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Studies in Islamic Metal Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

D. S. Rice
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Extract

Being rather inconspicuous among the many beautiful and important exhibits of the Benaki Museum in Athens, the small bowl described in the present paper has so far received but scant attention and has not been published before.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , October 1952 , pp. 564 - 578
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1952

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References

page 564 note 1 I am indebted to Mr. A. E. Benaki, the founder of the Museum, and to Mr. E. Hadzidaki, its Director, for permission to photograph and study this object (case 52, No. 2). I also gratefully acknowledge a grant of the Central Research Fund of the University of London towards my research on Islamic metal work.

page 565 note 1 Cf. van Berchem, M., CIA, Egypte I, Paris, 1903, p. 451.Google Scholar

page 565 note 2 Ibid., p. 243; kafilī was reckoned to be higher than kāfilī, cf. Björkman, W., Beiträge zur Geschichte der Staatskanzlei im islamischen Ägypten, Hamburg, 1928, p. 113.Google Scholar

page 565 note 3 Cf. Wiet, G., CIA, Egypte II, Cairo, 1930, p. 199, note 6.Google Scholar

page 565 note 4 Cf. Mayer, L. A., Saracenic Heraldry, Oxford, 1933Google Scholar (henceforth quoted in the body of the text with abbrev. SH.), pls. xx, 1; xlii, 5; lii, 1; liv, 4; also Wiet, G., Objets en Cuivre, Cairo, 1932, pl. xlvi, lxxiii.Google Scholar

page 565 note 5 For examples of coloured blazons on metal work see references in Rice, D. S., ‘The blazons of the Baptistère de Saint Louis,’ BSOAS, xiii, 2, 1950, pp. 373 f.Google Scholar

page 566 note 1 His biography is given by Ṣaqā'ī, ail wafayāt al-a'yān, Paris, MS. arabe 2061, fo. 12 r.; Ṣafadī, al-wāfī bil wafayāt, Oxford MS. Seld. Arch. A. 23, fo. 177 r-v; entirely copied by Ibn Taribirdī, al-Manhal aṣ-Ṣāfi, Paris, MS. arabe 2070, fib. 112v–113r; with some additions Ibn Ḥajar al-'Asqalānī, ad-durar al-kāmina, Hyderabad, 1348/1929, i, pp. 177–8, No. 1905Google Scholar; other details in Jazarī, La chronique de Damas, summarized by J. Sauvaget, Paris, 1949, index, p. 105; Maqrīzī, iṭaṭ, Cairo, 1270/1858, esp. ii, p. 84; idem, as-Sulūk, ed. Ziyāda, Cairo, 1939, i, references indicated in index, p. 1090. Zetterstéen, K. V., Beiträge zur Geschickte der Mamlukensultane, Leiden, 1919, pp. 1, 10, 39, 43, 51, 56, 57, 81, 83, 97.Google Scholar

page 566 note 2 'Izz ad-dīn Aydamur aẓ-Ẓāhirī became governor of Damascus in 670/1271 (Sulūk, i, p. 598).Google Scholar

page 566 note 3 The post of dawādār, keeper of the pen-case, was not necessarily held by an amīr in the provinces (cf. Demombynes, Gaudefroy, La Syrie à l'épogue des Mamlouks, Paris, 1923, p. lviiGoogle Scholar). In this case it is clear that Sunqur al-A'sar held it before he became an amīr.

page 566 note 4 The post of vizier had by that time lost much of its importance (cf. Demombynes, , La Syrie, p. lxvi).Google Scholar

page 566 note 5 Maqrīzī, iṭaṭ, i, pp. 376, 439.

page 566 note 6 Idem, Sulūk, i, p. 944.Google Scholar

page 567 note 1 Admittedly this man was ādd al- ‘amā’ir, superintendent of monuments, before he became ādd ad-dawāwīn, but he could have held the first, and lesser, appointment before he was dubbed amīr (cf. Demombynes, , La Syrie, p. lxiii, n. 6Google Scholar); the post could be held by an ordinary jundī. If this hypothesis is proved correct it would rule out any suggestion that ‘Alī ibn Hilāl ad-daula's blazon was a canting coat (hilāl = crescent moon).

page 567 note 2 Cf. Sauvaget, J., La poste aux chevaux dans l'empire des Mamelouks, Paris, 1941, p. 47.Google Scholar

page 568 note 1 He was dubbed amīr by Baybars I al-Bunduqdāri; Baybars II in SH. p. 198 is a misprint.

