A MAMLUK HARDSTONE MOSAIC PANEL

Hardstone geometric mosaic is a feature of a few of the most important Mamluk buildings in Cairo. It is found at the end of the thirteenth century in the mausoleum and mosque of Sultan Qala'un (1279-90) and continues through to the Burji Mamluk period appearing in the mausoleum of Sultan Barsbay (1422-1438). Its use is however rare and therefore a stylistic development is difficult to formulate. With the exception of the two buildings mentioned above, the technique appears only to have been used in a few mihrabs and in the mosque of Altinbugha al-Maridani, a son-in-law of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, built in 1339 (Creswell, K.A.C.: Muslim Architecture of Egypt, Oxford 1959).
The only published example of this inlay that includes an arcade is from the frieze around the mausoleum of Sultan Barsbay, mentioned above, and built in 1432 (Atil, E.: Renaissance of Islam - Art of the Mamluks, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C. 1981, no.107,pp.212-213). Two of the arches of our panel have an identical design to that seen in the Barsbay frieze, but the geometry of the other arches is more complex and it is probable that our panel antedates the other.