Aleppo: Wood Carvers

Date: 1167-68

The wooden miḥrāb of the Maqam Ibrahim in the Aleppo Citadel was created by Maʿali b. Salam in 563/1167-68.

Citation: Mayer, Leo Ary, Islamic Woodcarvers and their Works (Geneva: Albert Kundig, 1958), pp. 48-49.

Aleppo: Wood Carvers

Date: 1245-46

The carpenter (najjār), ʿAbd Allah b. Ahmad is recorded as having restored the wooden miḥrāb in the Halawiyya madrasa (religious school) in Aleppo in 643/1245-46.

Citation: Mayer, Leo Ary, Islamic Woodcarvers and their Works (Geneva: Albert Kundig, 1958), p. 22.

Aleppo: Wood Carvers

Date: 1397

A wooden plaque embedded in the wall of the Taghribirdi mosque in Aleppo records the name of the maker, Ahmad al-Kutubi and the date of 799/1397. Ernst Herzfeld believed this plaque to be the lid of a Qurʾan box. Whether it was made in Aleppo is not clear, however.

Citation: Mayer, Leo Ary, Islamic Woodcarvers and their Works (Geneva: Albert Kundig, 1958), p. 68.

Date: Fourteenth century?

The minbar of the Congregational Mosque of Aleppo was constructed by Muhammad b. ʿAli al-Mawsili. The nisba (epithet) indicates that he was from Mosul in northwestern Iraq. The inscription further states that the minbar had been ordered by Amir Shams al-Din Qarasunqur al-Jukandar, and was made under the supervision of the blacksmith (ḥaddād) Muhammad b. ʿUthman.

Citation: Mayer, Leo Ary, Islamic Woodcarvers and their Works (Geneva: Albert Kundig, 1958), p. 55.