Mamluk mosque lamp
A lamp of enamelled glass inscribed with Qur’anic verses that lit the mosques of Cairo.
The Mamluk sultans and emirs gave hundreds of such lamps to mosques and mausoleums. When lit, the letters glowed against the dark interior. Examples are in the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum and the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo.
Materials: Blown glass with enamel and gilding
Manufacture: The glass was blown, painted with enamels and gold and fired again to fuse the colours.
The large script around the neck: the Light Verse of the Qur’an, ‘God is the light of the heavens and the earth’.
The loops by which the lamp was hung; an oil cup with a wick stood inside.