.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
One of the great feats of Islamic art is its geometric woodwork. It was used by highly skilled Syrian craftsmen who began to apply marquetry in the early 12th century following the success of outstanding achievements such as the minbar in the maqam Ibrahim at Khalil, Hebron (1091-2). By the end of the century, under Ayyubid rule (1171-1260), the designs went from combining vegetal arabesque and geometric strapwork to emphasizing the latter (Yasser Tabaa, The Transformation of Islamic Art during the Sunni Revival, Washington, 2001, pp.77-86).
The mihrab of the maqam Ibrahim at the Aleppo citadel (1165), the wooden minbar at Hama (1163) and the ones designed and/or carved in Aleppo for the Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem (1168) and Alaeddin Mosque in Konya (1155), are all woodcarvings of spectacular quality, designed and made by a muhandis (the geometer), frequently an artisan, scientist, and a man of letters (Tabaa, op.cit, pp.87-91). This tradition continued into the 13th century, where large panels were inlaid with interlocking tiles, of which ours is a fine surviving example.
While woodwork, like many objects, is difficult to categorically attribute to Syria or Egypt under Ayyubid and Mamluk rule (Carine Juvin ‘The Merchant’s Lamp and the Sufi’s Drum: Two Tales of Mediaeval Damascus’, Journal of Material Culture in the Muslim World 4, 2023, p.78), several elements point to an attribution to the former. This is despite the lack of surviving comparable examples in situ (Terry Allen, Ayyubid Architecture, California, 1999) and climatic conditions and modern political upheavals (Miriam Kuhn, ‘Assembler, Compartimenter: Mobilier et Décors en Bois’, Carine Juvin (ed.), Mamlouks 1250-1517, Paris, 2025, p.266).
Although Syrian traditions travelled to Ayyubid Cairo, best exemplified in the cenotaph of Imam Shafi’i, circa 1211 (Bernard O’Kane, Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, Cairo, 2012, p.94), no Egyptian Ayyubid example has survived with the level of detail as on our panel, with its interlocking tiles being themselves inlaid with smaller ivory, ebony and fine wood tesserae. Drawings of panelling once forming the maqam Ibrahim at the Aleppo citadel, datable to a 1219 restoration, although in a league of its own, is partially similar in its design to ours (Tabaa, op.cit. pp.96-8, fig.45). Window decorations from the citadel’s throne room survive and show similar drawing (‘Madkhal Qal'a Halab. Aleppo, Syria’, Archnet).
Typically, the more advanced designs on late 13th-14th century Mamluk Egyptian architectural elements, have an increasing amount of ivory and exotic woods used (Juvin (ed.), op.cit., cat.196-7; Juvin (ed.), Mamluks: Legacy of an Empire, Dubai and Beirut, 2025, cat.89). Similarly, marquetry in Egyptian Mamluk art became a regular feature only in the 15th century, using multicoloured mosaic and dyed wood (Juvin (ed.), op.cit., Paris, cat.95). In Miriam Kuhn’s exhaustive survey on Mamluk minbars, the only example with inlay work related to ours is that of the Great Mosque in Aleppo of 1299-1310 (Mamlukische Minbare. Katalog, Bonn, 2019, pp.881-915).
Syrian sources tell us about the woodwork techniques used (albeit with possibly later definitions), such as the 15th century scholar Sibt bin al-‘Ajami, writing about the early 13th century madrasa al-sharafiyah in Aleppo - "In this madrasa, the doors of the chambers are of wooden joinery of the most beautiful techniques: inlay (al-muta’am), carving (al-hafr), openwork(?) (khayt), and starwork(?) (mukaukab), and others of the sort, which are the pride of the artisans. Most of them have vanished, through want of upkeep. In the aforementioned “cave” of this madrasa were coloured marbles (al-rukham al-mulawwan) and colored tesserae (al-fusis al-mulawwanah) in large quantity, with which the iwan hall and its facade, along with its south wing and its facade, were to be revetted. But when the founder died, God bless him, his relations took it and divided it among themselves and carried it off to their houses” (Allen, op.cit., ch.8).
Although the ubiquity of two-dimensional girih designs such as ours undermines any specific symbolic associations, Yasser Tabaa does assign significance to the fact that itappeared and rapidlydeveloped in regions and monuments linked with the Sunni revival: Abbasid Baghdad, Ghaznavid and Seljuq Iran, Zangid and Ayyubid Syria, Seljuq Anatolia, and Almoravid and Almohad North Africa (Tabaa, op.cit. p.101). As he finely puts it, “Combining the purity and austerity of geometric principles with the celestial allusions of star-patterns, geometric ornament reflected the ordered universe, whose atomistic and occasionalistic structure was created and sustained by divine intervention and stimulated passion for the divine creator. Likewise, the strength and vigour of geometric ornament would have enhanced the image of power and authority that minbars, minarets and even portals were intended to project, while also calling attention to their founders”.
