Publication Date
575 / 1179
Publication Place
-
The National Museum in Damascus
Subject
Engraving on marble.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
العرض: 60 سم؛ القطر: 87 سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
ع/13
Record ID
object;ISL;sy;Mus01;29;ar
Library Location
The National Museum in Damascus
Date
575 / 1179
Notes
The successive rulers who ruled the city of Damascus were keen to pay attention to the Umayyad Mosque, due to its religious, historical, political, engineering and artistic importance. It is the main mosque in the city and was built in the Umayyad era during the reign of Caliph Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik in the year 88 / 706. The mosque was exposed to two fires in the Atabek and Ayyubid eras, which destroyed many of the books, wooden pieces, and the majority of the original artistic elements present in it. After a fire in AH 461 / AD 1069, Nur al-Din Mahmoud Zengi restored and rebuilt the mosque to restore it to its ancient glory. After a fire in the year 569 / 1174, the repair process took place at the hands of the Ayyubid Sultan, King Al-Nasser. This piece includes an inscription on marble showing that the process of renovating the mosque, especially marbling the mosque and repairing its marble cladding, was completed during the reign of King Al-Nasser in the year 575 / 1179. The text engraved on this marble slab was executed in thuluth script within ten lines. The first five lines include Quranic verse 18 of Surat Al-Tawbah (No. 9), and the fifth to tenth lines include the name of the shepherd and the year the work was carried out. The text reads as follows: “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The mosques of God are inhabited only by those who believe in God and the Last Day, and establish prayer, and pay zakat, and fear no one but God. Perhaps those will be among the guided ones, and these two pillars will be renewed in the days of the King, Al-Nasir, Abu Al-Muzaffar, Yusuf bin Ayyub, the ruler of the Commander of the Faithful, may God prolong his days, in the months of the year five hundred and seventy-five AH. It is noted that the demonstrative noun “this” What appears in the sixth line of the text above must be in the dual form, meaning “these two.”
Sample Text
Mona al-Moadin “Marble Slab” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;sy;Mus01;29;ar
