MINOR ART UNDER THE FATIMIDS Fatimid Sculpture in Egypt The monuments of Cairo dating from the second half of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries show a rich stucco and stone decoration with many features peculiar to the Fatimid period. The earliest Fatimid stucco ornament appears in the mosque of al-Azhar in Cairo, which was begun in 970 and completed in 972. The sanctuary (Maksura) and the qibla wall are decorated with a dense pattern r/palmette scrolls in which the background, like those in the Tulunid period, is reduced to the space essential for separating the motives. The decoration of al-Azhar is derived from ninth-century Abbasid and Tulunid ornament but shows a definite change of style. The most important innovation is the greatest prominence of the connecting scrolls, which frequently have two stripes.
The development of new decorative forms, particularly the arabesque, is evident in the stucco and stone decoration of the mosque of al-Hakim (990-1012) in Cairo. Hefe, in both stucco and stone, we find perfect examples of foliated Kufic. In the windows, niches and bands of the mosque and the minarets appear arabesques of the developed type. The traditional patterns have been replaced by a graceful and rhythmic play of scrolls, which run in various direction and often cross each other. It is very probably that both the arabesque and the foliated Kufic patterns are of East Iranian origin.’
Dimand. M.S. Muhamniadan Art, P 101
Minor Art under the Fatimids 783
