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A Drawing of the Fatimid Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

Under the patronage of the enlightened Fatimid caliphs (A.D. 969–1171) there flourished in Egypt a vigorous and refined art. The sumptuous palaces with which they had adorned their capital Cairo have vanished without trace, but the remains of their religious architecture, the magnificent gateways of Cairo's Fatimid wall (which have escaped destruction), together with the enthusiastic descriptions of contemporary travellers enable us to imagine the splendour of their court.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1958

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References

page 31 note 1 There is a great need for an exhaustive study of the art of the Fatimid period; cf. Ḥasan, Zak Muḥammad, Kunūz al-fāṭimiyīn, Cairo, 1937;Google ScholarEttinghausen, R., ‘Painting in the Fatimid period: a reconstruction’, Ars Islamica, IX, 1942, 112–24.Google Scholar

page 31 note 2 Monneret de Villard, U., Le pitture musulmane al soffitto delta Cappella Palatina in Palermo, Roma, 1950.Google Scholar

page 31 note 3 Zakī Ḥasan, op. cit., pis. 3–5; Wiet, G., Album de l'exposition d'art persan, Cairo, 1935,Google Scholar pis. 52–3.

page 31 note 4 Arnold, Th. and Grohmann, A., The Islamic book, London, 1929,Google Scholar pis. I–IV.

page 31 note 5 Wiet, G., ‘Un dessin du XIe siècle’, BIE, xix, 19361937, 223–7,Google Scholar 2 pis.

page 31 note 6 Wiet, G., ‘Une peinture du XIe siècle’, BIE, xxvi, 1944, 109–18,Google Scholar 2 pis.

page 32 note 1 Gray, B., ‘A Fatimid drawing’, BM Quarterly, XII, 3, 1938, 91–5,Google Scholar 1 pl.

page 32 note 2 A photograph, taken before the creases of the sheet were smoothed out, was reproduced by the late Hasan, Zakī M., Al-fann al-islāmī fī miṡr, I, Cairo, 1935, p. 114,Google Scholar pl. 36, where it was described as a man holding a cup and dated to the ninth century.

page 32 note 3 The fact that the vase has been squeezed into such an awkward position near the figure seems to indicate that the paper was not originally much larger on this side.

page 33 note 1 cf. Smeaton, W., ‘Tattooing among the Arabs of Iraq’, American Anthropologist, XXXIX, 1937, 57;Google ScholarLane, E.W., An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians, London, 1871, i,Google Scholar 48 ff. For the ornament tattooed above the breast cf. the Fatimid lustre dish in the Louvre, Migeon, G., Manuel d'art musulman, Paris, 1927, vol. i, p. 186,Google Scholar fig. 335.

page 34 note 1 cf. Keimer, L., Remarques sur le tatouage dans l'Egypte ancienne ( = Mém. de l'lnstitut d'Egypte, LIII), Cairo, 1948,Google Scholar 6 ff., and pl. IV.

page 34 note 2 cf. Herber, J., ‘Tatouage du pubis au Maroc’, Revue d'Ethnographie et des Traditions Populaires, No. 9, 1922, 3747.Google Scholar

page 35 note 1 Strzygowski, J., Koptische Kunst (Cat. Gen. des Antiquités Egyptiennes), Cairo, 1904, p. 201,Google Scholar Nos. 8868–81, pl. XVIII and the parallels listed there.

page 35 note 2 I am giving in pl. v a the fragment of the dish as it originally reached the Museum. In pl. v b the restored dish in its present condition is given; an intermediate stage of restoration can be seen in Lane, A., Early Islamic pottery, London, 1941,Google Scholar pl. 27b.

page 35 note 3 For similarly reversed Kufic inscriptions on ceramics cf. Kratchkowskaya, V.A., ‘A propos de l'épigraphie d'un plat à lustre métallique’, Ars Islamica, IV, 1937, 468–71.Google Scholar

page 37 note 1 Monneret de Villard, op. cit., figs. 178, 180, 182, 184, 201, etc.

page 37 note 2 ibid., fig. 202.

page 37 note 3 ibid., figs. 180, 187, 207, 208, 220.

page 37 note 4 ibid., figs. 190, 205, 210, etc.

page 37 note 5 Musil, A., Ḳusejr ‘Amra, Vienna, 1907,Google Scholar pis.

page 37 note 6 Hemilton, E., Die Malereien von Samarra, Berlin, 1927,Google Scholar pls. XVI, XXX–XXI, XXV.

page 37 note 7 Hamilton, E.W., ‘The sculpture of living forms at Khirbat al Mafjar’, QDAP, XIV, 1950,Google Scholar pl. XLIII.

page 37 note 8 Maqrīzī, , Khiṭaṭ, Cairo, 1858, I, 316.Google Scholar

page 37 note 9 ibid., 318.

page 37 note 10 al-Muyassar, Ibn, Akhbār miṡr, ed. Masse, H., Cairo, 1919, 58.Google Scholar

page 38 note 1 Mutanabbī, , Dīwān, ed. ‘Azzām, ‘Abd al-Wahhāb, Cairo, 1944,Google Scholar 146 ff.

page 38 note 2 cf. Kühnel, E., ‘Der Lautenspieler in der islamischen Kunst des 8. bis 13. Jahrhunderts’, Berliner Museen, 1951, 2935.Google Scholar

page 38 note 3 cf. Saxl, F., ‘Beiträge zu einer Geschichte der Planetendarstellungen im Orient und im Okzident’, Der Islam, III, 1912, 162.Google Scholar For some examples see Rice, D.S., The Wade Gup in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Paris, 1956,Google Scholar pp. 18 ff.

page 38 note 4 Ruska, J., ‘Griechische Planetendarstellungen in arabischen Steinbuchern’, Sitzungsberichte d. Heidelberger Ahad. d. Wiss., 1919, 150.Google Scholar I am indebted to Dr. O. Kurz of the Warburg Institute for calling my attention to this MS.

page 38 note 5 also: ‘Indian stone’, Syr. hawān, according to Ruska, op. cit., p. 43, n. 1, probably the onyx.

page 38 note 6 The illustration does not follow the text very closely. The warrior is behind Venus. Kronos is in front of Venus not led behind her. One would have expected, as Ruska (op. cit., 44) pointed out, Ares not Kronos in this connexion.