With its exquisite palette and elegant scrolling vine design, this tile, one of three corner tiles, once formed part of a sumptuous architectural installation. Inscribed with verses of the Qur'an, the tiles presumably decorated a religious structure, such as a mosque or tomb complex. The inscription that runs along the top of one of these tiles would have continued in the form of a frieze—as can be seen in the series of related tiles on display in the nearby wall case.
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All these tiles belong to the same decoration of a building, whose location is unknown. According to the inscriptions, it is possible to say that the first two frieze tiles (40.181.13 and X.111) were separated from the last three (15.76.4, .5, .6) by the three corner tiles (40.181.9, .7, .8). About twelve more tiles are known from the same series in addition to these eight in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Six of the twenty known tiles are corner tiles (one in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; and two in the Godman Collection at the British Museum, London); therefore it may be suggested that the frieze once decorated wall surfaces with corners as dadoes. According to Sheila Blair, these tiles may, instead, have covered the cenotaph of the tomb of 'Abd al-Samad in Natanz mentioned in cat. no. 20 of this volume, MMA no. 12.44 (Blair, 1986, p. 65 [1]). The surface of each tile is divided into two border fields and a large central one, each carrying Qur'anic inscriptions. The quotations are selected from various verses of suras from the Qur'an, although none of them forms a complete sura. The upper inscription: 48:25 (no. 40.181.13); 55:44-50 (no. X.111); 55:65-70 (no. 40.181.9); 34:37–38 (no. 15.75.4); 34:39–40 (no. 15.75.5); 34:40–42(no. 15.75.6). The main inscription: 42:6 (no. 40.181.13); 42:9 (no. X.111); 42:9–10 (40.181.9); the second half of the basmala and 2:285 (no. 15.75.4); 2:285 (no. 15.75.5); 2:286 (no. 15.75.6). The lower inscription: 56:52–56 (no. 40.181.13); 34:12–13 (no. X.111); 34:18–19 (40.181.9).
[Carboni and Masuya 1993]
Footnotes:
1. Blair, S. S., The Ilkhanid Shrine Complex at Natanz, Iran, Cambridge, Mass., 1986
H. O. Havemeyer Collection, New York (by 1930–40; gifted to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Ceramic Art of the Near East," May 12–June 23, 1931, no 79 or 80.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Hagop Kevorkian Fund Special Exhibitions Gallery. "Persian Tiles," May 4, 1993–January 2, 1994, no. 21d.
Dimand, Maurice S. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 12–June 28, 1931." In Ceramic Art of the Near East. New York, 1931. no. 79 or 80, p. 19.
Dimand, Maurice S. "A Gift of Islamic Pottery." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 36, no. 3 (1941). pp. 70–73.
Carboni, Stefano, and Tomoko Masuya. Persian Tiles. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 21d, p. 26, ill. (b/w).
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