DescriptionThis piece belongs to a group of eight plaques, each inscribed with a verse from the same shi'ite poem. It is possible that these plaques were set in the wooden doorway to a royal tomb. The striking cartouche shape is created by lobed arches formed at the horizontal ends of the rectangular panel, with smaller arches projecting from each straight border. The pious verse, inscribed in thuluth script, is set against an openwork ground of spiraling arabesque scrolls. Cut-steel panels were a specialty in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Iran, though few survive in such good condition

Signatures, Inscriptions, and MarkingsInscriptions: (In Arabic, in thuluth script): "and by Zahra [the radiant] Batul [the virgin - both epithets for Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet], by the mother of her two sons [i.e., Hasan and Husain]." (Annemarie Schimmel, trans. January 29, 1987) For transcription see catalogue card (The inscription is part of a Shi'ite litany giving the names of the Prophet, `Ali, Fatima, and the Imams.)