This photograph shows a façade of the Arab dwelling (Arabisches Wohnhaus) that was part of the Egyptian pavilion at the Vienna world’s fair 1873. It documents two different kinds of stucco and glass windows: a square qamariyya above the mashrabīyya oriel on the upper floor, and five rectangular qamarīyāt within the mashrabiyya window on the ground floor.

This photograph shows the lateral façade of the Arab dwelling, with a coffee house and a mandara (men’s reception hall) on the ground floor, and the so-called ‘Mandara of the Khedive’ (the Viceroy of Egypt’s reception hall) on the upper floor. The latter includes different types of windows. There are round stained-glass windows in orientalizing style that do not reference the technique and materials specific to stucco and glass windows. In contrast, Carl von Vincenti describes in a newspaper article the square windows at the top of the mashrabiyyāt (oriels) as coloured glass inlaid into ‘plaster arabesques’. According to Vincenti, this type of window was called a ‘karamin’, and the high chambers of the Egyptian pavilion owed their singularly pleasant twilight to them. (‘Man nennt diese Oberfenster „Karamin“ und ihren farbigen, in Gipsarabesken eingefügten Glasmustern verdanken die hohen Gemächer ein ganz eigenthümlich wohltuendes Dämmerlicht.’; Vincenti, 1873, p. 1995).

The mandara on the ground floor was equipped with a mashrabiyya. Its upper section was filled with five rectangular stucco and glass windows, all of them of the same design. In an exhibition review, the lattices are described as being partly glazed with coloured glass, causing a charming, shimmering light to fall deep into the room (‘Die Fenster sind vergittert und zum Theil farbig verglaset, sodass ein reizend schillerndes Licht in den tiefen Raum hinabfällt.’; Falke, 1875, p. 95). The design of these stucco and glass windows corresponds to one of the models documented photographically for the Egyptian building group (IG_421); the model for the stucco lattice in the ‘Mandara of the Khedive’ was also documented photographically (IG_423). These models show that the qamariyyāt of the Arab dwelling were neither historical architectural fragments nor newly made windows from Cairo, but that they were produced in Vienna by Joseph Dollischek after designs by the pavilion’s architect, Franz Schmoranz.