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Lot Essay
The two-line thuluth inscription running around three sides is from the Qur'an, sura lxvii.
At the foot end there is a later added nasta'liq inscription which presumably covers the original. It reads: Bibi Buzurg, daughter of 'Abd al-Khaliq, [who] died on 22nd Rajab, the year one thousand one hundred and twenty-nine of the hijra (3rd August 1717 AD).
The top section of a very similar white marble cenotaph was sold in these Rooms 14 October 1997, lot 365. At that time we attributed it to Ottoman Turkey on the grounds of the decorative details and in particular the palmettes. Stylistically the present piece is very close indeed to the large Timurid stone cenotaphs such as one sold in these Rooms 23 April 1996, lot 198. In the absence of an original date on this example, and the absence of published white marble examples, it is difficult to say how much later this might have been made and how far from the Timurid heartlands the form might have spread. The use of white marble is far more prevalent in India and Turkey than it is in Persia.
At the foot end there is a later added nasta'liq inscription which presumably covers the original. It reads: Bibi Buzurg, daughter of 'Abd al-Khaliq, [who] died on 22nd Rajab, the year one thousand one hundred and twenty-nine of the hijra (3rd August 1717 AD).
The top section of a very similar white marble cenotaph was sold in these Rooms 14 October 1997, lot 365. At that time we attributed it to Ottoman Turkey on the grounds of the decorative details and in particular the palmettes. Stylistically the present piece is very close indeed to the large Timurid stone cenotaphs such as one sold in these Rooms 23 April 1996, lot 198. In the absence of an original date on this example, and the absence of published white marble examples, it is difficult to say how much later this might have been made and how far from the Timurid heartlands the form might have spread. The use of white marble is far more prevalent in India and Turkey than it is in Persia.