MAMLUK EGYPT, 15TH CENTURY

The frenetic pace of building activity in Cairo between the 13th and 16th centuries encouraged the development of Egyptian decorative arts, particularly woodworking. Wood was used to produce many of the furnishings of these new buildings, especially the minbars from which the khutba was delivered in congregational mosques. Based on the shape of this panel, as well as the arrangement of the design, it is likely that this panel once former part of a door to a minbar. Complete minbars or inlaid panels were avidly sought after by Western museums: the gift of a pair of minbar doors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York by the designer Edward C. Moore was one of the earliest bequests made to the museum (acc.no.91.1.2064), while the minbar of Sultan Qa'itbay remains one of the most iconic pieces of Islamic art in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (acc.no.TN.492-2011). Other collections with Mamluk minbar doors among their holdings include the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh (acc.no.A.1884.2.1) and the Museum of Fine Art, Boston (acc.no.77.1).

Our panel is inlaid with interlocking tiles, many of which - rather than being carved - are themselves inlaid with smaller ivory and ebony tesserae. In this respect they resemble the opus sectile floors which were often found in Mamluk buildings. This technique appears on a number of Mamluk minbars made during the 15th century, particularly those commissioned by amirs rather than royal figures. This includes, for instance, the impressive minbar of Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Muzhir, today in the national Museum of Egyptian Civilisation Fustat, Cairo. Also employing a similar technique is the minbar in the Mosque of Azbak al-Yusufi, built in 1494 / 5 AD. Inlaid tesserae appear in combination with carved elements on the minbar of al-Nasir Muhammad in the Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, which is presumed to have been destroyed in May 2013.