A GOLD AND SILVER-OVERLAID STEEL STANDARD ('ALAM)
A GOLD AND SILVER-OVERLAID STEEL STANDARD ('ALAM)

MUGHAL INDIA, 17TH CENTURY

细节
A GOLD AND SILVER-OVERLAID STEEL STANDARD ('ALAM)
MUGHAL INDIA, 17TH CENTURY
Flat, of rounded profile rising from a short knop and tapering toward cusped intermediate element, slightly flaring at top with cusped finial, one side with a central calligraphic composition in gold thuluth reading tawakallatu 'ala Allah (I place my trust in Allah), inscribed Allah, Muhammad, 'Ali at top, and bordered with a very rubbed silver inscription on dense gold foliage, the other side with a gold thuluth inscription along the borders, the center with dense foliage now mostly rubbed, the intermediate element decorated with gold-overlaid openwork with palmette scrolls, the thick rounded edges with gold and silver chevrons, two dragons's head fixed at the shoulders, important rubbing in places, corrosion, on stand
23¼in. (59cm.) high

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Romain Pingannaud
Romain Pingannaud

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拍品专文

The inscriptions on one side have in the central panel, tawakkaltu 'ala allah (I put my trust in God) and the names Allah, Muhammad and 'Ali at the top. Around the sides the silver inscription are undeciphered. The inscription in silver around the border of the other side of the 'alam are from the Qur'an, LXI sura al-saff, parts of v.13; Qur'an XII, Sura Yusuf, parts of v.64; and Qur'an VII, sura al-a'raf, parts of v.89.

There is a long tradition of 'alams in the Deccan, as evidenced by a miniature dating from 1610 (Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, pl.528, p.320). The present example differs from those illustrated in that it is made of steel but not pierced. The density of the floral decoration is very close to that of Mughal and Deccani illumination of the first half of the 17th century such as that produced in the kitabhane in Agra.