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Title:Seal Stone
Date:10th–11th century
Geography:Excavated in Iran, Nishapur
Medium:Lapis lazuli
Dimensions:Diam. 3/8 in. (1 cm)
Classification:Seals
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1938
Accession Number:38.40.98
Lapis Lazuli Bead Sealstone
The personal seal, which served in the Near East long before the advent of Islam as an individual official signature (as well as a very effective means of securing goods), was essential to the conducting of business affairs. According to tradition, the prophet Muhammad was told that his letters to foreign rulers would be taken seriously only if stamped with a personal seal. He thereupon ordered a seal made in the form of a ring.[1] Whether or not this story is true, the seal ring was certainly the most common way to carry a seal. Sometimes the inscription was cut into the metallic top of the ring, although it was probably more common for the inscription to be cut into a stone that was then set in the usual manner. Among the many stones employed as seals, carnelian was by far the most popular. We do not know whether this was, as Pliny (citing Zenothemis) affirmed,[2] because it did not pull away the wax upon which it was being impressed. Certainly carnelian has other qualities that recommend it for this use: availability, toughness, and resistance to abrasion. Seals were also commonly applied to clay and, after application of ink to the surface of the seal, to paper.
Early Islamic sealstones were made from many kinds of stones and came in many forms. Lapis lazuli, a relatively soft stone, furnished the material for this bead which has obviously and not surprisingly been subjected to less wear than the turquoise ring stone. The bead is inscribed: "Ahmad [i]bn Hamza."
[Jenkins and Keene 1983]
Footnotes:
1. Allan, James. "Khatam, Khatim." The Encycfopaedia of Islam, new ed., vol. 4. Leiden, 1978.
2. Pliny. Natural History, vol. 10. Translated by D. E. Eichholz. Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1962, p. 235.
Inscription: Inscribed: Ahmad [i]bn Hamza
1937, excavated at Alp Arslan in Nishapur, Iran by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's expedition; 1938, acquired by the Museum in the division of finds
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Islamic Jewelry in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 22–August 14, 1983, no. 3d.
Keene, Manuel. "The Lapidary Arts in Islam." Expedition (1981). p. 29, ill. fig. 3d (b/w).
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, and Manuel Keene. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983. no. 3d, pp. 19–20, ill. (b/w).
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