TIMURID SAMARKAND, CENTRAL ASIA, 14TH CENTURY

This tile once formed part of a larger decorative scheme on the façade of a building. The fragmentary calligraphic inscription along the bottom would have most probably been part of a Qur'anic verse. Similar examples are seen at the extremities of the epigraphic bands of the mausoleum of “an anonymous woman” in Samarkand, dating to 1360 and inside the funerary chamber. They also adorn the facade of two further mausoleums in Samarkand, that of Amir Hoseyn ibn Qara Qutlugh, 1376 and also Shad-e Mulk Aqa, dated post 1371 (see Jean Soustiel and Yves Porter, Tombs of Paradise, Saint-Remy-en-L'Eau 2003, p. 83, pp.89-91, and p. 106).