Long before the advent of electricity in the late 19th century, people living in the Byzantine and Islamic worlds relied on an array of tools—from oil lamps and candelabra to curtains and awnings—to mitigate the natural rhythms of light and darkness. Lightweight and portable, lamps allowed people to move confidently through the night and illuminate dark interior spaces for cooking, crafting, and other domestic activities. Lamps could take a variety of styles, but their form remained remarkably stable and consistent from the year 400 CE onward, with an enclosed oil chamber, a nozzle for the wick, and a handle.
These ubiquitous mold-made objects were elaborated with a variety of designs and iconography, ranging from scenes of everyday life to motifs drawn from the natural world to religious imagery.
