Probably shortly after having the first inscription carved in Persepolis, ‘Adud al-Dawla returned in the ancient Persian site to make another inscription, celebrating his victory over Isfahan.
Category: reading inscription
A Buyid inscription in Persepolis (344/955) – reading the past in the past
I like the Buyids: a small dynasty originally from Iranian plateau that ruled Iran and Iraq, or at least parts of the territory, between the 10th and the 11th century. They produced finely made metalwork and beautiful silks, among other things. In their art as well as in their ruling style, they pursued the Iranian…
Arabic script before Islam: questions
The following considerations are based on Prof. Laila Nehmé’s presentation (Leiden, Dec 9th, 2014) Recently the University of Leiden has organised a study day on the Qur’anic text. The day was organised following the recent dating of the parchment of a Qur’anic manuscript via C14, that gave an astonishing result: the parchment dates between 650 and…
An inscribed ewer from Iran – from the object to the political ideology
Calligraphy is widespread in Islamic architecture of course, but it can be found also on a series of portable objects: woodwork, pottery and for course metalwork. In these cases the content of the inscription is strictly connected to the use of the object.
Words of wisdom: an inscribed bowl from 10th-century Iran
Pottery produced in Arab-Islamic lands displays in the great majority of cases beautifully inscribed epigraphic bands. The beauty of the inscriptions on pottery is due to the way the text was arranged on the surface and also the way it was designed to produce, in some cases, a sort of rhythm. Kufic is maybe the most…
Damghan: the minaret of the Friday Mosque (V/XI century)
The minaret of Damghan is something that I have always liked. It is not only because it is Seldjuk, and because it is the only part of the mosque that was not replaced during the Qajar period. It is for two main reasons. The first: the inscription in the lower epigraphic band contains the Light…
Double two-dimensional mihrab from Art Institute Chicago
I was thinking about writing something for the opening of the galleries of Islamic art at the Art Institute Chicago. While browsing the collection owned by the museum, I found a peculiar tile, decorated with a double-arched two-dimensional mihrab, and of course decorated with wonderful cursive inscriptions (accession number 1917.221).
Jamila’s gravestone – update
This is the update to my previous post: “Redating and relocalising a tombstone from Wikipedia“ After a few days from the first post about Jamila’s gravestone, I am really happy to say that I got some new information. And I must admit that Wikipedia proved to be right, or at least ‘not completely wrong’.
Redating and relocalising a tombstone from Wikipedia
Update to this post: Jamila’s gravestone: update On WikiCommons there is the picture of a gravestone. It is written in a beautifully decorated kufic script. It is not that Fatimid type of kufic where the foliation/floriation is so overwhelming that you can barely read what’s written, and it is not that early kufic that has…
Gravestone tradition in 12th century Iran
After roughly one month spent thinking and thinking about the Iranian tombstone tradition developed during the 12th century, I maybe have reached some results. Actually, as the material is scattered around museums and galleries, I decided to bring some of the objects together, so that it would be easier to understand the overall tradition.
SquareKufic 