.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The central inscription reads:
"allahumma sall 'ala al-nabi al-ummi al-hashimi al-qurashi al-nahhami al-mustafa Muhammad" (O God, bless the Prophet, the Illiterate, the Hashimi, the Qurashi, the Lion-like, the Chosen Muhammad).
The surrounding panels read:
wa al-imam 'ali al-murtada , [wa] al-imam al-hasan al-mujtaba wa , al-husayn al-shahid bi-karbala wa , 'ali ibn husayn zayn al-'abidin wa , al-imam muhammad al-baqir , wa al-imam ja'far al-sadiq , wa al-imam musa al-kazim , wa 'ali ibn musa al-rida , wa al-imam muhammad al-taqi , wa al-imam 'ali al-naqi , wa al-imam hasan al-'askari , wa al-mahdi muhammad al-hadi" (And the Imam 'Ali al-Murtada and Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba and Husayn, the martyred in Karbala, and 'Ali son of Husayn, Zayn al-'Abidin, and the Imam Musa al-Kazim and'Ali son of Musa al-Rida and the Imam Muhammad al-Taqi and the Imam 'Ali al-Naqi and the Imam Hasan al-'Askari and the Rightly Guided Muhammad, the Guide).
Marquetry mosaic (khatam kar) consists of minute polygons of wood, ivory and metal. The polygonal elements, known as beads, are formed into rods which are glued together and then sliced. The technique is said to have been practiced in the fourteenth century; the craft was certainly well established in Isfahan and Shiraz during the Safavid period (Honarfa, L.: "Woodwork, khatamkar", in Gluck, J.: A Survey of Persian Handicrafts, Tehran, 1977).
There are certainly a few pieces from the fifteenth century which have work which relates to that seen on the present panel, notably the border of the cover of the famous carved wooden casket made for Ulugh Beg which employs exactly this technique, just using ivory and ebony and ivory in square tesserae (Lentz, Thomas W. and Lowry, Glenn D.: Timur and the Princely Vision, Los Angeles, 1989, no.49, p.142). Two doors from the Gur-i Mir in Samarqand which can be dated to around 1405 AD also appear to use a very similar idea for the decoration of lozenge panels around which the wooden ground is carved (Pope, Arthur Upham: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.1470). In that case the geometry is more complex than the Ulugh Beg casket, but the individual pieces are not nearly as small as those used in the present door.
The technique appears to be one which the Safavid craftsmen refined and made far finer in detail. A small number of doors which are comparable to the present panel have survived. One was recently purchased by the David Collection (Folsach, Kjeld v.: Art from the World of Islam in the David Collection, Copenhagen, 2001, no.448, p.280, dated there to the seventeenth century). Comparable examples are also found in many of the most important shrines endowed by the Safavids, including those in Qum, Mashhad and that of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardebili in Ardebil. They were not however just used in religious surroundings; similar decoration is found on doors in the bazaar and in the Chahar Bagh School in Isfahan. This latter pair has very similar geometry to the present door and a very comparable proportion within each small panel of khatamakar work as opposed to the ground material. The ground material on that example is however ivory. One example which can be conclusively dated to the very beginning of the Safavid period is the sarcophagus in the shrine of Musa al-Qasim in present-day Iraq. This is signed by Muhammad Jima and dated AH 906 (1500-01). Three examples in this technique are also signed by one Habibullah, one of which is dated 1591 AD; these are in the Berlin museum, the Victoria and Albert museum, and the museum in Bokhara.
"allahumma sall 'ala al-nabi al-ummi al-hashimi al-qurashi al-nahhami al-mustafa Muhammad" (O God, bless the Prophet, the Illiterate, the Hashimi, the Qurashi, the Lion-like, the Chosen Muhammad).
The surrounding panels read:
wa al-imam 'ali al-murtada , [wa] al-imam al-hasan al-mujtaba wa , al-husayn al-shahid bi-karbala wa , 'ali ibn husayn zayn al-'abidin wa , al-imam muhammad al-baqir , wa al-imam ja'far al-sadiq , wa al-imam musa al-kazim , wa 'ali ibn musa al-rida , wa al-imam muhammad al-taqi , wa al-imam 'ali al-naqi , wa al-imam hasan al-'askari , wa al-mahdi muhammad al-hadi" (And the Imam 'Ali al-Murtada and Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba and Husayn, the martyred in Karbala, and 'Ali son of Husayn, Zayn al-'Abidin, and the Imam Musa al-Kazim and'Ali son of Musa al-Rida and the Imam Muhammad al-Taqi and the Imam 'Ali al-Naqi and the Imam Hasan al-'Askari and the Rightly Guided Muhammad, the Guide).
Marquetry mosaic (khatam kar) consists of minute polygons of wood, ivory and metal. The polygonal elements, known as beads, are formed into rods which are glued together and then sliced. The technique is said to have been practiced in the fourteenth century; the craft was certainly well established in Isfahan and Shiraz during the Safavid period (Honarfa, L.: "Woodwork, khatamkar", in Gluck, J.: A Survey of Persian Handicrafts, Tehran, 1977).
There are certainly a few pieces from the fifteenth century which have work which relates to that seen on the present panel, notably the border of the cover of the famous carved wooden casket made for Ulugh Beg which employs exactly this technique, just using ivory and ebony and ivory in square tesserae (Lentz, Thomas W. and Lowry, Glenn D.: Timur and the Princely Vision, Los Angeles, 1989, no.49, p.142). Two doors from the Gur-i Mir in Samarqand which can be dated to around 1405 AD also appear to use a very similar idea for the decoration of lozenge panels around which the wooden ground is carved (Pope, Arthur Upham: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.1470). In that case the geometry is more complex than the Ulugh Beg casket, but the individual pieces are not nearly as small as those used in the present door.
The technique appears to be one which the Safavid craftsmen refined and made far finer in detail. A small number of doors which are comparable to the present panel have survived. One was recently purchased by the David Collection (Folsach, Kjeld v.: Art from the World of Islam in the David Collection, Copenhagen, 2001, no.448, p.280, dated there to the seventeenth century). Comparable examples are also found in many of the most important shrines endowed by the Safavids, including those in Qum, Mashhad and that of Shaykh Safi al-Din Ardebili in Ardebil. They were not however just used in religious surroundings; similar decoration is found on doors in the bazaar and in the Chahar Bagh School in Isfahan. This latter pair has very similar geometry to the present door and a very comparable proportion within each small panel of khatamakar work as opposed to the ground material. The ground material on that example is however ivory. One example which can be conclusively dated to the very beginning of the Safavid period is the sarcophagus in the shrine of Musa al-Qasim in present-day Iraq. This is signed by Muhammad Jima and dated AH 906 (1500-01). Three examples in this technique are also signed by one Habibullah, one of which is dated 1591 AD; these are in the Berlin museum, the Victoria and Albert museum, and the museum in Bokhara.