Life-size template for the curtain of the minbar of the Holy Sanctuary at Mecca

Location: Dar al-Kiswah, Cairo, Egypt

Materials: ink, pencil and watercolour on thick card, ghost-marked with a grid

Accession Number: MSS 1128.1

Other Notes: Although the sitarahs for the Meccan minbar were replaced on a regular basis, no examples that predate the early 20th century are known. However, descriptions of them (calligraphic panels above an area with a mosque lamp) correspond to the pattern seen here and to 20th-century examples.

In this template, the blue represents areas which were to be embroidered in silver wire, the yellow in gilded silver wire. For a curtain made in this pattern, see TXT 503.