Research
These fragments belong to stucco and glass windows that were removed from a mosque in Cairo and sent to the world’s fair in Paris in 1867. They did not survive the journey and therefore arrived in pieces in Paris, where Émile Prisse d’Avennes was able to buy them. Three boxes contained fragments of six windows, which, according to the merchant M. Maynard, came from the Al-Ashraf Mosque in Cairo (‘Gâmá El-Achrafîeh’, begun in 826 AH / 1424 CE). For his book L’Art arabe d’après les monuments du Kaire depuis le VIIe siècle jusqu’à la fin du XVIIIe, Prisse d’Avennes made a reconstruction from the fragments (IG_43; Prisse d’Avennes, 1869–77, vol. 1, pp. 154, 278, vol. 3, pl. CXLV; see Keller, 2021, p. 33). Furthermore, a retouched and mounted photograph is preserved, which shows the floral and geometrical motifs of the fragments in different compositions (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Fonds Prisse d’Avennes, IG_488).
Dating
1867
Related Locations
Place of Manufacture