Dish
BackThis object is a Gateway object. Gateway objects are significant artefacts in the collection and are used to represent and introduce bigger subjects and themes.
Description:
Earthenware dish, relief moulded and painted under a transparent glaze. Four lines of kufic script.
Object type: | dish |
Museum number: | 1963,0424.1 |
Culture/period: | Abbasid dynasty |
Date: | 9thC |
Production place: | Made in: Iraq |
Materials: | pottery |
Technique: | glazed, lustred |
Dimensions: | Diameter: 21.60 cm |
Inscriptions: | Inscription details: inscription in Arabic in Kufic script Inscription quoted: Inscription transliteration: 1. lā taya sanna 2. wai nṭālat muṭā 3. libatunidhā staanta 4. biṣabrin antarā farajā Inscription translation: Various readings proposed: Do not abandon the hope, long though the quest may endure, / That you will find ease of heart, if but to patience you cling. Julia Bray (Laudian Professor of Arabic at Oxford) commented (2018). The “key” to idea comes in the second half-line, it can therefore be translated back to front. Two variations therefore:"If you accept things manfully, then be sure all will be for the best, however long it takes", or with a specifically religious meaning, 'If you accept what God sends, then, however long it takes, be sure you will be delivered from your plight'. This gives 'ṣabr' its Quranic value and 'faraj' the weight it has in various ḥadīth such as 'The greater the plight, the greater the deliverance'. Inscription note: The text is from the Ḥamāsa, attributed to the Hijazi poet Muḥammad ibn Bashīr al-Khārijī , d. around 100/718 (Blachère, Hist. de la litté. III, 624) or after 120/738. He wrote poetry to the Umayyads and love poetry in the galant Hijazi style. Entry in Kitab al-Aghānī (Bulaq, XIV, 148-62) (Julia Bray). |
Location: | 30 |
Subjects: | plant |
Acquisition names: | Purchased from: Miss Heidi Vollmoeller |
Acquisition date: | 1963 |
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