Woodworks in Islamic Arts

One of the great Mamluk rulers was al-Ashraf Qaytbay (ruled 1468-1496). He was a prolific builder and restorer of religious monuments, and a great number of minbars and religious furnishings survive from his reign. This magnificent minbar (preacher's pulpit) (in London's Victoria and Albert Museum) bears inscriptions with the name of Qaytbay on the entrance and on the backs of the doors. Blair and Bloom (1994) note that the minbar was probably built for Qaytbay's madrasa (school) in Cairo. The beautiful minbar is made of wood with carved ivory insets. Blair and Bloom write that minbars from this period are typically triangular in shape with an elaborate portal. The preacher's seat was distinguished by a projecting muqarnas cornice over the portal and a bulbous dome over the seat. • Minbars are only used on Fridays for the Khatib (preacher) to deliver the khutba (sermon). The shape of the minbar is essentially a staircase with 8-12 steps, in order for the khatib to be elevated above the congregation and thus be heard.• Fine manuscripts of the Holy Qur'an often formed part of the endowments to mosques. This magnificent wooden box housed a Qur'an manuscript in Istanbul and was made for Sultan Bayezid in the 16th century. "The hexagonal box, with a hinged lid surmounted by a twelve-sided pyramid and carved ebony and ivory finial, is the earliest example of a distinct Ottoman style of woodwork and one of the finest pieces extant," write Blair and Bloom. "The exterior is veneered with ebony, encrusted with ivory panels, and inset with fine parquetry; the interior with more restrained decoration of minute inlay in fine woods, ivory, and gilt brass, is divided into compartments to hold a thirty-volume Qur'an of oblong format.... The Ottomans clearly prized early specimens of calligraphy, and the manuscripts of the Qur'an copied by Yaqut al-Musta'simi or one of his followers were often refurbished during Ottoman times." • In the 12th century, Iran's decorative arts of textiles, pottery, metalwork, jewelry and manuscript illumination were perhaps at their most inventive. The Mongol conquest in the mid-13th century changed the balance of artistic production in Iran, and illustrated and illuminated books became larger and more numerous. This Qur'an stand from the 14th century displays the great technical ability and rich decorative repertoire of Persian craftsmanship. The carving on the geometric panels includes two distinctive elements found in contemporary stucco carving -- inscriptions in a stylized square script and naturalistic leaves in high relief. "The triangular sides," write Blair and Bloom, "are composed of rectangular panels with shallow Beveled style arabesques within a mortised frame." • Muslim India was famed as a source of fine textiles. Under the Mughals, production of luxury fabrics, marble, woodwork, metalwork and carpets was highly encouraged. Kashmir became known for its shawls and Golconda for its chintzes. Gujarat became known for its carved wood and its overlaid mother-of-pearl wares, as in this storage chest from the 17th century made of mother-of-pearl and black lacquer.• As with architecture, the decorative arts created under the Timurids and their contemporaries set the standard of excellence for generations in Iran, India, and Turkey. Not only were Timurid models emulated, compositions repeated, and techniques followed, but works of art that had belonged to Timur's followers were avidly collected by discerning connoisseurs. The Timurid style can be seen in a variety of media such as calligraphy, bound books, and woodwork. • The major evidence for Timur's own patronage of the arts are fittings and furnishings for the shrine of Ahmed Yasavi at Turkestan. Virtually no illustrated manuscripts have survived from his reign. The size and superb quality of the Turkestan objects, however, testifies that his patronage of architecture was accompanied by patronage of other arts. Blair and Bloom write, "This artistic piece of two pairs of wooden doors survive in situ at the shrine., one at the main portal and another at the entrance to the mausoleum. Each valve maintains the traditional tripartite division into three rectangular panels: a large vertical one sandwiched between smaller ones. The upper panels are inscribed and the lower ones contain a geometric medallion, but the glory of the doors is the superb carving of the central panels. Those on the main portal contain arched cartouches of arabesque tracery and palmettos on a delicate scrolling ground. The spandrels are filled with an even finer naturalistic vegetal tracery of peonies, flowers, and leaves. The panels contrast with the framework of the valves, which is decorated with a strapwork pattern based on eight-pointed stars, filled and bordered with delicate arabesques.• Many of these motifs developed from earlier woodcarving in Central Asia and Iran, such as those found on a cenotaph made in the mid-fourteenth century for the grandson of the celebrated mystic Sayf al-Din Bakharzi and the folding Qur'an stand dated 1359. Both sets of doors have bronze doorknockers inlaid with silver and gold and inscribed with verses from Sa'di's Gulistan ("Rose-garden"):May this door always be open to the Sincere;May it always be open to friends and closed to enemies..."Under the Beyliks, architecture in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) was varied and showed a lively interplay between traditional and innovative elements, write Blair and Bloom. The arts that were directly related to architecture also flourished. • Wooden fittings for architecture were particularly important in Anatolia, continue Blair and Bloom, due to the rich resources of timber. Elaborately decorated samples of woodwork from the Beylik era still survive. The Beylik period saw a continuance of the kundekari technique which had become widely used throughout the Islamic world by the 12th century. In this tongue-and-groove technique, explain Blair and Bloom, octagonal, stellate and lozenge-shaped panels carved with arabesque decoration are joined without pins or glue in grooved frames. In the Beylik era, woodcarving became finer, more intricate, and shallower. Boss-like rosettes became popular as well. Since the kundekari technique was immensely time-consuming, add Blair and Bloom, it often was replaced by the cheaper technique of false kundekari. In this faster technique, large boards were carved with strapwork networks containing octagonal, stellate and lozenge-shaped panels. Blair and Bloom write that although the boards were mounted in frames, they eventually warped and split since they were less able than true kundekari to adjust to changing humidity.• Windows and doors often were done in false kundekari, continue Blair and Bloom. However, the most elaborate examples of this technique are minbars, such as this one made for the Arslanhane Mosque in Ankara, Turkey, in 1289-1290. Write Blair and Bloom, "Inlay, introduced in the fourteenth century, also became more popular in the fifteenth century. The panels from the doors to the Hajji Bayram Mosque in Ankara, for example, are inlaid with ivory