Pl. XXII in Pascal Coste, Architecture arabe ou Monuments du Kaire, mesurés et dessinés, de 1818 à 1826, 1837. The plate shows the section through the mausoleum at the Sultan Hasan Mosque in Cairo. In the upper part of the qibla wall two pointed stucco and glass windows flank a circular window. The mullioned lateral windows are divided by an Arabic inscription. Their pattern of flowers and circles is framed with borders.
Pascal Coste’s plates are based on the extensive documentation he made in Cairo between 1818 and 1827. The Sultan Hasan Mosque is presented in six plates. In the text, Coste (p. 37) only comments generally about the building, without mentioning the stucco and glass windows. But, as three preparatory works show, he did pay them particular attention. One pencil drawing, dated 1822, shows the circular window in detail and a second pencil drawing the pointed window. The latter has indications of the colours of the pieces of glass: white (blank), green, yellow, and red (IG_294, IG_295). Finally a watercolour (Victoria and Albert Museum, SD.272:14, IG_130) shows the qibla wall of the Sultan Hasan Mosque with a light colouring that corresponds only approximately to the colour indications of the drawing. So, for instance the blank round pieces of glass indicated appear in a reddish colour in the watercolour.
The windows of the mausoleum were remade on the model of the old ones in 1906 (see Related Location).
Coste, P. (1837). Architecture arabe ou Monuments du Kaire, mesurés et dessinés, de 1818 à 1826. Paris: Typographie de Firmin Didot Frères et Compagnie, Imprimeurs de l'Institut de France.
