Publication Date
Beginning of the thirteenth century
Publication Place
-
Museum of Islamic Art
Subject
Cast and engraved bronze.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
الارتفاع: 27.5 سم؛ العرض: 24 سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
I. 2242
Record ID
object;ISL;de;Mus01;20;ar
Library Location
Museum of Islamic Art
Date
Beginning of the thirteenth century
Notes
This hammer consists of two magnificent winged dragons, with their front legs bound together and their heads facing backwards. Their mouths are open as they devour their wings. The ends of their tails are also tied together and end with two pickup heads. The two dragons are also linked to a lion's head with a long mane, which forms the place where the hammer is attached to the door. As for the anthropomorphic bodies of the two dragons, they are engraved on the upper surface. No piece similar to this hammer is known, but there is a very similar door knocker that was previously in the Great Mosque in Kayseri, south-eastern Anatolia, and it is now preserved in Istanbul in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. From the beginning of their manufacture, the wooden doors, which were approximately five meters high and covered with precious bronze sheets, were considered masterpieces worth seeing, and this is what is mentioned and praised by medieval sources as well. It is mentioned in the book of the engineer Ismail bin Abdul Razzaq Al-Jazari, who in that period described the huge doors of the Ertuqi Palace in Diyarbakir. The embodiment of the winged dragon with an open mouth was considered, at the beginning of its manufacturing stage, a protection from evil forces. The formation of the door knocker expresses the Zengis' perceptions of magic and supernatural symbolic worlds. These perceptions appear in other places and other types of arts. We mention here as examples the Talisman Gate 617-618 / 1221-1222 in Baghdad and the reliefs on the Konya Citadel in Turkey dating back to the same year (which are today in the Ince Minarelli School Museum in Konya). Some title pages in manuscripts from the period around the year 1200 are clear examples of this. It also shows the book on antipoisons in the year 595/1199 in the National Library in Paris, on whose cover the moon appears symbolically. References confirm that placing these items on doors prevents unwanted guests from crossing the doorstep.
Sample Text
Annette Hagedorn “Door Knocker” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;de;Mus01;20;ar
