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Commemorative Stela for Queen M.s.r (or M.s.n) Inscribed in Ornamental Kufic

1119
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
The Arabic inscriptions in ornamental Kufic script on the stelae found at the sites of Gao or Saney are among the earliest datable, locally produced historical records. They concern a series of twelfth-century rulers of Gao whose existence is otherwise unrecorded by external Arabic sources or later seventeenth-century Timbuktu chronicles. This inscription commemorates a queen, or malika. Such women served as leaders in parallel to kings in a high office that originated in Gao and was preserved by its Muslim leadership.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Commemorative Stela for Queen M.s.r (or M.s.n) Inscribed in Ornamental Kufic
  • Date: 1119
  • Geography: Mali, Gao or Saney
  • Medium: Schist
  • Dimensions: H. 36 1/4 × W/ 17 in. (92.1 × 43.2 cm)
  • Classification: Stone-Sculpture-Inscribed
  • Credit Line: Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal (IFAN) (SO-50-45)
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing