Closures: Endings in al-Qalqashandī’s Literary Encyclopaedia and Malmlūk Carpets

Abstract

Recent studies indicate an intersection and an interaction between the literary works of a certain culture and its art works. In the Mamlūk era, literary encyclopaedias flourished, while carpet weaving thrived above other artisanal industries. Taking into consideration the enormity of both endeavors—which seem to have been part of the collective aesthetic taste at the time—this research enquires about a potential link between the framing of Mamlūk carpets and that of the literary encyclopaedia of that era. It also conducts a comparison between the artistic characteristics of carpet edges, being the visual ending of their patterns, and significant features of the closure of Ṣubḥ al-aʿshā fī ṣināʿat al-inshā by Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Qalqashandī (d. 821/1418), one of the most famous Mamlūk encyclopaedias, which demonstrates the level of literary maturity this type of work reached in the beginning of the 9th/15th century.