In the last few months, two important museums have organized two distinct exhibitions dedicated to amulets and talismans in the Islamic world. The Metropolitan Museum’s exhibition, Power and Piety: Islamic talismans on the battlefield, showcases a selection of arms and armor decorated with inscriptions and images believed to protect the warriors during battles. A second exhibition, titled…
Category: reading inscription
The biased interpretation of pre-Islamic inscriptions by Haaretz
Today I decided to take the tram to go to work. Sitting there I started to have a look at Twitter, as most of the people around me were doing. It was then when my attention was caught by a title: “Before Islam: When Saudi Arabia was a Jewish Kingdom“. Saudi Arabia was…what? When? Am…
The Dome of the Rock – its inscriptions and the religious relations in early Islamic Jerusalem
The Dome of the Rock is probably the most studied Islamic monument. The architectural forms and features of the monuments and the inscriptions that decorate its walls have been studied and discussed thoroughly by scholars and academics, in many occasion creating a link between the Dome and other monuments. I also have written an article on…
ISIS black flag – an iconographical reading
ISIS and their black flags is well known. Documentaries have been shot and articles have been written. Yet, the flag in itself sometimes remains unexplained. It is black, with some Arabic words on it, and a white circle with inside, again, some other words. It is their sign, and their marks. It is quite simple in…
A divergence to the standard formula: an alabaster gravestone from Nishapur, Iran
It is quite a long time that I do not read and post an inscription. Well, not that long: let’s say one month or so… but I missed it. Today I woke up and said: ‘Today I have to read a gravestone’: and here we are. Alabaster gravestones from 10th century Nishapur are not that…
Formulaic insiptions: the gravestone of Fudayl ibn Musa, Nishapur, 10th century
Iranian gravestones are something special. Displaying wonderfully carved inscriptions and decoration, they can be read on various levels: decorative, textual and symbolic. In the case of a gravestone from 10th century Nishapur it was exactly what emerged from the analysis. Just a case? I believe it’s not.
May God give light to him: a tombstone from 10th century Iran
I love tombstones… that’s something creepy and well known: I realised that the majority of inscriptions I publish here are from tombstones, but that’s it. Tombstones are not only beautiful, but also a fertile source of information. Some Iranian tombstones, for instance, can be used to trace the history of craftsmen, or to better understand…
Envisioning a Buyid heritage – ‘Amid al-Din at Persepolis 444/1053
In one most famous paper, Oleg Grabar asked ‘Why Write on Buildings?’. And the prominent scholar proposed some reason, and some perspective from which inscriptions and graffiti can be seen and studied. The main point is: if you write something on a wall, probably it is intended to be read, and understood by a certain…
Enhancing the Persian element – Abu Kalijar’s inscription, Persepolis 438/1046
Finding a Buyid inscription carved on the stones of the ancient palace of Darius, in Persepolis, does not seem to be anything new. And indeed it is not. Anyway, the fourth Buyid inscription of Persepolis, carved to commemorate Abu Kalijar, grandson of Baha’a al-Dawla, is quite interesting for some peculiar features.
Hunting in Persepolis – Baha’ al-Dawla’s inscription 392/1001
‘Adud al-Dawla was the first Buyid ruler to set in the stones of Persepolis a reminder of his presence, in 344/955. Some time later, his third son, Baha’ al-Dawla, did the same.
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