Monumental Calligraphy in Fatimid Egypt (O'Kane)

A chapter by Bernard O'Kane subtitled "Epigraphy in Stone, Stucco, and Wood". It begins by observing that floriated Kufic was not a Fatimid invention and then follows the inscriptions of Fatimid Cairo in order. ¹

It first presents pre-Fatimid examples: a tombstone carved by Mubarak al-Makki (Dhu'l-Hijja 243/March 858) in the Museum of Islamic Art, the tomb inscription of Khadija al-Tara'ifi in the Lesser Qarafa shortly before the Fatimid conquest, and the panel of the Ikhshidid vizier Ibn al-Furat in the Saliba district (355/966). Then the stucco inscriptions of al-Azhar (completed 972), the stone and stucco of the Mosque of al-Hakim (completed 1013), and the works of Badr al-Jamali: the Mashhad al-Juyushi on the Muqattam (487/1085), his son al-Afdal's mihrab in the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, and the inscriptions of the Cairo gates Bab al-Futuh, Bab al-Nasr and Bab al-Tawfiq; finally the facade of the Aqmar Mosque (519/1125–6), the most comprehensive scheme of facade inscriptions to that date. ^{1 2 3 4}

The author notes that on Badr al-Jamali's gates his titles take up much more space than those of the caliph al-Mustansir, "a nod to the real holder of power", and that the fourth line at Bab al-Nasr — the Shi'i form of the shahada — is carved on the voussoirs of the relieving arch and is longer than the three lines above, evidence of a hasty afterthought. At al-Aqmar the foundation inscription in the names of the caliph and his vizier al-Ma'mun appears twice on the facade, the upper floriated and the lower plain against a foliate scroll, with the caliph's name placed exactly in the middle above the doorway. ⁴