Tashrif al-Ayyam wa-l-‘Usur fi-Sirat al-Malik al-Mansur

Name of text: Tashrif al-Ayyam wa-l-‘Usur fi-Sirat al-Malik al-Mansur
Author of text: Ibn ‘Abd al-Zahir
Date of text: 1286
Date of person in text:
Name of structure in text: al-Qubba [throne hall] al-Mansuriyya of Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun, Cairo Citadel
Type of structure in text: Palace
Date of structure in text 1284
Century of structure 1: 13 AD
Century of structure 2:
Country in text: Egypt
Region in text:
City in text: Cairo Citadel
Specific place of mosaic in text: Walls
Description of mosaic in text:

Ibn Abd al-Zahir who was a semiofficial court historian for both Baybars and Qalawun, relates in the events of the year 1284 that when Qalawun built a new throne hall [qubba] in the court of the Citadel he ordered depicted on the walls the likeness of each of his castles and citadels surrounded by mountains, valley, rivers and seas.


As this description recalls the scenes in the Qubba al-Zahiriyya in Damascus and the qa’a at the Citadel in Cairo, Nasser Rabbat argues that Ibn Abd al-Zahir’s description of the decoration of the walls of these two sites probably refers to mosaics.
Mosaic date in text: 13 AD
Tesserae silver mentioned in text? No
Tesserae gold mentioned in text? No
Colour descriptions in text:
Bibliography:

Ibn ‘Abd al-Zahir, Tashrif al-Ayyam wa-l-‘Usur fi-Sirat al-Malik al-Mansur, Murad Kami led. (Cairo, 1961), 139, cited in Nasser Rabbat, ‘The Mosaics of the Qubba al-Zahiriyya in Damascus: A Classical Syrian Medium Acquires a Mamluk Signature’, ARAM, 9 (1997), 227-40, pp. 236-7.


Abdulfattah, Iman R. and Mamdouh Mohamed Sakr, ‘Glass Mosaics in a Royal Mamluk Hall: Context, Content, and Interpretation’, in Doris Behrens-Abouseif, ed., The Arts of the Mamluks in Egypt and Syria – Evolution and Impact (Bonn: Bonn University Press, 2012), 203-222, pp. 203, 220 n. 6.
URLs:
Comments: This is speculative as al-Zahir does not specify the medium of mosaic.
Building no longer extant.

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