DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36284#0045
We have, in the course of our disquisition on the
Syrian origin of most of the old Oriental examples of gilt
and enamelled glass, expressed a belief that, after the
great blow indicted by Timur upon Damascus, the art of
enamelling glass perished completely in the Muhammadan
East as a result of the continual state of warfare during
the fifteenth century, by which unhappy Syria was wasted
and dispeopled.
It is true, as every one knows, that von Gumpenberg
in 1449, and Felix Faber in 1483, make mention of glass-
manufacture as still practised in Al-Khalli (or Hebron).
But, we must repeat, hardly half a dozen dateable examples
have come down to us, of gilt and enamelled mosque-lamps
of the time which followed the year 1402. Very fairly,
therefore, Alfred von Kremer conjectures that the mosque-
lamps bearing inscriptions, were imported from 'Irak; but
this does not increase the number of the lamps known to
us. The words of that eminent Orientalist, in his " Oultur-
geschichte des Orients unter den Ghalifen" (Wien, 1877,
Bd. II, p. 282) run as follows: " In Trak were also
manufactured those beautiful glass-lamps, decorated with
inscriptions, which the Moslems used to hang in their
mosques, most of them white, with blue ornamentation."
Here he quotes as his authority Ibn Jubair. * But that
learned Arab from Spain, in the passage which is cited by
Kremer, is making reference only to five windows, or
properly light-openings, which were closed with 'Iraki glass
of beautiful workmanship. They are part of the subject of
his description of the Mosque at Mecca which he visited in
the month of Jumada, A.H. 579 (f.e., September, 1183).
How Kremer discovered any allusion to inscriptions in that
passage, is incomprehensible ; for the word to which
the epithet is attached by Kremer must here,
according to Herr Max van Berschem, to whom we are
indebted for the communication and the verbal explanation
of the passage, be represented only by the general phrase
" workmanship." It can be used indeed in the sense of
" inlaying inscriptions," but this is not its special meaning.
In any case, the thing referred to by Ibn Jubair is panes or
plates of glass, and not vessels of glass. Besides, any one
who has dealt familiarly with the gilt and enamelled
ornamentation of the particular glasswork in which we are
interested, will certainly admit that it would be utterly out
of place in a window frame, since it is not in the full light
that its ornamental beauty is best perceived, but only in
a low side-light. In short, the quotation from Ibn Jubair,
on which Kremer relies, contains nothing whatever definite
with regard to any particular kind of glass vessels produced
in 'Irak. Moreover, the characters used in the inscriptions
* Ibn Jubair, ed. Wright, p. 81.
0/<7 :o.]
upon all the glass lamps known to us, are decidedly
Egypto-Syrian.
Muhammadan glass-industry must surely have been
flourishing in Mesopotamia at a very early period. Kremer
mentions (p. 281) that Harawi (in Seligmann's edition,
p. 24) compares the diamond to the crystal glass of
Baghdad. Of course, Oriental similitudes must not always
be taken literally, but after all allowances, we must at least
hold that the Baghdad glass was remarkable for fineness
and clearness.
We read further on in Kremer (pp. 281, 282) : " The
industrial art-craftsmen promptly learned the use of this
material for the manufacture of costly articles. Various
sorts of glass were known. As far back as the second
century of the Hijra, they understood how to prepare
enamelled glass and molten glass as well as
glass showers (suyulu z-zajaj) in which variegated masses
of glass were combined. A learned chemist is named, who
was an expert manipulator in this art, and wrote special
dissertations on the subject. He practised experiments
with the object of making false pearls out of glass, and
one of his treatises is devoted to this matter.* Drawn
glass was also manufactured, and costly vessels made from
it. The more splendid pieces, prepared for the palaces
of the rich and the great, vases of glass (%a%ruMM3
of smelted masses (?m??d)—must have been extremely
costly. Amongst those which are named are vessels of
molten glass with gold setting (al-inina al-mujra hi
z zahab), vessels of drawn glass, and of Baghdad glass.
The learned Makrizi tells us of a wine-goblet made of
crystal, which had come from the treasury of the Fatimite
Sultans, and was sold for no less that 360 dinars (3600
francs) . . ." s
It is not always clear to us what Kremer precisely
means by his various designations ; and we think it very
likely that the original expressions were not always used
in an exact technical sense by the Arabic authors from
whom, in his astonishingly wide reading, that scholar derived
his somewhat vague general terms. So far as we have
certain knowledge, the Arabic expression " fluid glass "
had a general sense, excluding rock-crystal (ballaur or
billaur, probably a corruption of jS%nlAAos-) and other
transparent stones—these being non-fluid glass.
But even if we accept all the terms used in Kremer's
statement as comprehensible and as the proper expressions
of the craftsmen with whom he is dealing,—still one ques-
tion remains to be answered, which is, how long did the pro-
duction of costly glass continue to flourish in Mesopotamia ?
* " Ifhrak (s^;) ibn Nosair, Fihrist 360.
t Makrizi, Khitat, I, 414.
