01.
Calligraphic composition in the form of a lion
Signed by the calligrapher Ahmed Hilmî
Ottoman Turkey, dated 12 Jumada I 1331 (19 April 1913)
Ink and watercolour on paper
CAL 242

The lion is composed of invocations to ‘Ali, one of whose common titles is ‘The Lion of God’. The work was made by a Shiite or a member of the mystical Bektashi order. In this order, the five claws on the lion’s paws are associated with Allah, Muhammad, ‘Ali, Hasan and Husayn, and its red tongue signifies that ‘Ali was the spokesman of Muhammad.

02.
Hemispherical bowl
Egypt, 10th century
Deep blue glass over a colourless matrix, blown in an open mould, cameo cut, lathe turned and relief cut
GLS 550

Cameo-cut glass is a technique probably intending to imitate carved rock crystals or other hardstones of Iranian or Fatimid Egyptian manufacture. Such vessels must have been commissioned and are unlikely to have been sold on the open market, the skill and intricate workmanship demanded making them as expensive as the hardstones themselves.

03.
Pair of earrings
Syria or Egypt, 10th or 11th century
Gold wire and sheet, with filigree and granulation
JLY 2149

On the outer faces of the box-constructed earrings is a small filigree bird.

04.
Dagger
India, Rajasthan or the Deccan, 18th century
Blade: watered steel, with armour-piercing tip; hilt: pale green jade inlaid and encrusted with gold, rubies and foiled emeralds in gold kundan settings
MTW 1135

Weapons with hilts of fragile materials such as jade were for formal wear rather than use. The surface of this hilt is decorated with fine gold scrolling arabesque with ruby- and emerald-set florets; the gold is lightly chased, imitating foliage, a technique seldom observed in India. The kundan technique uses pure gold that can be pressed into hollowed spaces without heating. This is essential, since gold inlays cannot be beaten into the fragile jade.

05.
Thumb-ring
Mughal India, 17th or 18th century
Greenish-grey nephrite jade, set with rubies, diamond and emerald in gold kundan
JLY 1121

06.
Portrait miniature of the Qajar ruler, Fath‘ali Shah
Iran, early 19th century
Gold sheet, painted with opaque and translucent enamels
JLY 1231

In Qajar art, continuous eyebrows are a mark of beauty. Baqir, the artist, was of remarkable versatility, working in oils on canvas, miniatures, and illumination in books and on lacquer.

07.
Pendant in the form of an eagle
Mughal India, 18th century
Gold, cast and chased, set with foiled diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and sapphires in gold kundan
JLY 2151

The heraldic stance of this pendant was popular in European jewellery of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and these jewels may reflect a tradition established by Italian craftsmen working at the Mughal court in the 17th century. This may also explain the use of sapphires, which native Mughal jewellers generally tended to eschew.

08.
Two folios from a furusiyyah manuscript
Mamluk Egypt, 15th century
Ink and opaque watercolour on paper, naskh script
MSS 662.1, MSS 662.2

The early Abbasid caliphs gave prime importance to horsemanship (furusiyyah) as an embodiment of knightly culture, and the mass recruitment of Turks into their armies brought a need for manuals of cavalry training. The two folios show young Mamluks in armour on horseback, standing in the saddle and juggling with staves or lances.

09.
Instrument case, with shuttered mirror
Iran, Isfahan, Jumada I 1187 (July–August 1772)
Papier-mâché case, with fitted shutter and drawer
LAQ 11

The back of the case, signed Muhammad Baqir shows an Adoration of the Shepherds, Netherlandish in style. The front of the shutter shows a woman in European dress, with a coverlet lined with ermine fur over her left arm, a kneeling devotee and female attendants in the background.

10.
The giant ‘Uj and the prophets Moses, Jesus and Muhammad
Possibly from the Qisas al-Anbiya’ (stories of the prophets)
Iraq (Baghdad) or Iran (Tabriz), early 15th century
Opaque watercolour and gold on paper
MSS 620

‘Uj (the Old Testament Og) was the giant king of Bashan who lived for 3000 years. Moses smote him on the heel, after which the giant’s fallen body served as a bridge over the Nile. In the foreground is the Prophet Muhammad with his face veiled. In the background are Mary and the infant Jesus.

11.
Double page from the Gulshan-i ‘Ishq
(the rose garden of love) by the Sufi poet Nusrati
India, Hyderabad (the Deccan), circa 1710
Ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper
MSS 640.1, MSS 640.2

The Gulshan-i ‘Ishq is an allegorical romance relating the progress of King Bikram towards enlightenment and the birth of a child to his hitherto barren queen. The paintings are of two types: those illustrating the narrative, which are bolder and larger in size, such as the despondent queen in her private apartments; and marginal vignettes, which are virtual microcosms of daily life at court, in the city and in the countryside.

