"Stare at them and listen, they are murmuring to you", this was my
starting statement when I stood, as a tour-guide, in the Northeastern
Ziyāda of Ahmad Ibn Tulūn mosque (879), back in April 2010, to
show an American tourist group, of Abercrombie and Kent travel
agency, those magnificent anthropoid-shape crenellations which
surmount and decorate the inner and outer enclosure walls of the
mosque. Those massive crenellations which are equal in magnitude
and height are considered, from my point of view, a clear
illustration of symbolism in Islamic art. Despite the fact that they do
not display any calligraphic inscriptions, one could still detect few
meanings from the silent bricks. For example, they show the idea of
how the Muslim should be lined up behind the Imam while
performing mass prayers, namely foot to foot and shoulders to
shoulders. Moreover, the interlaced hands demonstrate a verse in
the holy Qurʾ ān which calls for unity between Muslims, that is
"and hold firmly to the rope of Allah and do not become divided"1.
In consequence, symbolism could be defined as a silent language
and a letterless script used by patrons, architects or artisans to
deliver a specific meaning indirectly via a materialistic object. In
Egypt, symbolism had been used as early as the Pharaonic
civilization period, for instance, when the ancient Egyptians used
lily and papyrus plants in connection with symbolizing the
kingdoms of upper and Lower Egypt.