Lot 72
A rare Ayyubid bronze magic bowl bearing the name of Saladin (reg. 1174-1193) Egypt or Syria, dated AH 580/ AD 1184-5
25 October 2021, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £31,500 inc. premium
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A rare Ayyubid bronze magic bowl bearing the name of Saladin (reg. 1174-1193)
Egypt or Syria, dated AH 580/ AD 1184-5
Egypt or Syria, dated AH 580/ AD 1184-5
of flaring form on a short foot, engraved to the walls with a band of foliate cartouches filled with inscriptions, the spandrels with further inscriptions, a band of inscription near the rim, the exterior with alternating inscription-filled cartouches in the form of circles and vases with flaring necks, a band of inscription near the rim
14.3 cm. diam.
14.3 cm. diam.
Footnotes
Provenance
Formerly in a private UK collection since the 1970s.
Inscriptions: 'izz li-mawlana al-sultan al-malik al-mujahid al-mu'ayyad al-muzaffar abu'l-zafar yusuf 'amalat fi sanah thamanun wa khamsah mi'a al-hijriyyah al-nabawiyyai,, 'Glory to our Lord, the Sultan, the King, the Holy warrior, the one helped, Yusuf the triumphant Abu'l-Muzaffar, made it in the year five hundred and eighty of the Prophet's Migration (1184-5)'.
The present lot is one of the earliest known dated magic bowls. A slightly earlier bowl in the Khalili Collection is dated AH 565 and is considered to be the second oldest known (see Francis Maddison & Emilie Savage-Smith, Science, Tools & Magic, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Part One, London 1977, pp. 82-3, no. 25). Another, which is considered to be the earliest known, originally erroneously dated to AH 463 and more recently dated to AH 543 is illustrated in lithographs published in E. Rehatsek, 'Magic', Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 14, 1878, pp. 199-218 (plate between p. 204 and 205). Whilst the shape of our bowl is unusual, the decoration is typical of other examples produced during the Ayyubid period. Inscription-filled roundels, such as those on the reverse, are found on a number of others including another example in the Khalili Collection (Francis Maddison & Emilie Savage-Smith, 1977, pp. 86-7, no. 28), and the 'foliate arcading' to the well is similar to that on lot 73 in this sale. It seems that the production of medicinal magic bowls in metal was well established in Egypt and Syria by the 12th century, and it is interesting that the earliest example (Rehatsek, 1878) was dedicated to Nur al-Din ibn Zangi, who ruled Syria from 1146-1174 before Saladin, to whom our bowl is dedicated, came to power. It is possible that the name of the ruler was added to enhance the potency of the bowl in its capacity as a curative object.