Oliver White
Head of Department
Lot 207
A rare Umayyad glass "double" vessel stamp for a "measure for a fals" in the name of Qurra b. Sharik, Governor and Finance Director of Egypt, AH 90-96/AD 709-714 Egypt
23 April 2013, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street£2,000 - £3,000
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A rare Umayyad glass "double" vessel stamp for a "measure for a fals" in the name of Qurra b. Sharik, Governor and Finance Director of Egypt, AH 90-96/AD 709-714
Egypt
Egypt
of green colour
18 x 24mm., 3.70gr.
18 x 24mm., 3.70gr.
Footnotes
Provenance: Frank Linville Collection, Malter Sale XXXIX, 2 April 1989, 92, ill.
Stamp A:
Qurra/al-Amir
"Qurra, the Amir"
Stamp B:
mikyala/bi-fals/wafin
"A measure for a fals; Full-measure"
This is the only known vessel stamp with two stamps on the same blob of glass. Later double stamps exist, but as two distinct stamps on the rim of the same measure (see Morton, 1985, 288.)
This stamp is also the first published mention of the price (bi-fals) for the content of the measure. The translation of this was formerly erroneously read as nafis "pure", which was corrected by Morton (Morton, 1985, p. 36-37.)
Morton (1985, p. 11-12) demonstrated that the officer ordering the stamping was also in charge of Egypt's finances as sahib al-kharaj (Finance Director). This officer sometimes also held the position of Governor as in the case of the Amir Qurra b. Sharik. He was also sometimes the Caliph himself. In Umayyad Syria, it appears the Caliph was more likely to order the stamping himself than in Egypt.