AL SHAM

This lantern in oxidized brass with polished highlights is a reinterpretation of a 19th-century Syrian thurayya, which was hanging in Hotel Bassoul in Beirut during the 1980s. The original was a late version of an earlier Syrian Mamliku prototype. The lantern was badly proportioned but the artist was attracted by its circular body and rounded towers and redesigned the present lantern to conform to classical Mamluki proportions.

The body of the present lantern forms a circle surmounted by a dome and a globular finial ending in a cast star and crescent. Egyptian Mamluki lanterns were traditionally polygonal, composed of four to sixteen side panels. The circular body of this lantern conforms to the Syrian Mamluki style. Nine rounded towers cover openings, which allow light to pass through to the towers from the lantern interior. One of the rounded towers forms a hinged door to allow for access to the lantern interior. Cylinders, perforated and etched with geometric patterns, extend from the base plate of the lantern to hold nine blown glass qanadil.

The entire lantern is perforated and etched. Each tower is ornamented with an etched cartouche of polished brass on a perforated field. The cartouche contains a scrolling vegetal pattern and a calligraphic inscription in Thuluth style from the Light Verse of the Holy Qur'an which reads: "Light upon Light." The field surrounding the cartouche is perforated and etched with a geometrical pattern. The upper and lower rims of the towers are pierced with trefoil crenels, as are the upper and lower rims of the lantern body, which are etched with one simple geometrical arabesque containing a perforated pattern. The dome is engraved and perforated. The upper and lower bands contain an interlacing triangular pattern. The middle band contains the beginning of the Light Verse from the Holy Qur'an: "God is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth."

The globular finial is engraved with interlacing circles on a perforated background. Three chains attached to rings connected at intervals to the top of the body converge to suspect the lantern.

LMAM-9