Another late Ayyubid or early Mamluk ivory inlaid wooden door was old in these Rooms, 5 October 2010, lot 134. An earlier Fatimid carved interlace and a later Mamluk ivory and ebony-inlaid wooden panels were sold in these Rooms, 31 March 2022, lot 37, and 1 May 2025, lot 30.
The mihrab of the maqam Ibrahim at the Aleppo citadel (1165), the wooden minbar at Hama (1163) and the ones designed and/or carved in Aleppo for the Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem (1168) and Alaeddin Mosque in Konya (1155), are all woodcarvings of spectacular quality, designed and made by a muhandis (the geometer), frequently an artisan, scientist, and a man of letters (Tabaa, op.cit, pp.87-91). This tradition continued into the 13th century, where large panels were inlaid with interlocking tiles, of which ours is a fine surviving example.
While woodwork, like many objects, is difficult to categorically attribute to Syria or Egypt under Ayyubid and Mamluk rule (Carine Juvin ‘The Merchant’s Lamp and the Sufi’s Drum: Two Tales of Mediaeval Damascus’, Journal of Material Culture in the Muslim World 4, 2023, p.78), several elements point to an attribution to the former. This is despite the lack of surviving comparable examples in situ (Terry Allen, Ayyubid Architecture, California, 1999) and climatic conditions and modern political upheavals (Miriam Kuhn, ‘Assembler, Compartimenter: Mobilier et Décors en Bois’, Carine Juvin (ed.), Mamlouks 1250-1517, Paris, 2025, p.266).
Although Syrian traditions travelled to Ayyubid Cairo, best exemplified in the cenotaph of Imam Shafi’i, circa 1211 (Bernard O’Kane, Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, Cairo, 2012, p.94), no Egyptian Ayyubid example has survived with the level of detail as on our panel, with its interlocking tiles being themselves inlaid with smaller ivory, ebony and fine wood tesserae. Drawings of panelling once forming the maqam Ibrahim at the Aleppo citadel, datable to a 1219 restoration, although in a league of its own, is partially similar in its design to ours (Tabaa, op.cit. pp.96-8, fig.45). Window decorations from the citadel’s throne room survive and show similar drawing (‘Madkhal Qal'a Halab. Aleppo, Syria’, Archnet).
Typically, the more advanced designs on late 13th-14th century Mamluk Egyptian architectural elements, have an increasing amount of ivory and exotic woods used (Juvin (ed.), op.cit., cat.196-7; Juvin (ed.), Mamluks: Legacy of an Empire, Dubai and Beirut, 2025, cat.89). Similarly, marquetry in Egyptian Mamluk art became a regular feature only in the 15th century, using multicoloured mosaic and dyed wood (Juvin (ed.), op.cit., Paris, cat.95). In Miriam Kuhn’s exhaustive survey on Mamluk minbars, the only example with inlay work related to ours is that of the Great Mosque in Aleppo of 1299-1310 (Mamlukische Minbare. Katalog, Bonn, 2019, pp.881-915).
Syrian sources tell us about the woodwork techniques used (albeit with possibly later definitions), such as the 15th century scholar Sibt bin al-‘Ajami, writing about the early 13th century madrasa al-sharafiyah in Aleppo - "In this madrasa, the doors of the chambers are of wooden joinery of the most beautiful techniques: inlay (al-muta’am), carving (al-hafr), openwork(?) (khayt), and starwork(?) (mukaukab), and others of the sort, which are the pride of the artisans. Most of them have vanished, through want of upkeep. In the aforementioned “cave” of this madrasa were coloured marbles (al-rukham al-mulawwan) and colored tesserae (al-fusis al-mulawwanah) in large quantity, with which the iwan hall and its facade, along with its south wing and its facade, were to be revetted. But when the founder died, God bless him, his relations took it and divided it among themselves and carried it off to their houses” (Allen, op.cit., ch.8).
Although the ubiquity of two-dimensional girih designs such as ours undermines any specific symbolic associations, Yasser Tabaa does assign significance to the fact that itappeared and rapidlydeveloped in regions and monuments linked with the Sunni revival: Abbasid Baghdad, Ghaznavid and Seljuq Iran, Zangid and Ayyubid Syria, Seljuq Anatolia, and Almoravid and Almohad North Africa (Tabaa, op.cit. p.101). As he finely puts it, “Combining the purity and austerity of geometric principles with the celestial allusions of star-patterns, geometric ornament reflected the ordered universe, whose atomistic and occasionalistic structure was created and sustained by divine intervention and stimulated passion for the divine creator. Likewise, the strength and vigour of geometric ornament would have enhanced the image of power and authority that minbars, minarets and even portals were intended to project, while also calling attention to their founders”.
Another late Ayyubid or early Mamluk ivory inlaid wooden door was old in these Rooms, 5 October 2010, lot 134. An earlier Fatimid carved interlace and a later Mamluk ivory and ebony-inlaid wooden panels were sold in these Rooms, 31 March 2022, lot 37, and 1 May 2025, lot 30.