Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Browse: 29 objects

Reference URL

Actions

Send e-mail

Contact us about this object

Send e-mail

Send to a friend

Rectangular bezel seal with kufic inscription

  • loan

Glossary

kufic

  • kufic

    A term denoting various styles of angular Arabic script. Emerged in the early centuries of Islam, kufic soon became the preferred hand to copy holy texts.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • Islamic Seals and Talismans by Ludvik Kalus

    Catalogue of Islamic Seals and Talismans

    Cornelian; bezel, double bevel; rectangular. Three lines of kufic script, without dots. Reading uncertain, especially for the word in the third line. This could perhaps be read as ibn, and in this case the whole can be read as:

    (1-3) Muḥammad b. Nāle [? Bāle] (2) محمد
    (3) بن
    (1) [ناله [باله؟

    But the word in the first line seems to be more probably bi-llāh, in which case I do not see any reading for the third line. It could be a misscript for yathiqu perhaps.

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum