ABSTRACT
On 19 April 1905, Lord Curzon, then Viceroy of India, wrote to Lord Cromer, British Proconsul in Egypt:
I want to give a beautiful hanging lamp of Saracenic design to be hung [in the Taj Mahal] above the cenotaphs of Shah Jahan and his queen in the upper mausoleum. The original chain is still hanging from the centre of the great dome, but the lamp has long disappeared. I have been trying for years to get the people here to give me a design, but have failed. I turn therefore to Cairo, where my recollection is that some very beautiful lamps still hang in the Arab mosques. If I can get a good design I would propose to have one of these reproduced in silver at Cairo. The style of the Taj you know to be what we call Indo-Saracenic, which is really Arabic, with flowering substituted for geometric patterns. 1
