Slipper lamp

Slipper lamps are unglazed mould-made clay oil lamps produced in Palestine and later throughout Syria, primarily during the era of Byzantine and early Islamic (Umayyad and Abbasid) rule there. Like other such lamps from the ancient world, they had a small reservoir for fuel – usually olive oil – in their body, and a length of twisted fiber would be placed into a wick hole and lit to provide light in the darkness.

Slipper lamps were produced using two clay or limestone moulds, pressed together, and are characterised by their almond/ovoid shape and a nozzle integrated into the body. There are several different sub-types (and myriad typological systems) used to categorize and distinguish them, by their markings/inscriptions or particular place of production. Slipper lamp is often used as a synonym for "candlestick" lamps (or luchnaria), but can include other types of lamps of the same form, and has been applied to an identical form that reemerged in the Ayyubid and Mamluk eras.