This work of art is temporarily off view while the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion galleries are reinstalled.

Egypt, Mamluk Period

A tour-de-force of glassblowing and enameling skill, this mosque lamp celebrates Amir Sayf al-Din Shaykhu al-Umari (died 1357) with an elaborate calligraphic inscription around the neck including his name and titles.  In Cairo, Shaykhu endowed a mosque and a madrasa, a theological school for orthodox Sunni, from where this lamp originates.  The decorative script around the body of the lamp is a verse from the Koran: “God is the light of the heavens and the earth, the likeness of this light is as a wick-holder wherein is a light…”

Brownish colorless glass, blown, tooled, enameled and gilded; applied foot-ring and loops for suspension, about 1349-55
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1933.320