The construction of a wooden minbar was an expensive venture, especially in Egypt, where wood was a rare commodity. Rulers often covered the costs, for they usually controlled an enormous proportion of a state's wealth. Such acts of patronage signaled the rulers' piety and brought them public approval. To ensure that the patrons would be remembered, minbars and other objects made for mosques carry inscriptions stating who commissioned them. This minbar bears the name of the Mamluk Sultan Qa'itbay, a great patron of the arts who ruled from Cairo from 1468 to 1496.
The patronage of powerful rulers could have a dramatic effect. In the 1460s or 1470s, the Ottoman sultan Mehmet the Conqueror began to invest in the production of ceramics for his court, which led to a steep rise in the quality of pottery available on the market. In the small town of Iznik in northwest Anatolia, craftsmen had been producing unremarkable earthenwares that were pale imitations of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. By the end of the fifteenth century, however, Iznik potters were producing fritware, a white ceramic made from finely ground pebbles and sand that resembled porcelain. This new material allowed potters to make vessels of such remarkable size and refinement that they are considered one of the highest achievements of Islamic art.