Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo
Often overlooked by the crowds that throng the Egyptian Museum, this little-visited place was renovated in 2004 and contains some beautiful pieces of medieval decorative art salvaged from the houses, mosques, and palaces of Islamic Cairo at the instigation of Khedive Tawfiq.
Most striking of all is the large mashrabiyya screens, which are constructed of thousands of individual pieces of wood. Still seen today in many old buildings, such screens shaded rooms from the sun, at the same time admitting cooling breezes. They were also important as they allowed the women of the house to look out without themselves being seen.
The museum houses other examples of creative woodworking taken from mosques around the city, including huge ivory-inlaid doors, carved friezes and a fine 14th-century minbar (pulpit).
Three ornamental fountains provide the best examples of another specialty of Egyptian craftsmen – inlaid stone and marble work. These pieces, dating from the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, would have decorated the reception halls of rich merchants’ houses. Look out, also, for enameled glass lamps; these beautiful objects, many of them decorated with stylized Arabic lettering, would have been suspended by chains from the ceilings of mosques. Other exhibits include Persian and Turkish ceramics, illuminated manuscripts and books, and carpets and rugs.
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