12.
The musician, Barbad, conceals himself in a cypress tree and enchants King Khusraw Parviz with his playing
From the ‘Houghton’ Shahnamah
Attributed to the painter Mirza ‘Ali
Iran, Tabriz, circa 1535
Ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper
MSS 1030, folio 731a

The ‘Houghton’ Shahnamah (so called after the collector who broke it up in New York in the 1970s), was copied for the Safavid Shah Tahmasp, and is considered the finest illustrated Persian manuscript ever made. Of large format, it is written in calligraphic nasta‘liq, on fine paper, brilliantly illuminated and gold-sprinkled and was furnished with 258 illustrations. Its production, even with a large team of fine painters and other craftsmen, certainly took more than a decade and may even have continued into the 1540s, involving a second generation of painters. The format is independently conceived for each painting and must have involved constant consultation between scribes, painters and marginators. General features, however, include a new approach to the technique of painting in opaque watercolour: treating the paint as if it were colour wash; a new subtlety of shading and modelling in pastel tones; the building up of tones and the enhancement of colour by gilding and silvering; and the use of mother-of-pearl and powdered talc to give sparkle. The details of the costumes, arms and armour, horse trappings and furniture remain an unsurpassed document of the rich material culture of the age.

13.
Mirdas, king of Arabia Deserta, lies with his back broken at the bottom of the pit dug for him by his son, Zahhak, at the instigation of the devil, Iblis
From the ‘Houghton’ Shahnamah (book of kings)
Perhaps by the painter Sultan Muhammad
Iran, Tabriz, 1520s
Ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper
MSS 1030, folio 25b

14.
Falnamah (Book of Divination)
India, the Deccan, probably Golconda, circa 1610–30
MSS 979

This painting is from a Falnamah, a book of divination or omens. The book consists of 36 paintings, opposite each of which is a text that predicts the outcome of the scene depicted in terms of delivering good, bad or variable fortune: if the prediction is unfavourable, the text recommends how to forestall it, delay a decision or avoid the predicted outcome with a charitable donation. The varied subjects include episodes from al-Kisa’i’s Qisas al-Anbiya’ (tales of the prophets), an anthology of Christian, Jewish and Muslim legends; episodes from the life of the Prophet Muhammad; episodes from the poet and philosopher Nizami’s Khamsah; and depictions of miracle-working Sufis.

15.
Court lady with a narcissus
Mughal India, circa 1630
opaque watercolour and gold on paper
MSS 1026

16.
Tall flask
Probably Bohemia, later 19th century
heavy ruby glass, blown and tooled, with enamelled decoration and gilding
GLS 609

This is a copy of a 14th-century enamelled Mamluk flask acquired by Baron Gustave de Rothschild in Paris in 1864 and illustrated in Eugène-Victor Collinot and Adalbert de Beaumont’s Ornements de la Perse, a 19th-century encyclopaedia of oriental decorative arts. Ruby glass was a well-known 19th-century Bohemian speciality.

17.
Medallion
Iran, Afghanistan or Central Asia, 12th century
Turquoise-blue glass, moulded and stamped in relief
GLS 608

This is similar to a number of coloured glass medallions excavated in the ruins of a 12th-century palace at Termez on the Oxus, close to the Afghan-Uzbek frontier. Too small and insufficiently translucent for window-panes, they were probably used to crown a stucco dado, where their remarkable detail could best be appreciated.

18.
The Jami‘ al-Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) of Rashid al-Din
Iran, Tabriz, dated 714 AH (1314–15 AD)
MSS 727

Rashid al-Din Fadlallah (circa 645–718 AH/1247–1318 AD) was a Muslim convert from a Jewish family in Hamadan. He trained as a physician, entering the service of the Ilkhan Abaqa. On Ghazan’s accession in 694 AH (1295 AD), he gained an enduring position at the summit of state affairs, until rivalry led to his disgrace and execution in 1318. He was commissioned by Ghazan to compile a history of his reign. This was presented to his successor, Öljeytü (r 1304–1316), who commanded him to enlarge the work to provide a history of all the peoples with whom the Mongols had come into contact. This was the Jami‘ al-Tawarikh, which was to be in four parts, some of which are now lost. The principal illustrated section appears to have been the universal history from Adam, the biblical patriarchs and the ancient kings of Persia to the Prophet Muhammad and the caliphs, now divided between Edinburgh University Library and the Khalili Collection. Together they comprise about half a manuscript of 400 folios or so, recording the history of the non-Mongol peoples of Eurasia. The 18 paintings displayed in the exhibition reflect the cosmopolitan culture of early 14th-century Tabriz, where texts in Latin, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Mongolian, Chinese and Sanskrit were available.

