Islamic Civilization

Glass  Industry

 The glass industry thrived in Egypt  and Syria . In both countries, lamp shades were made in glass adorned with medallions, inscriptions, or floral designs. Syrian glasses had a far reaching reputation feeding the tastes and the homes of wealthy Western households with glass products of a diversity of shapes and usages.[1] Aleppo and Damascus  were important centres according to many witness; and so was Hama.[2] Going through the inventories of the time, Heyd notes, can be found bottles, goblets plates of glass, painted or decorated `on the Damascus manner.’[3] Egypt continued to produce vessels of all qualities, particularly at Al-Fustat, where excavations yielded immense quantities of glass ranging in date from the 8^th century to the later Middle Ages.[4] In Spain, it was Ibn Firnas, who in the 9^th century, introduced the art of glass manufacturing and who taught the artisans the technique of putting the clay in the oven.[5]

The transfer to the Christian West  of this industry took place mainly during the crusader period. The Venetians acquired large manners of skills from the Syrians and Egyptians with whom they were in close contact during the crusades.[6] The Christians pilfered Syrian coloured glasses believing they were cut from precious stones, whilst Venice  imported from Tyre all the pieces of broken glass, and misshapen bits so as to melt them down in the early stages of the glass industry in that city.[7] Heyd highlights the role of the Jews  of Tyre, who have from one generation to the other exerted amongst the Venetian colony of that city their trades in glass making, and through them much influence was exerted.[8]Glass  making was introduced from Islamic Syria  to Venice following a treaty between a local ruler and the Doge of Venice in 1277.[9] Venetian craftsmen also used Eastern enamelling techniques, and they also copied forms of decoration, especially the ever popular application of rows of pearls and of scale patterns.[10]

Formulas of eastern inspiration designed to strengthen or to colour glass also circulated in Christian Spain; several such formule found in the Lapidario of Alfonso X .[11]It would not be surprising to find many such aspects circulating in the northern Italian city of Florence in the 14^th century on the same pattern as other ideas and innovations taken from the same court of Alfonso by the Florentine ambassador Brunetto Latini back to Florence.

Djebbar notes how Islamic glass industry led to advances in glasses (for vision) and optical sciences (telescopes).[12]There is more on such links to be found in Selin’s edited encyclopaedia under various entries.[13]

One of the raw materials used to make glass was known in Syria  as `Al-Qali'. This was potash, and the fact that the world passed into European languages as `alkali' is symptomatic of the transfer of a considerable body of chemical knowledge from the Islamic world,[14] through books as well as in connection with processes of glass making.[15]