Syrian origin of most of the old Oriental examples of gilt
and enamelled glass, expressed a belief that, after the
great blow indicted by Timur upon Damascus, the art of
enamelling glass perished completely in the Muhammadan
East as a result of the continual state of warfare during
the fifteenth century, by which unhappy Syria was wasted
and dispeopled.
It is true, as every one knows, that von Gumpenberg
in 1449, and Felix Faber in 1483, make mention of glass-
manufacture as still practised in Al-Khalli (or Hebron).
But, we must repeat, hardly half a dozen dateable examples
have come down to us, of gilt and enamelled mosque-lamps
of the time which followed the year 1402. Very fairly,
therefore, Alfred von Kremer conjectures that the mosque-
lamps bearing inscriptions, were imported from 'Irak; but
this does not increase the number of the lamps known to
us. The words of that eminent Orientalist, in his " Oultur-
geschichte des Orients unter den Ghalifen" (Wien, 1877,
Bd. II, p. 282) run as follows: " In Trak were also
manufactured those beautiful glass-lamps, decorated with
inscriptions, which the Moslems used to hang in their
mosques, most of them white, with blue ornamentation."
Here he quotes as his authority Ibn Jubair. * But that
learned Arab from Spain, in the passage which is cited by
Kremer, is making reference only to five windows, or
properly light-openings, which were closed with 'Iraki glass
of beautiful workmanship. They are part of the subject of
his description of the Mosque at Mecca which he visited in
the month of Jumada, A.H. 579 (f.e., September, 1183).
How Kremer discovered any allusion to inscriptions in that
passage, is incomprehensible ; for the word to which
the epithet is attached by Kremer must here,
according to Herr Max van Berschem, to whom we are
indebted for the communication and the verbal explanation
of the passage, be represented only by the general phrase
" workmanship." It can be used indeed in the sense of
" inlaying inscriptions," but this is not its special meaning.
In any case, the thing referred to by Ibn Jubair is panes or
plates of glass, and not vessels of glass. Besides, any one
who has dealt familiarly with the gilt and enamelled
ornamentation of the particular glasswork in which we are
interested, will certainly admit that it would be utterly out
of place in a window frame, since it is not in the full light
that its ornamental beauty is best perceived, but only in
a low side-light. In short, the quotation from Ibn Jubair,
on which Kremer relies, contains nothing whatever definite
with regard to any particular kind of glass vessels produced
in 'Irak. Moreover, the characters used in the inscriptions
* Ibn Jubair, ed. Wright, p. 81.
0/<7 :o.]
upon all the glass lamps known to us, are decidedly
Egypto-Syrian.
Muhammadan glass-industry must surely have been
flourishing in Mesopotamia at a very early period. Kremer
mentions (p. 281) that Harawi (in Seligmann's edition,
p. 24) compares the diamond to the crystal glass of
Baghdad. Of course, Oriental similitudes must not always
be taken literally, but after all allowances, we must at least
hold that the Baghdad glass was remarkable for fineness
and clearness.
We read further on in Kremer (pp. 281, 282) : " The
industrial art-craftsmen promptly learned the use of this
material for the manufacture of costly articles. Various
sorts of glass were known. As far back as the second
century of the Hijra, they understood how to prepare
enamelled glass and molten glass as well as
glass showers (suyulu z-zajaj) in which variegated masses
of glass were combined. A learned chemist is named, who
was an expert manipulator in this art, and wrote special
dissertations on the subject. He practised experiments
with the object of making false pearls out of glass, and
one of his treatises is devoted to this matter.* Drawn
glass was also manufactured, and costly vessels made from
it. The more splendid pieces, prepared for the palaces
of the rich and the great, vases of glass (%a%ruMM3
of smelted masses (?m??d)—must have been extremely
costly. Amongst those which are named are vessels of
molten glass with gold setting (al-inina al-mujra hi
z zahab), vessels of drawn glass, and of Baghdad glass.
The learned Makrizi tells us of a wine-goblet made of
crystal, which had come from the treasury of the Fatimite
Sultans, and was sold for no less that 360 dinars (3600
francs) . . ." s
It is not always clear to us what Kremer precisely
means by his various designations ; and we think it very
likely that the original expressions were not always used
in an exact technical sense by the Arabic authors from
whom, in his astonishingly wide reading, that scholar derived
his somewhat vague general terms. So far as we have
certain knowledge, the Arabic expression " fluid glass "
had a general sense, excluding rock-crystal (ballaur or
billaur, probably a corruption of jS%nlAAos-) and other
transparent stones—these being non-fluid glass.
But even if we accept all the terms used in Kremer's
statement as comprehensible and as the proper expressions
of the craftsmen with whom he is dealing,—still one ques-
tion remains to be answered, which is, how long did the pro-
duction of costly glass continue to flourish in Mesopotamia ?
* " Ifhrak (s^;) ibn Nosair, Fihrist 360.
t Makrizi, Khitat, I, 414.