Chapter VI: Ivory

In the preceding chapter we have often had occasion to mention inlaid lines of ivory set round carved wooden panels, and even whole panels of ivory set in wooden borders (pp. 132-138). The artists of Cairo preferred this combination of substances, and the use of ivory alone is rare, though the Egyptians had every opportunity of obtaining large quantities of it through the Sūdān trade. In the Coptic churches of Old Cairo, indeed, we find ivory more prevailingly used than in mosques or Muslim houses. Mr. Butler thus describes the screen of the church of Abu-s-Seyfeyn:[47] “It is a massive partition of ebony, divided into three large panels—doorway and two side panels—which are framed in masonry. At each side of the doorway is a square pillar plastered and painted; on the left is portrayed the Crucifixion, and over it the sun shining full; on the right the Taking Down from the Cross, and over it the sun eclipsed. . . . In the centre a double door, opening choirwards, is covered with elaborate mouldings, enclosing ivory crosses in high relief. All round the framing of the doors, tablets of solid ivory, chased with arabesques, are inlet, and the topmost part of each panel is marked off for an even richer display of chased tablets and crosses. Each of the side panels of the screen is one mass of superbly cut crosses of ivory, inlaid in even lines, so as to form a kind of broken trellis-work in the ebony background. The spaces between the crosses are filled with little squares, pentagons, hexagons, and other figures of ivory, variously designed, and chiselled with exquisite skill. The order is only broken in the centre of the panel, where a small sliding window, fourteen inches square, is fitted; on the slide a single large cross is inlaid, above and below which is an ivory tablet containing an Arabic inscription interlaced with scroll-work. In these ivories there is no through-carving; the block is first shaped in the form required—cross, square, or the like; next the design is chased in high relief, retaining the ivory ground and a raised border; and the piece is then set in the wood-work and framed round with mouldings of ebony, or ebony and ivory alternately. It is difficult to give any idea of the extraordinary richness and delicacy of the details. or the splendour of the whole effect.” Mr. Butler ascribes this screen, in accordance with the tradition of the church, to the tenth century, and though the style of the arabesques would lead us to infer a date later by two or three centuries, his authoritative statement must not be disregarded.

(_S. K. M._)]

Another screen, in the church called El-Mu’allaka, in the fortress of Babylon, is unique of its kind. “Above and below are narrow panels of carved cedar and ebony, alternately, chased with rich scroll-work and interwoven with Kufic inscriptions; the framework is also of cedar, wrought into unusual star-like devices, and the intervals are filled with thin plates of ivory, through which, when the screen was in its original position, the light of the lamps behind fell with a soft rose- coloured glow, extremely pleasing. There is an almost magical effect peculiar to this screen, for the design seems to change in a kaleidoscopic manner, according as the spectator varies his distance from it.”[48] This changing effect has often been remarked as a characteristic of Saracenic geometrical design, and is due to the combination of large and small patterns in such a manner that different parts of the design stand out more conspicuously at varying distances.

(_South Kensington Museum._)]

These Coptic screens are undoubtedly the models upon which the ivory carvings of the mosques were founded. Probably Coptic artists were employed for the work just as Coptic architects had been proved the most skilful for the planning of the mosques themselves. There is a close analogy between the style of the Coptic screens and that of the Muslim pulpits, with the necessary exception that the cross which forms so prominent a feature in the former is omitted in the latter, and the designs are restricted to geometrical patterns filled in with arabesques. A fine example of the Muslim development of the art is seen in the pair of pulpit-doors in the South Kensington Museum (nos. 886 and 886a, of the St. Maurice collection), one of which is engraved in part in fig. 69. The doors in their present modern frame-work are 6ft. 7in. high, and each leaf is 1ft. 6in. wide. The design is marked out by wooden mouldings, and the interstices are filled with ivory tablets, carved with delicate arabesques, no two of which are the same. Above and below each leaf is a horizontal panel filled with ivory scroll-work. It will be noticed, that fine as is the style of carving, the effect is harder than that of the best period of wood-carving in Cairo, though these doors probably belong to the same epoch, the fourteenth century. The stiffness is the fault, one must conclude, of the material, not of the artist; for the men who chiselled the panels of El-Māridāny and Kūsūn (pp. 132-138) were in all probability the mates of those who carved the ivory panels of these doors. The designs are also very similar, though varied with the marvellous ingenuity of the Saracenic artist. The softer material, however, seems to have lent itself more readily to the expression of these graceful outlines.

