Late 12th Century

Jazira Syria

53 x 43 x 32 Cm

This Impressive marble basin piece on a barefoot, the basin with four rounded handles and carved beautiful intricate arabesques projections, the rim with a band of floriated carved (Kufic) Styles with a scrolling ground, the body with an intricate layout of split-palmette Arabesques interlace, and the headlands with scrolling “Arabesque vine leaves.

Qur’an, chapter XVI (Naml), Verse 10 and XXI (Anbiya’), part of verse 30.

The intricately carved split palmette vines and ornate Kufic calligraphy on this basin are typical of a style developed under the Zangid dynasty who ruled from Mosul, Aleppo and Damascus during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The form of the marble, with a deep rounded recession in the centre and four projections suggest that its original intended use would have been as a mortar. It is most probable that as its function was transformed, possibly as an ablution basin for the courtyard of a mosque or private home, the carved decoration was added, including chapters of the Qur’an. Interestingly, whilst one verse makes a particular allusion to Moses (Surat an-naml), the other refers directly to the qualities of water;

Surah al-‘Anbiya, verse 30:
‘Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing.
Then will they not believe.

A large marble basin sharing stylistic qualities with the present example, notably in its carvings of entwining and curling split-palmettes and inclusion of an inscriptive band above, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. 335-1903. Of a slightly later era (it is dated to 1277 AD), its inscription gives the name and titles of the local ruler al-Malik al-Mansur Muhammad, the Ayyubid prince who ruled Hama between 1244 and 1284 AD. Another comparable basin.

From Distinguished Collections

Comes with a certificate from the Art Loss Register