The decoration of the Fakhr al-Dīn mosque in Mogadishu and other pieces of Gujarati marble carving on the East African coast

Research on Decorative Effect of Architectural Decoration Materials

“…Finally, the color of the decorative material will affect the decorative effect. According to the needs of architectural decoration, the choice of decoration materials, color, can make the building and the surrounding environment coordination, and enhance the building's aesthetic [14,15]. In short, the last one in the construction decoration project, according to the different parts of the building to choose different decorative materials, to ensure the effect of decoration.…”

From Cambay to Samudera-Pasai and Gresik–the export of Gujarati grave memorials to Sumatra and Java in the fifteenth century C.E.

“…A. Desai published the majority of thirteenth-and fourteenth-century gravestones preserved at Cambay in two articles, see Desai (1961 and1971). The Islamic marble carving and architecture of Cambay (1200 to 1350 A.D.) were also the focus of my Ph.D thesis, see Lambourn (unpublished) and subsequently Lambourn (1999Lambourn ( , 2001Lambourn ( and 2003. Various foundation inscriptions are also published in different articles by Desai in the Epigraphia Indica Arabic and Persian Supplement.…”

“…2, 247) the willingness of Gujarati craftsmen to copy and adapt foreign styles can be traced back much earlier. Cambay carvers seem to have been no exception to this and we already know of a portal facing manufactured for the Fakhr al-Din mosque in Mogadishu during the first half of the fourteenth century which blends western Indian white marble with Cambay decorative motifs and East African Islamic architectural forms (Lambourn, 1999).…”

“…A cenotaph side in two parts was discovered in the cemetery of the Sultans at Kilwa in Tanzania (Lambourn, 1999: 66, 70-71). The Fakhr al-Din mosque in Mogadishu preserves traces of a once extensive decoration in white Cambay marble including a mih rāb niche, a portal facing composed of several elements and two small columns (Lambourn, 1999), as well as fragments of an inscribed panel and perhaps a cenotaph lid in three parts (Pradines, 1999). 59 A tombstone from Aden is now in the collection of the British Museum in London, 60 and three other well-published Cambay stones, manufactured for patrons at Dhofar in southern Oman, are now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Guest, 1935;Porter, 1987: cat.…”