
Light". Mosque lamps are often shown in profile
at the head of a prayer rug
for the same reason. The decoration of
the lamps often includes either the name or the symbol
from Islamic
heraldry of the donor, who usually gave a group
of lamps. Other types
of lighting in mosques were large metal lamp stands, like very wide
candlesticks, which were also used in secular buildings. These
could be very intricately
decorated.
In 2000,
three 14th-century Mamluk mosque lamps
in pristine condition from the collection of Bethsabée de
Rothschild sold
at Christie's
in London for £1,763,750 (US$2,582K),
£993,750 (US$1,455K) and £641,750 (US$937K). In the second half of
the 19th century, a number of forgeries, or expensive glass
ornaments in the style of Mamluk lamps were produced in France and
Italy
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