Wall Tiles from a Dervish Residence

Color lithograph showing 17th century Egyptian glazed earthenware decoration consisting of motifs of stylized foliage and flowers with interlacing stems, forming an arabesque pattern complemented with a border positioned at its uppermost edge. According to the author, this decoration comes from a takiya, i.e. a place for housing dervishes, located in the El Mosky area, Cairo. This takiya was entirely covered with disparate tiles taken from buildings of every area of the city, so much so that, still in the author's words, the place could be considered to be a small earthenware museum in its own right, exhibiting samples which couldn't be found anywhere else.

The caption reads in the original French: Faïences murales du tékyeh des derwiches. (XVIIe siècle.)