page 568 note 2 Ḥajar, Ibn, durar, ii, p. 170Google Scholar; cf. Mayer, L. A., ‘Arabic Inscriptions of Gaza, iv’, JP0S, x, 1930, p. 61.Google Scholar

page 569 note 1 Demombynes, , La Syrie, p. lxxxv.Google Scholar

page 569 note 2 Cf. al-janāb in inscription of Qutumur, ādd ad-dawāwīn in Egypt (SH. p. 192) and maqarr claimed by a shādd ad-dawāwīn of Tripoli, Sobernheim, M., CIA, Syrie du Nord, p. 53, no. 21, dated 715/1315.Google Scholar

page 569 note 3 This is No. 165 of the collection: h., 12·5 cm.; max. diam., 24·5 cm. The circular inscription cut by six medallions reads:

page 570 note 1 Harari Coll. No. 120, measurements as in No. 165, inscription in SH. p. 80.

page 570 note 2 It may or may not be more than a coincidence that Sunqur al-A'sar, as his name indicates, was also left-handed.

page 570 note 3 Cf. Rice, D. S., Le Baptistère de Saint Louis, Paris, 1951, p. 20.Google Scholar

page 570 note 4 Cf. Mercier, L., La parure des chevaliers et l'insigne des preux, Paris, 1924Google Scholar, e.g. pl. xxxi and others (drawn after a furūsiya MS. in the BN, arabe 2824), also p. 396.

page 570 note 5 On the inconvenience caused by this kind of saddle, cf. Muḥammad ibn Mängli, Uns al-malā biwaḥ al-falā, ed. Pharaon, Paris, 1880, p. 13 of text and 17 of transl.

page 570 note 6 Cf. the excellent collection of references in Quatremère, E., Histoire des Sultans Mamlouks, Paris, 1837, i1, pp. 121–132.Google Scholar

page 571 note 1 Maqrīzī relates the following anecdote: The sultan Lājīn had an accident while playing polo and broke some ribs and one bone in his fore-arm. The bone-setters decided that it was necessary to break the twin bone in the forearm in order better to set it. The sultan disliked the idea, but Sunqur al-A'sar, who was his vizier, said: ‘The same thing has happened to me. When it became necessary to break the second bone, I hit it myself with an iron hammer (duqmāq ḥadīd) and broke it; then I had it set.’ This tactless remark angered the sultan and cost Sunqur his post and his liberty (Sulūk, i, pp. 839–830).Google Scholar

page 571 note 2 See, e.g., the numerous reproductions in Diehm, C., Asiatische Reiterspiele, Berlin, 1942.Google Scholar

page 571 note 3 Cf. Lamm, C. J., Mittelalterliche Gläser, Berlin, 1929, i, pp. 332, 364, 368Google Scholar; ii, pls. 129, 3 154, 8; 158, 2.

page 571 note 4 Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1939, vol. v, pis. 656, 657, 664, 667, 701, 761.Google Scholar

page 571 note 5 Ibid., pls. 1367 b, 1369 a; Migeon, G., L'Orient musulman, Paris, 1922, pl. 26 b.Google Scholar

page 571 note 6 Cf. the detailed monograph of Vesselofski, N. I., Heratski bronzavi kotelokGoogle Scholar (= Materiali po arheologii rossii), St. Petersburg, 1910. The vessel should be more accurately described as bucket, cf. Ettinghausen, R., ‘The Bobrinski “Kettle”’, Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1943, pp. 193–208.Google Scholar

page 573 note 1 For a design identical with that on Sunqur's bowl, cf. a bowl made for Qutumur, the major domo of the amīr Tuquztamur (d. 746/1345) SH. p. 236), in the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts, see Kohlhausen, H., Islamische Kleinkunst, Hamburg, 1930, pl. 11, fig. 4, on p. 27.Google Scholar

page 573 note 2 This was the father-in-law of Sunqur al-A'sar (see above, p. 566), and for his biography, Wiet, G., Les biographies du Manhal Safi, Cairo, 1932, p. 335, no. 2241.Google Scholar

page 573 note 3 On the meaning of takfīt see Quatremère, , op. cit., ii, 1, p. 114, note 1Google Scholar; Ḥasan, Zakī M., at-taṣwīr 'inda 'l-'arab, Cairo, 1942, p. 166.Google Scholar

page 573 note 4 Maqrīzī, iṭaṭ, ii, p. 112.Google Scholar

page 573 note 5 This text is available to me only in Sauvaget's summary, op. cit., para. 158 on p. 28.

