AN ISLAMIC MASTERPIECE DIVINATION EQUIPMENT MOSUL/LEVANT/JAZIRA

• Inscription type: signature and date
• Inscription position: front of device in upper right-hand corner
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: naskh
• Inscription content: صنعة محمد بن ختلخ الموصلى في سنة ۶۳۹
• Inscription translation: The work of Muhammad ibn Khutlukh al-Mawsili in the year 639.
• Inscription note: All translations from Savage-Smith, E. and M. Smith (2004).

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: naskh
• Inscription content: في نوبت محمد المحتسب البخارى
• Inscription translation: In the possession of Muhammad al Muhtasib al-Bukhari.
• Inscription note: Because this inscription is not inlaid and different from the others, it is unclear whether or not the owner named commisioned the work or owned it after its manufacture.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: nineteen small circles on front plate
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: Kufic
• Inscription note: For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 3. Each of the nineteen small circles has an identical inscription. The circles are divided into sixteen sections, not including the open window. Each section contains a single word.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: above sixteen of the nineteen small circles on front panel
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: Kufic
• Inscription translation: Reading from right to left: The house of soul and life The house of property and wages The house of brothers and sisters The house of fathers and mothers The house of offspring and children The house of illness and disease The house of women and sexual matters The house of slaughter and death The house of movement and changes The house of power and glory The house of hope and expectations The house of emenies and envious people The house of the questioner The house of the object of the inquiry The house of the result The house of the result of the result
• Inscription note: For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 4.The inscriptions form the sixteen positions or houses of the geomantic tableau.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: lower right of front panel, between three small circles and four arcs
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: Kufic
• Inscription content: تولد في هذه الحلات دوائر مثلثة الرمل
• Inscription translation: In these locations circles generate the geomantric triplet.
• Inscription note: For الحلات E. Savage-Smith interprets as المحلات.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: Upper right of front panel, over four arcs
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: naskh
• Inscription translation: We have placed these arcs in order to generate the figures, and so those that appear next to the seperating line at the point of visibility are to be considered, and then from them you generate the Mothers.
• Inscription note: For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 6.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: Above large central dial on front panel
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: Kufic
• Inscription translation: We have established this circle so that you might learn from it the correspondences of the forms of the figures with the forms of the lunar mansions, rising and setting. Thereupon the power to interpret might belong to it, but God knows best.
• Inscription note: For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 7.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: Around large central dial on front panel
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: Kufic
• Inscription translation: North, South, East, West.
• Inscription note: Cardinal points in their usual positions. For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 8.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: Below central dial on front panel
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: Kufic
• Inscription translation: From my intricacies there comes about insight superior to books concerned with the study of the art.
• Inscription note: For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 9.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: Large central dial on front plate
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: Kufic
• Inscription note: For Arabic and English translation, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 10.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: lower right of large dial on front plate
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: naskh
• Inscription translation: I am the possessor of eloquence and the silent speaker and through my speech [arise] desires and fears. The judicious one hides his secret thoughts, but I disclose them, just as if hears were created as my parts.
• Inscription note: For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 11. Poem in kamil metre.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: lower left of front plate, left of dial labelled ‘house of the result of the result’
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: naskh
• Inscription translation: I am the revealer of secrets; in me are marvels of wisdom and strange and hidden things. But I have spread out the surface of my fave out of humility, and have prepared it as a substitute for earth.
• Inscription note: For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 12. Poem in kamil metre.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: frame
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: naskh
• Inscription translation: Examine the tablet and memorize it, for in it There is meaning from the tablet [of God in Heaven] when it was marked with the pen. It shows hidden secrets of the unseen which were determined from time immemorial. It agrees with geomancy in meaning but differs from it because it generates the figures from nothing. The tablets of Moses were made valuable by what wisdom and authority God gave them. But it is sufficient honour for it that a hand touched it which is superior to the hands of men in strength and nobleness of character.
• Inscription note: For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 13. Poem in basit metre.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: rectangular border of back plate
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: Kufic
• Inscription translation: Everlasting glory, continual and abiding prosperity, constant power, supreme peace, perpetual well-being, increasing good fortune, favourable fate, a comfortable manner of life, sufficient satisfaction, peace of mind, blessing, compassion, support and success.
• Inscription note: For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 14.

• Inscription type: inscription
• Inscription position: centre diamond on back plate
• Inscription language: Arabic
• Inscription script: naskh
• Inscription translation: Everlasting glory, a long unimpaired life, outstanding character, efficacious power, fortunate omens, complete honour, a pure manner of life, support and victory over the enemies for its owner.
• Inscription note: For Arabic, see ‘Inscriptions’ image, Number 15.

Curator’s comments Geomancy is a popular form of divination (seeking knowledge through supernatural means) practised across the Islamic world. In Arabic, it is known as ‘ilm al-raml’, literally ‘the science of the sand.’ In this ancient practice, the position of randomly thrown grains of sand answered specific questions put to the geomancer by the client. Enquiries often concerned matters of daily life, such as the health of a child, infidelity of a spouse or success of a business dealing. These principles were transferred to this unique instrument, whose spinning dials reveal clusters of dots which can be similarly interpreted.The inscriptions on the back of the instrument confer blessings, good fortune and prosperity on its owner.
The maker, Muhammad ibn Kutlukh al-Mawsili is from a family of prolific metalworkers originating in Mosul.