(_South Kensington Museum._)]

The four panels (no. 885) of the St. Maurice collection, one of which is engraved in fig. 68, are in a similar style. The work is of the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century type, but very well executed, and much softer in effect than those described above; and the panels have this peculiarity—a sign of rather late date—that the designs of all four are absolutely identical. Another style of wood and ivory pulpit-door is seen in fig. 70, where small panels of perfectly plain ivory alternate with pentagonal mosaics of inlaid ivory and ebony tesserae. This style may be referred roughly to the fifteenth century, but we are at present without exact evidence as to the precise date. The beautiful panel of inlaid ivory and ebony (fig. 71) is from a table in the Arab Museum at Cairo, and belonged to the mosque of Umm-Sha‘bān, built in 1368.

Ivory work, except in combination with wood, is rare in Egypt. Two pieces, which I had the good fortune to secure in Cairo in 1883, are now in the South Kensington Museum, and both are dated. The first is a little cup, engraved with a band near the lip, containing between scroll borders a verse from the Korān, lxxvi. 5—ان الابرار يشربون من كأس مزاجها كافور “Verily the righteous shall drink from a cup flavoured with camphor,” describing the drink of the blessed in Paradise; while on the bottom we read, “Made by Mohammad Sālih at El-Kāhira [Cairo] in the year 927,” A.D. 1521. The second is an ink-horn (fig. 72) of the usual Eastern shape, to hold ink in the cavity at the head, and reed pens in the handle; and worn in the girdle by the Egyptian scribes and learned men, who do their writing often on the backs of their donkeys. The head is covered with floral ornament of a late style, and the sides with Arabic verses between scroll borders; and on the bottom of the head are inscribed the words, “Made by the Seyyid Mohammad Sālih at Misr [also Cairo] in the year 1082,” A.D. 1672.

(_Cairo Museum._)]

The verses are these:—

لا تحسبوا ان حسن الخط ينفعنى

ولا سماحة كف الحاتم الطائ

وانما انا محتاج لواحدة

لنقل نقطة حرف الخاءِ للطاءِ

“Think not the grace of the pen’s my desire,

Or the Arab chief’s generosity:

For one thing only do I require,

That the point be moved from the _h_ to the _t_.”

The meaning is, that by transferring the diacritical point of الخط (“penmanship” or “writing”) to the second letter, thus الحظ, the word is changed to “good fortune.” The Arabic gives the name of _Hātim Tāy_, the typical Arab hero, renowned for his prodigal hospitality and unselfish chivalry, and the subject of numerous Eastern legends and poems.

It looks as though the art of ivory carving had remained hereditary in one family, and the second Mohammad Sālih were a descendant of the first; but the names are common enough, and the identity may be purely accidental. These are the only specimens of Cairo ivory vessels with detailed dates and names with which I am acquainted. They are late, but for that reason all the more interesting, for our Museums are particularly poor in specimens of sixteenth and seventeenth century carvings.

The ink-horn of the shape shown in fig. 72 is usually made of brass or copper, but some of the better sort are of silver, though I have never seen one of this material; and one is mentioned in history as made of glass, but this was taken as a proof of extreme humility. A not uncommon kind is made of plain ivory, inlaid with little brass annulets filled with coloured ivory and brass mosaic, in the style familiar on Shīrāz muskets; but this is not of Cairo manufacture. An example is shown in the South Kensington Museum.

Ivory was also used as a base on which silver plates were laid. Such is the style of the Bayeux casket (illustrated in Prisse, iii., pl. 157), which belongs probably to the eleventh century. Figure carving in ivory is not found in the Egyptian school of art, but it certainly obtained in Spain, as is proved by the splendid ivory box made for Ziyād ibn Aflah in A.H. 359, A.D. 969, now in the South Kensington Museum, on which are various spirited representations of figures and animals, even winged centaurs, closely resembling the Mōsil decoration of metal objects. There can be little doubt that, wherever made, this box represents the influence of Mesopotamian artists, probably conveyed through the Fātimy Khalifs of Africa to Spain and Sicily.

(_South Kensington Museum._)]