Bowl with Enthroned Figure and Horsemen

Bowl with Enthroned Figure and Horsemen

This bowl displays a favored theme in the iconography of the late Seljuq and post-Seljuq periods, that of the enthroned ruler surrounded by the defining motifs of his rulership: amirs and courtiers, either attending him or engaged in bazm activities such as hunting with falcons or trained cheetahs. None of these motifs was unprecedented before the eleventh century, nor were they associated only with the arts of the Seljuq realm, as evidenced, for example, by the painted ceiling in the Cappella Palatina in Palermo.[2] However, during this period they became ubiquitous on utilitarian objects such as mina’i ceramics and inlaid metalwork.

The peacocks below the enthroned figure are another motif that predates the Seljuq period,[3] although their traditional range of symbolic meanings, from the paradisiacal to the funerary, became more clearly linked to royalty during this time. Indeed, the poet Athir al-Din Akhsikati composed verses dedicated to Arslan b. Tughril (r. 1161–76), the Seljuq sultan of Iraq, declaring, "[The king is] in singularity a simurgh (‘anqa) and in speed a falcon, in sagacity a hoopoe (hud hud) and in imperial glory a peacock."[4] The peacock’s association with royalty has manifold origins, among them the regal splendor of its open fantail and the "eyes" of its feathers, which were ascribed solar or astral significance—powerful imagery associated closely with kingship. Additionally, peacocks were commonplace in the gardens of rulers and the elite, owing to their presumed presence in Paradise. The beauty of these gardens was meant to be an earthly embodiment of their heavenly counterpart, making the birds’ appearance therein particularly apt.[5]

The concomitance of all these images associated with royalty was aimed at augmenting the potency of the depiction of the enthroned ruler. That seemingly ordinary benedictions appear on this piece alongside such charged imagery may seem perplexing, more so when considered in tandem with the many standardized versions of bowls similar to this example, suggestive of mass production and a widespread distribution of these objects beyond the realm of the nobles and the court.[6] It may be that, beyond mere aesthetics, the appeal of such objects depicting images of the sovereign and his prerogatives—attendants, courtly pleasures, martial entertainments—lay in a popular belief in the beneficence inherent in these symbols.

While few literary texts help bolster this line of investigation, a hint may reside in a class of objects that were believed to have prophylactic and healing functions: so-called magic bowls inscribed with numerical squares and images of animals against whose bites they provided immunization (dogs, snakes, and scorpions). These bowls bear extensive inscriptions informing the reader of their magical properties, frequently including the name of a real or fictitious sovereign, often a caliph or sultan.[7] They seem to originate in large part from Syria, Egypt, such as the example inscribed with the name “Nur al-Din Mahmud b. Zangi” (cat. 129 in this volume [Nasser D. Khalili Collection, London MTW 1443]), or from Mecca. Another example, inscribed with the date A.H. 506/A.D. 1112, has inscriptions relating it to Baghdad and to an imagined Amir al-Mu’minin of the "Banu Saljuq" (House of Seljuq).[8] While a dating based on the historical information inscribed on these magic bowls has been questioned by scholars, with some attributing them to later centuries,[9] they may provide retrospective evidence for a popular belief associating rulers with blessings.

Martina Rugiadi in [Canby, Beyazit, and Rugiadi 2016]

Footnotes:

2. For the Cappella Palatina and many more comparative images, see Grube, Ernst J., and Jeremy Johns. The Painted Ceilings of the Cappella Palatina. Geneva and New York, 2005, figs. 24–27, 44, 45.

3. See, for instance, a tenth-century gold ewer inscribed with the name and titles of Abu Mansur ‘Izz al-Amir al-Bakhtiyar b. Mu‘izz al-Dawla in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C. (43.1); a marble basin from Ghazni dated A.H. [4]82/A.D. 1[0]89, from the Rawza Museum of Islamic Art, Ghazni (M41; see Rugiadi, Martina. Decorazione architettonica in marmo da Gaznı (Afghanistan). 2007. Bologna, 201, p. 1273); and the paintings in the mausoleum of Kharraqan I (Daneshvari, Abbas. Animal Symbolism in Warqa wa Gulshah. Oxford, 1986, fig. 30).

