EGYPT OR TURKEY, LATE 19TH/20TH CENTURY

Details

AN OTTOMAN METAL THREAD EMBROIDERED ROUNDEL
EGYPT OR TURKEY, LATE 19TH/20TH CENTURY
Of circular form, the centre with the word Allah heavily and elegantly embroidered with brass thread on a ground of silver and brass embroidered zig-zags, around this a border of silver and brass reciprocal palmettes, some tarnishing of silver thread and wear around the edges
71 7/8in. (182.6cm.) diam.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

Placed either on walls, pendentives or hung from columns where they were easily visible, calligraphic roundels, such as the present, bearing the names of God, Muhammad, the Rightly Guided Caliphs, as well as Hassan and Husayn adorn a number of Ottoman mosques. The names of God and the Prophet Muhammad were usually placed to the right and left of the mihrab respectively and the caliphs in chronological sequence thereafter, with the earliest positioned closest to the mihrab (Stephen Vernoit, Occidentalism, Oxford, 1997, no. 1, p.17). To the left of the word 'Allah here is the phrase jalla jalaluhu ('May his Glory be exalted').

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