Lot Essay
The outer inscription reads:
khatim 'abd'allah amir al-mu'minin ...
continuing to the inner inscription:
min adhan (or mawakil ?) khazina al-khassa (?) al-thalitha sana ithnan wa thalathin wa mia
(The seal of the Servant of God, the Commander of the Faithful, ...
With the permission (or the custodians ?) of the third privy (?) treasury in the year 132.
The date of 132 AH was the last year of the reign of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II al-Himar (AH 127-132/744-750 AD). The inscription contains the caliphal protocol and possibly the caliph's name in Pahlavi.
The most striking feature about this piece is the fact that is a seal of the privy treasury of the caliph, indicated by the terms 'al-khazina al-khassa'. In the khazina the caliph stored precious items of importance to his position as 'commander of the faithful', such as relics, important Qur'an manuscripts or his private wardrobe. The present seal is of great historical importance in terms of administrative procedure within the institutional set-up of the court. It was probably used to stamp official documents issued by the superintendent relating to the contents or financial affairs of the khazina. For a discussion of seals and their uses from this and later periods, see Allan, J, "Khatam", Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, IV, 1978, pp. 1102-1103.
khatim 'abd'allah amir al-mu'minin ...
continuing to the inner inscription:
min adhan (or mawakil ?) khazina al-khassa (?) al-thalitha sana ithnan wa thalathin wa mia
(The seal of the Servant of God, the Commander of the Faithful, ...
With the permission (or the custodians ?) of the third privy (?) treasury in the year 132.
The date of 132 AH was the last year of the reign of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II al-Himar (AH 127-132/744-750 AD). The inscription contains the caliphal protocol and possibly the caliph's name in Pahlavi.
The most striking feature about this piece is the fact that is a seal of the privy treasury of the caliph, indicated by the terms 'al-khazina al-khassa'. In the khazina the caliph stored precious items of importance to his position as 'commander of the faithful', such as relics, important Qur'an manuscripts or his private wardrobe. The present seal is of great historical importance in terms of administrative procedure within the institutional set-up of the court. It was probably used to stamp official documents issued by the superintendent relating to the contents or financial affairs of the khazina. For a discussion of seals and their uses from this and later periods, see Allan, J, "Khatam", Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, IV, 1978, pp. 1102-1103.