4. Athır al-Dın Akhsıkatı. Dıvan: Tashıh. u muqabala u muqaddama u sharhe halbeqalame Rukn al-Dın Humayun Farrukh. [Tehran], 1958, p. 132, translated in Daneshvari, Abbas. “A Preliminary Study of the Iconography of the Peacock in Medieval Islam.” In Hillenbrand, Robert, ed. The Art of the Saljuqs in Iran and Anatolia: Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Edinburgh in 1982. Islamic Art and Architecture, 4.
Costa Mesa, Calif., 1994, p. 196. The simurgh is a mythical salvific bird that appears in the Shahnama.

5. Baer, Eva. “The Ruler in Cosmic Setting: A Note on Medieval Islamic Iconography.” In Essays in Islamic Art and Architecture in Honor of Katharina Otto-Dorn, edited by Abbas Daneshvari, n.p. Malibu, 1981, p. 17; Daneshvari 1986 (note 3); Daneshvari 1994 (note 4). See also cat. 38 in this volume, with additional references.

6. Mina’i sherds most often originate from standardized productions with similar, repetitive depictions. They have been excavated from most urban sites in Iran and Central Asia that saw occupation in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They seem to be most commonly found at Rayy, less so in Isfahan, Nishapur (unpublished fragments, Metropolitan Museum), Siraf, Ghazni, Jam, and Merv.

7. See Giunta, Roberta. “Le formule medico-terapeutiche delle coppe magiche islamiche.” In Studi islamici orientali in onore di Carmela Baffioni, edited by A. Straface with C. De Angelo and A. Manzo. Studi Magrebini. Naples, forthcoming, for the enumeration.

8. “Amir al-Mu’minin Sayf al-dawla Hamdan of the Banu Salguk” (Wiet, Gaston. Catalogue général du Musée Arabe du Caire: Objets en cuivre. Vol. 6. Musée National de l’Art Arabe. Cairo, 1932, pp. 23, 52, 54, 164).

9. Savage-Smith Savage-Smith, Emilie. “Magic-Medicinal Bowls.” In Maddison, Francis, and Emilie Savage-Smith. Science, Tools and Magic. Pt. 1, Body and Spirit, Mapping the Universe. The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, edited by Julian Raby, vol. 12, pt. 1. London and Oxford, 1997, p. 73; Giunta forthcoming (note 7).

Inscription: Inscribed on the exterior in Arabic in kufic script; only . والیمن... (and good luck) is legible.

A.Ghouchani, 2010

Marking: Sticker below base: 5
Meaningless ink strokes below base suggesting signature

[ M. Parish-Watson, New York, in 1922]; Mortimer L. Schiff, New York (until d. 1931); his son, John M. Schiff, New York (by 1940–57; sold and gifted to MMA)

Iranian Institute. "Exhibition of Persian Art," 1940, Gal. I, no. 25G.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs," April 25–July 24, 2016, no. 37.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M. Parish-Watson Collection of Mohammadan Potteries. New York: E. Weyhe, 1922. no. 18, pp. 115–16, ill. figs. 24–25 (details), fig. 42 (color).

Ackerman, Phyllis. "The Iranian Institute, New York." In Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art. 2nd. ed. New York: Iranian Institute, 1940. Gallery I, case 25G, p. 24.

Kelly, Elizabeth. "A Study of Islamic Metalwork." In Zoomorphic Incense Burners of Medieval Khurasan. Oxford: BAR Publishing, 2024. p. 82, ill. fig. 4.13C.

Canby, Sheila R., Deniz Beyazit, and Martina Rugiadi. "The Great Age of the Seljuqs." In Court and Cosmos. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016. no. 37, p. 109, ill. (color).