Lot 42
  • 42

An Important curtain from the internal door of the Ka'ba (Bab Al-Toubah) at Mecca, with tughra of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (r.1876-1909), dated A.H.[1]321/A.D.1903-4

Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 GBP
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Description

silver and silver-gilt metal threads embroidered on a black and coloured silk ground with calligraphic rectangular cartouches surrounded by calligraphic wreaths framed by garlands, ribbons and c-srolls

Catalogue Note

inscriptions

In the top roundel:

hadha al-sitara al-sharifa li-bab al-tawba
'This is the Holy Cover for the Tawba Gate'

In the cartouche below it:
Qur'an, sura al-Shura (XLII), parts of 25.

In the roundels below it: 
The shahada

In the large panel: Qur'an, the ayat al-kursi (Sura al-Baqara, II), 255.

In the side roundels: The names of Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, 'Ali, Hasan and Husayn.

In the lower roundel:  An invocation to the Prophet, the tughra of 'Abd al-Hamid II, the date [1]321(1903-04) and the name of the scribe Sami.

For a similar tughra signed by the same scribe see: N. Safwat, The Art of the Pen, The Nasser D.Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, London, 1996, cat. no. 141.