Ibn Tulun; Lajin’s Minbar

The first of the Mamluk tradition minbars is the minbar at the mosque of Ibn Tulun, the Minbar of the Mamluk Sultan Husam al Din Lajin (Lāğīn, 1296-99), 1296 Cairo. This will be the first of the discussions of the patterns of the minbars. As the first of the Mamluk minbars, some of the earlier tradition of Aleppo and Anatolia will be mentioned here as its inspiration.

Sailko, Wikimedia Commons,

My first interest in Islamic geometric pattern was stirred by the fabulous wood work of the Mamluks of medieval Cairo. This classic minbar is an interesting bridge from a tradition of wood work in Aleppo and Anatolia to the remarkable later heights of the Mamluks. The question of where this masterfully intricate art in wood arose will lead us off to a short discussion of the precedents of this minbar. I normally stay away from art historical musings but this is an interesting story.

Sailko, Wikimedia Commons

Both the pattern and the woodworking tradition used were already well over a century old when the Lajin minbar was made at the end of the 13th century. Beautiful examples of work commissioned by the Zengid ruler Nur ad Din (Nūr ad-Dīn Abū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd ibn ʿImād ad-Dīn Zengī (February 1118 – 15 May 1174)) of Aleppo just barely survived into the 20 th century. Some examples are now lost, the fates of some are unclear in 2020. Various tilings of this pattern were already found as far away as Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, in the Mausoleum of Momine Khatun by 1186.

Mihrab of Maqam Ibrahim, Aleppo. Now lost. Image Ernst Herzfeld collection © SI edu ASK FS-FSA_A.6_04.GN.3298

Denkmäler persischer Baukunst, Friederich Sarre, Plate Nr 6. See link under the bibliography tab.

Variations of this pattern appear on several early minbars from Anatolia and the Zengid minbar of al Aqsa mosque commissioned by Nur ad Din, also now lost. Even with this long history, the minbar at ibn Tulun stands out for its quality of execution.

Most of the masterful carved panels we see today on this minbar are not original to the 13th century Mamluk artists. The minbar was intact as late as 1845 but was then largely disassembled and scattered. Almost all of the carved pattern field panels from the minbar were removed, displayed in Paris at the International Exhibition of 1867 (Exposition universelle d'art et d'industrie de 1867) and then sold into museum collections.

The Victoria and Albert museum holds the largest collection. They are displayed as they would have been seen on the minbar at the V&A. The Museum for Applied Art, Vienna, MAK (Österreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst) also holds and displays several fragments. The Louvre, Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, also have several panels. Almost all of the panels on the minbar as shown above are reproductions from an early 20th century restoration.

The originals form the museums of Europe were faithfully copied to give what we see today. One interesting point is that it appears that all of the carved motifs of the field panels in the 13th century original work were unique. The restoration work uses a far more limited set of models used in multiple copies.

Minbar Alâ ad din camii, Konya 19th century photographer unknown

The oldest examples of this eight point rosette pattern used on a minbar, in simpler tilings, appear to be the Rum Seljuk minbars of the Aksaray Ulu Cami, 1153, and the Alâ ad-din Cami, Konya, 550 AH/1155 CE, dated by inscription These two show the same closest tiling of the rosette found on the Mihrab from the al Halawiya madrasa, Aleppo. These are not primitive probings of a new art. The Alâ ad-din minbar is already a geometrically sophisticated piece. It also contains the closest infinite tiling of the 10 point rosette. The ibn Tulun minbar takes this pattern in some new directions.

The Geometric Patterns of the Husam al Din Lāğīn Minbar

This post will develop the tiling and patterns of the main side panels and the two door patterns of this minbar. They are all classic patterns. Both the 8 fold symmetry rosettes found on the sides and the 12 fold symmetry rosettes of the doors are found throughout the Mamluk period but they are much older.

The 8 fold symmetry rosette is found in several examples of woodwork from Aleppo in the late 12th century; the mihrab from al Halawiya madrasa, 1160s, Aleppo, the mihrab from the Maqam Ibrahim al Sufi of Nur ad Din mentioned above, founded 1168, Aleppo, and best known from the Minbar of Salah ad-Din (Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb) from the al Aqsa Mosque, 1168-1174, Aleppo.

This rosette design is very old, very common, and usually has a very well defined classic structure which was preserved over 1,000 years of use. It is quite difficult to find an example of this structured rosette older than the 12th century Seljuq or Zangid examples. After this early appearance, it will almost always retain this “best symmetry” structure. This rosette will have a dedicated post but the construction will also be shown below.

American Black Walnut. Alan D Adams, 2015

This rosette makes a pleasing pattern composition even when executed in plain wood, but the surface carving of the fields and the tiling of the minbars raises the compositions to art. The overall carving detail of the minbars is consistently excellent over the centuries but it deserves a treatment all its own. This art is far from my expertise so I can just show some of the results.

Thanks to the photographers and illustrators of the 19th century we have some beautiful records of the details of even those minbars that were lost to vandalism or time. The minbar of ibn Tulun was carefully documented and as mentioned above, much of the carved fabric of the original survives in museum collections. We have the detailed studies of the 19th century and the originals with the ravages of time.

The Minbar of Badr al Jamali, now at Hebron. Creswell,

© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The minbar of Salah ad Din al Aqsa Mosque, now lost. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Records of the Lajin minbar from the 19th century; L Art pour tous 1868 V7 page 193 (google books)

The ravages of Time. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Tilings

The second level beyond the basic pattern, the first which meets the eye from a distance, is the tiling or the arrangement of repeating units of rosettes. The tiling used on the ibn Tulun minbar is new, a development beyond the several older tilings of the Anatolian and Zengid tradition.

This “Tiling” is simply the arrangement of the rosettes relative to each other. The simplest tiling is a square repeat where each rosette touches four neighbors. This simplest tiling is probably the oldest and certainly the most common in Anatolia for centuries. Above; from the Alâ ad din camii minbar, Konya.

The Zengid minbar at al Aqsa mosque, the minbar of Salah ad-Din, uses a more complex tiling. An underlying tiling, a perfect tiling of octagons and squares, is used to define the spacing of the rosettes. Rosettes sit within the hidden octagons and no longer touch each other. As a result new shapes appear in the tiling. The rosette is unchanged but the pattern has developed more complexity.

The same perfect Archimedean tiling underlies the Lajin minbar at ibn Tulun. The same classic proportion rosette appears on that same underlying tiling. Different decisions were made about mapping the rosette onto the tiling and a new pattern appears.

A rosette appears at each vertex of the “Archimedean tiling” of octagons and squares. Each rosette layout circle radius is exactly one half of a side of the tiling polygons, octagons and squares. A very elegant tiling results.

(Archimedean Tiling: The polygon tiling uses two polygons. Euclidean Tilings use only one regular polygon. This discussion has nothing to do with the “polygon method” of pattern construction. Different polygons.)

Innovative tilings are almost as old as the rosette pattern itself. The tiling of the Nakhchivan pattern is an interesting elongated hexagon.

The Doors

Two additional major patterns appear on the doors of the minbar. These are also classic patterns which will be seen on many later Mamluk minbars. The front and rear face patterns are both 12 fold rosettes, with much more complex structures.

The Lajin minbar is the link between this superlative Aleppo Seljuq and Zengid tradition and the later much more complex Mamluk minbars. It shows classic patterns which will reappear many times on the Mamluk minbars and a woodworking technology that will be used unchanged for centuries.

To keep this post form being monstrously long, we will break here and start the structure analysis in the next post.