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Lot Essay
Inscriptions:
Around the top: possibly Arabic benedictions wa’l-izz al-d[a’im] wa’l-khalid(?) wa’l-salim(?), 'And perpetual glory and eternal(?) and secure(?)'
Around the sides: repetitions of al-'alim, 'The learned'
This lot belongs to an intriguing group of hexagonal metal mosque lamps associated with the Burji Mamluk and Ottoman courts. Examples known to exist in the Ottoman context include one in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul which bears the name of Sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512) around the top (N. Ölçer et al., Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, Istanbul, 2002, p.246). In the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, there is a monumental lamp with the blazon of al-Ashraf Qaitbay (r. 1468-1496), which may have once hung in his funerary complex. More information about this group of lamps can be found in Doris Behrens-Abouseif's Mamluk and Post-Mamluk Metal Lamps (Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire, 1997).
Although it is anonymous, the word 'al-'alim' (the learned) is repeated around the side panels. This is reminiscent of surviving Mamluk glassware, including a goblet in the British Museum (G42/dc8), a bottle in the Gulbenkian (M. Q. Ribeiroand J. O. Hallet, Vidros da Dinastia Mameluca no Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 1999) and a glass mosque lamp in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Inv. No. 17.190.992). The knop is not original to the lamp, but seems to have been created a few centuries earlier under the Bahri Mamluks. The blazons, featuring eagles looking to the right, may correspond with the coat of arms of the Amir Musa b. 'Ali b. Qalawun (d.1318), a grandson of Sultan Qalawun (L. A. Mayer, Saracenic Heraldry, Oxford, 1933, p.169).
Around the top: possibly Arabic benedictions wa’l-izz al-d[a’im] wa’l-khalid(?) wa’l-salim(?), 'And perpetual glory and eternal(?) and secure(?)'
Around the sides: repetitions of al-'alim, 'The learned'
This lot belongs to an intriguing group of hexagonal metal mosque lamps associated with the Burji Mamluk and Ottoman courts. Examples known to exist in the Ottoman context include one in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul which bears the name of Sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512) around the top (N. Ölçer et al., Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, Istanbul, 2002, p.246). In the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, there is a monumental lamp with the blazon of al-Ashraf Qaitbay (r. 1468-1496), which may have once hung in his funerary complex. More information about this group of lamps can be found in Doris Behrens-Abouseif's Mamluk and Post-Mamluk Metal Lamps (Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire, 1997).
Although it is anonymous, the word 'al-'alim' (the learned) is repeated around the side panels. This is reminiscent of surviving Mamluk glassware, including a goblet in the British Museum (G42/dc8), a bottle in the Gulbenkian (M. Q. Ribeiroand J. O. Hallet, Vidros da Dinastia Mameluca no Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 1999) and a glass mosque lamp in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Inv. No. 17.190.992). The knop is not original to the lamp, but seems to have been created a few centuries earlier under the Bahri Mamluks. The blazons, featuring eagles looking to the right, may correspond with the coat of arms of the Amir Musa b. 'Ali b. Qalawun (d.1318), a grandson of Sultan Qalawun (L. A. Mayer, Saracenic Heraldry, Oxford, 1933, p.169).