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Lot 203

An Abbasid glass vessel Stamp for a ratl of "chickpeas" in the name of the Caliph al-Mansur (AH 136-158/AD 754-775)
Probably Egypt

23 April 2013, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

£2,000 - £3,000

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An Abbasid glass vessel Stamp for a ratl of "chickpeas" in the name of the Caliph al-Mansur (AH 136-158/AD 754-775)
Probably Egypt

of green colour
20mm. diam. 3.52gr.

Footnotes

Six(?) line inscription:

.../ 'abd Allah 'Abd Allah/ Amir al-mu'minin/ ['ala yaday] al-Amir [...]/ ... ratl hummus.../ wafin (?)

"...the servant of God ' Abd Allah/ Commander of the Faithful/ at the hands of the Amir.../ a ratl of chick-peas.../ Full measure".

Ratl is a weight's denomination. Vessels stamps indicating the capacity of the measure by a weight, in this case a ratl of hummus, are very few. In all the other examples published, hummus is measured by volume (mikyala) "a measure" (for a different quality of hummus see Balog 1976, p. 863).

Some other commodities are actually always measured by weight, for example duhn "grease", measured in ratl, half-ratl and wuqiyya (see Morton 1985, 11).

Additional information