Name of Object:

Ceramic tile panel

Location:

Cairo, Egypt

Holding Museum:

Museum of Islamic Art

About Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo

Date of Object:

Hegira 1087 / AD 1676

Museum Inventory Number:

16645

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Ceramic tiles with painted underglaze decoration; transparent glaze overall.

Dimensions:

Height 240 cm, width 144 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ottoman

Description:

A ceramic tile panel composed of square tiles depicting the Ka'ba covered by the black kiswa. Architectural components in the Ottoman style are also depicted including doors, domed buildings, minarets, and arches with suspended lamps hanging from them. In the bottom right-hand corner of the panel is the date of production AH 1087 (AD 1676). This date is also written in Arabic letters on the panel reading 'bidars Sulayman'. Traditionally one way for writing dates would be in letter-form in a sort of cipher named hisab al-gummal (Calculation of total numbers), each letter being equivalent to a certain numerical figure, for example the Arabic letter ( ر ) is equivalent to 200. This tile panel closely resembles another tile piece in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo (reg. no. 860) which bears the signature of the craftsman who made it, Muhammad al-Shami, and the date AH 1139 (AD 1726), it also has similarities to a frontispiece panel of a Qur'an that dates to the Ottoman period and which also bears a depiction of the Holy Ka'ba of Mecca.

View Short Description

Muslim artisans did their best to depict the Ka'ba, the holy Islamic sanctuary, on their products. This panel bears the name of the sultan, the date of production and its maker's signature.

How date and origin were established:

This piece was dated based on the date recorded on it.

How Object was obtained:

The piece was donated to the Museum in November 1915 by Prince Yusuf Kamal, who was one of the princes of the family of Muhammad 'Ali and a delaer in antiques. He donated a large collection of his acquisitions to the museum especially jewellery, textiles, ceramic and wooden pieces.

How provenance was established:

It is strongly believed that this tile panel was made in Istanbul where such panels were produced centrally.

Selected bibliography:

Arseven, G. E., L'Art turc depuis son origine jusqu'à nos jours, Istanbul, 1935.
Aslanapa, O., Turkish Art and Architecture, London, 1970.
Atasoy, N., and Raby, J., Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989.
Denny, W. B., “Ceramics” in Turkish Art, (ed. E. Atil), Washington D. C., 1980.
Maher, Su'ad M., al-Khazaf al-Turki [Turkish Ceramics], Cairo, 1960.
Mostafa, M., “Khazaf al-Anadol al-Mumawah bi al-Mina [Enamelled Ceramics of Anatolia]” in Al-Mar'a al-Jadida [New Woman Magazine], No. 2, Cairo, 1947.
Porter, V., Islamic Tiles, New York, 1995.

Citation of this web page:

Muhammad Abbas Muhammad Selim "Ceramic tile panel" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;eg;Mus01;33;en

Prepared by: Muhammad Abbas Muhammad SelimMuhammad Abbas Muhammad Selim

He graduated from the Faculty of Archaeology, Cairo University in 1974 and received an MA on Abbasid Tiraz textiles from the same university in 1995. He has worked at the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo since 1975. He attended a textile conservation course in Vienna while studying different collections at Austrian museums for five months. He co-authored the first catalogue of the Abegg Foundation in Bern in 1995, the catalogue of the Islamic Art Museum in Cairo and the forthcoming catalogue of the Egyptian Textile Museum. He lectured on Fatimid Art in Switzerland in 1997 and at the Ismaili Centre for Islamic Studies in London in 2003. He has classified and studied the Islamic collection at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London, and is currently preparing to publish its catalogues.

Copyedited by: Majd Musa
Translation by: Amal Sachedina (from the Arabic).
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: ET 59

RELATED CONTENT

 Artistic Introduction

 Timeline for this item

Islamic Dynasties / Period

Ottomans


On display in

Discover Islamic Art Exhibition(s)

Pilgrimage | The Haram at Mecca and the Ka’ba

MWNF Galleries

Ceramics

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