How it began
No inventor or date is recorded for the qamariya. In its older form it was a round or half-round pane cut from a thin slice of translucent alabaster and set above the wooden shutters of a house to let in light. It was fixed in place with qadad, a cement-like plaster made by crushing a white stone found widely in Yemen's mountains.
Colored glass came later. One account places its first use in Yemeni windows in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Sources agree that it became widespread under Ottoman rule, when the Turks brought colored glass to Yemen. Craftsmen then replaced the alabaster with glass and the qadad with gypsum stucco.
How it works
A qamariya is a fixed fanlight placed above an opening window. Pieces of colored glass are held in a lattice of gypsum plaster carved into geometric or floral patterns. Because it does not open, it lights the room while the shutters below handle air and privacy. Stucco is easy to carve, so the plaster windows could be made larger than the old alabaster ones and with far more varied designs. Sunlight passing through throws colored patterns into the room, and at night lamplight shows the pattern to the street.
Where it stands today
Qamariya windows are a defining feature of the tower houses of the Old City of Sanaa and are still made by hand in workshops there. Researchers describe them as an integral part of Yemeni architecture, decorating the house inside and out, and they remain in use for lighting in the old houses of Sanaa.
