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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Glass, Room 131

Mosque Lamp

1382 - 1399 (made)
Place of origin
Egypt (made)

Lamp of colourless glass with decoration in enamels and traces of gilding. A high, flaring neck rises from the container that forms the main body of the lamp. This container has the approximate shape of a truncated cone, linked to the neck by a sloping shoulder. Its base slopes down to the high foot, now broken. The container is also equipped with six suspension rings.

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Object details

Category
Africa
Object type
Mosque lamp
Brief description
Mosque lamp, glass; Egypt, 1382-1399
Physical description
Lamp of colourless glass with decoration in enamels and traces of gilding. A high, flaring neck rises from the container that forms the main body of the lamp. This container has the approximate shape of a truncated cone, linked to the neck by a sloping shoulder. Its base slopes down to the high foot, now broken. The container is also equipped with six suspension rings.
Dimensions
  • Height: 40.3cm
  • Greatest width width: 23.7cm
Styles
ISLAM
ISLAMIC
Mamluk
Marks and inscriptions
  • (This acclamation is written in the thuluth style around the main body of the vessel, reserved against a blue ground. The ruler referred to is Sultan Barquq (in full, Sultan al-Malik al-Zahir Sayf al-Din Abu Sa'id Barquq), who ruled from 1382 to 1399. )
    Translation
    Glory to our Lord the Sultan, al-Malik al-Zahir Abu Sa'id. May God grant him victory!
  • (This version of the acclamation appears in a small hand in the blazons on the neck of the lamp.)
    Translation
    Glory to our Lord the Sultan, al-Malik al-Zahir. May his victory be glorified!
Gallery label
Object history
59 glass lamps made for Barquq survive: 25 in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo; 22 in the mosque of Imam Husayn in Cairo; 12 dispersed in museum collections outside Egypt. (Information published by Alaa El-Din Mahmoud in 2016 on the basis of a master's thesis by Mayisa Mahmud Dawud (Cairo University, 1971).)
Bibliographic references
  • cf. Artin Pasha (as for 323/324) p.136 and 326-1900
  • Barbara Drake Boehm and Melanie Holcomb, eds, Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven, exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, no. 135c (catalogue entry by Alaa El-Din Mahmoud)
Other number
6550 - Glass gallery number
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
325-1900

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Record createdDecember 13, 1997
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O806/mosque-lamp/
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