Dated 580 AH/ 1184-85)

Almohad Dynasty

Approximately 11.6 Cm. Height

11.5 Cm.Diam 8.2 Cm.Rim

Mandated by the Almohad Caliph Sultan Ya’qub al-Mansur ibn Yusuf, signed by Muhammad ibn Jafar, Andalusia Or Morocco, dated 580 AH/1184 AD

This magnificent truncated conical form with a straight rim consists of three welded portions featuring three rounds of engraved ornamentation, the upper band riveted to the body with memorial inscription in Maghribi script the lower band with arabesques, the body with four cartouches of notations on a lush foliate ground, a further inscription to the underneath within leaf-shaped cartouches, a grip soldered to the upper band, composed of three connections comprising a hook with extremities in the shape of half palmettes and two rings.

A rare pitting and patination as invariant with age, some extents of oxidation and scrapes, glow scratches to the veneer, and insignificant dents throughout, as viewed.

Amara bi-tail had al-mudd al-nabawi al-Mubarak al-sharif al-sultan Yakub al-Mansur ibn Yusuf ‘am 580

‘Al-Sultan Ya’qub al-Mansur ibn Yusuf ordered the measuring of this blessed, noble Prophetic cup. Year 580 (1185).

The cartouches were filled with inscriptions including praises of God, a prayer calling for blessings on the Prophet and a lineage for the previous models on which the present cup was calibrated, going back through the cups of al-Shaykh Abu Ja’far, al-Imam Abu Bakr ibn Hanbal, Abu Sa’adah, Ibn Maymun and Abu Saad, up to the cup made for Zayd ibn Thabit, the personal scribe of the Prophet and chief recorder of the Qur’an text.

Under the base:

‘Amal Muhammad ibn Ja’far

Performed by Muhammad ibn Ja’far’

This alms measuring cup (mudd) is an extremely rare example of a long customary lineage of royal cups naming Islamic sovereigns. These measures have a symbolic and religious significance, with the hadiths granting them the blessing of God and The Prophet. This hitherto unpublished piece, to the best of our knowledge, represents the only known example of a signed and dated Almohad metalwork.

Traditionally, such cups were designed to measure the sa’, the alms tax distributed for Zakat Al-fitr when breaking the fast of Ramadan. While its exact volume is uncertain, a sa’, which translates as ‘small container’, is generally agreed to correspond to four mudd, a word that itself derives from the Latin modius, measure. Together, the sa’ and the mudd constitute the basis for the system of units of volume employed in the Islamic world.

According to Islamic tradition, the Prophet and his scribe Zayd ibn Thabit (610-665 AD) established a fixed value for Zakat al-Fitr based on the sa’. To Honour this, special measuring cups associated with an important religious symbolism were created. A handful of surviving examples hold inscriptions that bear witness to the immense precautions taken to preserve the precision of this traditional measure and its associated legal and social functions.

Three of these cups from Moroccan private collections were documented by Alfred Bel in his ‘Note on three ancient copper vases found in Fez and meant to measure the alms tax of fitr’, 1917. The first bears the regnal dates of the Marinid Sultan Abu al-Hasan (r.1331-48 AD) and is now kept in the National Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Arts, Algiers (inv. no.II.MI.074). The second is dated 1067 AH/1650 AD and the third is 1130 AH/1717 AD. Three later Mudd dedicated to Marinid sultans.

ALMOHAD CALIPHATE

Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Yūsuf ib Abd al-Muʾmin al-Manṣūr ( أبو يوسف يعقوب بن يوسف بن عبد المؤمن المنصور)

He was the third Almonhad Caliph Succeeding his father, al-Mansur reigned from 1184 to 1199. His reign was distinguished by the flourishing of trade, architecture, philosophy and the sciences, and charity as well as by victorious military campaigns in which he was successful in repelling the tide of the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula.

From Private ,&, Exceptional Collections in Monaco

Comes with a certificate from the Art Loss Register