Rectangular stucco and glass window with an Arabic inscription, representing the phrase bismi llāh. The letters are worked in relief against a perforated background and set in a cartouche-like frame. They are backed with yellow glass. Flowers of various colours surround the inscription.

The window is preserved in its original wooden frame. The frame consists of wooden slats that are joined together at the corners. Metal brackets attached to the back of the frame reinforce its structure.

Coarse-grained gypsum plaster; colourless glass; coloured glass (green, blue, yellow, and red flashed glass); wood; metal

This stucco and glass window is preserved in its original wooden frame. The front of the latticework is mostly intact. There are some cracks and smaller losses along the edges of the panel.

The back of the window shows traces of several repairs. The measures included replacing missing pieces of glass (c.30%) with coloured and colourless plastic film and filling gaps in the thin stucco layer in which the pieces of glass are embedded with various filler materials of unknown composition. These differ in colour and texture from the original plaster layer, whose surface is dusty and therefore greyish brown in colour. Filler material was also applied along the edges of the panel, possibly to close larger gaps between the panel and the frame. At an unknown time, the frame was reinforced with metal brackets, which were attached to the corners on the back. The metal brackets and the nails holding the stucco panel in the frame are heavily rusted. The corrosion of the metal parts has led to fine cracks and small losses on the back of the stucco panel.

In the area of the corners, where the metal brackets are attached to the frame, there are traces of a rust-coloured substance, which extends onto the stucco panel in some places. Whether these are traces of rust or remnants of an adhesive could not be determined during the investigation. Interestingly, similar traces can be found around the pieces of glass replaced with foil. It is likely that these are the yellowed remains of an adhesive that was used to fix the foil and to consolidate the repaired areas. Moreover, there are traces of a powdery yellowish substance on the back frame; its origin and nature (paint?) are unknown.

This stucco and glass panel shows all the characteristic features of Arabic inscriptions integrated in qamariyyāt: the cartouche-like frame, the use of yellow glass for the letters, and the perforated background. In contrast to the isolated panels with inscriptions preserved today in museum collections, most of the panels with inscriptions preserved in situ are part of a larger stucco and glass window composed of several individual panels. This is documented by 19th-century architects and archaeologists, among them Pascal Coste (IG_130, IG_294), James William Wild (IG_436), Jules Bourgoin (IG_461, IG_462), and Melchior de Vogüé (IG_71–73).

Together with IG_494, which is also held at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, the panel discussed here reproduces the so-called bismillah: ‘In the Name of God’ (IG_493) / ‘the Merciful, the Compassionate’ (IG_494). This phrase is placed at the beginning of each chapter (Sura) of the Qurʾan.

IG_493 and IG_494 form part of a group of four qamariyyāt that most probably share the same origin. The other two panels reproduce part of Sura 61:13: ‘with a help from God’ (IG_495) / ‘victory/conquest is near’ (IG_496). Q 61:13 is represented on doors, windows and epigraphic panels in Bayt al-Suḥaymī and Bayt al-Ḥarāwī (Cairo), most probably due to its protective function (Campo, 2022, p. 142). All four panels show an almost identical composition, but the two pairs are distinguished from each other by different colour combinations in the cartouche: purple and green in IG_493 and IG_494, and purple and blue in IG_495 and IG_496.

The panel discussed here is produced according to the traditional method used in the manufacture of qamariyyāt in Egypt during the Ottoman period (see Technique). As with most of the Islamic stucco and glass windows made in Egypt and examined within this project, the pieces of sheet glass were cut to the size of the openings in the latticework and attached to the back of the stucco grille with a thin layer of plaster.

According to the museum records, the window dates to the 18th or 19th century. Due to its relatively good state of preservation, a dating to the 19th century seems more likely. The window shows only minor signs of weathering, which suggests that it has not been exposed to the elements for a long time.

The four panels (IG_493–IG_496) in the collection of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg were originally part of the art collection of the Imperial Envoy at Cairo, Martin von Rücker-Jenisch (1861–1924) (MK&G, 18/41912 [Inventarbuch]). On 1 January 1903, Rücker-Jenisch was appointed Consul General, and he remained in Cairo until 1906. During this period, he supported the excavations of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft (German Oriental Society) in Egypt. With the help of the Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt (1863–1938), Jenisch acquired a considerable collection of Egyptian art. He bequeathed the majority of it to the Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg (now MARKK. Museum am Rothenbaum. Kulturen und Künste der Welt), thereby laying the foundation for its collection of ancient Egyptian art. He further donated several late antique and Islamic artifacts, among them stucco and glass windows and textiles, to the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg and to the Ancient Christian Department of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (now the Bode Museum) in Berlin.