19.
Incense burner in the form of a lynx
Iran, Khurasan, 12th century
Quaternary copper alloy, cast with openwork and finely engraved decoration
MTW 412

Lynxes were highly prized hunting animals and, as they were easily tamed, also favourite pets. The incense burner was filled through an opening in the chest housing a container for the charcoal and grains of incense: to replenish it one merely withdrew the coal box. The engraved decoration includes two panels with Kufic benedictory inscriptions.

20.
Decorative attachment for an astronomical instrument
Northern Iraq, Mosul, 13th century
Brass, cast and engraved
MTW 825

This suspension bracket may have held a large, freestanding quadrant, sextant or astrolabe in an astronomical observatory. It bears the engraved signature of its maker, Shakir ibn Ahmad, and is decorated with openwork arabesques, the curves of which are strongly reminiscent of the gaping jaws of dragons.

21.
War mask
Anatolia or Western Iran, late 15th century
Iron and steel, with beaten and engraved decoration
MTW 1390

The mask was originally attached to a helmet by a hinge at the brow and clamps at the temples. It bears holes for the attachment of a neck veil and ear protectors. It may have been made in the northern Caucasus, which made much of the armour used by the Ottomans, the Mamluks and the Aqqoyunlu.

22.
Pair of ‘door handles’
Northern Mesopotamia (now south-east Turkey), early 13th century
Quaternary copper alloy, cast and engraved
MTW 1407, MTW 1428

Objects such as these are often described as doorknockers but secured to a door they would have been immovable. The dragons’ knotted tails may have astronomical meanings, or they may derive from the serpents of Aesculapius, a Greek-Roman god and symbolising medicine and healing.

23.
One of four wooden roundels
Ottoman, 19th century
Wood, carved in champlevé, with gilt thulth script on a ground painted dark blue
MXD 265a–d

Ottoman mosque architecture was dominated by central domes, the pendentives of which often bore roundels, of painted wood or tilework, with the names of God, Muhammad, Abu Bakr, ‘Uthman, ‘Umar and ‘Ali, and sometimes the names of Hasan and Husayn too, and appropriate prayers for each. The four roundels on show are inscribed with the names of Allah (illustrated), Abu Bakr, ‘Uthman and Hasan.

24.
Crowned head
Central Asia, 8th or 9th century
Limestone, carved and painted
MXD 325

This head, which was attached to a matrix rock at the back, must be from a frieze of slave soldiers which decorated the audience hall of a ruler’s palace. The crown is recognisably Iranian, and the curls at the forehead parallel 9th-century paintings of slave soldiers from Samarra in Iraq.

25.
Figurine of a dromedary
Iran, Kashan, 13th century
Stonepaste ware, decorated in lustre over an opaque white glaze
POT 857

The dromedary, which is a vase, bears a smaller vase on its hump, with openings at the shoulders for additional sprays of blossom. The lustre decoration includes the trappings and a saddlecloth, as well as a medallion of a harpy.

26.
Elephant aquamanile (water jug)
Syria, 12th or early 13th century
Moulded stonepaste laqabi ware, covered with a slightly opacified white glaze, with turquoise and cobalt-blue in-glaze staining
POT 1285

The details of the elephant’s trappings are realistically shown, as are the round shields guarding its ears. It has a hole for filling in the back and the trunk serves as a spout. The decorations on laqabi pottery have deep grooves, which help to prevent the coloured glaze running during the firing process.

27.
Chess piece in the form of a seated man
Iran, Kashan, late 13th century
Stonepaste ware, painted black under a colourless glaze, partly stained turquoise and cobalt blue
POT 1310

This figure is identified on the brim of his hat as Sultan Tughril, and dated 538 AH (1143–44 AD). Thus, the date does not refer to the period when the object was made (in the 13th century). The 12th-century historian Ravandi, discussing the reign of the Seljuk Sultan Tughril II, cites the sultan’s prescription for victory on the battlefield: ‘Like a chess-player one has to observe the enemy’s moves as well as one’s own’.

28.
Tent panel (qanat) with standing female figure
Mughal India, perhaps Fatehpur Sikri, late 16th century
Silk lampas
TXT (IND) 17

A princess or noblewoman stands in an arched niche. She is shown in profile with her head ringed by a halo and holds two sticks, one up and one down. This is evidently from a decorative cycle of monumental figures of courtiers, a later version of the standing figures painted or carved in palace audience halls.

29.
Carpet with star medallions
Western Anatolia, Ushak (or Uşak), late 15th or early 16th century
Wool pile on a wool foundation
TXT 213

Carpets of this size were mostly manufactured for export to Europe. A case in point is the fresco depicting Henry VIII by Hans Holbein, executed for the Palace of Westminster in 1535, the cartoon of which shows him standing on such a ‘star Ushak’ carpet.

