SYRIA, FIRST HALF 17TH CENTURY

A slightly earlier and very beautifully executed version of the right hand tile of this panel, attributed without much apparent justification to Mamluk 15th century Cairo, was formerly in the Edwin Binney Collection (Turkish Treasures from the collection of Edwin Binney 3rd, 1981 supplement to the 1979 catalogue, San Diego, 1981, ceramic 1A, pp.18-19). Two very similar calligraphic tile panels with almost identical inscriptions are in the Great Mosque, Damascus (Carswell, John: "Some Fifteenth-century Hexagonal Tiles from the Near East", Victoria and Albert Museum Yearbook No.3, London, 1972, pl.14b, p.72).