intricate than those in plaster. The stone pulpit set up in 1483 by Kâ'it Bey in the Mosque of Barkûk is believed to be "the most splendid example of stone chiselling that can be seen in Cairo," and the finest geometrical ornament and pure arabesque work belong to this period. The Wakkâlah or Khân built by Kâ'it Bey on the south side of Al-Azhar Mosque was beautifully ornamented with designs of every kind, and the front of it, which faces the mosque, still exhibits a fine variety.* The stalactite or pendentive bracketing, which is so marked a characteristic of Saracenic art, is also well displayed in the Mosque of Kâ'it Bey. Its first and principal use is for masking the transition from the square of the mausoleum to the circle of the dome. The pendentive was speedily adopted by the Arabs of Egypt in a great variety of shapes, and for almost every conceivable architectural and ornamental purpose; to effect the transition from the recessed windows to the outer plane of a building; and to vault, in a similar manner, the great porches of mosques, which form so grand a feature characteristic of the style. All the more simple woodwork of dwelling-houses was fashioned in a variety of curious patterns of the same character; the pendentive, in fact, strongly marks the Arab fashion of cutting off angles and useless material, always in a pleasing and constructively advantageous manner.† The mosaic work of the Muḥammadans appears to have been borrowed from the Copts; it is unlike any mosaic work known in Europe, and is highly characteristic, and often. very beautiful. Pieces of marble or hard stones of different colours, small plaques of porcelain, and pieces of mother-ofpearl are arranged in geometrical patterns, and are set in plaster. Certain portions of mosques are ornamented with mosaic work, and mosaic pavements are not uncommon.

Like the ancient Egyptians, the modern inhabitants of the country were skilled workers in metal, and whether in chasing or engraving, or inlaying with gold, silver, or copper, the best artists have produced most beautiful specimens of their handicraft. The designs which are inlaid in metal panels, lamps, bowls, caskets, tables, etc., are chiefly of a geometrical and floral character, and are remarkable alike for their beauty and their continuity; the best examples belong to the four

* Casts of a number of these, made from paper squeezes taken by Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole, are to be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum. † See E. Stanley Poole in Lane's Modern Egyptians, 5th edit., pp. 586-588.

teenth century, and suggest that they were developed from a system of ornamentation which was introduced into Egypt from the East by way of Baghdad and Damascus.

The arts of wood-carving and ivory-inlay work appear to have been borrowed from the Copts, in whose churches carved panels and panels inlaid with ivory were well known before the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs.

Panel from the Pulpit in the Mosque of Ibn Tûlûn.

Glass-making is an art which was practised in Egypt in very early times, well-known examples of glass objects being the opaque blue glass vase inscribed with the prenomen of Thothmes III, and the glass vessels from the tomb of Amen-hetep II, now in the British Museum. The earliest examples of Muhammadan glass objects in Egypt are the

glass coin standards, which are stamped with the names of Egyptian governors who ruled by the grace of the Khalifahs of Damascus and Baghdad in the eighth, ninth, and eleventh centuries of our era. In the eleventh century there seems to have been a glass lamp market near the Mosque of 'Amr, and in the fourteenth century the art of glass-making reached its highest pitch of perfection. The oldest Arab

A Window of the Mosque of Ibn Tûlûn.

glass vessel known is said to be in the collection of M. Charles Schefer; it was made before 1277 for Badr ad-Dîn. Muḥammadan glass-workers excelled in the making of lamps for mosques, and these show that their makers were tolerably expert glass-blowers, and could produce vessels of considerable şize; but the glass is of bad colour, and full of bubbles and imperfections. The makers had learned, probably from the Byzantines, the art of gilding and enamelling glass, and made

much use of it. Inscriptions in large characters are favourite ornaments; figures of birds, animals, sphinxes and other monsters are found. The outlines are generally put on in red enamel, the spaces between being often gilt. The enamels are used sometimes as grounds, and sometimes for the ornaments; the usual colours are blue, green, yellow, red, pale red, and white.* A fine collection of more than 60 enamelled glass lamps is exhibited in the National Museum of Arab Art in Cairo, and it is thought that they were all made in Egypt.

The art of making pottery of a high class has died out in Egypt, and it is now only represented by the porous water-bottles which are made in Upper Egypt, and by the red-glazed cups, jugs, etc., which are made at Asyût. This is a curious fact, especially when we remember that the potters of the Pre-Dynastic Period were past-masters in their craft, and that in the eleventh century of our era the potters of Cairo were famous for the delicateness of their vessels, the gracefulness of their shapes and forms, and the beauty of the iridescent glaze with which they were sometimes. covered. Glazed porcelain tiles were largely used for mosques and other buildings in the Middle Ages in Cairo, but experts are not agreed as to which exactly were home made, and which were imported from Damascus. A good specimen of modern tile-work, on which the Ka'abah at Mecca is represented in perspective, is No. 167, Room 6, of the National Museum of Arab Art at Cairo. Finally, those who wish to gain an idea of Muḥammadan art as illustrated by the writing and binding of manuscripts should visit the Khedivial Library and the Museum of Arab Art. In the former building there have been collected the fine illuminated copies of the Kur'ân which originally belonged to the chief mosques of Cairo. The oldest of these is written in the Cufic, or Kûfî, character; the titles of the chapters are ornamented with gold, and there are several coloured letters in the text. It is said to have been written by Ja'far As-Sâdik, who lived early in the eighth century, but, although the book is undoubtedly very old, no one believes this story. From an artistic point of view the Kur'âns which were written in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries are more interesting. The characters of the copy written for Muḥammad An-Nâșir are all gilded, and the opening pages of that written for Khamend Baraka in the

* Nesbitt, A., Descriptive Catalogue, p. lxiv.