Damascus: Decorators of Metal Vessels
Date: Late fifteenth century
Arabic: naqqāsh
The author refers to the techniques of piercing and engraving (nuqūsh) of metal vessels. See also: Copper beater (naḥḥās); Goldsmith (dhahabī).
Citation: al-Badri, ʿAbd Allah b. Muhammad, Nuzhat al-anām fī maḥāsin al-shām (Cairo, 1922), p. 363.
See also: Elisséeff, Nikita, ‘Corporations de Damas sous Nūr al-Dīn: Matériaux pour une topographie économique de Damas au XIIe siècle’, Arabica 3.1 (1956): p. 70.
Milwright, Marcus. “Metalworking in Damascus at the End of the Ottoman Period: An Analysis of the Qamus al-Sinaʿat al-Shamiyya”, in: Venetia Porter and Mariam Rosser-Owen, eds, Metalwork and Material Culture in the Islamic World: Art, Crafts and Text. Essays presented to James W. Allan (London: I B Tauris, 2012), p. 265.
Damascus: Decorators of Metal Vessels
Date: c.1890-1906
Arabic: naqqāsh
Copper and copper alloy (especially brass) objects, including bowls, cups, candlesticks, cupboards and lanterns, were brought to the naqqāsh for ornamentation. The decoration was done with a chisel (izmīl). The cost of the work was calculated according to the weight of the object. Most of these artisans came from the Jewish community of the city. Antiquities dealers sometimes commissioned these artisans to produce imitations of older metalwork. See also: Copper Beater (naḥḥās); Engraver of Seal Rings (ḥakkāk al-khawātim); Antiquities Dealer (antakjī or antikjī).
Citation: al-Qasimi, Muhammad Saʿid, Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, and Khalil al-ʿAzm (al-Azem), Dictionnaire des métiers damascains, ed., Zafer al-Qasimi. (Le Monde d’Outre-Mer passé et présent, Deuxième série, Documents III, Paris and Le Haye: Mouton and Co., 1960), pp. 486-87 (chapter 419).
See also: Milwright, Marcus. “Metalworking in Damascus at the End of the Ottoman Period: An Analysis of the Qamus al-Sina‘at al-Shamiyya”, in: Venetia Porter and Mariam Rosser-Owen, eds, Metalwork and Material Culture in the Islamic World: Art, Crafts and Text. Essays presented to James W. Allan (London: I B Tauris, 2012), pp. 270-71.
Damascus: Decorators of Metal Vessels
Date: c. 1906
Arabic: naqqāsh
In a discussion of the working practices of inlay workers in Cairo, the author notes that similar work was produced in Damascus. The workers in Damascus were less well paid than their Cairene counterparts and the work they produced was judged to be inferior in quality. There were apparently several hundred inlay workers operating in Damascus and only thirty skilled workers in the Egyptian capital. See also: Maker of decorated artillery shell cases.
Citation: Hildburgh, W. L. “The manufacture of inlaid brasswork at Cairo”, Journal of the Society of Arts 54 (1906): pp. 215-16.
See also: Milwright, Marcus. “Metalworking in Damascus at the End of the Ottoman Period: An Analysis of the Qamus al-Sinaʿat al-Shamiyya”, in: Venetia Porter and Mariam Rosser-Owen, eds, Metalwork and Material Culture in the Islamic World: Art, Crafts and Text. Essays presented to James W. Allan (London: I B Tauris, 2012), p. 265.