Thurs 12. [12 January 1911] Went to the Museum to see the Sakkara
[Saqqara] things and made notes of the frets which are certainly like
some of the Ibn Tulun patterns. Are they not from a common stock?
Note the pulpit like a minbar. Then to the Arabian museum where
'Abdul Aziz promised me some photographs which he subsequently
gave me. He thinks the winged disk is the Egyp. symbol, I the
Sassanian crown. Moritz and I then looked at some Kurans,
decoration perhaps of Ibn Tulun's time but it is not dated. The earliest
dated Kuran is not decorated. One with the Persian winged crown
very clear. He lunched with me and we went to El Hakim. The piers
more complicated than at Ibn Tulun, very like the Rakka [Ar Raqqah]
arcade but without niches. The old part of the minarets like the top of
Ibn Tulun. So then to photograph. Note that the horseshoed arches
on bridge and tower are like El Hakim. Littman came to tea. Dined
with the Richmonds.