Name of Object:

Mosque Lamp

Location:

Doha, Qatar

Holding Museum:

Museum of Islamic Art

About Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

Date of Object:

AH 8th century / AD 14th century

Museum Inventory Number:

GL.52.2002

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Glass; free-blown with enamelled and gilded decoration

Dimensions:

Height: 33cm, Diameter (at the widest point): 26.5cm

Period / Dynasty:

Mamluk

Provenance:

Egypt

This mosque lamp was almost certainly made for the monumental mosque and madrasa complex of the Mamluk Sultan Al-Malik Al-Zahir Sayf al-Din Barquq (AH r. 783-791 and 792-801 / AD 1382-1389 and 1390-1399) in Cairo, completed in 788 AH / 1386 AD. It presents a typical decoration for glass lamps produced in that period with inscriptions in blue enamel, gilding on the neck, and in reserve on blue background with a floral interlacing motif on the globular body. Al-Malik Al-Zahir Sayf al-Din Barquq is mentioned twice in the inscriptions on the body and in the circular medallions on the neck. The blue inscription on the neck is verse 35 from the Sura of Light (Qur’an 24), “Allahu nur al-samawati wa al-ardhi mathalu nurihi kamishkatin fiha misbahun al-misbahu fi zujajatin" (God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The Parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass). This quotation is often used for lamp decoration and emphasizes the sensorial, luminous aspect of the Qur’anic text. The large spaces of the mosques and madrasa founded by the Mamluks during the eighth century AH / fourteenth century AD required ample lighting. This need prompted the production of hanging lamps in Egypt and Syria and explains the relatively high number of surviving examples today.

Selected bibliography:

Carboni, Stefano, Mamluk Enamelled and Gilded Glass in the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar: The Islamic Art Society of London, 2003: 62-65,11.
Lasikova, Galina, Image of Mosque, Moscow: Mardjani Foundation, 2015: 231.
Seipel, Joseph H., et al., God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty: The object in Islamic Art and Culture, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013: 212, Figure/Plate 206.

Citation of this web page:

 "Mosque Lamp" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;DGA;qt;Mus41;15;en

Copyedited by: Valerie Pulsifer

MWNF Working Number: QAT1_015