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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.