page 573 note 6 Cf. the excellent definition of this type of Syrian metal work given by Oglu, M. Aga, ‘About a type of Islamic incense burner,’ The Art Bulletin, xxvii, 1945, pp. 36 ff.Google Scholar

page 574 note 1 Only four examples are considered in the preface (SH. pp. 41–2), to these should be added the epitaph of the freed-woman of Asandamur (ib., p. 80).

page 574 note 2 I have at present no access to this piece or to my notes taken in 1938 and cannot reproduce the inscription in full. The part visible on the photograph, however, shows that it was made for the wife of Qāytbāy: al- awand al-kubra () jihat al-maqām a - arīf Abū' n-Naṣr Qāytbāy.

page 574 note 3 Cf. Quatremère, , op. cit., i, 1, p. 64Google Scholar, no. 96, an extensive and detailed note on the meaning of the word.

page 574 note 4 Wiet, G., CIA, Egypte II, p. 199.Google Scholar

page 574 note 5 Wiet, G., Objets en cuivre, pp. 115–6.Google Scholar

page 574 note 6 Unpublished, mentioned by G. Wiet, ibid., p. 116.

page 574 note 7 Described by Sobernheim, M., ‘Arabische Gefässinschriften von der Ausstellung islamischer Kunst in Paris, 1903’, ZDPV, xxviii, 1903, pp. 191–3.Google Scholar

page 574 note 8 Cf. examples given by van Berchem, M., CIA, Egypte I, index s.v. awand.Google Scholar

page 574 note 9 Ibid., inscriptions Nos. 369, 372.

page 575 note 1 Ibn lyās, Badā‘i’ az:zuliūr, ed. P. Kahle and M. Muṣṭafā, Istanbul, 1936 (= Bibl. Islamica, 5c), iii, pp. 318/16, 453/13, etc.

page 575 note 2 In the index to the edition of Ibn lyās compiled by A. Schimmel, Istanbul, 1945, p. 13 b, Aṣal Bāy is often confused with Fāṭirna. Thus the references in vol. iii, pp. 400/10, 417/20, 418 passim, except 1.20, iv, 457/10, apply to Fāṭima not to Aṣal Bāy.

page 575 note 3 lyās, Ibn, op. cit., iv, p. 64Google Scholar, Fāṭima is described as awand zaujat al-A raf Qāytbāy. Her function is described as awandiya. Even after acquiring the title of awand. Aṣal Bāy was still referred to by the same author as: and Aṣal Bāy, umm dl-malilc an-Nāṣir, sariyyatal-Araf Qāytbāy… (iv, pp. 128 f., 159).

page 575 note 4 The nature of this emblem is not absolutely certain. It was called ‘horns’, ‘ostrich feathers’, ‘trousers of nobility’, and lastly Prof. Mayer adopted the explanation of ‘powder horns’; cf. Mayer, L. A., ‘Une énigme du blason musulman,’ BIE, xxi, 1939, pp. 141–3.Google Scholar

page 575 note 5 Probably to indicate a different colour.

page 575 note 6 He died in 899/1493, cf. lyās, Ibn, op. cit., iii, pp. 295/15 ff.Google Scholar

page 575 note 7 First explained by Mayer, L. A., ‘A propos du blason sous les Mamlouks Circassiens’, iyria, 1937, pp. 389–393.Google Scholar

page 577 note 1 Despite the clear shape of the letters and the presence of diacritical points no satisfactory reading of this name has yet been given.

page 577 note 2 This indicates that she was a slave whose father was not known; cf. van Berchem, M., CIA, Egypte, i, p. 84.Google Scholar

page 577 note 3 See Mayer, L. A., ‘Arabic Inscriptions of Gaza, I,’ JPOS, iii, 1923, pp. 76–8.Google Scholar

page 577 note 4 The name is not unknown in the 15th century (cf. lyās, Ibn, index, p. 140Google Scholar), but the reading of the word is by no means certain (SH. p. 120, n. 3); Wiet, G., Objets en Cuivre, p. 253Google Scholar, no. 449, reads it Nāū.