Lot Essay
The inscription reads: Bism'illah al-rahman al-rahim hadha qabr al-sitt Jalila zawdja al-amir Muhammad bin al-amir al-(...) rahimaha Allah (In the name of God the Clement, the Merciful, this is the grave of Sitt Jalila wife of the amir Muhammad son of the amir (...), may God have mercy on her).
The inscription is a good example of floriated kufic. This first appeared in its fully developed form in the Mosque of al-Azhar in Cairo, commissioned by the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz. It thence became a style much associated with the Fatimids. Subsequently the style spread widely in the Islamic world in the course of the 11th-12th centuries.
The inscription is a good example of floriated kufic. This first appeared in its fully developed form in the Mosque of al-Azhar in Cairo, commissioned by the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz. It thence became a style much associated with the Fatimids. Subsequently the style spread widely in the Islamic world in the course of the 11th-12th centuries.