Note 64 — Chapter VII

We know that Basra painters were brought to Egypt in Fātimy times. El-Makrīzy tells us that the “Mosque of the Karāfa,” erected by Taghrīd Darzān, the wife of El-Mu‘izz, was built by a Persian architect, El-Hasan El-Fārisy, and resembled the Azhar. Its chief gate was cased with iron, and fourteen square brick gates led into the sanctuary: before each of them was an arch resting on two marble columns, in three parts, blue, red, and green, and other colours. The ceilings were decorated in various colours by workmen from Basra, and the Beny Mu‘allim, the masters of El-Kettamy and En-Nāzūk. Opposite the seventh doorway was an arch on the two sides whereof were painted fountains with steps, which looked real. Painters used to come to see it, but could not imitate it. Two rival painters, El-Kasīr and Ibn-‘Azīz (of ‘Irāk), were pitted one against the other by the Vizir El-Yāzūry; the first painted a picture of a dancing-girl in white robes on a black blind arch, as though she were inside it, and the second a similar girl in crimson robes on a yellow ground, as though she were standing out of the arch.