A FATIMID CARVED WOODEN PANEL of vertical rectangular form, carved with interwoven split palmettes extending into arabesques with palmette terminals around the central inscribed word 'Allah (?)' in kufic, the arabesques stamped with concentric circles, the larger split palmettes with simple engraved crescents, plain narrow border, grooves around the sides for jointing into a larger panel, circa 1125 (weathered)

Details

A FATIMID CARVED WOODEN PANEL of vertical rectangular form, carved with interwoven split palmettes extending into arabesques with palmette terminals around the central inscribed word 'Allah (?)' in kufic, the arabesques stamped with concentric circles, the larger split palmettes with simple engraved crescents, plain narrow border, grooves around the sides for jointing into a larger panel, circa 1125 (weathered)
14 5/8 x 5½in. (37.2 x 14cm.)

Lot Essay

The composition of this panel is very similar to a group of panels set into the door of the mosque of al-Aqmar, Cairo (Jenkins, pl.20, p.238). Also to panels in a mihrab made for al-Azhar by al-'Amir in 1125-6 AD (Pauty nos.LXII-LXIII)

Jenkins,M.: 'An Eleventh Century Woodcarving from a Nunnery', in Ettinghausen, R.(ed.): Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1972
Pauty, E.: Les Bois Sculptés jusqu'a l'Êpoque Ayyoubide, Catalogue Général du Musée Arabe du Caire, Cairo 1931

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