Fig. 1 in George Aitchison, Coloured Glass, The Architectural Journal XI(3), pp. 53–65. The caption identifies the illustration as a reproduction of a drawing by William Burges of a window in the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. It is a large pointed arch window consisting of a frame composed of several polylobed segments around a central panel with an inscription at the bottom edge. Floral arabesques fill the compartments.

In 1904, the British architect George Aitchison published an article on the origin and history of stained glass. Aitchison published regularly on architecture, especially in the journal The Builder, however on the issue of glass, this is the sole contribution.
After dealing with the origin of glass and its use for windows in ancient times, the architect distinguishes two types of windows: “Coloured glass windows may be divided into two grand divisions—the Eastern and the Western; the Eastern formed by the insertion of thin unshaded coloured glass into, or on to, patterns cut in stone, marble, or plaster; and the Western, where the glass is fitted into lead frames and shaded [...]” (p. 56). He continues describing the oblique carving of stucco and glass windows and refers to the windows in the Arab hall of Lord Leigthon’s house (IG_54–IG_57). An illustration shows a drawing made by Aitchison’s friend William Burges (1827–1881) of a stucco and glass window of the Süleymaniye mosque in Istanbul. Aitchison explains that the “superb window” is “said to have been done by Persian glaziers”, and “although I have never seen it done, I should think this mode of glazing might even be adapted to figures.” (p. 57).
In the following, he writes mainly about medieval stained glass in France, Italy and England, discusses their colour effects and the materiality of the glass, and finally addresses practical questions of application in contemporary architecture.

In 1858, a drawing by William Burges of a window of the Süleymaniye mosque’s qibla wall, made on the spot, was exhibited at the Architectural Exhibition at Suffolk Street in London. At the same exhibition a partial replica of a window made by Nathaniel Wood Lavers (1828–1911) and produced under the direction of Burges and Charles Winston was placed in the lantern of the exhibition room. As Burges specifies in an article in The Builder (1858, p. 90), the window he drew had a pattern in white, which ‘takes the form of a thin flowing line bursting out into leaves of pearls’. Burges’ mentions a second drawing, of the central part of a window, with a more intricate pattern, in which the white is applied as ‘a powdering of flowers more or less frequent in various parts’ (see IG_189). The white pattern with flowing lines evolving into ‘leaves of pearls’ can clearly be seen on the black and white illustration of Aitichson’s article. Still today, the two outer of the nine windows arranged around the mihrab show the design depicted by Burges. Probably these windows are preserved in their original design from the times of the mosque’s erection (957– 964 AH / 1550–1557 CE; Flood, 1993, p. 168–169; Irteş, 2007, pp. 296, 298).