Inscribed Panel
Not on view
Stating bismillah al-rahman al-rahim (“In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful”), this plaque might have begun the dedicatory inscription of a mosque. The inscriptions in the famous Gol Gumbaz tomb in Bijapur are similarly composed, with words appearing above and below a central line, here created by the horizontal extension of the letter “h” in al-rahim, in a loose and energetic thulth script. Technically, creating the inscription involved chipping away the surface of the stone around each letter, the contrasting surface of the stone resulting in different shades of gray for the foreground and background. It is a simple effect, but one that allows the words to be read easily.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.