30.
Footed bowl
Iran, circa 1200
Stonepaste minai-ware, painted underglaze or in-glaze with cobalt and turquoise and overglaze in red and black enamels
POT 12

This bowl depicts two princely figures in a schematic landscape with birds and a fishpond. The inscription at the rim is pseudo-Kufic, possibly based on the Arabic for ‘glory’ (al-‘izz). This type of pottery, with enamel decorations, is known as minai-ware.

31.
Shallow bowl
Iran, Nishapur, 10th century
Earthenware, decorated with purplish-black slip on a white ground with green and yellow staining
POT 389

This bowl is decorated in the style of folk art, a stratum of which little has been preserved in medieval Islamic cultures. A princely figure is seated cross-legged, holding a leafy branch in one hand and a long-necked flask in the other. Around him, figures of ibexes alternate with plump birds on a ground of rosettes and groups of repeating Arabic letters.

32.
Woman’s or child’s coat (don)
Central Asia, middle Oxus area, Turkmen or Uzbek, 1800–50
Ikat silk velvet, calico, silk embroidery
TXT 201

This magnificent multi-coloured velvet was probably made at Bukhara, the principal centre for fine silks in 19th-century Central Asia. Ikat is a form of resist-dyeing, where the threads are tied in bundles and dyed before the weaving process. The patterned yarns can be used to form the weft (crossways) or warp (lengthways) threads, or both. Ikat dyeing in 19th-century Central Asia was very probably a product of the flourishing trade with India at this time.

33.
A European youth in Portuguese dress
from a copy of Firdawsi’s Shahnamah of 1058 AH (1648 AD) signed by the painter Mu‘in Musavvir
Iran, Isfahan, datable circa 1648
Opaque watercolour and gold on paper
MSS 1000.1

The European youth was a favourite subject of Mu‘in’s: three versions of it are known. His well-known portrait of his master, the famous 17th-century Isfahani painter Riza-i ‘Abbasi dated 1087 AH (1677 AD), moreover, shows Riza also painting a European.

34.
A girl with an Indian headdress
from a copy of Firdawsi’s Shahnamah of 1058 AH (1648 AD) signed by the painter Mu‘in Musavvir
Iran, Isfahan, datable circa 1648
Opaque watercolour and gold on paper
MSS 1000.2

35.
Turban crown
Nepal, 19th century
Diamonds, natural pearls, foiled rubies (genuine and synthetic) and emeralds, green glass; gold, enamelled gold and silver mounts, gold thread and silver strips; wood or papier-mâché covered with maroon velvet
JLY 1071

The combination of turban and crown symbolised the bond between religious and secular leadership in the Muslim world, especially on the Indian sub-continent, where the Mughal emperors and their vassals boasted of a long tradition of jewelled turbans.

36.
Hookah base and mouthpiece (chillum)
India, probably Mewar (Rajasthan), 18th century
Gold on a lac core with painted, cloisonné and champlevé enamels
JLY 1974

Smoking was introduced into the Mughal empire at the end of Akbar’s reign when one of his noblemen brought tobacco and hookahs, or waterpipes, back from Bijapur in the Deccan. In the Rajput state of Mewar, the hookah was adopted as an attribute of royalty; this example features the most elaborate enamelled decoration in the Mughal Treasury.

37.
Panoramic view of Mecca
circa 1845
painted by Muhammad ‘Abdallah, the Delhi cartographer
ink and opaque watercolour on paper,
62.8 x 88 cm
MSS 1077

This view of Mecca is remarkable for its comprehensiveness and accuracy and, in the manner of contemporary topographers, brilliantly combines a plan of the city with a bird’s-eye view from about 60 degrees. Muhummad ‘Abdallah, whose grandfather, Mazar ‘Ali Khan was court painter to the Mughal ruler, Bahadur Shah II, was commissioned by the Sharif of Mecca to depict the sacred monuments of his realm in the second quarter of the 19th century. It is the earliest known accurate eyewitness record of the city.

38.
Dish with lustre decoration
Iraq, 9th or 10th century
Buff-bodied earthenware, with monochrome lustre decoration over an opaque white glaze
POT 1593

39.
Pair of anklets
Indian sub-continent, Sind, 19th century
Gold on a lac core, enamelled and set with pearls, rubies and emeralds in gold kundan
JLY 1916

The anklets – vividly rendered in polychrome enamels and enhanced with precious stones – terminate in the heads of water monsters (makaras). They make conspicuous use of shades of pink, a hallmark of the school of enamellers in Multan and Sind.

40.
Tray
Jazira or western Iran, 1250–1300
Brass, inlaid with silver, engraved and chased
MTW 1465

Under the growing threat of Mongol invasion many craftspeople moved westwards. Among them was a group skilled in inlaid brass work who established themselves at Mosul in northern Iraq, and later at Damascus and in Cairo. Some may have moved back into western Iran where they came to enjoy Ilkhanid court patronage.