Publication Date
Late ninth - early tenth / late fifteenth - early sixteenth centuries
Publication Place
-
Royal Museum, National Museum of Scotland NMS
Subject
Red copper fluted and tinned.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
القطر: 39.37 سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
A. 1923.700
Record ID
object;ISL;uk;Mus03;22;ar
Library Location
Royal Museum, National Museum of Scotland NMS
Date
Late ninth - early tenth / late fifteenth - early sixteenth centuries
Notes
A large tin-plated red copper dish with a short shank, a convex base, shallow rounded sides, and a flat, pointed rim. The dish is made of a single round sheet of metal, imperfectly perforated at the edge, while the surface is decorated with inlays. The rim has a band of scrolled decoration and a scalloped ground that complements the rim decoration. The surface of the plate is decorated with six borders containing an alternating composition of emblem in Kufic script and floral decorations, separated by ornate roundels, and bands of simple scrolls at the top and bottom. On the base of the dish appears an interwoven star with geometric details within an ornament and a frame of scrolls, and in the center of the star there is an ornament containing a complex emblem surrounded by a continuous inscription. The emblem consists of a handkerchief in the upper field, a cup decorated with a pen box between a pair of powder horns, and another cup in the lower field. This type of heraldry is associated with Sultan Qaytbay, his officers, and two of his successors, dating the piece to the late 9th-early 10th/late 15th-early 16th century. James Allen was able to read the inscription in 1969, and it is in the following form: “You have reached the highest level/And success has compared you on every side/And I am still sought after and extending/Your right hand in this world to obtain demands.” The lower part of the plate is not decorated, but bears two poorly executed inscriptions, which Allen reads as follows: “From what was made in the drawing of… the sword Inal Al-Ashqar.” The rest is illegible, but Allen believes it may be an attempt to copy the phrase “the noble abode.”
Sample Text
Ulrike Al-Khamis "Plate" in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus03;22;ar
