AFGHANISTAN OR THE PUNJAB, NORTH INDIA, 12TH CENTURY

There is a strong probability of this hammer head having been made in another school of metalworking from those which are normally encountered. The copper inlay is not worked as one would normally expect, for instance either filling each letter of the inscription, or following the rectangular outline of the inscription panels. The protruding almond eyes of the elephant are also well known in later Indian metalwork but are not a feature normally associated with Khorassan or Afghanistan. Northern India, as suggested by James Allan in his cataloguing of the two silver inlaid caskets then in the Khosrovani Collection (Falk, Toby (ed.): Treasures of Islam Geneva, 1985, nos.266 and 267, pp. 260-261), partly on the basis of the pronounced elephants seen on one, seems very probable in this case.