CENTRAL IRAN, 12TH CENTURY

Covered with a monochrome turquoise glaze, this is an example of an extraordinary group of ‘house models’ attributed to thirteenth century Kashan. When an example was excavated in the Wasit in the early twentieth century, excavators suggested that they had stumbled onto the remains of a toyshop (Margaret S. Graves, Worlds Writ Small: four studies on miniature architectural forms in the medieval middle East, Volume I, PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2010, p.73). Others have suggested that they were intended that they might have been gifts associated with Nowruz, and indeed many examples such as one in the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin (acc.no. I.3832) show groups sat around a pedestal table with balls of clay on it, which may represent the haft sin. A model in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc.no. 67.117), in which two figures stand before a turbanned man on a structure resembling a minbar with eight seated onlookers on either side, has been interpreted as a marriage ceremony.

Exactly what kind of structure is being depicted is also open to question: it may be interpreted variously as a house, a mosque, a madrasa, or a tekke. The rectangular form seems particularly reminiscent of the caravanserai which were constructed under Seljuk auspices across their realm, such as Sultan Han in Aksaray, or the Deyre Gachin near Qom, many of which had arcaded exteriors and enclosed gardens. Perhaps the figures on this model represent a band of travelling musicians, making their living by entertaining weary travellers.