Author
Aleppo Shah bin Issa.
Author Original
حلب شاه بن عيسى
Publication Date
1009/1600-1601 and 1012/1603
Publication Place
-
Museum of Islamic Art
Subject
Wood, multi-layered drawings with different pigments and metal sheets.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
الارتفاع: 260 سم؛ الطول الكلي: 35 م
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
I. 2862
Record ID
object;ISL;de;Mus01;39;ar
Library Location
Museum of Islamic Art
Date
1009/1600-1601 and 1012/1603
Notes
As the name indicates, the owner of the building, a prominent merchant and Christian citizen in the city of Aleppo, ordered the wall of the reception hall in his house to be clad at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Thus, the drawings of this Aleppo room constitute the oldest group of Betsuri in the Ottoman era. This Christian citizen commissioned the best workshop at the time to carry out these works, and he wanted this hall, in which he received his guests, to be representative of the various themes in the style of Islamic art at that time, with its various floral and geometric formations, and painted in the best traditional Ottoman style. In addition to Christian themes from the Old and New Testaments and images of the Virgin Mary with her child, we find images from the court as they were known in Persian book illustrations. The texts of Psalms, Arabic sayings, and Persian sayings that were inscribed on the wall were chosen to express visions of a shared life in tranquility and peace between followers of different religions. The main engraved areas are located in the back of the main mihrab, to the right and left of the wall cabinet. The inscriptions on the left-hand engraved space depict court scenes representing the ruler on his throne, group hunting trips, and a prince carrying a falcon in his hand. As for the right-hand inscribed space, it has Christian themes, including the Last Supper, Salome’s dance before Herod, and the sacrifice of Isaac. In the areas of inscriptions and other drawings distributed over the entire place, there are individual drawings representing topics from both fields, including, for example, the story of Laila and her Majnun by Al-Nizami (1141-1202) from Baykar Prison, or the Virgin Mary and the Child Jesus, as well as Saint George. In addition, we find some real and fictional animals. It must be noted that this diversity in the themes of the drawings makes this wall covering, which is the oldest preserved of its kind, a complete collection that could only have been created in the Syrian commercial city of Aleppo. To watch a video presentation of this piece of art, click here (in English).
Sample Text
Annette Hagedorn “Aleppo Room” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;de;Mus01;39;ar
