Materiality and Construction of Mashrabiya
The Traditional Materiality and Construction of Mashrabiya
Wood is the main traditional material used for the construction of Mashrabiya, as can be seen in chapter 3, due to its advantages in the adjustment of internal shadows, reduction of glare, toleration of high temperatures and finally, its effect on humidity buffering and cooling the airflow. In Egypt, where wood turnery in general and Mashrabiya in particular is considered a deeply-rooted craft, the Egyptian government website displays information about the different types of wood used and the craft of word turning.
As mentioned in chapter 2, the Copts in 13th century Egypt inherited the craft of wood turnery, especial the Mashrabiya, from their forefathers. Later the craft was developed by master craftsmen who exhibited woodwork of their own creativity using artistic or geometric shapes.
In Rashid (Rossetta) houses, the Mashrabiya was decorated on the side walls with beautiful ornamentation; the craftsmen also partitioned the Mashrabiya into numerous turned woodwork units with fanciful designs, which display Islamic words or symbols (Figure 4.1) (Wood Turnery. SIS Publications, 2014).
Figure 4.1: Image of Mashrabiya at Gayer Anderson Museum House, with Arabic writing, in Cairo, Egypt (Alothman, 2016)
The Mashrabiya was made originally from one of three kinds of wood, pine, walnut or beech; but the craftsmen did not only use local types of wood, they also imported various other types, like : Walnut, oak and walnut from Europe and West Asia and ebony wood from Somalia, South Sudan and Ethiopia (Wood Turnery. SIS Publications, 2014).
There are many types of wood which are used in traditional Mashrabiya (Figure 4.2):
Types of wood according to their origin:
1- Local wood:
Sant wood is tough, rigid and has a reddish color, which changes in time. It is similar to ebony.
Mulberry wood has a yellowish color and contains red circles. It is tough and has condensed fibers. It may be be used in turnery as its surface can be polished.
Tamarind wood has a white, yellowish color.
Nut wood and Nabk wood were considered the favored types for Mashrabiya.
Guava, lemon, sycamore, olive, date and willow wood are used in turnery as well, having different ornamental colors.
2- Imported wood:
Imported wood includes mild workable types and tough rigid types.
A- Mild Workable: Known as Mosky or Swedish, it is a practicable wood comprised of red pine and yellow pine.
B- Tough Rigid wood: This includes beech and ebony.
Beech wood is preferred because it is flexible; it is essentially white, yellowish in color, but turns to reddish yellow after dehydration.
Ebony has many types with different colors: black, brown, red and green. It is a solid, hard wood and used in the turnery of Mashrabiya.
Types of wood according to turnery size:
1- Large Turnery : This type of turnery contains Cistern turnery (Sahrigi pattern) which is used in the Mashrabiya in order to allow air and light to enter inside the building.
2- Fine Turnery: known as Mashrabiya Turnery.
Mashrabiya Turnery is of different sizes; the names of the patterns are explained in the previous chapter.
Figure 4.2: Types of wood which were used in construction of traditional Mashrabiya (Alothman, 2016)
During ancient times, Mashrabiya were constructed manually using various types of chisels (Figure 4.3), along with an important machine which is called a bow lathe, the machine had a primitive shape (Figures 4.4- 4.6). The craftsman used only the skew chisel to model a piece of wood, while turning it on a lathe (Figures 4.7- 4.8).
Figure 4.3: Manual Turning Tools, the chisels (http://www.robert-sorby.co.uk/)
Figure 4.4: Image of the first evidence of a lathe (http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/Article/KHIRAATAH.html)
Figure 4.5: a bow lathe illustration (Usher, 1929)
Figure 4.6: a more developed bow lathe (Usher, 1929)
Figure 4.7: A craftsman in Cairo turning the long primary balusters on a lathe (Samuels, 2011)
Figure 4.8: The traditional craft of Mashrabiya depended on the use of lathing tools (http://qanzaman.blogspot.com.cy/2013/01/blog-post_9979.html)
The machine was replaced later by an electric version (Figure 4.9), to keep up with the concept of design sophistication and mass production. Even an electric lathe is considered a traditional tool (Figure 4.10), compared with the digital design and CNC milling tools which are used nowadays to construct the Mashrabiya, using a setup program without the need of a worker nearby.
Figure 4.9: The electric lathe (http://www.preetlathe.com)
Figure 4.10: An image of an electric lathe machine (Almerbati et al., 2016)
The craftsman turned each rod with the lathe to the length and thickness required, starting with a chain of long elementary balusters which could be between 100 mm to a meter in length, depending on the details and the scale of the final Mashrabiya, in this way he would establish the basic framework of the lattice (Figures 4.11- 4.14) (Akbar, 1994).
Figure 4.11: A sketch showing the traditional craftsman’s position during the wood turning process (Ishinan, 1979)
Figure 4.12: A sketch of the craftsman using his bare foot to turn the baluster on the lathe (Ishinan, 1979)
Figure 4.13: A sketch of a detail of turning work (Ishinan, 1979)
Figure 4.14: A sketch of latticework (Ishinan, 1979)
The turned balusters were used to make a series of cylindrical lengths which were peppered periodically with connection points to the lateral balusters. These points are shaped as larger cubic pieces (Maymoni pattern), spherical pieces (Sahrigi pattern) or mixed peices (cross pattern). The craftsman would drill a hole into each of the connection points, where the shorter secondary baluster fitted (Figure 4.15). As a result a connection was created without using nails or glue, (Figures 4.16- 4.17) (Briggs, 1974).
Figure 4.15: How the craftsman drills a hole into each connection point (Ishinan, 1979)
Figure 4.16: A small part of Mashrabiya is connected inside without glue or nails (Luxury crafts, 2011)
Figure 4.17: The complex geometric structure of the Mashrabiya screen (Benedetti et al., 2010)
Once a mesh of balusters had been made, it was enclosed within a frame to strengthen it. The frame works also as a structural element, since the gravity is spread and the stress of wind blowing throughout the length of the lattice avoids damaging any individual balusters. By altering the diameter and length of each baluster, the craftsman can adjust the climatic conditions of the internal space. The determination of these sizes was decided by the individual craftsman using his experience of the traditional production process.
Other Materials For Mashrabiya
Given that the basic material to construct Mashrabiya is wood, any alternative material needs to have similar properties to wood; it should be strong, easily reproduced in quantity, and able to cope with extremes of humidity and temperature, at the same time capable of expressing a certain softness.
However, there are many examples of Mashrabiya which were made of different materials like:
Marble, in Indian tombs (Figure 4.18a); it was effective in the cooling function and light adjustment, but concerning humidity control it does not have the same properties as wood.
Natural stone is used in Mashrabiyas of mosques and old castles in Spain, Iran and Cyprus (Figure 4.18b).
Plaster can be found in some palaces in Egypt (Figure 4.18c).
Brick, which Fathy used it to construct Mashrabiya in some projects in Egypt (Figure 4.18d). In his books he does not mention brick as an alternative material for Mashrabiya. However he frequently used brick in the façade designs of his projects, which were described as Mashrabiya.