Early 18th Century 

Sultanate of Egypt, North Africa 

25 Cm x 7.5 Cm

This magnificent “Alawiyya dynasty brass pen box, is said to have been created and designed primarily for the palace administration.

This exquisite piece is demonstrated with lavishly decorated spirited “Thuluth Quranic calligraphic inscriptions comprising interlaced flower-patterned embellishments intertwined with bounded blossoms branches. The particular epigraphic style is typical of Islamic metalwork dating from the early Islamic period,

The inscriptions comprise “Quranic prayers as well as blessings and etched the name Ibrahim Saheb and Dated 1223 AH, the influence of Islamic Nassrid Arts prevailed throughout the Islamic metalwork of Arts.   

The Muhammad Ali Dynasty (Arabic: الأسرة العلوية) was the ruling dynasty of Egypt, Sudan and the Levant from its creation in 1805 until the Egyptian Revolution in 1953. It was originally founded by Muhammad Ali, a Serbian soldier who rose in ranks enough to take over the most valuable resources of the Ottoman Empire. 

The dynasty was the most effective at modernizing and reinventing the nation more than most dynasties before it since Antiquity To fund his expanding industry, Muhammad Ali went to war against the Ottoman Sultan in 1831, launching his invasion from the Levant into Syria and Anatolia. The Battle of Konya on May 27, 1832, captured the region a mere 150 miles from Istanbul. By December, Ali managed to extend his power across the desert into Syria as far as the Euphrates River. This created a more critical situation for the Middle East in the eyes of the European powers. In particular, the British Empire saw the loss of the Suez and the Euphrates valley to be a dangerous possibility.

In May 1833, the intervention of Russia and Germany forced a peace agreement at the Convention of Kutahya, ceding all of Syria and Adana to control under Muhammad Ali. At that point, Ali had a fully independent Egypt ruling its empire, from the Taurus mountains in Turkey to Sudan. The Ottoman Empire itself was close to collapse to Ali’s power. In the Spring of 1839, the Ottoman Sultan mounted an attack from southern Mesopotamia in an attempt to dislodge Ali from the region. This proved disastrous, as Ibrahim routed the Ottomans at the Battle of Bir in June. Seeing this violate the earlier peace agreement, Ali was ready to push out and conquer Turkey with Mesopotamia. The European powers flew into a panic, referring to the situation as the “Oriental Crisis”, and convened a meeting of the powers in London in 1840 to settle the issue. As Muhammad Ali was not willing to accept peace at this time, the Great Powers of Europe intervened to stop Ali’s expansion, Coat of Arms, The Alawiyya Sultanate Of Egypt.

French Private Art Collections.