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Lot Essay
The inscription on this tile is from Qur'an XLVIII, sura al-fath, parts of v.2. The verse and that before it reads: 'Verily we have granted thee a manifest victory. That God may forgive thee thy faults of the past and those to follow; fulfil His favour to thee AND GUIDE thee on straight way'. The words indicated in capitals are those that appear on the present tile.
This intact tile shows unusually well-controlled lustre designs, giving a precision to the drawing that is sometimes not as sharp as here, particularly on tiles that also include the colour turquoise. The register of modelling along the upper band is very similar to that of the tiles from the Khanqah of Pir Husayn south west of Baku in Azerbaijan which was rebuilt by Umar b. Muhammad al-Shirzadi of Qazvin in 684/1285 (Iran and the Hermitage, exhibition catalogue, in Russian, St. Petersburg, 2004, no.157, pp.136-7). The birds that fill the scrolls are also very similar to those found on the tiles made for the Imamzada shrine of Abd al-Samad in Natanz which was completed in 1299.
This intact tile shows unusually well-controlled lustre designs, giving a precision to the drawing that is sometimes not as sharp as here, particularly on tiles that also include the colour turquoise. The register of modelling along the upper band is very similar to that of the tiles from the Khanqah of Pir Husayn south west of Baku in Azerbaijan which was rebuilt by Umar b. Muhammad al-Shirzadi of Qazvin in 684/1285 (Iran and the Hermitage, exhibition catalogue, in Russian, St. Petersburg, 2004, no.157, pp.136-7). The birds that fill the scrolls are also very similar to those found on the tiles made for the Imamzada shrine of Abd al-Samad in Natanz which was completed in 1299.